In this episode of Accursed Philoctetes, two great Greeks, Odysseus and Diomedes, heroes in their own right even before they reach Troy, must make the difficult decision to bring nasty Philoctetes along or not.
Without driving their crews to mutiny.
Without getting shot themselves by Philoctetes.
With or without the legendary bow of Hercules.
With or without Philoctetes’s permission.
With or without Philoctetes himself.
Without incurring Hera’s wrath on themselves.
Without shedding Philoctetes's Greek blood.
Enjoy learning more of the myth in this episode of Accursed Philoctetes.
This is the first episode of Accursed Philoctetes, an updated myth from the Trojan War cycle.
In Act I, a famous Greek archer, Philoctetes, gets bitten by a snake - sent by Hera - on the island of Lemnos as the Greek army is heading to Troy to avenge the dishonor done to one of their own. The snakebit gets infected and fetid and completely incapitates him and unsettles his fellow sailors to the point that the Greek forces must consider leaving him behind on their way to Troy.
How and why does Philoctetes get singled out for this particular punishment?
What does it matter to the Greeks if he were to be left behind?
What are lifeboat ethics anyway?
Explore the beginnings of this strange story of my Accursed / A Cursed Philoctetes.
Trigger warnings: disgusting wound imagery, some noisesome howling and realistic depictions of abandonment and FOMO.
There is a certain universality to his experience despite the great goddess Hera and the snake.
Enjoy?
This is the full podcast of Midas, A Folly in Two Acts & an Epilogue, which was previously dropped as discrete episodes but is available now in its shimmering entirety!
Everyone thinks they know the story of Midas and the Golden Touch, some even know the concomitant story of Midas and the Donkey Ears, but there is even more to know about this foollish king of Phrygia than those two stories.
Why did Midas get the Golden Touch in the first place? What did that have to do with Dionysus the god and the satyr Silenus? And will Dan ever get paid?
Why did Midas get the Donkey Ears? How was this, too, an instance of his foolishness? Was he a racist?
How did Midas die in the end? Was he really punished through eternity in Tartarus for his sins?
There is a reason this story is a classic as the material herein has multiple parallels to events and persons throughout history not to mention the present day.
Enjoy, and thank you for tuning in.
This is a brief, light-hearted presentation by two narrators and an ad hoc chorus on the Ides of March, explaining some of the background of this infamous date in history.
Enjoy. A little foolishness is good for the soul.
Inspired by Eugene Ionesco’s Rhinoceros, an absurdist play about the invasion by a crash of rhinos (read: fascism), my Skool Dayz is an absurdist tragicomedy about teachers and students getting distracted by all sorts of things, effectively putting blinders on to a real threat, in this case, an armed intruder (or two) in the school.
Dayz opens with a faculty meeting wherein administrators head a workshop on protocol for the event of an armed intruder. Things do not quite go as planned in the simulation and the faculty are not quite as attentive as they should be and are easily distracted by this and that. In the midst of their distraction, they see an actual shooter through the halls of the building, leading to at least one administrator getting shot! No, for realz!
This episode is the surreal sequel to Act I of Skool Dayz, in which the previous events - an intruder or two runnning through the school hallways and the faculty's slow reaction to it and to their own administrator getting shot - lead to their inevitable (?) conclusion. In this episode you will find out who the intruders are, why they have intruded, and how the administrators, faculty and students in the building react to this menacing breach.
Tune in and embrace the strange and unsettling conclusion, Act II, of Skool Dayz.
Inspired by Eugene Ionesco’s Rhinoceros, an absurdist play about the invasion of a population of rhinos (read: fascism), my Skool Daze is an absurdist tragicomedy about teachers and students getting distracted by all sorts of things, effectively putting blinders on to a real threat, in this case, an armed intruder (or two) in the school.
Daze opens with a faculty meeting wherein administrators head a workshop on protocol for the event of an armed intruder. Things do not quite go as planned in the simulation and the faculty are not quite as attentive as they should be and are easily distracted by this and that. In the midst of their distraction, they see an actual shooter through the halls of the building, leading to at least one administrator getting shot! For realz!
How will everyone - teachers, administrators, students - react to this? Have they been fully prepared for the real thing? Will they be able to stay focused on the matter at hand or will things spiral out of control?
Tune in and embrace the surreal, dysfunctional Act I of Skool Dayz.
