All language subtitles for Helen of Troy 720p PBS HDTV EN SUB_ENG_Subtitles01

Narrator:
She's been called the most
beautiful woman on earth.

She became "the face
that launched a thousand ships."

She's been blamed for starting
the trojan war--

A war that brought death
and suffering to thousands.

Helen of troy.

She's a warning
of the terrible power

That boundless beauty can wield,

A reminder that desire
can prove stronger than duty.

It's the oldest story
of them all:

Boy meets girl; girl meets boy;

Boy and girl
get into big trouble;

Lots of boys fight
over the girl;

And the good guy wins out
in the end.

It's no surprise it's been
lapped up down the centuries.

It's the perfect male fantasy.

Helen is exquisite,

And she's an exquisite agent
of extermination.

( shouting )

Helen's story is important
and irresistible

Because it deals with that
strange and worrying combination

Of pleasure and pain,
sex and violence, love and hate.

But it's also not just a story.

Helen and the trojan war
have become epic and iconic,

But if you look at them closely,
they're very human.

The drama starts
with a messy love affair

And it ends up in a bloody
and disastrous conflict.

I think that helen's tale is
rooted in bronze age reality

And that if you look for her

Here in the eastern
mediterranean landscape,

You'll find that most
of the ancient stories

Are much closer to history
than they are to myth.

And it's in that world--

In what's now
modern greece and turkey--

That I'm going to look for her,
to separate fact from fiction,

To find the real powerful queens
who lived here 3,500 years ago.

My journey will take me

Right across
the eastern mediterranean.

To try to find helen,

I'm going to explore
the magnificent palaces

That controlled this region
in the late bronze age.

I'll follow helen's journey,
looking again at the myths

That have helped create
her image through the ages,

Investigating the wars
that were fought in her name.

I'll be looking for clues

In archaeology, manuscripts
and art,

Searching for that hidden helen,

One of the real
prehistoric queens

Who inhabited
this rich and savage time.

My journey in search of helen

Begins at
the bodleian library in oxford.

Most women are written
out of history.

Helen is written in.

She was an inspiration

For the earliest masterpieces
of european literature--

Homer's iliad and odyssey.

These are some of
the largest fragments of homer

From antiquity.

They're close on
2,000 years old,

And they've been
beautifully written

On papyrus sheets
in greek capitals.

Originally these papyrus sheets

Would all have been joined
together in one long roll

About 30 foot long.

It's book 2 of the iliad.

You can still make out the names

Of some of the great
personalities from the epic.

Here we have achilles
the godlike hero.

There's aphrodite,
the goddess of love.

And here is "ektor" priamedes--

Hector the firstborn son
of priam.

But this little scrap--

"nes" is the last syllable
of "helenes," the name of helen.

So what we're looking at

Is the first time that helen
enters the written record.

( man reciting in greek )

Translator:
"sing, goddess
of the wrath of achilles,

"that fatal wrath

"which caused the immeasurable
anguish of the acheans

And sent the strong souls
of heroes to hades."

Hughes:
These poems tell
how the trojan and greek heroes

Fought a long and bloody battle
over helen,

All stirred up by the deities
on mount olympus.

They were written down
in about 700 b.C.,

But transmit a much older story,
based on actual conflicts

That took place
at least 500 years earlier

In what came to be known
as the "age of heroes."

Helen's love affair with paris
kick-started the drama

Of the iliad and the odyssey.

But homer's a vital ally
not just as a poet

But as a historical source, too.

Recent scholarship has shown
that a number of his lines

Do relate directly to helen's
era-- the late bronze age.

And beyond that, helen is bigger
even than homer.

Other great epics were composed

With intimate details
of her life story,

Which had been
all but lost to time.

They only survive now
in tiny fragments--

Works such as the kypria
and the sack of troy.

So when you try
and understand helen's world,

You have to look
beyond the obvious

And pull together all these
various strands of evidence.

It's by investigating homer
and the archaeology in detail

That we can begin
to form a truer picture

Of who helen of troy was.

I've been studying helen
for many years,

And here in athens,
there's plenty of evidence

Of the myths
associated with her.

Helen's image has been adorning
beautiful objects for centuries.

Vases for sale show her
in a tug of war between suitors,

Preening in front of the mirror,
and seducing paris.

Helen also survives
in greek tragedy--

Plays still being performed
in athens today.

( actor speaking greek )

Hughes:
On stage she's portrayed

As either manipulative
and destructive

Or a mere pawn of the gods--

A weapon of aphrodite,
the goddess of love.

But you have to go beyond
the misleading fantasies

To get anywhere
near the real helen

And travel back
to the late bronze age

When these images
of women were painted.

As yet, we have
no physical proof

That a woman called helene

Lived in a glittering
greek palace 3,500 years ago.

But what we do have is a trail

Left by rich and desirable
bronze age aristocrats

Who traveled right across
the eastern mediterranean.

And when you follow that trail,

You'll find not just heroes,
but heroines.

These aren't
pretty little creatures

Wafting around
in diaphanous robes

In front of
classically fluted columns.

If helen lived, she lived
as a prehistoric princess

Right at the heart of
a turbulent prehistoric world.

Helen's more than
a simple object of beauty,

So you have to wipe from your
mind these pictures of her--

All this romantic imagery,

Which is all, without exception,
a fantasy-- all made up.

What I'm looking for
are the real queens

Who lived in the late bronze age
in the 13th century b.C.--

The age which produced
these vital clues.

I'm leaving the classical
imagery of athens far behind

And traveling deep inside
the peloponnese

To where helen's story starts.

Three and a half thousand
years ago,

The peloponnese was home to the
powerful mycenaean civilization,

Whose tentacles reached
from crete to croatia,

From the turkish coast
to sicily.

This is an epic setting
for helen's story

And for one of the most
influential civilizations

In the european bronze age.

And the city that gave its name
to the whole civilization

Is mycenae.

( train bell ringing )

Safe behind
their mountain ranges,

Each mycenaean kingdom jealously
guarded its strategic position,

Its acquired wealth and
its precious natural resources.

What's at a real premium around
here is flat fertile farmland.

It's incredibly difficult to
squeeze the right amount of food

Out of the bronze age landscape.

So you find mycenaean rulers
try to keep a tab on every fig,

Every olive, every grain
of wheat that's produced,

All the agricultural produce
be brought into the citadels

And then redistributed
back out again.

So for the people that lived
all around here

They weren't
just centers of culture.

They controlled
whether you lived or died.

Across the greek mainland,

Mycenaean centers show
striking similarities.

Because mycenae
is the best preserved,

This is where I should be able
to get the clearest picture

Of the place of women
in the bronze age.

Mycenae was at its peak
in 1300 b.C.

This is the century

Most likely to have witnessed
the trojan war

And therefore
the birth of helen.

Mycenae was a major power,
enjoying a golden age

That was to come to an abrupt
end only a century later.

Protected all around
by mountains

And dominating
the fertile plain below,

Mycenae had all the hallmarks
of a fairy tale castle

Studded with gold and finery.

The immense walls shielded
a muscular warrior culture.

Head for the top of the citadel

And you'll reach
the center of power.

These rooms would have been
two or three stories high.

They were made of mud,
brick and timber,

Which is why
they haven't survived.

But it was this place

That was the beating heart
of the palace-- the megaron--

Or royal throne room.

In the center,
there'd have been a ritual fire

That would have burnt
in the hearth day in, day out,

The smoke escaping up through
a grand opening in the ceiling.

In the late bronze age,

This would have been
fantastically gaudy.

There would have been colored
blocks of marble on the floor,

Frescoes all around the rooms

And decorated columns covered in
lapis lazuli from afghanistan.

Access here was very restricted,
open only to the chosen few.

So had you made it in here
to the megaron and looked out,

You would have known that you
were lord of all you surveyed.

A highborn woman like helen

Would have been part
of this mycenaean elite,

One of the aristocrats

Who enjoyed the riches
of the palaces...

And who lavished wealth
on weapons and war gear.

This ornate dagger was found
in a tomb,

As was this warrior vase.

