Content Warning: Brief mention of death.

In this episode, I tell a modern myth entitled "What Oldest Human Didn't Know". Normally I cannot tell myths from the modern day, as they are typically inaccessible under copyright law. This story was written by myself, and thus I am able to record it. The tale tells of the Oldest Human's once-in-a-decade walk, the transformation of a boat, and the chance meeting of the Oldest Human and a young child. The themes of the story include the concepts of cyclicity, the lacking of knowledge, death, and natural transformation.

Today, I leave the analysis up to you. You can find a written copy of the myth on my website (linked below). Feel free to send me a response at theechocain@gmail.com. 

Thank you for listening!

You can find all of my work through the following links:

https://linktr.ee/echocain

www.echocain.com

In this episode, I tell an Akkadian myth called "The Descent of Ishtar". The story is a reinterpretation of a longer Sumerian work written approximately 500-900 years prior called "The Descent of Inanna". The version of the myth that I will be telling was unearthed at the great library of Nineveh. The author of the stone cuneiform tablet remains unknown, though this myth was ubiquitous across Mesopotamia. The tale makes use of repetition to parallel an ancient, recorded ritual glorifying the change of seasons in which a statue of Ishtar/Inanna was undressed and clothed again. 

We'll discuss the transition from matriarchy to patriarchy and this historical conflict's relation to the written word. We'll also seek to understand the characterization of these deities, their perceived effect on the Mesopotamian world, and how these themes were exported to other surrounding cultures.

(I am currently writing a screenplay reinterpreting this myth, so my analysis will be sparse on this episode to reflect the bias I have towards this story).

Thank you for listening!

You can find all of my work through the following links:

https://linktr.ee/echocain

www.echocain.com

Content Warning: Brief discussion of sex, ritual murder, colonization of indigenous peoples, genocide, slavery, kidnapping, classism, and misogyny.

In this episode, I tell a central origin myth of the Inca Empire: "Children of the Sun". The Inca, especially those in the higher social classes, saw themselves as educators working under their King, an incarnation of the myth's "Father Sun". The story was probably first told early in the foundation of the Kingdom of Cuzco, as it decrees a particular way of civilizing so-called wild peoples and mythologizes the first ruler, Manco Capac. The re-education process described in the myth would be what the Inca carried out over the 10 Million people they ruled at the height of their power in the Andean mountain range. The tale has also been recorded numerous times by different anthropologists and recounted by a multiplicity of storytellers. 

We'll discuss the complicated and lengthy history of the peoples who historically inhabited the Andes, demonstrating that the development of civilization is not a unique occurrence in any capacity, nor is it always bounded by the same set of rules and worldviews. We'll also make sense of the strict gender roles in the myth, the importance of defining humanity in expansive ways, and critiquing the usage of the education narrative by Imperialists and Fascists.

Thank you for listening!

You can find all of my work through the following links:

https://linktr.ee/echocain

www.echocain.com