Sweetbitter | Women & LGBTQIA+ History

This episode, we discuss the ancient pirate, Teuta.

Thank you to our guests this week, Laura Duncombe and Brandon Jones. Our Pirate Shanty this week is by Alyse Knorr with engineering by Joshua Nelson. As always, you can find us on Twitter and Instagram @sweetbitterpod.You can support us on Patreon at patreon.com/sweetbitter.

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This episode, we discuss some of our fave women Pirates!

Thank you to our guests this week, Rebecca Simon and Laura Duncombe. Our Pirate Shanty this week is by Alyse Knorr with engineering by Joshua Nelson. As always, you can find us on Twitter and Instagram @sweetbitterpod.You can support us on Patreon at patreon.com/sweetbitter.

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This episode is our second of two-parts about Queer Pirates! Content warning, we discuss sexual violence in this episode.

Thank you to our guests this week, Jamie Goodall and Nick Marsellas. Our Pirate Shanty this week is by Alyse Knorr with instrumental, vocals and engineering by Joshua Nelson. As always, you can find us on Twitter and Instagram @sweetbitterpod.You can support us on Patreon at patreon.com/sweetbitter.

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This episode is our first of two-parts about Queer Pirates! Were the Jolly Rogers getting their Rogers jollied or was matelotage just about economics? Or both?

Thank you to our guests this week, Jamie Goodall, Clint Jones, Rebecca Simon and Christopher John Farley. Our Pirate Shanty this week is by Alyse Knorr with instrumental, vocals and engineering by Joshua Nelson. As always, you can find us on Twitter and Instagram @sweetbitterpod.You can support us on Patreon at patreon.com/sweetbitter.

Transcript

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This episode, we take a broad look at pirates and their lives with the help of our guests. Did pirates really bury treasure and make treasure maps? And were Pirate Ships utopic societies or chaotic af?

Thank you to our guests this week, Jamie Goodall, Rebecca Simon, Wendy Bracewell and Clint Jones. You can read more about our guests and where to find them on our website. Our Pirate Shanty this week is by Joshua Nelson. As always, you can find us on Twitter and Instagram @sweetbitterpod.You can support us on Patreon at patreon.com/sweetbitter.

Transcript

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Welcome to season 2 of Sweetbitter! This season, we bring you a high-seas adventure full of surprises as we uncover the queer & women’s history of pirates. In this episode, Ellie, Alyse & Leesa talk about what's coming up this season and what we're looking forward to!

Thanks to Chloe Duckart and Joshua Nelson for their contributions to the Pirates all are gay sea shanty. As always, you can find us on Twitter and Instagram @sweetbitterpod.You can support us on Patreon at patreon.com/sweetbitter.

You can find the episode transcript here.

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We had such a blast wrapping up our first season of the podcast! Please enjoy this live recording of the event, along with some incredible guests: Kristin Russo (Buffering the Vampire Slayer), Liv Albert (Let's Talk About Myth's Baby), Leigh (History is Gay) and Vanessa Stovall (Playwright & Musician) -- and also the audience members who joined us. 

We can't wait to see y'all for season 2! In the meantime, you can keep in touch with us via Twitter & Instagram @sweetbitterpod.

You can support us on patreon.com/sweetbitter - we have a bunch of bonus episodes for patrons at all levels.

You can find the episode transcript here

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am I not   olden

olden olden it is unwanted.

wanting, wanting

am I not   broken

stolen   common

am I not crinkled cranky poison

am I not glinty-eyed and frozen

am I not   aged

shaky   glazing

am I not   hazy

guarded   craven

am I not   only

stingy   little

am I not   simple

brittle   spitting

was I not   over

over   ridden?

it is a long story

will you be proud to be my version?

it is unwritten.

writing, writing

am I not   ancient

raging   patient

am I not   able

charming   stable

was I not   building

forming   braving

was I not   ruling

guiding   naming

was I not   brazen

crazy   chosen

even the stones would do my bidding?

it is a long story

am I not proud to be your version?

it is unspoken.

speaking, speaking

am I not   elder

berry

brandy

are you not wine before you find me in your own beaker?

