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Before Yahweh, Vols. 1-5
Running Time: 7:30:00
The five episodes of Literature and History's Before Yahweh bonus series take us deep into the world of Bronze Age religious texts. The texts covered in this series predated the rise and institutionalization of Yahwistic monotheism that archaeology and Biblical scholarship now generally associate with the reforms of King Hezekiah of Jerusalem around 700 BCE. While the main show covered Gilgamesh, the Enuma Elish, the Atrahasis, the Egyptian Book of the Dead and other ancient Egyptian literature, Before Yahweh goes deeper into the religious writings of the 2000s and 1000s BCE. Texts covered include the writings of Enheduanna of Ur, three tales from Bronze Age Egypt, the Kumarbi cycle of Ancient Turkey, the epic of Inanna and Dumuzi, and the Baal cycle. Altogether, the 7.5 hours of Before Yahweh help us understand the milieu out of which Judaism's earliest religious writings grew. From modern day Egypt to Iraq to Turkey and Syria, the five programs that make up this series are a long, detailed, and often surprisingly fun immersion into the earliest recorded developments of Eurasian religion, and show us how people in the ancient Fertile Crescent thought about the world and themselves, before Yahweh. For more details about individual episodes, see the information below.
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Download Specs: 411 MB; 1 Zipped File Containing 5 MP3 Files
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The Astounding Apocrypha, Vols. 1-5
Running Time: 8:07:00
The Old Testament was written over the course of perhaps a thousand years, under the shadows of some very diverse world empires - Egyptians, Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, and Greeks, to name the most pivotal ones. As early Judaism saw these imperial evolutions, the religion slowly evolved. From the sacrificial prescriptions of Leviticus to the languid philosophizing of Ecclesiastes to the fully Greek stoicism evident in 4 Maccabees, Judaism evolved along with other Iron Age religions. The Astounding Apocrypha bonus series, beginning in the Persian Period (539-330) and moving through Hellenistic history to the end of the Hasmonean dynasty (63 BCE), tells the story of Judaism's evolution up to just before the birth of Christ. These centuries produced the books of Esther, Tobit, Daniel, Maccabees, and Judith - five writings that are either partially or entirely apocryphal to Jewish and Protestant bibles. By reading these five books very thoroughly and in their historical seedbeds, the series explores not only the evolution of Iron Age Judaism, but also the general developments of Hellenistic religion and culture right up to the death of the Roman Republic. For more information about individual episodes, see the information below.
Price here: $9.99
Download Specs: 445 MB; 1 Zipped File Containing 5 MP3 Files
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Rad Greek Myths, Vols. 1-5
Running Time: 15:14:00
This 15 hour audiobook takes ten of the most famous Greek myths and weaves them into a seamless anthology of original adaptations. From Perseus to Typhoios, Rad Greek Myths is based on careful attention to ancient sources like Hesiod, Apollodorus, Pindar, Ovid, the Homeric Hymns, and many more. The stories feature original symphonic and ambient music composed and performed specifically for the Rad Greek Myths series. The compilation is as diverse as the ancient tales on which it's based, including everything from heroic quests, to romances, monsters, seductions, funny misunderstandings, great journeys, tragic partings, dark mysteries, and a dozen other plot elements as entertaining today as they were 2,500 years ago. Featured in this collection are adaptations of the tales of Perseus, Theseus, Daedalus and Icarus, Persephone and Hades, Orpheus and Eurydice, Baucis and Philemon, Bellerophon and Pegasus, Iphigenia, Arachne, and the great monster Typhoios. Full track listing here . For more information about individual episodes, see the information below. Please note that these are original fictional adaptations, and not done in Literature and History's normal format of Introduction - Summary - Analysis.
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Download Specs: 875 MB; 1 Zipped File Containing 100 MP3 Files Organized in Subfolders
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More Greek Plays, Vols. 1-5
Running Time: 9:21:08
The five episodes of More Greek Plays cover (1) Aeschylus’ The Persians, (2) Prometheus Bound, (3) Sophocles’ Ajax, (4) Aristophanes’ The Birds, and (5) Euripides’ Ion, Iphigenia at Tauris, and Helen. These programs take us deeper into Ancient Greek theater than we went in the main series, with an additional play each from Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, and Aristophanes, and also the play Prometheus Bound, now often thought to have been written by someone other than Classical Athens’ big four. On the whole, the series offers a look at five plays that are all magnificent, but are nonetheless a bit different than the famous titles we covered in Season 3. Aeschylus’ Persians is a piece of historical fiction starring the Persian king Xerxes and his mother Atossa, and Prometheus Bound a story about a god who suffered grievously for the benefit of mankind. Ajax is about the ultimate unsung hero of the Trojan War, and The Birds, two everyman anti-heroes who end up taking over the world. Finally, the Euripides plays Ion, Iphigenia at Tauris, and Helen show Euripides at a late point in his career pushing the conventions of comedy and tragedy into the genre now frequently called “Euripidean Romance,” a genre tremendously influential over the next few centuries of Ancient Mediterranean drama. All told, the 9+ hours of More Greek Plays offer full, quotation-rich summaries of all of these additional plays, together with introductions and historical backgrounds, and should greatly enhance your understanding of Ancient Greek theater beyond the headliners we covered in our main sequence. For details about individual episodes in the series, see the information below.
