Bethany Hughes: the wonder women of the ancient world

Discover the captivating stories of forgotten women from ancient history with historian Bettany Hughes and writer Charlotte Higgins. From revered mother goddesses to iconic figures like Medea, Aphrodite, and Cleopatra, delve into their intriguing lives that history nearly forgot. Join us on a journey to uncover the rich and powerful narratives of these remarkable women.
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Wonder Women Of The Ancient World | Southbank Centre
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#SouthbankCentre #History #BettanyHughes #CharlotteHiggins #Cleopatra #Aphrodite #AncientHistory #AncientWomenFigures

[@hhnt7568]

Bethany Hughes is a well respected historian and a clever lady, her narration is excellent and her teaching really makes it easy to absorb what is being said, keep up the great work and many thanks.

[@jgrab1]

...And she gets many things wrong. And romanticizes others. Sort of a modern-day Carl Sagan.

[@veraroquete4698]

@@jgrab1 Can you be more specific about what she gets wrong, if you please?

[@SabzeeS]

Both of these women are literal goddesses. Just brilliant in every sense of the word

[@laragwen102]

Bettany is amazing. So erudite and engaging. I love listening to her.

[@HistoryLover1550]

Bettany Hughes is one of my favorite scholars on the Ancient World and the history and roles of women in it. All of them from the mythic to the real were trail blazers whose stories inspired and impacted the human imagination, society, religion and psychology to this day.

[@itsthefatalinawinemixer]

I seriously adore Bettany Hughes! I would love to pick her brain! Wonderful job, ladies!

[@thecreativecontessa]

The Divine Women series mentioned here seems to have sadly been blocked by BBC World. Does anyone know of a place where one can view it?

[@laurenquigley6599]

All three episodes are on dailymotion.com

[@brianunderwood4072]

One of the more entertaining and informative lectures I have encountered in some time!

[@bethbartlett5692]

I could listen to this lady and/or Laurence Llewellyn Bowen speak on their respective topics - all day. The most pleasant of European Accents -

[@MarthaRodriguez-ng9qf]

Bettany am your fan.. keep doing what you do.

[@anniesue4456]

BBC can kick rocks I want to hear women's history from women!!!

[@diannedemarco8783]

This was fabulous, thank you 🌺

[@Morgana0x]

Very interesting video. I love Bettany Hughes.

[@kassandraayalasongs]

I looove listening to Bettany

[@simplytruth9729]

I just discovered Ms. Hughes and her videos. Fantastic ---I am now retired in California and I could have been a more interesting teacher if I had watched her videos and lectures. Thanks for sharing.

[@voraciousreader3341]

Why would it take watching the enthusiasm of a total stranger to make you a better teacher?? Did you not feel enthusiasm for your profession, generated by your own love of learning and curiosity?? If you lacked those energy sources, why choose teaching, which is one of the most important professions there is??

[@simplytruth9729]

@@voraciousreader3341 I always like the way someone assumes they understand or knows a complete stranger from a short innocuous post. I said nothing about my enthusiasm. I find her presentation to be refreshing and enlightening. Now-if I would leap to create a profile from your short post, I would make a guess that you are a very judgemental person with a dash of salt added who perhaps needs not to be such a "voracious reader" and instead work on being a bit kinder.

[@karenhayley6874]

This is amazing on so many levels! 💪Thank you for sharing.

[@lulup1029]

Great lecture. Bethany is like no other historian!

[@jonhohensee3258]

Who the heck is "Bethany"???

[@Zeuxis5511]

Bethany Hughes is adorable she has a divine Hellenic beautry, and an extra ordinary knowledge and intellect of a scolar. I love her way of thinking and I follow all her works. Charlotte Higgins is also very special. I heard her for first time.

[@debrastephens495]

Keeping on doing what you do so great you make history interesting

[@hazradrury5164]

Bettany Hughes is a national treasure.

[@Zeuxis5511]

I rather would say an ecumenical treasure

[@ezragonzalez8936]

wonderful Historian love her voice and her posh accent kinda a Liz hurley with brains!