- Slowly: a plainsong from an older woman to a younger woman Judy Grahn

Thank you for listening! You can follow us on Twitter & Instagram @sweetbitterpod.

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Someone will remember us

                                    I say

                                     even in another time

Translated by Carson.

Thank you for listening! You can follow us on Twitter & Instagram @sweetbitterpod. You can support us on patreon.com/sweetbitter.

Our guests this episode were Chris Mason, Tracey Walters, Vanessa Stovall, Marguerite Johnson, Katherine Blouin and Usama Gad. You can learn more about our guests and where to find them on our website. You can read Vanessa's full article on WAP here.

You can find the episode transcript here

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Come, divine lyre, speak to me

and sing! 

Translated by Rayor. 

Thank you for listening! You can follow us on Twitter & Instagram @sweetbitterpod. You can support us on patreon.com/sweetbitter.

Our guests this episode were Jane Montgomery Griffiths, Jade Esteban Estrada, Aimee Suzara, Maya Herbsman and Vanessa Stovall. You can learn more about our guests and where to find them on our website. You can read Vanessa's (a lunar tune) here.

You can find the episode transcript here

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          ]heart

          ]absolutely

          ]I can

          ]

]would be for me 

]to shine in answer

          ]face

          ]

          ]having been stained

          ]

Translated by Carson.

Thank you for listening! You can follow us on Twitter & Instagram @sweetbitterpod. You can support us on patreon.com/sweetbitter.

Our guests this episode were Diane Rayor, Ian Oliver and Tracey Walters. You can learn more about our guests and where to find them on our website.

You can find the episode transcript here

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To me it seems that man has the fortune

of gods, whoever sits beside you

and close, who listens to you

sweetly speaking

and laughing temptingly. My heart

flutters in my breast whenever

I quickly glance at you –

I can say nothing,

my tongue is broken. A delicate fire

runs under my skin, my eyes

see nothing, my ears roar,

cold sweat

rushes down me, trembling seizes me,

I am greener than grass.

To myself I seem

needing but little to die.

Yet all must be endured, since . . .

Translated by Rayor

Thank you for listening! You can follow us on Twitter & Instagram @sweetbitterpod. You can support us on patreon.com/sweetbitter.

Our guests this episode were Diane Rayor, Jane Montgomery Griffiths, Marguerite Johnson, Tracey Walters, Sandra Boehringer and translator Annie McCarthy. You can learn more about our guests and where to find them on our website. 

You can find the episode transcript here

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             ] of desire

             ]

             ] for when I look at you

             ] such a Hermione

] and to yellow haired Helen I liken you

]

] among mortal women, know this

] from every care

] you could release me

             ]

             ] dewy riverbanks

             ] to last all night long

                                       ] [

Translated by Carson

Thank you for listening! You can follow us on Twitter & Instagram @sweetbitterpod. You can support us on patreon.com/sweetbitter.

Our guests this episode were Chris Mason from Old Songs, Jane Montgomery Griffiths & Diane Rayor. You can learn more about our guests and where to find them on our website. Thank you this week to James Jones for lending us his deep-voice.

If you'd like to join us for our Women's History Month event, you can find the details on our site, or register here.

You can find the episode transcript here

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Come to me from Krete to this holy temple, 

here to your sweet apple grove, 

altars smoking with 

frankincense.

Cold water ripples through apple branches,

the whole place shadowed in roses, 

from the murmuring leaves

deep sleep descends.

Where horses graze, the meadow blooms

spring flowers in the winds

breathe softly . . . 

*

Here, Aphrodite, after gathering . . . 

pour into cups nectar

lavishly mingled

with joys.

Translation by Rayor

Thank you for listening! You can follow us on Twitter & Instagram @sweetbitterpod. You can support us on patreon.com/sweetbitter.

