Natalie Haynes Stands Up for the Classics

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BBC Radio 4 FM

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Comedy: Standup

Natalie Haynes creates stand-up routines about figures from ancient Greece and Rome.

Natalie Haynes takes a fresh look at the ancient world, creating stand-up routines about figures from ancient Greece and Rome.

BBC Radio 4 LW

Natalie Haynes Stands Up for the Classics: Series 9: Athene

Athene

Series 9

BBC Radio 4 - Natalie Haynes Stands Up for the Classics, Series 9, Athene

Goddess of wisdom, war and... handicrafts: Athene is charismatic and bloodthirsty.

Athene is charismatic and bloodthirsty, goddess of wisdom, war and...handicrafts. 
 
Owl-eyed Athene is not interested in love, although she is very fond of the hero Odysseus and gives him a leg-up whenever she can. War is Athene's thing, the bloodier the better. She's perfectly happy to humiliate and degrade her enemies, including the feisty and talented weaver Arachne, who challenges Athene to a weaving competition. Athene loves a scrap so it's game on: looms at dawn. She weaves a depiction of her own glorious success over Poseidon in the battle for Attica. Arachne creates a tapestry which shows scenes of gods tricking, seducing, assaulting and kidnapping mortal women. Her message is that the 'protection' of the gods is not worth the cost. Athene is speechless and it's clear who has won the challenge. But Arachne has to pay a price for victory.  

Rock star mythologist and reformed stand-up Natalie Haynes is obsessed with the ancient world. Here she explores key stories from ancient Rome and Greece that still have resonance today. They might be biographical, topographical, mythological or epic, but they are always hilarious, magical and tragic, mystifying and revelatory. And they tell us more about ourselves now than seems possible of stories from a couple of thousand years ago.

Producer...Mary Ward-Lowery

Natalie Haynes Stands Up for the Classics: Series 9

Intelligent speech, the most insightful journalism, the wittiest comedy, the most fascinating features and the most compelling drama and readings anywhere in UK radio.

Natalie Haynes explores lives from ancient Rome and Greece that still have resonance today

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Natalie Haynes Stands Up for the Classics

Series 9

Athene

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