[@MariahnFulminate]

Charlotte talks about how Helen is making a tapestry of the events...I know this is a huge stretch, but I wonder if the distant memory of this act inspired someone to commission the Bayoux Tapestry millennia later. I am not sure if there is any good evidence about who commissioned this work, but wouldn't it be interesting if the people of the 11th century wanted to make the connection to the ancient world?

[@anniesue4456]

I love the classics please consider captioning so we can find the spelling of the people you speak of

[@PedroCarvalhoLC43]

What an amazing insight of women are harbingers of both live and death ✨✨

[@jonhohensee3258]

live???

[@anniesue4456]

I found Sapho but I would like to find the 1st lady how do you spell

[@r.h.5500]

this is great, thank you!

[@WillieMills]

I wonder if Charlotte Higgins's necklace is based on an ancient design?

[@marcusfridh8489]

the necklesspentant of Beth has to be an ancient design too

[@rharvey2124]

Charlotte's necklace looks like one discovered on the first dig, in Troy.

[@johnries5593]

What is the probability that Cleopatra considered herself married to Caesar? Polygyny was an accepted practice in her culture, so she likely would not have taken the fact that he was already married as an obstacle. She did marry Antony.

[@voraciousreader3341]

What do we really know about Cleopatra’s mind and world, or even what she knew of the social practices of Rome?? Male rulers through the ages never felt the need to honor their wives by being faithful to them, so why would Cleopatra have cared about any other ruler’s marital status?? I think the whole question is a non-issue.

[@queenisforever1]

bettany is the real wonder woman

[@miriammaldonado7296]

Truly love all her documentarie, she makes me wonder and quetion many things. Which it's a good thing. Also love the analogy of women holding light and darkness... Quite interesting!! ;) ... I must add all women have a bit of three animals. or at least I do!

[@earthmoviesuk]

Bethany is our modern Hypatia of history ❤️❤️

[@jonhohensee3258]

Who the heck is "Bethany"???

[@papertoyss]

You mentioned Xanthippi: Socrates replied to Alcibiades who said that Xanthippe is insufferable *when she curses,* that "I am used to it as if I were constantly hearing pulleys. Do you put up with the noise the geese make?' "Yes, but they lay eggs and baby birds for me" Alcibiades replied, and Socrates said "And Xanthippi is giving birth to my children." Socrates ends this suggesting that living with a difficult partner "Im learning how to behave to people." You mentioned Pericles, but you never mentioned Aspasia, who became the mistress of this eminent politician in the early 440s BC *(we're talking 5th BC now)* after his ...divorce(!) from his first wife. In social circles Aspasia was known for her skill in speech and advice, *rather than simply* her physical beauty. According to Plutarch, her house became a center of culture in the city of Athens, attracting famous writers and thinkers, Socrates among them. Plutarch reports that despite her "immoral" life, the Athenians *brought their wives* along to hear her talk. *I bet* Aspasia wasnt the only case.. So, the ancient Athenians and the Greeks might were conservative, but it seems they knew how to appreciate a woman.

[@johnries5593]

The Illiad and Odyssey may well have been written by one man (assuredly not blind). If so, then call him "Homer", no matter what he was called in life.

[@Zeuxis5511]

Homer was not blind

[@kiethwilson2731]

Bethany a true amazonian

[@jonhohensee3258]

Who the heck is "Bethany"???

[@NotMyGumDropButtons.444]

19:53 white armed Hera

[@davidhunt8685]

Based on my experience, women are not a bad thing :-)

[@anniesue4456]

💋 😘

[@voraciousreader3341]

Your comment can be interpreted in many ways….is it because women have provided you with sex and creature comforts, or because they were intelligent, confident, and self sufficient? How much did you give them in return? As a psychologist, I have definitely noticed that men tend to operate around what they get from their female partners, while women tend to continually give in hopes that their men will get the hint give in return. Women who point out the inequity are typically not very popular.

[@lalayastill610]

so in short, i'm a pig-fox?