Our guests this episode were Roberta Mazza, Marguerite Johnson, Malcolm Choat, Mike Sampson, Usama Gad & Katherine Blouin. You can learn more about our guests and where to find them on our website.

You can find the episode transcript here

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You, children, be zealous for the beautiful gifts of the violetlapped Muses

and for the clear songloving lyre.

But my skin once soft is now taken by old age,

my hair turns white from black.

And my heart is weighed down and my knees do not lift,

that once were light to dance as fawns.

I groan for this. But what can I do?

A human being without old age is not a possibility.

There is the story of Tithonos, loved by Dawn with her arms of roses

and she carried him off to the ends of the earth

when he was beautiful and young. Even so was he gripped

by white old age. He still has his deathless wife.

Translation by Carson (2005) 

Thank you for listening! You can follow us on Twitter & Instagram @sweetbitterpod. You can support us on patreon.com/sweetbitter.

You can read Carson’s thoughts on the 2004 discovery in the New York Review here. Roberta Mazza’s blog, Faces and Voices, can be found here.

Our guests this episode were Roberta Mazza, Sandra Boehringer (trans. by Annie McCarthy), Marguerite Johnson, Malcolm Choat, Mike Sampson & Ariel Sabar. You can learn more about our guests and where to find them on our website.

You can find the episode transcript here

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Grab a drink and join us for a holiday bonus episode with our friend Liv Albert from Let’s Talk About Myths Baby. We talk about Aphrodite, Greek Mythology and the patriarchy.

Thank you for listening! You can follow us on Twitter & Instagram @sweetbitterpod. You can support us on patreon.com/sweetbitter.

You can find Let’s Talk About Myths Baby anywhere you find podcasts and on social media @mythsbaby.

You can find the episode transcript here

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]

]

]

]

]running away

]bitten

]

]

]you

]makes a way with the mouth

]beautiful gifts children

]songdelighting clear sounding lyre

]all my skin old age already

hair turned white after black

]knees do not carry

]like fawns

]but what could I do?

]not possible to become

]Dawn with arms of roses

]bringing to the ends of the earth

]yet seized

]wife

]imagines

]might bestow

But I love delicacy and this to me—

the brilliance and beauty of the sun—desire has allotted.

Translation by Carson

Thank you for listening! You can follow us on Twitter & Instagram @sweetbitterpod. You can support us on patreon.com/sweetbitter.

If you want to know more about Eurocentrism in papyrology, please follow Usama’s blog: Everyday Orientalism. Ariel’s book Veritas: A Harvard Professor, a Con Man & the Gospel of Jesus’s Wife is out wherever you buy books - here’s it's listing our favorite local.

If you want to listen to another cool podcast all about the Hobby Lobby, check out the Behind the Bastards episode.

Our guests this episode were Malcolm Choat, Ariel Sabar, Mike Sampson & Usama Gad. You can learn more about our guests and where to find them here.

You can find the episode transcript here

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When you lie dead, no one will remember you

For you have no share in the Muses’ roses.

No, flitting aimlessly about,

You will wildly roam,

a shade amidst the shadowy dead.

Translated by Dubnoff

Thank you for listening! You can follow us on Twitter & Instagram @sweetbitterpod. You can support us on patreon.com/sweetbitter.

Our guests this episode were Marguerite Johnson and Malcolm Choat. You can learn more about our guests and where to find them here.

You can find the episode transcript here

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Once again Love, that loosener of limbs,

bittersweet and inescapable, crawling thing,

seizes me.

Translation by Rayor.

Rayor, Diane. Sappho: A New Translation of the Complete Works, Cambridge University Press, 2014. Introduction & notes by André Lardinois.

Thank you for listening! You can follow us on Twitter & Instagram @sweetbitterpod. You can support us on patreon.com/sweetbitter.

Our guests this episode were Marguerite Johnson, Alex Purves, Jade Esteban Estrada and Diane Rayor. You can learn more about our guests and where to find them here.

You can find the episode transcript here

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I simply wish to die. 

Weeping she left me.

and told me this, too:

We've suffered terribly, Sappho.