But just as important

As flaunting wealth
and military might

Were measures taken to protect
the citadel from attack.

The rulers of mycenae

Took the defense of their city
very seriously.

They dug this cistern 18 meters
into the bedrock

So they'd have access
to fresh water during a siege.

The cistern's a marvel of
engineering for the bronze age

And shows how much of a priority
security was for the citadel.

No enemy could possibly find out

About this secret water supply
in wartime.

But most defensive measures
don't tell the whole story.

It's easy to concentrate
on the bullish, macho aspects

Of the mycenaean
warrior society,

But it wasn't
all blood and guts.

If you look at some
of their artifacts,

It's clear that they were
capable of very subtle feeling.

This little trio's been
delicately carved out of ivory.

It's used as
an important research tool

To discover exactly
what mycenaean women wore.

But when you're close up to it,

You can feel that it's resonant
with tenderness.

The women are draped
around each other,

And one of them's caressing
the other's forearm.

And that child-- it could be
a boy or a girl--

Is leaning heavily on their lap,
doing that childlike thing

Of taking up as much space
as is physically possible.

It's a touching human image
of mycenaean society--

A reminder
that these monumental ruins

Were occupied by heroines
as well as heroes.

I want to explore this city
and unravel the mysteries

Of the influential
and sophisticated women

Hidden behind its walls.

Mycenae has long attracted
visitors

Keen to see the city homer
describes as "rich in gold."

The hotels and bars
for the tourists

In the village of mikines
at the foot of ancient mycenae

Are a roll call
of classical celebrities.

( dog barking )

The place I'm staying in

Is dedicated to antiquity's
most notorious daughter,

La belle helene--
"beautiful helen."

But it also commemorates the
many famous modern personalities

That have come here,

Including the first
archaeologist at the site,

The flamboyant
heinrich schliemann.

Enthusiasts have come to mycenae

Chasing the heroes that fought
in mighty battles

And the bejeweled heroines
who were their trophies.

The belle helene is
the oldest guesthouse in town.

Yes, yes, yes.

This is virginia woolf's
companion, actually.

That was leonard woolf,
margery fry and roger fry.

That's the whole
bloomsbury group--

They've all
come together-- london.

Bloomsbury group,
in '32.

Agatha christie came
many times here,

But I thought I have...

Hughes:
And not just writers--

A scattering of leaders
of the nazi party,

Fascinated by the archeology
of military might.

Man:
And the nazi here--

It says "'44,
hermann goering."

Himmler in '41,
heinrich.

Dr. Goebbels in 1946,
the minister of propaganda.

Goebbels?

Goebbels, yes, that's it.

Hughes:
Helen's the only woman
from the age of heroes

To have endured
as a household name.

But the danger
for all visitors here

Is that you can easily forget
about the real people

Behind the dramatic archaeology
and the later romantic imagery.

So when you explore a site
like ancie mycenae,

You have to put aside
the picture-book helen

And focus on the palace's
real bronze age queens.

Helen's face has been imagined
by artists

For nearly three millennia,

But none has come anywhere close
to the truth.

Tantalizing discoveries from all
across the late bronze age world

Offer up evidence
of the striking appearance

Of a prehistoric princess
like helen.

These ancient frescoes
depict women in detail--

Their jewelry, hairstyles
and makeup.

But the most vivid portrayal
of a woman is this one.

We don't know exactly
who she was,

But since she was found
in a religious complex,

It seems she was both an idol
and an ideal.

Archaeologist diana wardle

Specializes in mycenaean dress
and personal adornment.

She's working with a team
to recreate the appearance

Of a high-status
bronze age woman.

This is the closest
that we can get

To seeing what a late bronze age
helen would have looked like.

Hughes:
Now, sophia's beautifully dark,

And the ladies on the walls
of the mycenaean citadels

Are always dark.

But helen's nearly always
described as "golden,"

So what do you think's
going on there?

A difficult one.

Maybe her skin was
naturally golden,

And if she wasn't dressed up
like this all the time,

You would describe her
as naturally golden.

And in greece,
"golden" or "lighter"

Is usually just
a very much lighter dark color.

Hughes:
It's almost as if
she's glittering.

You would-- covered
in gold jewelry
as they were.

Wardle:
She would glitter a lot.

Yeah, she would glitter
a great deal.

She's always
described as having
white skin,

Gleaming like milk
or like a pearl.

But do you think
this is what's
actually going on,

That she's
a mycenaean woman

Who's having her face
painted white.

I think it's very likely
her face was being painted white

And that she's
going to look unnatural

And perhaps even masked.

So what would
they have been using
to do that?

Oh, white lead, which is
a horrible compound to be using.

They can't be
putting it on every day,

Because your skin
just wouldn't stand it.

Well, you'd die.

You could put it on every day,
but you would die.

They would have
looked extraordinary,
the women,

Once they've got
this whole panoply on.

They'd look grotesque, I think,
or even clownlike.

Almost like puppets.

Is that the purpose?

Is the purpose to remove
the person and produce the mask

So that you've got
a... A persona,

Not... Not an individual
behind the mask.

So you're acting as a priest,

You're acting
as a divinity perhaps.

You're acting a part.

Hughes:
Frescoes show women
with different hairstyles.

Some of them have shaven heads,

But others have twisted
and snakelike coils of hair,

All of which make
a bronze age helen

Seem even more otherworldly.

If helen looked like anything,

This is what she'd have
looked like in the palace.

Wardle:
It's not exactly a face to
launch a thousand ships, is it?

Hughes:
Yeah.

Well, you never know.

For a late bronze age
paris, might have been
just the thing.

Could be.

She'd have made
some impact.

She'd have made a big impact,
wouldn't she?

Hughes:
Tomb finds tell us

That helen would have been
bedecked with jewelry--

Gold from egypt,
hippopotamus ivory from africa,

Amber from the baltic.

She would have worn
thick woolen robes,

Rubbed with olive oil
to make them shine.

Servants would have combed
her hair with a bone comb

And they would have made
her skin gleam.

Frescoes show that
on ceremonial occasions,

She would have been
bare-breasted.

She would have blazed a trail
through the palace,

A glorious creature
inspiring admiration and fear.

This is prehistory, where images
speak louder than words,

So a single person
of exceptional beauty

Would have had real worth.

As for daily life
of highborn men and women

Of the late bronze age,
we know a surprising amount

Because of basic written records
kept by the mycenaeans.

The mycenaeans had a script
now called linear b,

Which they inscribed
on wet clay tablets.

Only surviving by chance,

Scorched and preserved
by palace fires,

These are simple documents,

But they give us
remarkable insight

Into life in the citadel.

They tell of
a rigidly hierarchical society,

Where men took
senior political roles.

But they also show that
mirroring this male society

Is an equally tightly controlled
and influential religious world

Where women played
a central role

And controlled the gateway
to the gods.

The mycenaeans worshipped
some of the greek gods

That we're familiar with--

Zeus and hera and poseidon,
for instance.

But there was a whole phalanx

Of gods and goddesses
and demigods and spirits

That never made it through
to the classical world--

Deities like pipituna and
perasia, the goddess of doves.

Some people even suggest
there was a female zeus

And a female poseidon.

What there was not was
a state-organized pantheon

With a male figure at its head.

Zeus was not predominant.

If anything it was
the female divinities

Who were due
the greatest honors.

These are powerful
female spirits

Standing at the heart
of mycenaean culture.

A further insight

Into what actually happened
at their ceremonies

Is found on signet rings,

Which depict women in control
of intriguing religious rites.

These golden signet rings
were worn by men and women.

They were passed down
as heirlooms

And we find them left in graves

Or given as offerings
to the gods.

It's only an inch or so across,

But there's a whole world
marked on that surface.

What you're looking at

Is some kind of sacred rite
involving just women.

There's a sun and a moon
up at the top,

And a little tiny
figure-of-eight shield

With a mysterious divine
presence appearing behind it.

I suspect, because trees
and plants are so prominent,

That this was a fertility ritual

Designed to keep agricultural
produce coming out of the earth.

That seated woman
is very important

Because she's shaking
a bunch of poppies.

