Live from Mount Olympus
Onassis FoundationA dramatic adventure for tweens and listeners of all ages, Live from Mount Olympus weaves timeless Greek myths with the artistry of foremost contemporary theater-makers and the imaginative power of audio. Hermes, god of storytellers, travelers, and thieves (Tony Award-winner André De Shields) is our host.
Season Six: Theseus and Ariadne: When King Minos of Crete demands fourteen young Athenians to feed to the monstrous Minotaur, Prince Theseus and a lively group of teenagers set sail. In Knossos, Minos expects his daughter Princess Ariadne to watch quietly as the Athenian tributes meet their gruesome deaths. But Eros, mischievous god of love, takes aim with his arrows, intertwining the fate of Theseus and Ariadne. Can our young heroes somehow change the destinies of everyone around them?
Season Five: Pandora: Zeus, king of the gods, commands Hephaestus to sculpt a beautiful woman out of clay, and orders each god to grant her a gift. Aphrodite bathes her in grace, Athena bestows wisdom, Zeus himself imbues her with insatiable curiosity, and Hermes gives her language and her name: Pandora, "all the gifts." While you may think you know Pandora's story, you’ve never heard it told this way before.
Season Four: Prometheus: You’d think being able to see the future would be a gift – but Prometheus’s visions are never completely clear, and he quickly learns that not everyone wants to see what lies ahead. When he glimpses a coming war that will threaten the whole world, Prometheus knows he must forge an unlikely alliance with the young Olympian Zeus. But their friendship is tested when they find they have very different ideas about how to restore a shattered world.
Season Three: Atalanta: A tiny newborn, abandoned in the forest, is adopted by a mama bear who raises her as her own. Under the divine guidance of Artemis and Athena, the bear girl grows up wise and strong, a skilled archer ready for adventure. When she meets the greatest heroes in all Greece - who are none too happy to hunt alongside a girl - Atalanta surprises them all.
Season Two: Demeter and Persephone: Persephone is eager to strike out on her own for the first time, but is immediately pulled into the underworld and must find her power in the darkness. Her mother Demeter fights to bring her back to the sunlight, and nothing can grow. Can the Olympians stop fighting before humanity starves?
Season One: Perseus: Young Perseus makes a rash promise to save his mother from the clutches of an evil king, and must strike out on a dangerous quest full of terrifying monsters, powerful gods, and a brave girl who will change our hero’s life forever.
Live from Mount Olympus is a production of the Onassis Foundation. This bold and original audio drama is created and produced by Peabody Award-winning showrunner Julie Burstein, co-produced by the Brooklyn-based theater ensemble The TEAM, and directed by Tony Award-winner Rachel Chavkin, Zhailon Levingston, and Keenan Tyler Oliphant. Karen Brooks Hopkins is the executive producer.
Live from Mount Olympus is distributed by PRX.
Find out more at Onassis.link/Olympus
Since 1975, the Onassis Foundation has been dedicated to culture, community, and education, with projects that can effectively inspire social change and justice across borders. Learn more at www.onassis.org.
A dramatic adventure for tweens and listeners of all ages, Live from Mount Olympus weaves timeless Greek myths with the artistry of foremost contemporary theater-makers and the imaginative power of audio. Hermes, god of storytellers, travelers, and thieves (Tony Award-winner André De Shields) is our host.
Season Six: Theseus and Ariadne: When King Minos of Crete demands fourteen young Athenians to feed to the monstrous Minotaur, Prince Theseus and a lively group of teenagers set sail. In Knossos, Minos expects his daughter Princess Ariadne to watch quietly as the Athenian tributes meet their gruesome deaths. But Eros, mischievous god of love, takes aim with his arrows, intertwining the fate of Theseus and Ariadne. Can our young heroes somehow change the destinies of everyone around them?