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Download Specs: 516 MB; 1 Zipped File Containing 5 MP3 Files
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Christianity's Roots, Vols. 1-5
Running Time: 9:51:07
The five installments of Literature and History’s Christianity’s Roots bonus series chronicle the theological origins of Early Christianity in the cult religions and philosophy of the Ancient Mediterranean. From virgin births, to savior deities who died or suffered for the benefit of mankind, to countless sons of gods, shared rites involving water, wine, and sacred food, ascendant prime movers, and an increasingly ubiquitous interest in posthumous salvation, some of the major components Christianity predate the life of Christ by centuries. This bonus sequence, over the course of nearly ten hours, explores some of the major religions of the Ancient Mediterranean that may have influenced the writing of the New Testament in the second half of the first century CE. Beginning with the Isis Cult in Episode 1, Episodes 2 and 3 then move through the Ancient Mediterranean’s mystery religions – most centrally the Eleusinian Mysteries, the cults of Cybele and Mithras, and then the Orphic and Pythagorean cults. The latter two cults, more intellectual and literary than comparable movements, lead us to Plato in Episode 4, whose philosophy has had a massive influence on Christianity for thousands of years. Finally, in Episode 5, we explore the Pharisees, Sadducees, and Essenes, three Jewish sects operating in modern day Israel during early Christianity’s formative period. As a unit, these five programs will give you a strong introduction to the pagan theological origins of Early Christianity and the New Testament.
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Download Specs: 543 MB; 1 Zipped File Containing 5 MP3 Files
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The Rejected Scriptures, Vols. 1-5
Running Time: 10:20:00
The New Testament is a short book. A lot of what we think is canonical in Christian ideology - posthumous salvation, for instance, heaven and hell, the origins of Satan, and fallen angels - is either not in the Bible at all, or only there in scraps. This material first shows up, in the historical record, at least, in apocryphal Christian writings, and the Rejected Scriptures is journey of more than ten hours' time into this largely ignored body of work - a gigantic body of texts crucial to the formation of Christianity that slipped into the shadows of the New Testament increasingly after the fourth century. The series opens in the second century BCE with two books - 1 Enoch and Jubilees, very important to early Christianity, but lost from most of the world until the 19th century - works known to the first century Christian world, but edged out of the canon after the fourth century. At the heart of the Rejected Scriptures series are three programs offering overviews of the apocryphal Gospel, Acts, and Apocalypse literature, and summaries of major surviving works. With dozens of apocryphal Gospels, Acts, and Apocalypses surviving in full or in part today, we can use these works to get a clearer picture of the development of early Christianity - which stories and ideas were born outside the canon that eventually became doctrine, and equally, what Medieval Catholicism eventually discarded at the end of Late Antiquity. Striking, strange, hauntingly beautiful and in equal parts disturbing, the apocryphal scriptures of Christianity are something anyone who wants to understand the history of the religion ought to learn about, and The Rejected Scriptures series will offer you a detailed introduction to the genres and major works of this body of writing. For details about individual episodes in the series, see the information below.
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Download Specs: 565 MB; 1 Zipped File Containing 5 MP3 Files
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Earth's First Author
Running Time: 1:38:41
No one knew her name for thousands of years. Yet the earliest literate civilizations of humankind - Uruk, Ur, Lagash and Nippur widely circulated and read her work. Enheduanna, daughter of the conqueror Sargon the Great, is history's first known author. She was active some time between about 2300 and 2250 BCE in the Mesopotamian city of Ur. A multiligual poet who grew up in the cosmopolitan city of Akkad, Enheduanna was her father's figurehead with the old Sumerian regime that he'd unseated. Her biography, as well as her poetry, show a deep and rich intelligence, great cultural sensitivity, and a hauntingly modern sense of self. Two hundred years after her death, Enheduanna's poetry was scattered all over the civilized hubs of Mesopotamia, and it is not improbable that, considering how early she came along, she was the most influential author in literary history.
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