[@mpress469]

Spiritually speaking (gender aside), matriarchal wisdom can begin with a fundamental understanding of the cyclical nature of reality (God). Represented by the snake in many creation myths, the living cycle has a trinity of a beginning (head), a middle and end (tail). As above so below, the sexes were created in the image of God's cyclical nature where Mother is the head and opening to all beginnings and Father holds the tail to all endings (through which the sowing of seeds allow for the next great matriarchal rebirth).The joining of the two (symbolized by the Ouroborus or the marriage ring) is the sacred union needed in assuring the creation and continuation of new life cycles. To speak of the present day God as "Our Father" is simply an admission to our collective positioning within the bigger cycle. As all mothers have direct experience with the creator quality of birthing, so is the direct experience of rebirthing the divinity within (baptism) belong to that which is spiritually matriarchal. (John 3, verse 3-8). Sekhmet statues (ancient Egyptian) carry most of their weight in symbolic memory of what was a mother culture dedicated to the direct experience of baptism. As the leg shaped hairlocks extend from maternal breasts to the womb of rebirth, the lioness's head proportions are such that they highlight the bust of a second animal figure. The Lioness's ears as eyes and eyes as nose (nostrils) brings to life the figure of a reptile. 'Neath the halo headress of the solar egg, the lioness's egg fertilization process being internal (Set) and the reptile's egg fertilization process being external (Setting), such being key components to the safety of entering the trans-egoic or "born again" state. The life threatening fear associated with the predatory nature of a lion and/or crocodile encounter are reflective of the intense ego death experience associated with the transpersonal awakening process. In spiritually matriarchal times, illumination could be seen as wearing the false beard (ancient Egyptian funerary "ego" death mask) as the high state of cyclical self knowing; high awareness of both our upper matriarchal half and our lower (later) patriarchal half (compared with a mini lower body replica, an "as above so below" tail end beard extension); in full recognition of her civilizational Underworld, her inevitable cyclical destiny. The male pharaoh wears his beard tapered in reverse, indicating a pointing upwards towards the patriarchal head, divine representative of God's tail end cycle. To carry the Ankh was perhaps to symbolically carry that upper and lower understanding. As the upper matriarchal womb symbolised the fertile birthing of civilization, below, the now Christian cross is carried to place emphasis on the lower (later) "End Times" Father principle of the great cycle. Ganesha, the elephant headed Hindu diety, displays a cyclical head to trunk symbolism and points to the Mother head of his matriarchal elephant society. A whole temple was dedicated to the ancient Egyptian goddess Hathor, who is the matriarchal "Uterus" personified. kzbin.info/www/bejne/gGHQYa2AiKp5gZI In the name of the Father, the Son and the holy ghosted... ? ... inevitability.

[@amritbaba4904]

Idk who the second women is but she isn't that articulate

[@rharvey2124]

I think it is her accent that is doing it.

[@anonemoose9130]

MOMMY MILKIES NICE AND SILKY

[@cweefy]

she looks a lot like Paul McCartney

[@katherinecollins1526]

You think so? I can't see it . . . but she's sure a looker!

[@dahough115]

I always thought women were seldom dominant in political and/or educational works because they were the ones giving birth and taking care of the family's welfare. And that job was often 24/7 overwhelming...? And at the same time satisfying as a major contribution to the community... Although the Muslim world made sure the women would not succeed by not teaching them to read & write.

[@voraciousreader3341]

Forcing the illiteracy of women was once common in Christian societies, as well. Even Mary Beard, the wonderful grande dame of antiquity who is a Professor in the Classics Department at Cambridge University, had to forego her own research and writing of books until she was in her 40s, after she had children. It’s still _completely_ a man’s world, and women who succeed in anything do it despite the prejudice against them, and I feel I must point out that young female historians who are chosen to present documentaries start out as very beautiful young women. Bethany Hughes is one example of that practice, while Mary Beard succeeded without being young, and although I think she’s beautiful, she frequently gets very rude comments from men about her age and appearance. That the young women also (mostly) happen to be brilliant goes without saying, but if they aren’t attractive, they don’t get the same opportunities. Sickening, really.

[@Smiles2U4Ever]

British fashion is oddly scattered and drab.

[@TheGreeman]

really ?