This is the updated version of the excerpt, Liz Rant, from Skool Daze, a non-mythology play by MC.
How new and improved? Well, we have two mystery cameos giving much improved voice to Liz and Kendra (instead of yours truly laboring mightily)! Perhaps you know them...
The scene set up: during an important faculty workshop on school intruder preparedness, the very earnest Kendra and her rather edgier colleague, Liz, mix it up, but basically Liz just rashes on Kendra.
Enjoy!
Is it a teacher thing?
Answers what is this podcast exactly and who is this MC?
Excerpt from a non-myth play, Skool Daze, what I call Liz Rant.
During a faculty workshop on intruder preparedness, a goodie two shoes teacher, Kendra, and her edgier colleague, Liz, mix it up , but basically Liz just rashes on K.
Enjoy. It's a teacher thing?
For those who need to binge and are not content to listen to The Song of Orpheus in installments, we’ve added a podcast of the full play, shortened by some aggressive editing, especially of Orpheus’s damned rhyming!
So, binge away if so moved!
MC
In this episode, Act IV of The Song of Orpheus, we leave the kingdom of Hades for the upper airs, but there is much unfinished business still to sort out.
In answer to your questions - no, Orpheus does not try a third time to bring back his beloved Eurydice. That door has closed.
And yes, Virginia, it is true, Orpheus is a hot mess without the love of his life, and yet, despite his sad disarray, a cult organically develops around him and his music. Understandably, this does not sit well with some of the Olympian gods because it detracts from their respective cults of worship. They work a solution, or rather Dionysus enlists the unpredictable maenads of Thrace to work a solution, which has a strange sort of success.
No, Orpheus is not deified like Hercules, although his lyre does become a constellation.
And also no, there are no bootleg mixtapes of Pyramus or any other of Orpheus' sublime music. Nor any other merch for that matter lol!
And yet, despite a lack of technology and social media, his legend has endured. How can this be?
Keep puzzling this, and in the meantime, enjoy and embrace the strangeness that is the conclusion to The Song of Orpheus.
*Credit for original background music to Steve Hayden et al. for the hair raising exchanges between the fanboys in Thrace and on Lesbos.
Like the previous episode of Act II, this episode, Act III of The Song of Orpheus has entertainment aplenty, but of a different sort, as the scene shifts from mortal Thrace to immortal Hades.
Here of course there are many of the characters you’ve come to know and love down below: the Dark Lord himself and his consort, Persephone, Cerberus the three-headed hound, Charon the boatman, the Three Judges in Hades, the Furies and then of course Orpheus himself who has somehow made it there as a mortal, coming for the shade of Eurydice to bring her back again to the upper airs. After charming everyone in the Underworld including Hades himself, Orpheus, and by extension, Eurydice are given a second chance, but with certain stipulations.
No real spoiler alert again as many of you know that unfortunately, tragedy strikes again. Arguably this episode is more tragi- than comedy, alas, but of course in an MC Mythol OG production, there some light moments piercing through the dark Underworld.
You may have some questions that need enlightening. Does Orpheus try to bring Eurydice back another time? Does Hades relent on the terms of the deal, especially given Persephone’s advocacy for the handsome musicus? If not, what happens to Orpheus after his stint in the Underworld? What happens to him after the irrevocable loss of his soulmate, Eurydice?
Surely there is more. Indeed, there is, and it bears knowing, but I’m getting ahead of myself (heh-heh). That will all be revealed in Act IV where things get even curiouser and curiouser -as if a wedding day snakebite fatality and an attempt to rescue a loved one from Hades weren’t curious enough!
In the interim, enjoy and embrace the strange in Act III of The Song of Orpheus.
In this episode, Act II of The Song of Orpheus, there is much ado - dancing and music, salty musicians, one with an unexpected Liverpudlian accent, a couple of dancers who seem to have left their virtue and veils at home, an impertinent attendant or two, not to mention, most importantly, the exceedingly stressed (due to a premonition of disaster) father of Orpheus and his invaluable aide overseeing Orpheus's wedding to the beloved Eurydice.
Despite the joy and happiness of the blessed event, tragedy (no spoiler alert here as you probably know this part of the story) strikes suddenly to take Eury away from Orpheus for the first, but (as you probably also well know ), assuredly, not the last time.