It's one of the clues we have

That opium,
derived from poppy seed heads,

Played a central role
in religion.

These signet rings show
a world of abandonment,

Fueled by narcotics.

In a number of mycenaean sites,

The seeds of opium poppies
have been found.

These rites reveal women
who aren't weak or decorative,

But powerful and significant.

When it came to communicating
with the spirit world,

Women were essential.

If you'd come to worship
at the temple,

Then these are the kind of idols
that you'd have come across.

You can see that the bulk
of them are women.

They're not cozy creatures
at all.

I mean, standing here, they
appear incredibly grotesque.

Little holes that you can see
punctured into the terra-cotta

Are probably so that people

Could have hung votive offerings
on them.

And they've got
their arms raised

In a gesture
that's typical of prayer,

So it's possible that these
were actually devotants.

This lady was found with her
head turned facing the wall,

Suggesting that she had
some kind of evil eye

That had to be faced away
from people

As they came into the temple.

It's thought that this

Is probably the representation
of a goddess.

She's got a chain of beads
around her neck

And bracelets
all around her arms,

And she's supporting her breasts

In a very typical attribute
of a goddess.

To find out more about these
enigmatic female characters,

I'm now heading to the heart
of religion in mycenae,

The cult center,
which is still being excavated.

This is where those figures
were found.

It's a kind of holy of holies--

A temple right in the middle of
a more extensive cult complex.

In its heyday it would
have been brightly painted

And there'd have been wooden
pillars supporting the roof.

When archaeologists
excavated it,

It was as if they discovered
a moment frozen in time.

The figures were stored up here,
but on special occasions,

They'd have been brought
and arranged around this hearth.

Sometimes they'd be decorated
with jewelry,

Sometimes they'd be given
some food or something to drink,

And there'd be little
sacrificial offerings

Made to them.

And then once the ritual
was over, they were taken

And put away back here
in their resting place.

It's that curious paradox
of archaeology

That sometimes the most
metaphysical of activities,

Like spiritual worship,

Can leave behind
the most concrete remains.

All of these female figures

Point to women holding sway
in the citadel.

A bronze age helen
must have been more

Than just a pretty face.

She would have been feared and
honored in mycenaean society--

Someone who walked hand in hand

With spirits, deities
and demons.

The best evidence for life
in the greek bronze age

Comes from mycenae,

But in the myths, helen was said
to have been born in sparta.

Although there aren't
such impressive remains there,

Helen certainly left her mark
in sparta down the ages.

Spartans celebrated her,

Not just focusing
on the way she looks

But on what she did, how she
affected those around her.

We remember her

As the fought-over trophy
of the trojan war,

But in other tales
told by the ancients,

Her story was already
inextricably linked

With sex and violence.

It was said that her intimate
association with brutality

Went right back
to her conception.

Zeus, the king of the gods,
in the form of a swan,

Attacked and raped
her mortal mother, leda,

As she washed herself here
at the river eurotas at sparta.

Leda gave birth to an egg
and helen was born,

Daughter of zeus and heiress
to the kingdom of sparta.

Today it's a sleepy market town,

But in the late bronze age,
sparta was a great power.

Not much remains
of the city's glorious past,

But over the ages, people have
made the pilgrimage to sparta

To honor its celebrated beauty.

A thousand years or so

After leda was supposed
to have laid her egg,

A man called pausanias came here

To track down clues
of helen's life.

Pausanias is
a really interesting character,

Because he travels
right across greece

And writes down what he sees
and what he's been told.

And when he came to sparta,

He saw helen's egg dangling
from the roof of a temple

On the spartan acropolis.

This is what he wrote about it.

"here there has been hung from
the roof an egg tied to ribands,

"and they say that it is
the famous egg

That legend says
leda brought forth."

The birth of helen,
who's half mortal, half divine,

Might seem
completely bizarre to us,

But the greeks were
very used to the idea

That the gods and men
met on earth.

And so helen was a heady mix:

Enough of a real woman to be
a wife and a lover,

Enough of a god to be sublime.

This was to be the location

For another defining moment in
the myths associated with helen.

The greeks told stories
of how helen would come here

To the banks
of the river eurotas

To dance all night
with other young girls.

Centuries later,
these dances were restaged

In some kind of an attempt
to capture the spirit of helen.

We still have fragments
of the poetry

That the girls
sang to each other.

Poet:
"olympian goddesses,
my heart is seized with desire

"at hearing a new song, and the
chorus of girls in lovely melody

"will scatter sweet sleep
and lead me to the contest

"where I'll be tossing
my blonde hair,

"a dance of delicate feet
with limb-loosening desire,

Her glance more melting
than sleep or death."

Hughes:
These rites are vital
to understanding helen's appeal.

The gift she's giving
the young girls isn't beauty

But what the greeks called
charis.

Charis is the root
of our word "charisma,"

And it can simply mean grace,

But it also has
an erotic connotation.

By invoking the spirit of helen,

The young girls are learning
to become charismatic,

Sexually aware.

And certainly these rituals

Would have been
highly charged affairs.

They were here alone together
all night;

There was drinking
and torch light;

And they danced naked
until dawn.

But this commemoration was more
than just exuberant dancing.

It recalled an horrific and
symbolic moment in helen's life.

According to the myths,

It was while helen was dancing
on the riverbank

That, like her mother,
she was attacked and raped.

The perpettor was theseus,
king of athens.

Helen was a girl,
he was 70 years old.

Theseus was prowling
through the reeds

When he spotted helen.

Once he'd seen her, he didn't
care about the other girls.

He only had eyes
for the spartan princess.

That's what helen
does to people--

She makes them yearn
and long for her.

One ancient author
said that theseus,

Amidst all the blessings
that he had,

Thought that life
wasn't worth living

Unless he could enjoy her.

A brutal conception and
then attacked on the riverbank--

Helen would from hereon in

Always be linked
with passion and pain.

She'd begun her career
as an irresistible prize

And a creator of conflict.

In the real world
of the late bronze age,

A spartan princess like helen
was indeed a great catch.

Her principal value was
as a marriage prospect

With a kingdom to give away.

The myths reflect this, too,
and they describe

A great marriage contest held
near sparta in helen's honor.

The most powerful heroes
of the day gathered to compete

For the hand of the beautiful
spartan princess.

The suitors came
from all over greece

To get to helen's
marriage contest,

Journeys that would have been
possible in the late bronze age.

In the peloponnesian landscape,

You can still see the ghosts
of the tracks and byways

That connected the great power
bases of the mycenaean world.

But this is one of the few bits
of highway engineering

That's still standing.

Just by looking at it,
you can tell it's been built

In exactly the same way
as the citadels,

And doubtless there was
a team of slaves here

Heaving those giant blocks
into place.

In some accounts, helen's
eager suitors gathered here

At amyclae.

They had come to challenge
each other for helen's hand.

Later authors
indulged in poetic descriptions

Of how the heroes had come here
to fight for helen

With her richly tressed hair,
her neat ankles

And her sparkling eyes.

But in the 13th century b.C.

She'd have been appealing
for other reasons, too.

In the late bronze age,

We haven't yet got
to a point in history

Where men have
all rights to land.

We know from
the linear b tablets

That women could have
land holdings, too,

"onato," they're called.

And we also know that they were
subjected to religious taxes,

Which means they must have had
disposable wealth.

And just look at
what you'd have won

If you'd come here
to fight for helen.

The foothills of mount taygetus
are teeming with game,

And this is some of
the most fertile land

In the whole of greece.

Marrying for love was a
low priority for these suitors.

They'd arrived for the chance
to improve their lot

And to display
their physical prowess.

You can imagine
the hopeful suitors coming here,

Their blood running high,
checking each other out,

Limbering up,
ready for the contest ahead.

In classical greece these
competitions are called "agon,"

It's where we get our word
"agony" from--

So you get a sense
of just how tough they were.

( men grunting;
bodies thudding )

As for the range of sports
that would have taken place

At a grand event
like helen's marriage contest,

There is good evidence
from the bronze age.

A fresco from thera
depicts two young men boxing.

