Episode 40 – Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous

Episode 40 Show Notes

Source: Brazilian Folklore

This week on MYTH, we’ll discover a cure for blindness in the jungles of Brazil. You’ll discover that random old strangers give the best advice, that giving spoiled teens a lot of money is a stupid idea, and that some dangers never really materialize. Then, in a listener-suggestion Gods and Monsters, we’ll discover the secrets of the dancing dust devils. This is the Myths Your Teacher Hated podcast, where I tell the stories of cultures from around the world in all of their original, bloody, uncensored glory. Modern tellings of these stories have become dry and dusty, but I’ll be trying to breathe new life into them. This is Episode 40, “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous”. As always, this episode is not safe for work.
I thought that we could probably use a break after the drawn-out melodrama of our last series, so this week, we’re going to be traveling to Brazil for a very different kind of one-off fairy tale.
Once upon a time, there lived a king who, for reasons unknown, went blind. This was upsetting (these kinds of things weren’t supposed to happen to kings, dammit!) and he figured that he was rich and powerful enough to try and do something about it. He summoned every doctor in the kingdom for an exam, but all of them told him there was nothing to be done about it: he would just have to learn how to live as a blind man. This the king did, although he never really resigned himself to his fate.
One day, a poor old woman came to the palace to beg for a little money, or a little something to eat. She knocked on the door of the palace, which was pretty unusual. Most people who were allowed in had an invitation ahead of time. The guard opened the door cautiously, curious as to who it could be, then cursed when he saw it was just a stupid old woman. “What do you want, old woman?” The woman smiled at the rude guard. “I wish to see the blind king.” “Yeah? Well I don’t think the king wants to talk to your peasant ass!” The old woman smiled even bigger. “Well, I do have a cure for his blindness, but if you don’t think he wants it…” The guard was suspicious of a trick, but dammit, he knew that if she was legit and he turned her away, the king would have his head. “You have my attention. Follow me.”
He led her through the palace, keeping an eye on her to make sure she didn’t steal anything, and led her up to the king’s audience chamber. She found the king seated on his throne. Beneath his crown of office, his blind eyes were carefully bandaged in clean, white linen. He’d been moping, depressed at not being able to see the bright sunlight shining off the deep blue of the sea from the highest windows of the palace, nor the pageantry of the lords and ladies of his court in their elaborate raiment of purple, silver, and woven gold, nor even the beautiful face of his beloved wife, the queen.
He smoothed his face out as he heard someone approaching. The guard announced that a woman had come, claiming she could do something for his eyes. The old lady bowed deeply. The king didn’t know the difference, but there were protocols to this kind of thing. “Your majesty, there is only one thing in the whole, wide world that can restore your vision – water from the fountain of Giantland. If you bathe your eyes in that magical water, your eyes will heal and you will once more be able to see everything there is to see.” The king leaned forward, visibly excited. “That’s a bold promise, old woman. How am I supposed to obtain this miraculous water? I have only heard tales of Giantland – it is supposed to be a very long way from my kingdom, and I don’t know how to get there.”
Everyone in court held their breath. Could this peasant woman do what none of those fucking doctors had been able to? “You will need to build a fleet of strong ships, your majesty, and sail them up the great river. Giantland sits at the source of the river, so you can’t miss the place if you follow the river as far as you can go. It’s a dangerous trip, my king, so you will need to have a brave, heroic prince to lead the expedition. The fountain of Giantland lies at the summit of a tall, jagged mountain, towering above the land, and it can only be reached by a prince who climbs to the peak without looking either to the right or the left. Huge, violent giants stand ready to enslave those seeking the fountain the moment that poor bastard looks away from the path and catches their eyes. Even if he makes it to the top without angering the giants, though, the fountain itself is guided by a fierce dragon. No man is its equal, and it will rip anyone it sees to bloody shreds. One can only approach this dragon safely while it is asleep. If whomever you send is brave enough and wise enough to succeed, he will meet a little old woman who can tell him if the dragons slumbers. I warn you, your majesty: many princes have sought this prize and failed in their quest. Be very sure that the cost is worth it, but I promise you that the waters of the fountain are the only thing that can restore your eyesight.”
The little old woman withdrew from the audience chamber as the court discussed what she had said in hushed tones. The guards gave her food and some money in thanks for her advice and led her back out of the palace. Meanwhile, the king and queen had discussed it and decided to summon their three sons.
They arrived shortly, and he told them what the old woman had said, emphasizing the danger. The eldest prince stepped forward as soon as the king had finished speaking. “I am brave and wise, father, and I am the eldest. It is only right that I go on this quest. I will go and fetch you a bottle of water from the fountain of Giantland so that you may see the world once more.” The king gratefully embraced his son and ordered that construction begin immediately on the ships required for this expedition up the river. He raised an enormous sum to fund everything (presumably by either raising taxes or by draining the royal treasury because fuck fiscal responsibility), and the entire kingdom was soon abuzz with gossip about the prince’s quest.
Before he left, the eldest prince planted an orange tree in the palace garden and asked the middle brother to look after it. “If the leaves begin to wither and die, it means that something bad has happened to me and I need your help. Come to my aid.” It’s not explained how the prince has access to magic danger trees, but it’s a fairy tale with healing springs, so just roll with it.
With great fanfare, the eldest prince sailed out of the city with a great fleet, his pockets filled with gold. He stopped at every major harbor as he sailed north to spend time and to gamble. The prince was a very avid gambler, but not a very good one. He was every casino’s favorite customer: a man with too much money and not enough skill. Before he had reached Giantland, the prince had lost the entire fortune he had been given, taken from the taxes of the kingdom and wasted.
Still, he did manage to reach the river’s headwaters. Directly ahead, he could see a huge mountain, steep and rocky, jutting above the forest. He took a bottle for the fountain’s water, placed it carefully on his head (why he didn’t do something far safer, like put in a bag tied to his belt, I don’t know), and set out on his climb, careful to keep his eyes locked on the path directly in front of him.
The ascent was easy at first, and the prince relaxed a little, but then the path grew steeper. Suddenly, from either side of him came the deafening roar of countless angry giant voices, screaming at him. He could see flickers of movement from the corner of his eyes, and for just a moment, the prince forgot all about the old woman’s warning. He turned to look at the terror he was certain was rushing him from his blind spot. As soon as he turned his gaze away, he met the eyes of a giant, who snarled and seized the prince in one giant fist. “Arrogant little fool! You will be my slave until the day you die. You will toil for me forever and a day. Unless, perhaps, you have enough gold to pay me a ransom for your freedom. A prince is expensive, though.” The prince thought despairingly of the fortune he had squandered so foolishly. If he’d still had it, he could have freed himself, but he was broke. He was a prisoner and a slave, and he knew there was no escape for him.
When the middle prince went to the garden to tend to his brother’s tree that evening, he saw the leaves withering. “Holy shit!” The watering can dropped from his nerveless fingers and lay abandoned as he raced to find his father. “Dad! Dad! My brother’s in trouble, and I have to go save him! He needs my help!” The king cursed at this turn of events, but agreed that his middle son needed to take up his elder brother’s quest and go save him. He prepared another fleet, and raised even more money than he had the first time, since they had no idea what misfortune had befallen the elder prince (and rich nobles often think that any problem can be solved with enough money – and they’re often right). The kingdom did everything it could to finish preparations as quickly as possible and send the middle prince off to save his brother.
When it was nearly time for him to leave, the middle brother planted a lemon tree and called his younger brother into the garden. The young prince, who was still just a boy, had been playing with the castle dogs and didn’t entirely understand everything that was going on. “Since we apparently have access to plant magic, I too have planted a tree linked to my safety. Brother, I need you…focus! I need you to take care of this tree and watch it every day. If the leaves ever wither, you will know that I am in trouble and that I need your help. There’s no one else, so I’ll need you to come to my aid if that ever happens.” The youngest prince promised he would, then immediately raced off to play with the dogs again, laughing and carefree. The middle prince watched him go. “If I run into trouble, I’m fucked. My brother’s a sweet kid, but there’s no way he could save me from anything more dangerous than a mouse.”
Soon, the fleet was ready to go, and the middle prince sailed up the river after his brother. Like his brother, he stopped in every port he came to to spend the night. He had never been much of a gambler, which is good, but he had a taste for the finer things in life, especially food and wine, which was bad. Each port provided him with a chance to try all kinds of strange and exotic foods and sumptuous wines and liquors. He feasted at each city and, as a generous man, he feasted all of his companions on the fleet with him. It was considerate but stupid as, before they reached Giantland, he too was completely out of money.
It took a long time, but the middle prince eventually reached the end of the river and saw the mountain that held the fountain of Giantland rising like a spire against the azure sky. He had heard of his brother’s passing in each city he had landed in, so he felt confident that his brother had made it this far as well. That could only mean that his brother had fallen into some kind of trouble in the climb. The prince took a deep breath, placed a bottle carefully on his head for the water from the fountain of Giantland, and set out on the path to the mountain peak, confident that he could save his brother and his father in one fell swoop.
As the ascent began to grow steep, and the prince began to huff and puff (lots of rich, fattening food had left him in not the best shape for an arduous climb), he heard the raging cacophony of giant voices screaming at him from either side of the path, and saw flickers of movement. He steeled his nerve and ignored them, keeping his eyes fixed on the path. He would be strong. He would find his brother and not be lured off the path.
The screams subsided, but were replaced with agonized sobs and wails that bordered on inhuman. He knew they came from a human throat though – he recognized his brother’s voice. The wails were nearly incoherent, but he could hear words rising and falling out of the anguish: “I’m sorry! Please, please don’t hurt me. Don’t hurt me anymore. Please. Don’t. I’ll…I’ll do anything. Just stop for a day, an hour, a minute! Please! Fuck, please! Just kill me! Just fucking kill me! End this; end me!”
The middle prince was able to ignore the angry screams of the giants, but his heart breaks at the desperate, heart-rending cries of his older brother, and for just a moment, the prince forgot all about the old woman’s warning. He turned to look where he was sure his beloved brother was being tortured to the point of death. As soon as he turned his gaze away, he met the eyes of a giant, who snarled and seized the prince in one giant fist. “Arrogant little fool! You will be my slave until the day you die. You will toil for me forever and a day. Unless, perhaps, you have enough gold to pay me a ransom for your freedom. A prince is expensive, though.” The prince thought despairingly of the fortune he had squandered so foolishly. If he’d still had it, he could have freed himself, but he was broke. He was a prisoner and a slave, and he knew there was no escape for him.
When the youngest prince went to the garden to tend to his brother’s tree that evening, he saw the leaves withering. “Holy shit!” The watering can dropped from his nerveless fingers and lay abandoned as he raced to find his father. “Dad! Dad! My brother’s in trouble, and I have to go save him! He needs my help!” The king cursed at this turn of events, certain that he had lost two of his sons forever. “That’s very brave of you, my son, but you are still a young boy. How can you do what your brothers could not? How can you possibly save them? No, my son, I cannot let you go after them – you’re all I have left, and I can’t bear the thought of losing you, too. I was selfish and foolish to let any of my children go on such a dangerous quest just to fix my goddamned eyes. My sight is not worth their lives, and it certainly isn’t worth losing yours as well. Why did I ever listen to that old bitch’s tales of some stupid fucking magic fountain? I wish she’d never darkened my doorstep.”