Season Five: Pandora: Zeus, king of the gods, commands Hephaestus to sculpt a beautiful woman out of clay, and orders each god to grant her a gift. Aphrodite bathes her in grace, Athena bestows wisdom, Zeus himself imbues her with insatiable curiosity, and Hermes gives her language and her name: Pandora, "all the gifts." While you may think you know Pandora's story, you’ve never heard it told this way before.
Season Four: Prometheus: You’d think being able to see the future would be a gift – but Prometheus’s visions are never completely clear, and he quickly learns that not everyone wants to see what lies ahead. When he glimpses a coming war that will threaten the whole world, Prometheus knows he must forge an unlikely alliance with the young Olympian Zeus. But their friendship is tested when they find they have very different ideas about how to restore a shattered world.
Season Three: Atalanta: A tiny newborn, abandoned in the forest, is adopted by a mama bear who raises her as her own. Under the divine guidance of Artemis and Athena, the bear girl grows up wise and strong, a skilled archer ready for adventure. When she meets the greatest heroes in all Greece - who are none too happy to hunt alongside a girl - Atalanta surprises them all.
Season Two: Demeter and Persephone: Persephone is eager to strike out on her own for the first time, but is immediately pulled into the underworld and must find her power in the darkness. Her mother Demeter fights to bring her back to the sunlight, and nothing can grow. Can the Olympians stop fighting before humanity starves?
Season One: Perseus: Young Perseus makes a rash promise to save his mother from the clutches of an evil king, and must strike out on a dangerous quest full of terrifying monsters, powerful gods, and a brave girl who will change our hero’s life forever.
Live from Mount Olympus is a production of the Onassis Foundation. This bold and original audio drama is created and produced by Peabody Award-winning showrunner Julie Burstein, co-produced by the Brooklyn-based theater ensemble The TEAM, and directed by Tony Award-winner Rachel Chavkin, Zhailon Levingston, and Keenan Tyler Oliphant. Karen Brooks Hopkins is the executive producer.
Live from Mount Olympus is distributed by PRX.
Find out more at Onassis.link/Olympus
Since 1975, the Onassis Foundation has been dedicated to culture, community, and education, with projects that can effectively inspire social change and justice across borders. Learn more at www.onassis.org.
Mythlet: "I Bestow Upon Thee My Adamantine Sword"
Remember the moment in Episode 2 when Hermes gives Perseus that cool sword? In our first Live from Mount Olympus Mythlet, find out what makes the sword so special – and why it has that wicked curve to it. Dr. Kate Birney, who is an expert on ancient weapons and teaches archaeology at Wesleyan University, is our guide to the mythical roots of this powerful weapon.
Live from Mount Olympus is a production of the Onassis Foundation, and co-produced by The TEAM. The podcast is directed by Tony Award-winner Rachel Chavkin (Hadestown) and Zhailon Levingston (Tina: The Tina Turner Musical) and created by Peabody Award-winning producer Julie Burstein. Karen Brooks Hopkins is the executive producer.
Live from Mount Olympus is presented by TRAX from PRX with support from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Find out more at Onassis.link/Olympus
Our actors include Vinie Burrows, Jill Frutkin, Divine Garland, Amber Gray, Adrienne Hopkins, Natalie Hopkins, Modesto "Flako" Jimenez, Libby King, Ian Lassiter, Zhailon Levingston, Christina Liberus, Nehemiah Luckett, Jake Margolin, James Harrison Monaco, Kristen Sieh, Jillian Walker, Baby Perseus is played by Calvin Samuel Blanch and Whit Vega Margolin-Vaughan, and André De Shields is Hermes.
Our production team includes: sound designer David Schulman; production assistant Tessa Zitter; writer Nathan Yungerberg; music composed and performed by Magda Giannikou with Luca Bordonaro; and illustrations by Jason Adam Katzenstein.
Our guest today, Dr. Kate Birney, is Chair of the Archaeology Department at Wesleyan University. Our mythlets are produced by Tessa Zitter and Julie Burstein and mastered by John Melillo.