Episode 1: Origin Stories

What happens when the Muses of Greek mythology want to have a podcast... but they don't actually want to do the work of making one? They conscript a demigod, of course!

In the inaugural episode of Myths and Muses: A Plato Learning Podcast, we start at the very beginning: origin stories and myths of creation!

Whether it's stories of how the whole world and all the gods came to be, or stories with a smaller focus, like the creation of a particular flower, origin stories can tell us a lot about a culture. They're also Origin something we humans seem to find endlessly fascinating – at least if all the Batman and Wolverine movies are anything to go by! We'll look at a few examples, then dive into the origins of storytelling itself.

This episode's interview features Persephone and her mortal alter-ego, Plato Learning founder Crystal Bobb-Semple!

If you'd like to submit a story or artwork to be featured on Myths & Muses, use this form (with a Mortal Guardian's permission!).

[Transcript for Episode 1]

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Stuff to Read:

• 25 Creation Stories from around the World
• Where did writing come from? A history of cuneiform 
• Visible Writing: a multimedia exploration from Google Arts & Culture
• Middle-Grade book recommendation (ages 7-11+): In the Beginning: Creation Stories from Around the World, by Virginia Hamilton and Barry Moser
• Young Adult book recommendation (ages 12-18+): Popol Vuh: A Retelling, byIlan Stavans and Gabriela Larios
• A book for grown-ups: The Storytelling Animal: How Stories Make Us Human, by Jonathan Gottschall
• More information on our summer camps and other programming!

Stuff to Watch: 

• Myths & Muses Episode 1 tie-in YouTube playlist: A series of short videos, including: 
  • The Greek creation of the world and the gods
  • The Taino creation myth
  • The Khmer origins of lightning, thunder and rain
  • Hades, Persephone, and the origin of the seasons
  • The Aztec origins of humanity
• TED Ed: Why do we tell stories? series (each video between 9-18 minutes)

Cool Images: 

Cave painting: Chauvet Cave, France. 30,000 to 28,000 BCE.

Cave Painting: Serra da Capivara, Brazil. 28,000 to 6,000 BCE.

Cave Painting: Cumberland Valley Caves, Tennessee, U.S. Dated to: 4,000 BCE.

Cave Painting: Cueva de las Manos, Argentina. 7,300 BCE to 700 CE.

Cave Painting:  Lubang Jeriji Saléh, Indonesia. More than 40,000 years old.

Cuneiform tablet, Shuruppak, circa 2600 BCE

Egyptian hieroglyphs, c. 3000 BCE: 

Oracle Bone Script, China, c. 1250 BCE: 

Maya codices, c. 900-1500 CE: