A Note from Tate A. Geborkoff, Author of Psychopompos - a new mythology:

The soul of Psychopompos has lived in me for a long time. The seed for it surely was planted in childhood, when my mom read Favorite Greek Myths by Mary Pope Osborne. The stories ignited my imagination like nothing had before. And Greek mythology has run alongside me ever since—present in the games I play, the books I read, the stories I want to tell. You can seemingly connect a Greek myth or story or history to any situation. They are such a full and rich story cycle.

In 2009, while I was in the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, I saw a dance film called Minotaur by Daria Martin, and while I watched it, the story of Psychopompos came fully formed to me like a prophecy from an oracle. From that moment, the story grew and evolved from a single play to a series of plays to a marathon play and now into a podcast. 

Myths are often thought to exist primarily to explain the world around us—why there are spiders, seasons, laurel trees—but mythology is so much more than that. Mythology is existentialism. Myths offer us the space to examine ourselves, to figure out who we are. Mythology gives meaning to the world, as we experience it, and that’s all we can do: make sense of ourselves in a world we have very little power over. Through mythology we can be transformed alongside the characters to become closer to who we wish to be.

One of the great joys of Greek myth is its queerness. And its queerness has survived religion, historians, archaeologists and so many others who knew what they saw and tried to erase it. But queerness cannot be erased. It will always blossom. It will always flourish. Psychopompos is my love letter not to Greek mythology, but to its explicit queerness. There is no denying it, and this podcast is its well-tended garden. It is my great hope that Psychopompos  brings more queer people to Greek mythology, and queer stories to everyone else.

If you’re familiar with Greek mythology, you’ll know a lot of these stories and characters, but you’ll also notice, pretty much immediately, that this is a new mythology, not a simple retelling. But regardless of your experience with these myths, these gods, these people— I hope Psychopompos serves as a trail off the beaten path. While these stories are ostensibly about gods, what I love is how they actually reveal what it means to be human.

And that is what I’ve come to after all these years with it. How does mythology  make you feel? The Greek Gods are messy and human, because we are. And humans are divine. Our emotions are our divinity. And the more open we are to ourselves and to each other, the more we can connect to the stories around us.

Psychopompos has long searched for its home, and we’re almost there. The more time I spend with this piece, the more I discover its richness, complexity and confidence. And the more I understand that mythology is still important because its purpose is to elevate us.

Finally, a few words of thanks. To Jason, who has always supported this story. To my mom, who told me these stories first. To Rachel, who steers this enormous piece with confidence and understanding. And finally to Val, who said the magic word, “podcast.”