Mennesket i marmor

The Glyptotek's podcast about antiquity. New episodes every week.

In the Glyptotek’s new podcast 'Mennesket i marmor', listeners are taken deep into the visual world and mythological universe of antiquity

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.

Episode 1: Nero (1): The Emperor who Burned Rome

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.

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Episode 2: Nero (2): The Truth Behind the Myth

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.

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Episode 3: Hercules: Twelve Impossible Labours

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.

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Episode 4: Hercules – The Hero Without Morals

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.

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Episode 5: Dionysos – the God of Wine

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.

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Episode 6: The Ancient Olympic Games

In this week's episode, we will delve into the Olympic Games of antiquity and the religious festival of which the competitions formed a central part. The sweltering Grecian summerheat, housed the competitors in tents, where they drank heavily, were sprinkled with the blood of sacrificial pigs, and offered vast numbers of oxen in honor of Olympian Zeus. At the same time, the Games were a fierce contest among the war‑minded Greek city‑states, each striving to present the largest and strongest athletes. Many of the disciplines, we know and associate today with athleticism, have their origins here: wrestling, javelin throwing, sprint, boxing and many more.

In this episode, we follow the Olympic games day by day, tracing the chronology of events of the festival, from the opening rituals to the decisive competitions.

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Episode 7: Training and the body in Antiquity

How does one create an antheltic body, in a world without fitness gyms, protein powder and the science of sport?In this episode, we take a closer look at how the Greeks trained the body. We will pick up from, where last week's episode about the ancient Olympian games left off, and dive into the physical training that underpinned the athletes’ Olympic performances. We take a closer look at the Greeks training methods. Did they lift weights? Did they train endurance? Interval training? And what did an athlete’s diet consist of? At the same time, we meet the superstars of the ancient world: athletes like Milo of Croton and Cleomedes of Astypalaia, men whose astonishing physical powers set them apart from ordinary mortals. Whose lives and deaths quickly became the stuff of myth and tragedy.

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Episode 8: Artemis and Ifigenia – human sacrifice in Aulis

The princess lays on the altar. Everything is ready. Agamemnon turns the knife in his hand. To kill his daughter is unthinkable, but the alternative is to not have Artemis' favor. Without a sacrifice the Greeks will not reach Troy. The King of Mycenae takes a deep breath. Just as his arm tenses and the knife begins to move, his hand is stopped from above. In an instant, the girl is swept away from the altar, and a hind is brought in to take her place. In this episode, we begin with one of the Glyptotek’s most beautiful sculptures and the myth of the sacrifice at Aulis before the war against Troy. We talk about the mythos surrounding the family of Agamemnon, about the demands the gods make of humans and about Euripides' tragedy, where the story takes its most well-known shape.

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Episode 9: The Modest Venus - antiquity’s most erotic figure?

In this episode, we dive into one of antiquity's most famous type of sculpture: Venus pudica. The slightly forward‑leaning goddess, attempting to cover her nudity, came to shape centuries of ideas about female beauty.

We talk about the story behind the sculpture and its Greek origin, the Knidian Aphrodite, which in mid-4th century BCE became the first monumental depiction of a nude female body in Greek art. How was it that the sculptor Praxiteles, could depict a goddess without clothes – and how did viewers of the time react?

We invesitgate this in part through an ancient text, attributed by Pseudo-Lucian, where a group of young men encounter the statue for the first time, and where the fascination of the goddess takes an unexpected turn.

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“A statue of a woman without clothes, without arms, and with her head missing, leaning slightly forward. The statue has a dark turquoise background.

Episode 10: Persephone and death

Did the ancient Greeks believe in a life after death? Scholars have grappled with this question for a long time, and no single answer has emerged. In this episode Sander and Kathrine approach the theme throughout the myth of Persephone, who gets seized away by Hades to the realm of the dead and is forced to live between two worlds.

Taking the Homeric Hymn to Demeter as their starting point, Sander and Kathrine tell the story, about the goddess' disappearance, the mothers grief and the arrangement that divides the uear between summer and winter. At the same time, they explore the Eleusinian Mysteries - the renowned religious cult that offered its initiates unique insight into death and what might lie beyond.

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“A statue of a woman, without arms, and with her head missing, standing straight. The statue has a blue background.

