2min chapter

Greeking Out from National Geographic Kids cover image

S7E8 - Roman Around with Romulus and Remus

Greeking Out from National Geographic Kids

CHAPTER

The Birth of Romulus and Remus

In Roman mythology, twins Romulus and Remus were exposed to the gods as infants. Amuleus didn't want these boys hanging around to challenge him for their throne but he couldn't just kill them. He instructed a servant to take the babies out to the woods and leave them there to die. This happens a lot in mythology, and is the origin story of more than one hero.

00:00
Speaker 2
Vesta was the Roman goddess of the hearth in Roman religion, six priestesses representing the daughters of the royal house, served in the temple, intended a sacred fire that was not allowed to go out. In Greek mythology, she is known as Hestia.
Speaker 1
To make things more complicated, Raya Silvia gave birth to twins. Two boys, she named Romulus and Remus. Now Amuleus didn't want these boys hanging around to challenge him for their throne, but he couldn't just kill them. He didn't want to risk angering Mars, so he instructed a servant to take the babies out to the woods and just leave them there to die. That way he didn't actually kill the babies, but he knew they weren't going to survive. This happens a lot in mythology, and
Speaker 2
is the origin story of more than one hero. While we've covered, who were exposed as infants include Paris, Prince of Troy, Adalanta the warrior, and Gilgamesh. Yeah,
Speaker 1
I mean, on the one hand, I'm glad people were not okay with just killing babies. On the other hand, is leaving them alone in the woods really any better? I mean, you know. Anyway, this is where we meet a small but important hero in this story. I don't do anything epic per se, but this hero makes a small decision that turns out to be a huge difference in the story. Now we don't know much about this particular servant. We don't know who they were or why they did what they did, but for whatever reason, this servant could not just leave these babies alone in a field. Instead, they placed baby Romulus and baby Remus together in a basket and floated it down the river Tiber, hoping for the best. From there, the gods took over. The river guide Tibernus calmed the river and guided the basket to safety in a nearby swamp. The babies came to rest in the roots of a fig tree at the base of the Palatine Hill. And they were not happy. They were wet and they were cold and they were hungry, so they did what babies do. In times like
Speaker 2
those, they cried loudly.

Get the Snipd
podcast app

Unlock the knowledge in podcasts with the podcast player of the future.
App store bannerPlay store banner

AI-powered
podcast player

Listen to all your favourite podcasts with AI-powered features

AI-powered
podcast player

Listen to all your favourite podcasts with AI-powered features

Discover
highlights

Listen to the best highlights from the podcasts you love and dive into the full episode

Discover
highlights

Listen to the best highlights from the podcasts you love and dive into the full episode

Save any
moment

Hear something you like? Tap your headphones to save it with AI-generated key takeaways

Save any
moment

Hear something you like? Tap your headphones to save it with AI-generated key takeaways

Share
& Export

Send highlights to Twitter, WhatsApp or export them to Notion, Readwise & more

Share
& Export

Send highlights to Twitter, WhatsApp or export them to Notion, Readwise & more

AI-powered
podcast player

Listen to all your favourite podcasts with AI-powered features

AI-powered
podcast player

Listen to all your favourite podcasts with AI-powered features

Discover
highlights

Listen to the best highlights from the podcasts you love and dive into the full episode

Discover
highlights

Listen to the best highlights from the podcasts you love and dive into the full episode