Find Mennesket i marmor wherever you listen to podcasts, and bring the fascinating stories of antiquity with you on the go.
The Glyptotek's podcast about antiquity. New episodes every week.
The podcast is in Danish.
The museum’s ancient sculptures may look peaceful as they stand there, frozen in the same poses they have held for thousands of years.
But don’t be fooled; behind their calm exteriors lies a wealth of wild myths and equally wild stories.
In this podcast, historian Sander Funch and the Glyptotek’s Interpretation Manager, Kathrine Andersen, take you on an exciting and surprising journey beneath the sculptures’ still surfaces.
For what does an ancient sculpture really reveal about the person who created it – and about the person it portrays?
Each episode of Mennesket i marmor (The Human in Marble) takes its starting point in one of the Glyptotek’s ancient sculptures. Each one points toward a world that is both the origin of our own culture and at the same time radically foreign.
The podcast does not shy away from the aspects of antiquity that may feel disturbing today.
In the ancient world, people could be property. Violence and sexual exploitation were fundamental conditions of society. The gods were not moral role models but capricious, powerful figures driven by desire, jealousy and revenge.
It was a world where the strong had the right to kill the weak, and where rape and slavery were not exceptions but part of everyday life.
Mennesket i marmor moves through some of antiquity’s most extreme and unsettling stories: Hercules, who in divine madness murders his own family. Emperors like Nero, who castrate their lovers. Warlords like Caesar, who proudly report selling tens of thousands of people as slaves in a single day.
These things may sound shocking, but what is truly shocking is how central they were. Violence and ownership over other human beings are not on the periphery of antiquity. In many ways, they are its driving force.
At the same time, this is the very world that produced some of the most sublime creations humanity has ever made: sculpture, architecture, philosophy, drama and mythology that continue to shape our ideas of what it means to be human.
This is the world the ancient sculptures come from. And it is the world Mennesket i marmor delves deeply into, in order to create a greater understanding of what they truly represent.
The podcast is in Danish.
Please note: Because Mennesket i marmor explores several violent stories, the podcast is not suitable for children.
In this first episode about Nero, we follow the ancient author Suetonius’ scandalous and blood‑soaked portrait of the Roman emperor – a tale filled with incest, court intrigue, murder and theatrical madness. Here we encounter the Nero that history has never been able to let go of: the tyrant, the artist and the self‑destructor who ultimately comes to see his own life as the final great drama.
The episode offers an uncritical, source‑close retelling of the myth of Nero as it has been handed down to us – complete with all its sensation, horror and high political tragedy.
How much of the story about Nero is actually true? And how much is political propaganda written by his enemies after his death?
In this episode, we return to Suetonius’ account and take it apart. We examine which elements of the Nero myth may have a historical basis, and which should instead be understood as part of the new Flavian imperial family’s need to portray the former ruler as a monster.
The episode explores power, historiography, and the ways in which a person’s legacy can be shaped by those who write the history. Nero is not necessarily acquitted – but he becomes more complex.
Hercules is the most famous hero of the ancient world. But behind the iconic muscles and heroic feats lies a far darker story.
In this episode, we recount the entire Hercules myth as it is preserved in Pseudo‑Apollodorus: from his divine birth and the catastrophic family tragedy to the twelve impossible labours, the encounters with monsters and gods, and the violent death that ultimately leads to his elevation to godhood.
It is the story of a man who is both protector and destroyer, hero and disaster – and of how violence, suffering and greatness are inseparably intertwined in the ancient idea of heroism.
What does it actually mean to be a hero in antiquity? And why does Hercules continue to live on as a role model without difficulty, even after murder, rage, and destruction?
In this second episode about Hercules, we move away from the myth itself and take a closer look at the religious and cultural worldview from which it emerged. Here, we explore how the Greek understanding of heroes and gods differs significantly from modern ideas of the righteous, morally unimpeachable hero.
In antiquity, religion functioned largely as a description of the world, not as a moral guideline. Heroes like Hercules were not admired despite their violence and transgressions, but with them. The myths therefore contain a view of humanity that embraces strength, rage, desire, and guilt — without necessarily passing judgment.
What force is bubbling beneath the skin of the human animal? In this episode, we move closer to the answer as we let ourselves be swept away by Dionysos – the god of wine, the god of theatre, and the god of ecstasy.
Listen to the Greeks’ vivid myths about how Dionysos, as a child, is torn from his burning mother’s womb and sewn into his father’s thigh. About how he invents wine and grants this divine gift to humanity. And about the annual Dionysos festival in Athens, where people drink heavily, carry giant phalluses, and hold competitions in tragedy.
Finally, we turn to one of these plays – a story about what happens when someone tries to resist Dionysos and the ecstatic force he embodies.
Sander Funch holds an MA in History and is a specialist in ancient culture. At the Glyptotek, he has for years brought the ancient world to life for the public, and his combination of sharp attention to detail, dark humour and flair for drama has made him one of the museum’s most distinctive storytellers. In Mennesket i marmor, Sander unfolds the stories of antiquity in conversation with his co‑host, Kathrine Andersen, Interpretation Manager at the Glyptotek.