Episode 11: Election Special – Athenian Democracy

Kathrine and Sander celebrate election day with an episode about Athenian democracy. How did a state function where thousands of citizens gathered in the assembly and made decisions by a show of hands? Why were elections, in many cases, seen as a less democratic method than drawing lots? And can we say that our modern democracy originates in Athens?

The episode begins with a statue of Demosthenes, the great Athenian orator who warned against the growing power of the Macedonians in the north.

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Demosthenes in Gallery 10 at the Glyptotek

Episode 1 (season 2): Hesiod and the Birth of the Gods

At the summit of Olympus sits Zeus, with his wild beard and thunderbolt.

But it was not always so. Before Zeus existed, there was Chaos – and from Chaos, the Earth, Gaia, was born. She gave birth to the sky, Uranus, and made him her lover, until their son Cronus castrated his father with a sickle and seized power.

Cronus then began devouring his own children. One of these children was Zeus, who escaped and went to war against his father. In the end, Zeus claimed the throne of heaven and became ruler of all.

This is how Hesiod recounts the origins of the gods in Theogony. Kathrine and Sander retell Hesiod’s genealogical poem and, like Zeus himself, assign realms and responsibilities to the gods in one of antiquity’s earliest great catalogue poems.

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Zeus/Jupiter in the Central Hall at the Glyptotek

Episode 2 (Season 2) – The Odyssey 1: Who was Homer and Odysseus?

Film director Christopher Nolan has turned his attention to Homer’s Odyssey in an upcoming blockbuster, meaning that all eyes will soon be on Ithaca and the cunning hero Odysseus – the man who, after ten years of war against Troy, must find his way home to his wife, Penelope.

This episode of Mennesket i marmor is the first part of a trilogy in which Kathrine and Sander from the Glyptotek delve into the epic ahead of the film’s cinema release. In the final episode, they will give their verdict on the film.

Philologist Stefan Bang joins them in the studio to help explain what the Odyssey may have sounded like when it was recited by the rhapsodes of the ancient world.

When was it first written down? When did the events take place? And did the so-called Homer actually exist?

The film The Odyssey premieres on 16 July 2026.

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Homer portræt på Glyptoteket — Bust in exhibition hall 12: Idealised Portrait of Homer

About the hosts

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.

Sander Funch and Kathrine Andersen are behind the podcast Mennesket i marmor.

Find Mennesket i marmor wherever you listen to podcasts, and bring the fascinating stories of antiquity with you on the go.

Listen to the podcast (in Danish)

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Mennesket i marmor

In the Glyptotek’s new podcast 'Mennesket i marmor', listeners are taken deep into the visual world and mythological universe of antiquity

Episode 1: Nero (1): The Emperor who Burned Rome

Portrait of Nero as a Child

Episode 2: Nero (2): The Truth Behind the Myth

Portrait of Nero

Episode 3: Hercules: Twelve Impossible Labours

Portrait of Hercules

Episode 4: Hercules – The Hero Without Morals

Portrait of Hercules

Episode 5: Dionysos – the God of Wine

Young Dionysos

Old Dionysos

Episode 6: The Ancient Olympic Games

Episode 7: Training and the body in Antiquity

Episode 8: Artemis and Ifigenia – human sacrifice in Aulis

Episode 9: The Modest Venus - antiquity’s most erotic figure?

Episode 10: Persephone and death

Episode 11: Election Special – Athenian Democracy

Demosthenes in Gallery 10 at the Glyptotek

Episode 1 (season 2): Hesiod and the Birth of the Gods

Episode 2 (Season 2) – The Odyssey 1: Who was Homer and Odysseus?

Bust in exhibition hall 12: Idealised Portrait of Homer

About the hosts

Sander Funch and Kathrine Andersen are behind the podcast Mennesket i marmor.

The Glyptotek’s Collection of Ancient and Roman Sculpture

Mennesket i marmor

In the Glyptotek’s new podcast 'Mennesket i marmor', listeners are taken deep into the visual world and mythological universe of antiquity

Portrait of Nero as a Child

Portrait of Nero

Portrait of Hercules

Portrait of Hercules

Young Dionysos

Old Dionysos

Demosthenes in Gallery 10 at the Glyptotek

Bust in exhibition hall 12: Idealised Portrait of Homer

Sander Funch and Kathrine Andersen are behind the podcast Mennesket i marmor.

The Glyptotek’s Collection of Ancient and Roman Sculpture