I've come to the pammachon gym
to meet kostas dervenis

Who teaches the sports
that would have been practiced

In the late bronze age.

Hughes:
What's the
objective here?

What are
they doing?

The objective is
to try to make

One or the other submit.

You know, it goes on and on,
it's like a game of chess,

And finally one person
will get tired or make a mistake

That the other person
can't escape from

And be forced
to tap out.

No one really
gets hurt.

I mean, the point is not
to injure the other party,

It's to make him give up.

( tapping mat )

Hughes:
So what kinds
of combat sports

Do you think
you'd have had

At a marriage contest
like helen's?

They most certainly did
the submission wrestling,

Because that was the basis

Of their close-quarter
combat skills.

They might have
done some boxing.

Well, it was happening
all over the near east

And all over
the mediterranean.

And for sure we know
that in 2000 b.C.E.,

On the tomb paintings
of beni hasan

We have over 300 depictions
of submission wrestling.

So I think we can
be very sure that
it was taking place

In the mycenaean world.

Hughes:
We talk a lot about
the age of heroes,

But it's a very
nebulous concept...

Why is it a nebulous concept?

For me, it's very clear.

So tell me then,
what do you think it is?

Well, you know,
the word eros in ancient greek,

Which is the same root
at the goddess hera, you know,

Or the sanskrit word vera,

Simply means
"he who is worthy."

Who gets the spoils
in this campaign?

It's obviously
the one

Who contributes most
to acquiring these things.

There was very
little pretension
in their lives.

You know, when they
traded, they traded;

When they got married,
they got married;

When they fought,
they fought.

I mean, it was a...
A more vital time.

Hughes:
You've obviously
thought a lot about helen.

What does she mean
to you?

I once spent an entire summer
looking for helen

In the areas where she lived
in the peloponnes

In the company
of my wife, actually.

Now, the reason I'm saying that

Is because I think even today
every greek man

Is still in love with helen.

Hughes:
At helen's marriage games

The heroes wrestled
and boxed in vain.

In the end, it came down
to spending power.

Agamemnon, the great
king of mycenae,

Impressed with the largest
amount of treasure

And won helen
for his brother, menelaus.

The poor guy needed
big brother's wealth

To get the girl.

So helen and menelaus
were to be united,

Bringing together
two of the strongest dynasties

In the region.

In the third century b.C.,

The poet theocrates describes
12 spartan girls

Commemorating helen's
last night of freedom.

Under a plane tree near sparta,

12 virgins recreated
the last few hours

Before helen married menelaus.

Once again,
they were alone together.

They danced around the tree,

And then tipping up
a silver flask

They smothered the bark in
olive oil, inscribing a message:

"revere me, I am helen's tree."

Woman:
"we shall be the first
to plant for you

"a wreath of
ground-loving clover

"to hang on a shady plane tree.

"and we shall be the first
to make an offering

"of gleaming oil,
dripped from our silver flasks,

"under that plane tree shade.

"in its bark,
we shall cut these words

"that passersby may read
its message:

'respect me,
I am helen's tree.'"

Helen's beauty is described
as being like the dawn,

Like the return of spring
after winter.

It's all very idyllic
and sensual,

But you get the impression
that what is being remembered

Are helen's happier days

Before she becomes
menelaus's trophy wife.

To celebrate a prestigious
marriage back in the bronze age,

There would have been a gamos,
or wedding celebration.

We have no detailed description

Of exactly what
that would have entailed,

But we do know from food lists
on linear b tablets,

That the mycenaeans
loved their feasts.

The linear b tablets show
that this is

About the number of sheep
that you'd expect at one feast.

What's interesting is that

It's not the king
who's laying on the spread

But the aristocrats who are
bringing the raw ingredients.

The more animals
that you could provide,

The higher up you proved
you were in status.

In one tablet, we hear about
350 animals being brought in

To be slaughtered
for a single feast.

But meat wasn't all
that was being consumed.

Now pioneering
archeological research

Examining the residue
left behind in cooking pots

Is able to tell us exactly what
was on offer in the citadels.

Archaeologist holley martlew
has been leading this research

And found that

While some of the food residue
gave predictable results,

Like the use of lentils
and figs,

The real surprise
was what they drank.

Martlew:
One of the interesting things

About the cult center
at mycenae

Is that we found
a cooking pot

With true retsina in it,

And that means wine
with pine resin.

And of course
nobody suspected

Or even as far as I know

Discusses
the history of retsina,

But we found it about
1250 b.C. In mycenae.

Well, I had no idea

That retsina was
being produced
this early.

And it was heated,
we think,

Because it was found
in a cooking pot.

Hughes:
This is the first time
it's been proved that retsina,

The greek national drink

Made from a mix
of wine and pine resin,

Has been in existence
for 3,500 years

And was drunk
by bronze age aristocrats.

Hughes:
So retsina on its own
or mixed?

Amazingly,
we found evidence

That probably
they consumed a cocktail

Composed of retsina--

Pine resin,
wine with pine resin--

Barley beer
and honey mead.

Sounds amazing,
doesn't it?

Sounds fairly potent.

I'm sure it was
very potent.

Shall we try it?

I think we should--
absolutely.

( both chuckling )

Now, what do you think
about proportions?

Where will we start?

Well, what are you
starting with?

The mead.
Mead.

So just a bit?

Just a little splash
of mead.

Thank you.

Okay, here goes
the beer.

Oh, right,
okay.

What do you think?

I think more beer,

Because if we top
this out with retsina,

We'll be on the floor
in two minutes.

Oh, I'm sure
we're going to be
on the floor.

Good.

Today's the day,
I'm afraid.

Yes.

I think all my greek
friends shied away

Because they thought,
definitely dangerous.

So are we going to live
in danger?

Yeah, I think we are.

Who will we toast?

Um... Well...

The queen of sparta.

The queen of sparta,
why not.

I thought it was
going to be disgusting

And it's actually
rather pleasant.

I did, too.

That's delicious.

It's amazing,
it's not bad at all.

Our fortunes
are made.

( man reciting in greek )

Hughes:
So, according to the epics,
helen and menelaus were married

And ruled over the rich lands
of the spartan kingdom together.

As to where a real bronze age
queen of sparta like helen

Would have lived,

The location of her palace has
always been a matter for debate.

This is the obvious candidate
for helen's home.

It's a series of late bronze age
remains up above sparta

And it's on a fortified hill,
just as the mycenaeans liked it.

But it's baffled archaeologists
for years

Because it's just so small.

You can hardly describe that as
a mansion, let alone a palace.

But new research seems
to have solved the mystery.

These are just basement
storage depots.

3,000 years ago, this would have
been an entire palatial complex.

It's right up on a summit,

So it's particularly prone
to erosion.

And what seems to have happened
is that the glittering palace

Of the king and queen of sparta
has simply dropped off the edge.

Archaeology shows that despite
a lack of existing remains,

In the mycenaean period,

There were three
impressive buildings

Constructed on this site.

( man reciting in greek )

Hughes:
Homer describes the palace
of the royal couple

As set "in many-ravined sparta,"

And it's certainly
a good vantage point

For control of the plain below.

So here, the archaeology
and the homeric description

Do back each other up.

Life for menelaus and helen
may be going as planned

In their comfortable home
in sparta,

But speeding through the
white-topped seas of the aegean

Is a visitor from a faraway land

Who will turn both their lives
upside down.

In the myth, the meeting of
paris and helen was predestined.

Paris, the second son
of the king of troy,

Had been called on
to judge a beauty contest

Between the three most powerful
goddesses on mount olympus.

The prize was a golden apple

Engraved with the word,
kallisti-- "for the fairest."

Each of the goddesses
tried to bribe him,

But paris chose aphrodite,
the goddess of love,

Who had promised him
the world's desire.

His prize was helen of sparta,
and in the myth,

Paris sets sail from troy
to claim helen for himself.

So here he is, paris,

Frozen at the moment that he
hands aphrodite the golden apple

And chooses her as the fairest
of the goddesses.

And in return,
she promises him helen.

What people often forget
about him is that he, too,

Was supposed to be
perfectly beautiful--

"our prince of beauty,"
says homer,

"with his glistening
love locks."

But in the iliad,
he's a bit of a peacock,

Too proud of his physique,
too keen on the girls.

This statue was made
in the fourth century b.C.

And it's very romantic,
but I'm afraid to say,

A trojan prince
of the 13th century b.C.

Would have looked
nothing like this.

He'd have had long hair
and earrings in his ears

And be draped all around
in amulets--

Bit more of a medallion man.

But he is beautiful
and he knows it,

And it's this delectable
creature who,

According to mythology,
arrives in sparta

At the court
of menelaus and helen.

We hear from the epic poem,
the kypria,

That paris was entertained
in sparta as a "xenos,"

The greek word meaning
"stranger" or "guest."

This title guaranteed safety
to a foreign envoy,

But to secure this status,

Anyone on foreign business
from the late bronze age onwards

Would have had to arrive

With gifts of goodwill
to present to the court.

The rulers
of the late bronze age world

Showered each other with gifts.

Chestloads, boatloads
of treasure exchanged hands.

On the face of it,

This was simply a way
of keeping each other sweet

And proving who had
the deepest pockets to dig into.

But there was also
a hidden agenda.

This was a world before
codified international law,

So by orchestrating
a complicated etiquette

Around gift-giving
and guest-host relations,

The bronze age world could come
to a common understanding.

And if you breached
the unwritten rules

Of that international
convention,

Then you were in big trouble.

It seems that paris
barely had time

To pay his respects to the king
of sparta when, we're told,

That menelaus hurriedly and
unexpectedly set sail for crete

To attend to a family funeral.

His queen was left to offer
appropriate entertainment

To the foreign visitor.

But helen and paris
weren't alone.

In the minds
of the ancient greeks,

Demonic forces were there, too.

Himeros, the spirit of desire,
was plucking at paris's cloak;

Eros was there
with his arrows of love;

Peitho-- persuasion--
was pushing helen

Towards paris's door;

And masterminding it all was
aphrodite, the goddess of love,

Kindling the slow fires
of longing,

Infusing the atmosphere with
maklozenae, the glow of desire.

What follows has been the
subject of art and literature

For centuries.

Helen is shown being abducted
in one image,

And just as convincingly,

Happy to acquire another husband
and his riches in another.

Perhaps helen intended
to play the perfect hostess

And show her guest
some spartan hospitality;

Maybe they were just left
together for a moment too long.

So who hovered on whose doorway?

Who, in fact, stole whom?

It's a key moment in the story,

And it's at this point that
you make your judgment of helen.

Either she's a victim
or she's a harlot

Or she's simply
an independent woman.

Homer certainly never suggests
that she was seized by force.

She follows paris, he says.

Sappho is interesting, too,

Because she seems to suggest
it was helen's call.

It's worth taking note
of sappho,

Because she's a rare
surviving female voice

From the ancient world.

"helen, the woman who by far

"surpassed all others
in her beauty,

"left her husband,
the best of men, behind

"and sailed far away to troy.

"she didn't spare a single
thought for her child

"nor for her dear parents,

But the goddess of love
led her astray to desire."

There's no hint
of an abduction here.

If anything, sappho's saying
that paris is helen's plaything,

Not vice versa.

Sappho's scenario gives helen
the upper hand,

But it didn't prove to be
an enduring take on events.

As the story gets retold
down the centuries,

One version of it
becomes increasingly popular--

That helen
was forcibly abducted.

But I tell you, when you come
here to the spartan citadel,

Which would have been
incredibly heavily fortified

In the bronze age,

There is no way
that an outsider like paris

Would have been able
to steal away the spartan queen

Against her will.

If helen and paris went to troy,

It would have been with some
collusion on helen's part.

And so the die is cast.

Helen and paris are on the run,

Heading down towards
the little port of githeion

Where paris has his ships
waiting.

And as they do so, they're
hurtling their way into history,

Because from now on,

Helen's name is never
going to be forgotten.

Homer gives her a strangely
prophetic line in the iliad,

Which starts off:
( reciting in greek )

"on us, the gods have sent
an evil destiny--

That we shall be a singer's
theme for generations to come."

Once they'd found their ships,

Paris and helen decamped
to an island nearby, cranae.

Today a causeway connects it
to the mainland.

It's a tiny place,

Populated only by fishermen
and occasional day trippers.

"cranae" means "rocky,"

And this island certainly
lives up to its name.

The lovers would have known

That the retaliations
would soon begin,

Not least because paris
had loaded up his ships

With spartan treasure.

Homer tells us
that the fugitive lovers

Allowed themselves
just one night on cranae

Before they headed out
for the open sea.

Not surprisingly, it's a moment

That's been immortalized
by poets for nearly 3,000 years.

But I still think that homer
has the best lines.

Years later, in troy,
paris remembers the night

When they consummated
their dangerous affair--

"when irresistible longing
laid me low," he says,

"and we locked in love
on rocky island."

Their immediate future was
as fugitives on the open sea.

Ahead lay troy.

What fate will await them there?

( seagulls crying )

The next day, the myths tell us

That paris and helen
boarded paris's ships

And prepared for the journey
back to troy.

I'm heading out by sea
from greece to turkey

To retrace helen
and paris's voyage.

We'll be sailing
through the islands

Dotted across the eastern
mediterranean to troy,

Which is on the coast
of modern-day turkey.

We tend to think of seas
and oceans as barriers,

But back in antiquity,

These were the great highways
and byways.

Homer even calls them,
"the sea's foaming lanes."

So if you'd been traveling on
a stretch of water like this,

You'd have seen little skiffs
hugging the coastline,

Smaller sailing boats
with just a few oars,

And then the grand galleys owned
by the aristocrats of the day.

And crisscrossing these waters,

There would indeed have been
female aristocrats like helen--

Women who, as we've seen,

Enjoyed influence and standing
in their homelands.

But now I'm leaving
greek waters,

Heading for the turkish coast,
to troy,

Where helen's story reaches
its dramatic climax.

She may have been born
helen of sparta

But she would be remembered
as helen of troy,

Always associated with the blood
to be shed there in her name.

( men yelling )

I'm retracing helen's journey,

Following the route
she's said to have taken

With her trojan lover, paris.

Ahead of me, in what
is now turkey, lies the city

That has come to dominate
helen's story, troy.

In the stories of
the trojan war, this is where

Helen becomes the face
that launched a thousand ships.

A huge greek fleet sails to troy
ready to fight for her return,

Eventually triumphing

By tricking their way
into the city,

Hiding elite troops
inside a giant wooden horse.

But where do the myths

About the most beautiful woman
in the world

And the war she inspired
coincide with reality here,

Over 3,000 years ago?

It's only once you get on a boat
that you realize

That troy and sparta
are actually relatively close.

There's a fragment from one of
the lost epics called the kypria

That says it took
just three days

For paris and helen
to make their journey.

That's pretty optimistic
for a bronze age boat,

Although they could
just about have done it

If they'd had perfect
sailing conditions.

Now we imagine the world divided
into east and west,

But for prehistoric populations,

That concept would have been
incomprehensible.

There was no invisible line
dividing europe and asia,

Over which travelers like paris
and helen would have crossed.

This was simply
a fractious theater of power

With the aegean sea
at its center.

There was plenty
to provoke conflict.

As well as wealthy cities like
troy that dotted the coasts,

There was control
of the rich trade routes

That crossed these seas,
carrying everything

From ostrich eggs from egypt,
ivory from syria,

Dyes from crete
and copper from cyprus.

It isn't a coincidence that
homer associated helen's story

So closely
with this particular region,

Where trade and aggression
ran hand in hand.

The trojan war has become
a morality tale,

Warning men away from headstrong
and seductive women.

But there's a deeper truth here,

Based on the reality
of the rich pickings at stake.

You can get a good idea of
what a valuable prize troy was

Here at çanakkale, the nearest
modern turkish harbor,

Just 12 miles from the
archaeological site of troy.

Over 3,000 years after
the time of the trojan war,

These waters-- the dardanelles--

Are still one of the busiest
shipping lanes in the world.

Anything passing from the
mediterranean to the black sea

Has to travel through
these narrow straits.

Control them
and you control a fortune.

Nearby troy was perfectly placed

To exploit the potential value
of this setting.

It had its own beach harbor
at beshik bay,

So it's little surprise that
the ambitious mycenaean greeks

Should have traveled overseas to
make their presence felt here.

Back in the 13th century b.C.,

This is where any ship coming
to troy would have beached.

The bay would have curved much
further inland back then,

And that headland afforded
real protection

Against the tricky winds and
currents that you start to get

Once you move from the aegean
up the dardanelles.

Because it was such
a perfect spot to stop,

This was a favorite port of call

For vessels from all over
the eastern mediterranean.

So had helen stepped
down a gangplank

Onto these sands
3,000 years ago,

She'd have come to a place
full of the sounds and smells

Of exotic lands.

Just five miles inland stood
the magnificent city of troy.

The citadel crowned
a small hill,

Commanding the fertile plain
and seaways

From behind its massive walls.

The story of the rediscovery of
troy took its most dramatic turn

Over 130 years ago.

The german archaeologist
heinrich schliemann

Spent a fortune excavating
this unpromising hill,

Driven on by his quest to find
the real locations

Of homer's iliad

And the treasures
owned by its key characters.

It seems that helen was
most important to schliemann

As a kind of fantasy woman.

In his personal life,

He had already acquired
a beautiful young greek wife,

Who could recite homer
perfectly.

And then he found a crown
for his fairy tale princess.

Excavating 30 feet or so
underneath

That little fig tree,

He came across an extraordinary
treasure horde--

Golden necklaces, finger rings
and diadems,

Which he immediately dubbed
"the jewels of helen"

And draped around
his mail-order bride.

Schliemann got his young wife
to pose in the ancient jewels,

But he was hardly
recreating helen.

Poor sophie's allure
fell well short

Of history's greatest beauty.

And to add further insult,

It was later realized
that this was all a nonsense.

These jewels
would have been worn

By a woman living 1,200 years
earlier than any real helen.

But in truth, schliemann was
underwhelmed by what he found;

The site just seemed too small
to be king priam's city.

When I first came here
20 years ago,

It was actually
pretty disappointing

And very hard to imagine

That this could ever have been
priam's glorious citadel.

But archaeologists have been
excavating here

Every summer since then,

And they now realize
that the site

Is a full 15 times larger
than they previously thought.

This was a jewel in the region.

Before helen's age,

This mud-brick palace
had already been standing

For a thousand years.

A newly-arrived visitor from
greece over 3,000 years ago

Couldn't help but be impressed

By troy's wealth
and sophistication.

Where these stones now stand,
there were walls 30 feet tall

Guarding a city
of about 10,000 people.

Archaeologists have found
evidence

For visitors
and produce coming here

From all over
the eastern mediterranean.

These striped pots unearthed
in troy showed direct contact

With the mycenaeans.

There's even evidence
for settlers from greece.

A whole mycenaean graveyard
has been found near the coast.

So a woman arriving here from
sparta in the late bronze age

Would certainly not have been
the first greek to come to troy.

Whether she came as
paris's bride or as his whore,

Helen now belonged to troy.

Had you been walking down here
back in the 13th century b.C.,

You'd have been joined

By a whole stream of women
making their way to the citadel.

Contemporary evidence tells us

That these courts had
giant harems

With a very strict hierarchy.

There was the first wife,
secondary wives,

Freeborn concubines called
ersatu,

And then below that,

A whole rank of women
who were captives--

Basically little more
than sex slaves.

So women, often themselves
the spoils of war,

Formed part of
the lucrative trade

Coming and going
through these gates.

Even a high-status woman
like helen was a commodity

With diplomatic value.

To help me explore the nature
of late bronze age warfare,

I've been joined by
weapons expert mike loades.

Most ancient battles
started with a barrage
of missiles.

So there were bows,
there were javelins,

And there were slings.

And it's
a very simple weapon.

It's a stone and
a little pouch on a string.

And you simply...

Throw it.

And it can go quite a long way.

And you get 20, 30 people
like that throwing missiles

And then you really
pin the enemy down.

Probably the most iconic
weapon of this age, though,

Is the mycenaean
figure-of-eight shield.

And it's an insignum
of a goddess.

Hughes:
Yeah.

So maybe that shape
is simply doing that.

Showing the shape
of a woman?

Showing the voluptuous
shape of a curvy woman.

But I think
there's another reason

Which is structural.

If you look at this model--
little wicker model--

It hasn't really got
the figure in yet.

Something that big,
made like that,

Is very weak,
it's very pliable,

So spears, stones flying in,
it would simply do that.

But as soon as
I give it a waist,

Soon as I pinch it
and give it some shape,

Then the engineering
of curves...

Yeah, that's
much stronger.

...Gives it tremendous
structural strength.

Yeah.

So I think that's one reason
why they're like that.

Another reason quite possibly

Is so that they could
use their spears.

And it just gives
a good gap

For the spears
or the swords.

Both sides
would have had spears

And both sides
would have had swords.

Bronze age swords
are relatively short

But ideal both for
slashing and for thrusting.

( men grunting )

Now, what would a weapon
combination like that

Do against a weapon
combination like this?

You would think perhaps

This was
the superior system.

Obviously
the spear has got reach

And I can really
get in there.

If I get in
too close...

There are those
depictions

Of them getting
their swords

Over the top
of the shields.

If he defeats
the shield,

I can knock it away
with the spear

And I can clear him.

He, of course,
can use the sword.

It's not only used
for thrusting,

But also for cutting.

I can thrust
back at him.

And with all combat,

There's going to be
body checks and wrestling

And hard, physical stuff.

Perhaps a disadvantage
of the spear

Is it can be easily
knocked aside.

But an advantage is

It can be used
with both ends.

But what else would have been
coming out of the ships,

Because you haven't just got
your shields and your weapon.

Obviously they'd
have had their armor,

Which means more to them
than just protecting them.

Armor was something
to be prized.

Armor was the physical
incarnation of their honor.

Hughes:
So display is
incredibly important,

The impact
you made?

Glimmering in bronze
or gleaming in white--

Whatever
they're wearing,

They need
to look splendid.

I mean,
not a thousand ships, though?

No, I mean, I'm sure

That the thousand ships
is either an exaggeration

Or a metaphor for saying
"all our available resources."

What's the motivation
of the men

To follow menelaus?

The ships are going
to be privately owned.

The soldiers
are going to be
privately recruited.

The only thing
he can offer them

Is the rich pickings
of troy.

Hughes:
Homer goes on
about that:

You fight and then
you get a bit of booty;

You fight
and then you raid

The treasure
from the temple.

A thousand ships
is 30,000 men.

That's going to make
the rich pickings

Go around a bit thinly.

So I think it's
a much smaller force

Coming for fame, for glory,
menelaus for revenge,

And the rest
for the rich pickings.

Hughes:
Mike is going to undertake
further tests

Of late bronze age
fighting techniques.

But I want to discover

What it might have been like
to live in troy.

Because troy has been leveled
and then reoccupied

So many times
down the centuries,

As you walk through the ruins

It's hard to get a sense
for the remarkable dynamism

Of the late bronze age city.

But travel beyond
the dardanelles

And you'll find its
21st-century equivalent:

Istanbul.

Like ancient troy,
istanbul is a crossroads,

A cosmopolitan trading post
standing at the gateway

From the mediterranean
to the black sea.

When you come here, it's about
as close as you'll get

To the atmosphere
of bronze age troy.

We know that there they spoke at
least eight different languages,

And I've already heard
four around me.

There are people here from
both sides of the bosphorus,

From east and west.

And their one reason for
being here is to buy and sell.

The city is full of produce
from all over the world.

From local specialties...

To some luxuries
that would have been for sale

In the markets
of the late bronze age.

Excuse me?
Good afternoon.

Good afternoon,
welcome.

Do you have any rose petals?

Yes, I have.

Yeah?

Oh, lovely,
yeah.