I leave you against my will.

I answered: Go happily

and remember me -- 

you know how we cared for you.

If not, let me remind you

*

. . . the lovely times we shared.

Many crowns of violets, 

roses, and crocuses together

. . . you put on by my side

and many scented wreaths

woven from blossoms

around your delicate throat.

And . . . with pure, sweet oil

[for a queen] . . .

you anointed . . .

and on soft beds

. . . delicate . . .

you quenched your desire.

Not any . . .

no holy site . . .

we left uncovered,

no grove . . .    dance

               . . . sound

Translation by Rayor. 

Rayor, Diane. Sappho: A New Translation of the Complete Works, Cambridge University Press, 2014. Introduction & notes by André Lardinois.

Thank you for listening! You can follow us on Twitter & Instagram @sweetbitterpod. You can support us on patreon.com/sweetbitter - sign up before November 1st at any level for a free Sweetbitter tote bag.

Our guests this episode were Marguerite Johnson, Jane Montgomery Griffiths, Sandra Boehringer (translation by Annie McCarthy) and Diane Rayor. You can learn more about our guests and where to find them here.

You can find the episode transcript here

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Some men say and army of horses and some men say an army on foot

and some men say an army of ships is the most beautiful thing

on the black earth. But I say it is

       what you love.

Easy to make this understood by all.

For she who overcame everyone

in beauty (Helen)

       left her fine husband

behind and went sailing to Troy.

Not for her children nor her dear parents

had she a thought, no-

         ]led her astray

                               ]for

                ]lightly

         ]reminded me now of Anaktoria

         who is gone.

I would rather see her lovely step

and the motion of light on her face

than chariots of Lydians or ranks

         of footsoldiers in arms

] not possible to happen

] to pay for a share

]

]

]

]

]

toward[

]

]

]

out of the unexpected.

Translation by Carson

Sappho, , and Anne Carson. If Not, Winter: Fragments of Sappho. , 2002.

Thank you for listening to our first episode! You can follow us on Twitter & Instagram @sweetbitterpod. You can support us on patreon.com/sweetbitter - sign up before November 1st at any level for a free Sweetbitter tote bag.

Our guests this episode were Chris Mason from Olds Songs, Marguerite Johnson and Diane Rayor. You can learn more about our guests and where to find them here.

You can find the episode transcript here

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On the throne of many hues, Immortal Aphrodite,

child of Zeus, weaving wiles: I beg you,

do not break my spirit, O Queen,

with pain or sorrow

but come--if ever before from far away

you heard my voice and listened,

and leaving your father's

golden home you came,

your chariot yoked with lovely sparrows

drawing you quickly over the dark earth

in a whirling cloud of wings down

the sky through midair,

suddenly here. Blessed One, with a smile

on your deathless face, you ask

what have I suffered again

and why do I call again

and what in my wild heart do I most wish

would happen: "Once again who must I

persuade to turn back to your love?

Sappho, who wrongs you?

If now she flees, soon she'll chase.

If rejecting gifts, then she'll give.

If not loving, soon she'll love

even against her will."

Come to me now--release me from these

troubles, everything my heart longs

to have fulfilled, fulfill, and you

be my ally.

Translation by Rayor 

Rayor, Diane. Sappho: A New Translation of the Complete Works, Cambridge University Press, 2014. Introduction & notes by André Lardinois.

Thank you for listening to our episode zero! You can follow us on Twitter & Instagram @sweetbitterpod. You can support us on patreon.com/sweetbitter - sign up before November 1st at any level for a free Sweetbitter tote bag.

Click here for episode transcript

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Welcome to Sweetbitter, a podcast where we investigate the truth and controversy surrounding Sappho her life, the Isle of Lesbos and her relevance today, Each episode we'll deep dive into a part of the mystery of Sappho with insights from academics, translators, performers, and poets. 

Launching October 15th 2020. You can follow us on Twitter and Instagram @sweetbitterpod, or support us on Patreon.

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