Tragicomedy indeed.
In this first episode of the Song of Orpheus, two very, if not excessively, devoted fans, old Lucius and younger Melanippus, attend an outdoor concert where the legendary Orpheus musicus plays his magic and, more importantly, meets the Eurydice of his dreams.
In this episode, the short comedy, an Apocalyptic Apotheosis, better known as the Herc play, our beloved Olympians, upon the news of Hercules’s incineration, have a spirited conversation about the pluses and minuses of Zeus’s desire to grant his son, not by Hera, immortality. This could include a throne on Olympus and that unnerves many, as it would upset the divine status quo. But as always, this Olympian discussion quickly devolves into accusations, mostly by the gods, of excessive meddling by Hera during Herc’s 12 labors. Typical phallocratic pack behavior! How will Hera defend herself against these trumped up charges? What was the nature of her meddling in the first place? Is there any justification for these accusations? Once the dust has settled, does Herc actually get deified and become a god? Stay tuned for the resolution of those burning questions and also, arguably, of even more important questions herein - will Hephaestus ever get a clue? what are pants? and, what, pray tell, is a porter?
Now, before you dive into the play itself, there is a brief introduction and then you will hear the cast introduce themselves, in their own words yet not in any particular order.
As always, embrace the random and unexpected and, specifically in this case [heh-heh, case one good trial deserves another], the dysfunctional and dystractible.
Three revealing bloopers from Herc Play, with short set-ups to scenes.
This is an unbelievable tale about a young boy, Billy, and a retired old horse, Murphy, during a dangerous snowstorm.
Billy's younger sister, Addie, has broken her leg falling through some lake ice. Billy, and his father and uncle, must get her to safety as quickly as possible, but where is safety in a blizzard of epic proportions? And what does any of this have to do with the unbelievable Murphy?
Embrace the unbelievable to see how it all begins, and how it all ends.
In this new and improved version of Act V, Sir Brett Ewer takes on the role of mighty Minos, playing the King of Crete with authority. The story line remains the same, viz.,
This final episode of Icarus, Son of Daedalus is the aftermath to the fall of Icarus - Act V and an Epilogue.
No, Daedalus does not fall, but what does he do after his son’s demise? Does he fly on?
Although he grieves for Icarus, he cannot stop his flight too long as Minos is not happy that his prized engineer has escaped and is in hot pursuit. And so Daedalus, after doing proper rites for his son, flies on to sanctuary with the King of Sicily, Cocalus. Having landed there safely, Daedalus literally hangs up his wings and gives up flying forever and for a charmed moment, finds a degree of safety with Cocalus and his two daughters.
Then, in an unfortunate turn of events, Daedalus’s genius gives himself away by solving the riddle of the shell - in Minos’s own words, he outfoxed the foxy engineer - and Minos reclaims his engineer.
What next? Will sanctuary be respected? Will Cocalus protect his refugee? If not, will Daedalus go willingly? Will his wings stay hung in the temple to Apollo? Will Minos burn the palace to the ground to get back his genius? Can anyone else stand up to Minos?
Spoiler alert: Icarus dies!
This is the episode we all know and love (?). With time on their hands in the tower of Crete, Icarus and Daedalus assess their situation and try to figure a way to escape their confinement. Inspiration comes at last, and, despite a few hiccups and some friction between father and son during the process, they make extensive preparations to fly the coop on wings of their own inventing.
The question remains though: how will Minos react to the escape of his invaluable engineer?
In this episode of Icarus, son of Daedalus, we hear of the consequences of defying King Minos. In Act III Daedalus gets thrown in the maze for his instrumental help satisfying Queen Pasiphae's abnormal desire for the bull from the sea. Icarus, in an unusual fit of loyalty, dutifully joins his father in the maze. Meanwhile, her desire slaked, Queen Pasiphae herself defies Minos and helps father and son escape the labyrinth, but Minos has been suspicious of Pasiphae for some time, and he catches all three before they can completely escape. Not only for this will there be Hades to pay from Minos, but also for Daedalus’s part in aiding and abetting Princess Ariadne and the hero tribute Theseus when they slew the Minotaur and escaped the labyrinth. Given all this treachery, can you fault Minos his high dudgeon? The episode ends as father and son are led to the inescapable tower of Crete, their second and final incarceration.