Can I smell them?

Please.

Oh, that's lovely.

We know from linear b tablets
and fresco evidence

That the mycenaeans traded
in coriander and cumin

And rose petals and saffron.

It's lovely stuff that was worth
its weight in gold.

Only women were allowed
to pick this.

But what's really surprising
is the quantities

That they're trading in.

It's almost as if
the mycenaean aristocrats wanted

To scent mark their territory,
sort of proving in some way

That they had the time and money
to make themselves smell sweet.

So when homer talks about
helen dressed in fragrant robes

And lying asleep
in scented rooms,

It probably wasn't just
poetic imagination.

Back in the bronze age,
you find men and women buried

With bits of beaten bronze
like this,

Which were used as mirrors.

And people often imagined
helen in troy

Surrounded by
her female servants

And puffing herself with scents

And looking into
the golden mirrors

That young girls delight in.

And then way up till
to roman period and beyond,

You'll find helen actually
inscribed on mirrors.

It's almost as if
people imagined

That her beauty would reflect

Back onto the person
who was looking into them.

As a rich trading center,

The trojans were hardly
without friends--

Or at least commanding neighbors

Who wanted a piece of the
economic and political action.

Lying to the east
was the enormous hittite empire

That dominated much of the area

Right down to the frontier
with egyptian territories.

On the edge of
all of this was troy--

Known in the late bronze age
as wilusa--

Sandwiched between
the worlds of the hittites

And to the west,
the mycenaeans.

No written records
have survived in troy,

But their neighbors,
the hittites,

Were great bureaucrats.

And as a superpower,

The hittites were
intimately involved

In the life of the wealthy
maritime city of troy.

Their records allow us a glimpse
of trojan life and politics.

This is a lovely little piece
of evidence

That shows how strong
the ties were

Between the hittites
and the trojans.

It's a personal treaty between
the king of troy, alexander,

And the king of the hittites,
muwatallis ii.

Basically it's a pact
of nonaggression,

But it also sets down
the dynamic

Of the relationship
between the two.

The king of the hittites,
muwatallis,

Thunders, "if I write
to you, alexander,

"take charge of infantry
and chariots.

Send them to my aid
immediately."

It's very clear
who has the upper hand.

Muwatallis carries on.

"if you, alexander,
transgress the words

"that stand on this tablet,

"then the thousand gods of the
hittites shall eradicate you,

"your wife, your sons,
your lands, your cities,

"your threshing floor, your
fields, your cattle, your sheep.

"but if you observe these words,

You shall thrive
in the hand of my majesty."

It's only a little thing,
but it shouts loud and clear:

The hittites have muscle;

You have to keep
on the right side of them.

Study the hittites,

And the men and women who
inhabited this part of world

In the bronze age
start to come into focus.

I'm heading to
the hittite capital, hattusa.

It lies over 500 miles
to the east

In the high heartlands
of anatolia.

Even today, it takes
a good 12 hours

To drive to the hittite capital
from western turkey.

Like troy,
hattusa was an eastern city

Famed for its great wealth.

The classical greeks
made a lot of the fact

That helen wasn't just
lured away by paris

But by the wealth of the east.

There's a great line
in one of euripides' plays

Where hecuba, who's paris's
mother, spits out at helen:

"once you'd left
the spartan city,

"you looked forward to a deluxe
of extravagance in troy

"with its rivers of gold.

"menelaus's halls
weren't large enough

For your luxury to wanton in."

The classical writers
weren't exaggerating.

The trail I'm following
brings me this far east

Because here it's uniquely
possible to glimpse

The material wealth
and far-reaching influence

That some women enjoyed
at the time of helen.

Exploring hattusa,
you're again reminded

Why the aristocrats of the late
bronze age became legendary.

Their achievements over 3,000
years ago were extraordinary.

This spectacular rampart
is over a hundred feet tall

And 800 feet across.

It's a magnificent display
of royal authority,

Both to inhabitants
and visitors alike.

Like everything here,
entry was carefully controlled.

This corridor
was called yerkapu,

Which means
"the gateway into the earth,"

And it actually tunnels right up
through the rampart

And runs well over 200 feet.

Had you come here
3,000 years ago,

It would have been
a lot brighter

Because the floor
would've been painted white.

I suspect there'd have
been little lamps

In all these niches.

But it does make
a very theatrical

Impressive entrance to the city.

It's almost as if you're moving
from one world into another.

Once you finally emerged
from the tunnel,

You'd have been in no doubt

That you'd been embraced
by a superpower.

Hattusa is a massive complex.

Those square footprints
that you can see

Would all have been temples.

And beyond that,
there's a royal citadel,

And then as far
as the eye can see,

The land is controlled
by the hittites.

Not only that,
but hittite power can be felt

As far south as syria,
to the east in the euphrates,

And way, way out west in troy.

And that power was wielded
by both men and women.

It's a real treat
to be holding this,

Considering it was last used
over 3,000 years ago.

This is an imprint of a seal
of king hattusilis iii

And queen puduhepa.

You can see her name is written
down here phonetically:
Puduhepa.

It was actually quite common for
kings and queens to share seals

And for aristocratic women
to have

A degree of independence
from their consorts.

But puduhepa pushes things
that bit further.

She has her own seal,

And through sheer force
of character

Becomes one of the movers and
shakers of the late bronze age.

Some of the hittite queen's
correspondence,

With her personal seal attached,
still survives.

It shows that she could
face down the mightiest rulers

Of the region.

Puduhepa kept up
a correspondence

With all the great leaders
of the day,

And she had a particularly
feisty exchange

With the pharaoh of egypt,
rameses ii.

He was complaining that
she hadn't sent her daughter

To be married off to one
of the egyptians in the court,

And she replies, "I cannot give
my daughter to you right now

"because, as you well know,

The treasure house of hatti
has been burned out."

I.E., she can't send
her daughter

Because she hasn't got a dowry
to go with her.

But then puduhepa can't resist
adding in a little jibe.

"does my brother possess
nothing at all?

"only if the son of the sun god,
the son of the storm god

"and the sea have nothing,
do you have nothing.

"yet, my brother, you seek to
enrich yourself at my expense.

That is worthy of neither your
reputation nor your status."

She's clearly a woman who knows
how to stick up for herself.

It's further evidence
that the late bronze age,

The time of helen,

Was an era when forceful women
could make their mark.

The hittite treaties are made

In the names of individual
rulers, not states.

They bear this out as a period
when individual leaders

Could control the fate
of vast populations.

So this was an age of heroes
and of heroines.

Here in hattusa,
over 3,000 years ago,

Extraordinary documents
were written

That give a voice
to the age of helen.

They don't only tell us

About the powerful personalities
of their leaders,

But also how relations between
men and women were defined.

Reader:
"if a man sins with his mother,
it is an abomination.

"if a man sins
with his daughter,

"it is also an abomination.

"if a man has a wife
and the man dies,

"his brother shall take
his wife.

"then his father shall take her.

There shall be no punishment."

Hughes:
Hittite laws frequently cover

The breakdown of family
relations

And questions
of sexual consent--

Just the sort of issues

At the heart of the story
of helen and paris.

It might seem rather convenient
that the helen and paris story

Has all the ingredients
of a potboiler,

But back in the late bronze age,
just like today,

Rape and abduction and adultery
were live issues.

Quite a number of the tablets
found here at hattusa

Lay down the law
about who was to blame

And what kind of punishments
they should have.

For instance, one reads,

"if a man seizes a woman
in the mountains,

"it is the man's offense,
and he shall die.

"but if he seizes her
in the house,

It's the woman's offense,
and the woman shall die."

In other words,
if a woman is raped at home,

Then in hittite eyes,
she was asking for it.

"if the husband finds them
and then slays them,

There shall be no punishment
for him."

So if he catches them
in the act,

He can kill them with impunity.

Mind you, things were never
quite the same again,

Because if you were a cuckold,

It seems that you dropped
an entire social rank.

And when adultery reached
the ranks of aristocracy,

The crisis could escalate.