The king was resolved, but the young prince was stubborn as only the young can be. He begged, wheedled, and cajoled his father ceaselessly until at last, he gave in and agreed to outfit him for what was certain to be a suicide mission to find his missing brothers. He put together a third fleet, smaller than the first two, and gathered what money he could, less than before, and watched him sail off, certain that this was the end of his family.
The young prince sailed up the river, bold and excited at the adventure. He ignored the harbors along the way, although he could feel the lure of these exotic places he had never seen. The men on the ships told him wondrous tales of what could be found there, games and feasting and beautiful young women who would be very, very interested in getting to know a young prince quite well. He was determined to find his brothers, and nothing could distract him from his quest.
Soon, he reached the headwaters of the river and could see the mountain peak rising above the forest. Steep. Imposing. Forbidding. He took a deep breath to steady his nerves, then made his preparations. Knowing that he would have to stay focused on the path to be able to succeed, he stuffed cotton in his ears so that he could not be distracted, then carefully placed a bottle on his head to fill with water from the fountain of Giantland.
He climbed the peak easily, filled with the energy of youth and well-rested from his time on the ships. He kept his eyes focused on the path as he climbed, ignoring the flickers of motion in the corners of his eyes from beyond the path. Through the cotton, he could hear the faint sounds of the giants roaring and calling to him, but it was easy to ignore. The way grew steeper, and the path was rocky and littered with loose stones, forcing the young prince to focus even harder. He didn’t notice when the sounds of the giants faded away, and he never even heard his brothers calling in agony as the giants beat them and tortured them.
At length, the young prince crested the mountain’s summit and saw, directly in front of him, the fabled fountain of Giantland. Standing before it, in the middle of the path, was a little old woman, watching him climb. It’s unclear if it’s the same old woman as before, but it very well could be. He walked up to her respectfully, pulling the cotton out of his ears to be able to actually speak to her and get her advice. “You have arrived at the perfect moment: the dragon is asleep as we speak. You should fill your bottle now.”
Together, they snuck quietly up to the fountain and filled the bottle with water. Once it was safely stoppered, the old woman caught the young prince’s eyes. “The dragon has a secret that no one knows, because no prince has ever been brave enough to make the journey and wise enough to avoid the path’s dangers. The dragon was once a princess, transformed by an evil curse. You have broken the spell by coming here, and in a year and a day from now, she will return to her true form. Return then, and claim the young woman you have saved as your bride.” It’s a little frustrating that the old woman doesn’t seem to care at all whether either of these two individuals wants to marry a total stranger, and a little weird that no one ever mentioned that this was going to be an engagement quest (that’s usually the whole reason for the journey in most stories). Then again, they are both royalty and probably never really expected to marry for love, so maybe it’s not all that weird.
Either way, the young prince is courteous and honorable, so he doesn’t try to argue that he didn’t realize that he was embarking on what was apparently a legally binding contract or still very young. Instead, he pulls a ring off of his finger and hands it to the old woman. “When the spell is broken and my betrothed is a woman again, give her this ring as a sign of my promise to return. I will come back in a year and a day.” Hopefully, he’ll have hit puberty by then.
The old woman promised to do so, and the young prince began to retrace his steps back down the mountain, careful to protect the precious bottle of magical water. Halfway down, he saw his two brothers standing in the path, huge smiles plastered on their faces. “You beautiful bastard! You did it! You actually did it! I, uh, I don’t suppose you still have any of the money Dad gave you? We’re kind of completely broke and need to pay the giants a ransom for our freedom. Please?” The young prince reached into his pockets and pulled out all of the gold he’d been given. “Yeah, I do. I didn’t stop anywhere, so I never spent any of it. If it will buy your freedom, you’re welcome to it.” The giants named a price for the two princes, and it turned out that the young prince had enough to cover the cost with a little left over, and so he was able to save his brothers and buy their freedom.
Now, any halfway decent person would be filled with gratitude for their youngest sibling for saving their asses from being beaten and tortured for the rest of their lives, but the two elder princes were complete douche-hats and began to plot against their brother as they sailed home together. “We can’t let anyone know that he was the one who saved us, and actually succeeded in the quest that we both failed at to boot! We’re the elder brothers, and it will completely undermine our honor if that happens. We need to make sure little bro can’t tell anyone.” Fortunately, they weren’t quite heartless enough to just slit his throat and throw his body overboard. They decided instead to take the coward’s way out and abandon him on a desolate shore to die a slow, lingering death of starvation, dehydration, and exposure while congratulating themselves on their mercy.
One night, while the young prince was asleep, they took him from his bed and dropped him on a completely deserted stretch of riverbank, then sailed off to take credit for his deeds. They agreed to tell their father that he had never arrived in Giantland, and to claim no knowledge of what had happened. Being young and inexperienced, he must have fallen victim to some unknown danger and been lost.
The young prince woke up to a surprising amount of sunlight, shocked to find himself ashore and alone. It didn’t take him long to figure out what must have happened. There was no sign of shipwreck, nor of the ships or any other living souls. He cursed his brothers for being such evil, ungrateful assholes, then set out to try not to die. After long days of eating whatever fruit he could find and drinking the morning dew collected in the leaves, he finally stumbled across a humble hut, occupied by a poor fisherman. The man was lonely, and took pity on this young boy lost and alone in the wilderness. He agreed to give the boy food and shelter in exchange for his help catching fish and keeping up with the chores.
Meanwhile, the two assholes that called themselves princes returned home without their brother but with the bottle of magic water. They presented this to their father as their own achievement, basking in stolen glory. The king washed his eyes in the water, and his sight was restored completely as he blinked against the moisture in his eyes. The kingdom rejoiced their success, but also mourned the loss of the brave young prince, lost in what they thought had been a needless quest to save his brothers who had saved themselves. The king and queen mourned, but they never gave up hope that he would come back to them some day (his elder brothers had freed themselves in whatever bullshit way they had concocted in their lies about what had happened after all). They lovingly and tearfully packed away his things so that they would be ready for him when he returned. Each day, the queen would take the clothes out and shake them to make sure that the roaches and white ants would not ruin them.
As the youngest prince toiled away as a dirt-poor fisherman, a year and a day rolled slowly by. On the mountain peak in distant Giantland, the form of the huge, monstrous dragon shimmered, then warped into that of a beautiful young princess. The old woman, who had been waiting for this moment, embraced her with a huge smile and told her all about the sweet, handsome prince who had rescued her and promised to return for her today. As promised, she put his ring on the princess’ finger. Together, they sat on the mountain and chatted about what had happened while she had been ensorceled as they waited for the prince’s arrival. Unfortunately, he had absolutely no way of getting back to the mountain, so they waited in vain.
The sun set, painting the mountain in brilliant shades of color, but no prince arrived. “Something’s up, princess. I’m a good judge of character, and that prince was a good, honest young man. He wouldn’t have broken his word, so I can only assume that something evil has befallen him.” The princess considered the old woman’s words. “Hm. Well, if he can’t come to us, then we’ll just have to go find him and rescue him from whatever trouble he’s in. I owe him for saving me, after all.”
They set out the next morning for the prince’s home (either the old woman just knew a lot of useful shit, or she and the prince had discussed where he was from and the story just didn’t bother to mention it). I have no idea how they got down the river (maybe they bought a boat from the giants?), but they made the trip to the prince’s kingdom and went to see the king and queen.
The princess showed the king the prince’s ring, which his parents immediately recognized as belonging to their missing son. The old woman related everything she had seen on the mountain peak, including the two elder sons being captured, being freed by their youngest brother, and all heading out together. The king harbored some dark suspicions and summoned his two elder sons to the throne room. Confronted with witnesses and evidence, they broke down and confessed that their brother had in fact come and found them and, in jealousy, they had abandoned him in the jungle to die. Enraged at this horrifying behavior, the king had his sons thrown in prison and made it known throughout the kingdom that they were not heroes, but villains.
That done, the king and queen left a trusted advisor in charge and set out immediately on their fastest ship to go and search for their missing son. They knew that the missing prince was resourceful, and since he had been left alive, there was every chance he had found a way to survive. For the first time in nearly two years, they had hope.
Naturally, the princess and the old woman refused to be left behind, and the king and queen, grateful for their help, agreed to bring them along. She was his fiance, after all, and if they saved the prince because of her, she would have every right to whatever she wanted from the king and queen, including their son’s hand. They searched every city, town, village, and lonely hovel along the river’s bank and, at long last, they made their methodical way up to the isolated fisherman’s hut.
Many, many tears of joy were wept as the prince and his family was reunited in front of a very confused fisherman, who thought he’d just been helping out some poor vagabond, not distant royalty. They brought him aboard, and the queen insisted that he change immediately out of his rough, humble peasant clothes and into the suit of gold that she had always loved on him. He did so with good humor, even though it was now tight across the shoulders and too short for his lanky frame. He had grown quite a bit over the previous two years, and the hard life of a fisher had given him lean, strong muscles. Still, he looked a lot more like a prince in his golden suit as he was ushered aft to meet the princess who he had saved and who had saved him in return.
The young couple were very compatible, and quickly fell very much in love, becoming the delight of the kingdom. The two elder princes were left to rot in prison for their crimes, and the king made his youngest son his heir, declaring to the assembled masses of the kingdom “His princely deeds have prove to all the world that he will be a wise and honorable king, fit to reign over this land when I am gone.” And they all lived happily ever after until the end of their days (except for those two bastards who used to be princes, but fuck them, they deserve to die in miserable squalor).
This is such a cool little fairy tale. It starts out as your traditional rule of threes story, and proceeds exactly the way you think it’s going to, right up until the prince is suddenly and shockingly betrayed by his brothers, who were definitely spoiled assholes, but it’s the beginning of a turn for the whole story that also has the helpless princess saying ‘fuck this shit’ and heading off to save the prince when he gets into trouble. It’s unexpected, fun, and a nice switch after some of the drawn out nonsense of our last story. Everyone has the ending they deserve, which means it’s time for Gods and Monsters. This is a segment where I get into a little more detail about the personalities and history of one of the gods or monsters from this week’s pantheon that was not discussed in the main story. This week’s monster, which comes to us courtesy of GilbertoBorges00 on Instagram, is the mischievous Saci Perere.
If you’ve been listening for a while now, you know just how much I love trickster spirits, and Saci Perere is a doozy. He’s a prankster rather than being genuinely malicious, blamed for things like toys that go missing, animals that escape, salt that spills, milk that goes bad, flies that get into soup, even unpopped popcorn kernels. Basically, if there’s some petty annoyance in your life, blame Saci Perere.
Saci is a very unique character, blending European, African, and indigenous myths into something uniquely Brazilian, containing elements of Anansi, monopods, and Yaci Yatere. In most of the stories, at least in Brazil, Saci is either black or mixed-race, reflecting his blended heritage. He’s very easy to spot, given that he’s a child who smokes a pito (or pipe), wears a bright red hat, and has only one leg. Some tales say he lost the other in a capoeira fight (a Brazilian martial art). The pipe doesn’t really have an explanation beyond being something he inherited, but the red hat is magical, allowing him to disappear at will, usually turning into a dust devil. Depending on how mischievous he’s feeling, you may still be able to see the red glow of his pipe in the heart of the whirlwind after he vanishes. Or, if he’s feeling a little flighty, he can also turn himself into a striped cuckoo, a bird known for being incredibly elusive with a melancholy song that seems to come from everywhere and nowhere.
Saci isn’t all bad, though. No one know the forest like him, especially the herbs. He’s incredibly well-versed at making teas and medicines from the herbs, barks, and plants. Anyone who wants to enter the forest in search of such remedies should ask Saci for his blessing beforehand or risk becoming the victim of his pranks and antics.
Some versions of the story say there’s only one, and some say the forest is full of them, grown inside bamboo shoots for 7 years before being freed to cause mischief for 77 years, then dying and turning into poisonous mushrooms. If you end up with him following you around and making your life annoying in a thousand petty ways, there are a number of sure-fire ways to shake him. Running won’t do it because, despite having only one leg, Saci is surprisingly fast and nimble. The first is to drop a rope with countless knots tied in it, because Saci won’t be able to stop himself from picking up the rope and untying all of them, giving you time to lose him. The second is to cross running water, such as a stream or river. Saci won’t dare to cross it because, like many supernatural creatures, he can’t do so without losing his power. Third, you can try to appease him by leaving some cachaca (a popular liquor in Brazil) or pipe tobacco as a peace offering.
He’s fond of juggling small objects, sometimes even burning embers, and letting them fall through the holes in his hands he has in some stories. He also loves to dance, and legend says that every dust devil is the result of an invisible dancing Saci. He’s also been known to ride horses bareback, and the stories say he rides cross-legged (which is impressive with only one leg).
It’s a risky move, but legend says that it’s possible to steal Saci’s hat or even to capture Saci himself if you have the nerve. If you steal his hat, he will give you one wish to get it back (although some stories say you can make him serve you while you hold his hat). It’s dangerous though, because his hat has a powerful, foul odor, and it’s said that you’ll never be able to completely wash it off. If you want more than one wish, you’ll have to actually capture him. The first method is to find him in the form of a dust devil and pounce on him with a sieve. The second is to throw a rosary made from separately blessed prayer beads into the heart of the dust devil. Both will immobilize him, allowing you to coax him inside a dark glass bottle, which will need to be stoppered with a cork marked with a cross. While he’s inside the bottle, he will have to serve you, granting wishes, but it’s a dangerous game. If you successfully capture him, how you treat him is important. He’s a slippery, tricky fellow, and no trap can hold him forever, so he will eventually escape. If you’ve treated him well, he might become a powerful ally (like the genie from Aladdin). If not, he can become your worst enemy. And Saci, he’s a very, very dangerous enemy.
That’s it for this episode of Myths Your Teacher Hated. Keep up with new episodes on our Facebook page, on iTunes, on Stitcher, on TuneIn, and on Spotify, or you can follow us on Twitter as @HardcoreMyth and on Instagram as Myths Your Teacher Hated Pod. You can also find news and episodes on our website at myths your teacher hated dot com. If you like what you’ve heard, I’d appreciate a review on iTunes. These reviews really help increase the show’s standing and let more people know it exists. If you have any questions, any gods or monsters you’d want to learn about, or any ideas for future stories that you’d like to hear, feel free to drop me a line. I’m trying to pull as much material from as many different cultures as possible, but there are all sorts of stories I’ve never heard, so suggestions are appreciated. The theme music is by Tiny Cheese Puff, whom you can find on fiverr.com.
It’s official now, so I can finally announce that I’m coming back to Atlanta Comic Con this year! Come on out for the second installment of Mythology in Popular Culture on Saturday, July 13 at 12:30pm. The full schedule of events can be found on the Atlanta Comic Con website and app. If anything changes, I’ll make sure to notify everyone on social media. Come out and learn the fairy tale behind Disney’s Aladdin and find out if it’s a good thing or a bad thing that you’ve never had a friend like the Genie.
Next time, we’ll meet a terrible royal couple from old Hindustan. You’ll learn that you should never shoot blind, that the way to a woman’s heart is through her feet, and that spoiled princesses are the worst. Then, in Gods and Monsters, you’ll learn about the dangers of wild ape-men in the Middle East. That’s all for now. Thanks for listening.