October 2024

 
A graphic with a bloodied version of the LTAMB logo and the heading It's the Spooookiest time of the year. The Maenads came over and made the place their own... Thanks to the Angel Incarnate for all the original non-blood-related art!

This month we have episodes about ritual dismemberment, witches, funerary rites, speaking with the dead, and so much more...

A graphic that says Literally so many updates... This first newsletter/blog is a bit more brief, but we want to give you a few sneak peeks of all we have in mind for the future (spoiler: it's a lot).

It’s been a wild few months! I’m in the process of making some really exciting (and much needed) changes in my life (including a cross country, 7+ day move...........) and its given me a whole new outlook on the show and the future!

We’re going to be working on lots of new and exciting things, subscriptions and a community of nerds, more videos and livestreams and gods know what else!

A gif of Neve Campbell in Scream 2 as Sidney Prescott performing as Cassandra
a graphic featuring a photo of an ancient clay doll with pins stuck in it and the header Hermes' Artefact of the month "the Louvre Doll", 4th c. CE, found in Egypt, currently in the louvre.

In honour of spooooky month, here is a spooky little doll that was found inside a terracotta vase. On the vase was a lead tablet, and on the tablet a binding spell. The doll is shown bound with thirteen pins stuck in it.

Curses like these were quite common in antiquity, often made on lead tablets or bound with lead in some sort of way. They’re often found in funerary contexts but it’s better to understand them as something added after the fact. A person could visit a cemetery and bury their curse in a grave, this would make the curse more potent. Calling this artefact a voodoo doll is tempting but inaccurate as ‘voodoo’ is a more modern term that often refers to Afro-Caribbean religions. Still, this doll shows that the concept of using a human-like figurine to inflict some sort of curse is a shared concept.

This is a fun little guy to think about... who was the object of the curse? what did they do to incur such a drastic response? and why do I think it was a scorned man who didn’t get the woman that he wanted?

I’ve been working on lots of new merch designs with illustrations by the Angel Incarnate and we were going to launch another print on demand service for merch... BUT! Now, instead, we’ll be handling the merch ourselves! So it’ll be a little longer but you can look forward to new, high quality merch with greener/more ethical manufacturing and a personal touch with handwritten thank yous and more! (Packing videos?! Fun branding?! The possibilities are endless!!)

In addition to the new logo and its characters, Nike/Victory and a marvellous Maenad, the stunning Euripides art, and so much more... Sidney/the Angel Incarnate has illustrated this stunner…

A graphic featuring a colourful art deco style illustration of Hecate, Persephone, and Cerberus framed by a stylized frame featuring skulls, flowers, and pomegranates with a header that reads introducing... Chthonic Cuties hekate, Persephone, and...

And here are just a few of the new designs we’ll have available... there just mockups for now, the products are still being confirmed. (Plato/Atlantis illustration by Sara Richard)

The ad-free subscription we’ve been going on and on (and on) about… The Oracle Edition should be available late next month/early December. We’re building something as independent as possible so bear with us while it takes a little longer. In the meantime I’ll be pausing my Patreon to avoid new Patrons as we attempt to shift over to a new community that, again, is more independent and (hopefully) something with big potential for growth.

In the meantime you’ll continue to have free access to Hermes’ Historia episodes and we’ll keep you all updated as things move along.

A graphic that reads hermes historia the new series where Hermes aka Michaela Pangowish looks at history of the ancient world from the origins of theatre to lessons in necromancy (and limitless possibilities)

Michaela here! I’m so happy to get to share these little tidbits of history with all you listeners. But don’t worry, we are very much not moving away from the myths, we just thought you would all enjoy something a little extra. The Hermes Historia episodes will be free until we get the Oracle Edition subscription sorted and once that’s ready you’ll (mostly) be able to find me there.

We’re hope to get to a point where we can release free Historia here and there, in addition to the regular subscription. Until then, enjoy some history!

This month we explored some spooky topics like what an ancient Greek funeral looked like and today’s episode, something a little more mystical. Next month, Liv and I will be taking a bit of a different path. We’ll be looking at the 7th century in Greece and the reception of the Homeric texts in the ancient world. I cannot wait to share more history with you all!

a graphic that says leave us a voice note! We're trying something out... leave us a note, a question, comment, light praise, and we might play it on the show!
a graphic showing a double ended bronze lamp and the header a final word from Hermes.

Look at this delightful little guy, living his best life, giving us not one(!) but two(!!) ends to have light coming from! This little bronze lamp with adorable duck heads peeking out can be found in the Centrale Montemartini museum in Rome.

This ‘treat with some beaks’ is a particularly lovely find, it’s rare for us to find bronze pieces from antiquity. I’m sure happy he survived just so I could lay my eyes on such a treasure.

 
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