In one particular case, the
hittites had to be brought in

To cool down two states
who were at the brink of war

Because of the behavior
of a princess.

A royal bride had been sent
to the young king of ugarit.

Things didn't quite go to plan.

It seems that
she had a love affair

When she got to the court

And she was sent back home
in disgrace.

But then her husband
demanded her return,

Presumably to execute her.

The two states didn't
actually end up fighting,

But clearly this kind
of a problem

Could have international
significance.

And so the behavior
of a woman like helen

In the late bronze age

Could spark serious
diplomatic incidents.

The hittite records even give us
clues about strife over troy.

In one of the letters
from hattusa

To a king
of the mycenaean greeks,

We have direct evidence

That there were hostilities
over troy itself.

It's only a passing reference,
little more than a line,

But it speaks volumes.

"in that matter
of wilusa-- troy--

"over which we were at enmity,

"the king of the hittites
has changed his mind

"and we are now friends.

A war is wrong for us."

There is no question
that in the late bronze age

There was some kind
of a conflict over troy.

As more hittite texts
are translated,

It's becoming increasingly clear
that parts of homer ring true;

That his stories are rooted
firmly in the late bronze age.

I think homer is recalling
a series of conflicts over troy,

As evidenced
by the hittite tablets,

And he spun them into one story
centered around helen.

In this world, the dubious
behavior of a high-born woman

Would have been a valid excuse
to start a war,

Especially when the prize
was a city as valuable as troy.

It's therefore appropriate
that homer remembers helen

As an active protagonist
in the conflict.

When helen's at troy,

We hear that she spent
a great deal of her time

Weaving a giant tapestry--
such a rich, dark purple

It was the color
of congealed blood.

Onto it she was immortalizing
the deeds of the heroes,

The endless bloody struggles
of stallion-breaking trojans

And greeks armed in bronze,
homer says.

Bronze age women did weave,

But I think homer's telling us
something different here.

This is helen's story.

She's in charge.

It's helen who's pulling
together the threads

Of all these men's lives.

Homer composed the epic of helen
and the trojan war

400 years after the event,

But he was drawing on a bardic
tradition of storytelling

That had been repeating
the epic stories

Down through the centuries.

So some of homer's lines
do correspond directly

With late bronze age
archeological evidence

Such as the description
of armory

That had disappeared
by homer's era.

Odysseus, for instance,
is described

As wearing a helmet like this,
thickly covered in boar's tusks,

Typical of those actually
excavated from mycenaean sites.

So you sometimes have
accurate military detail

Heightened by dramatic poetry.

( man reciting in greek )

"the trojan squadrons advanced
with a clamor of weapons

"and shouting voices,

"wave upon wave, like birds
rising before the face of heaven

Promising evil strife
to their foe."

( man reciting in greek )

"but the greeks came on
in silence, breathing fury,

Resolved to stand
shoulder to shoulder."

Hughes:
But homer didn't simply
concentrate

On the macho posturings
of the heroes.

Like other greeks,

He saw an intimate connection
between war and lust.

We think of sex and violence
as distinct entities,

But for the greeks,

They were two sides
to the same coin--

Two primordial urges

That brought a great deal
of trouble to mankind.

It's easier to understand
the relationship between the two

When you remember how the greeks
regarded eros.

For them,
eros was not yet cupid--

A sweet little thing fluttering
across valentine cards--

But a rangy, malevolent boy
who invaded body and soul,

Grinding down your resolve
to a powder.

Like cupid,
eros did have arrows,

But his arrows were tipped
with a burning poison,

And you were just as likely
to find him on the battlefield

As you were in bed.

Before they went to war,

Spartan soldiers
would sacrifice to eros,

And homer uses the word
( speaks greek word )

To describe engagement

Both in the act of sex
and the act of war.

For the greeks,
there was no dividing line

Between the lust for love
and the lust for blood.

In homer's version
of the trojan war,

Written centuries after
the actual fighting,

Some of the lines clearly refer
to his own era, the iron age.

For instance, he describes
all the fighting

As taking place on foot,
whereas in the late bronze age,

The real time of the trojan war,

One weapon in particular
was supreme on the battlefield--

The chariot.

The time of helen abounds
with images of chariots at war.

This was the high-status weapon.

These carvings show the hittites
taking on the egyptians

At the battle of kadesh,

Contemporary with the era
of the trojan war.

( man bellows )

( horses neighing )

To investigate whether
this really was fighting

Fit for the mycenaean
and trojan heroes--

An ajax or a hector--

We've brought accurate,
replica late bronze age chariots

Back to the plains of troy.

Mike loades, an expert
in ancient weapons,

Has trained horses he's hired
from local gypsies to pull them.

Usually these animals
pull farm carts,

But today they're war horses.

They've got a lot to live up to.

The hittites wrote extensively

About how to get a horse
into peak condition.

( horse whinnies )

Hughes:
I'm very glad to see
you're grooming,

Because the hittites
were very keen

On their horse care,
weren't they?

Well, I mean, kikkuli,
kikkuli of the mitanni,

Wrote this wonderful text
which really...

It pays a lot of attention
to the grooming techniques

And really calculated
feeding regimes

To get them to peak fitness.

Yeah.

I'm not sure how fit these are.

You know, one day they would go
so many miles

And then they would rest,

And then the next day

They would have
certain things to eat,

And then they would do
so many miles trotting,

So many miles galloping,

And so building up--
just like an athlete--

Building up peak fitness.

And these would have been
superb equine athletes.

Hughes:
We wouldn't have done this
in the late bronze age--

It's men and women separately.

But we're not
in the bronze age.

Indeed-- we can
break a few rules.

Keep your legs flexed
to take the shock
of the bounce.

We'll go very sedately
to start with.

Fantastic.

Does it always, um,

Creak like this?

Get on!

Yeah, absolutely.

I mean it's... It's
a wonderful soundtrack

Of the bronze age,
isn't it?

There's the leather
and the wood

And it creaks
and the harness jingles

And that's what it sounds
like being on a chariot.

I love the bells.

I've never imagined
it had bells on them.

Yeah, well,
the bells are great,

Because the horse
have the bells on

All their life,
even when they're grazing,

So they're used to
that constant ringing.

And the function of that
is that becomes

The dominant sound
in their ear.

Get up, you lazy mare!

( hughes laughs )

And so all
the cacophony of battle,

They're going to hear that
in the background.

It's not going to spook them
and frighten them.

Hughes:
So it's always got their
familiar noise with them.

Well, homer talks a lot
about that--

About the screams
and cries of anguish
on the battlefield--

So I guess if they've
got that as a familiar

Then, as you say,
it's not going to spook them.

Get on!

( trills tongue )

They can really get on-- ha!

Get on!

( trills tongue )

Ha!

( laughing ):
They really can!

Whoa!

( loades encouraging horses )

Wow, she corners like
she's on rails!

( loades firing on horses )

Hughes:
Composing in the iron age,
homer describes chariots

As little more
than battle taxis,

Dropping off his heroes
to do the real fighting on foot.

( men shouting )

But the carvings show
that in the late bronze age,

Chariots were also used
in the heat of the action,

Sometimes pitched directly
against each other.

Our large hittite-style chariot

Is going to do battle with
this lighter mycenaean vehicle.

Hughes:
So this is
the greek chariot?

The traditional view
is that the mycenaeans

Wouldn't have
used them for warfare,

Just for taxis.

Loades:
At this period everybody is
fighting in chariots.

And if the mycenaeans have come
over here to fight

On this chariot country--

I mean, this is
chariot country.

Yeah, exactly.

So if they're going
to take them on,

And we know
they had chariots...

They're going
to use them.

( loades shouting )

Hughes:
To understand how chariots

Would have fought each other
in practice,

Mike has turned once again
to the ancient carvings.

They show chariots
as fast-moving firing platforms.

Loades:
The great thing
about the chariot

As a mobile missile platform

Is it can take the archer
where he needs to be

And then he can start
picking off the enemy.

You can get
really quite good accuracy,

Even over this terrain.

And of course I could have been
shooting at the horses.

( cheering )

Hughes:
In the late bronze age,

The bow was the weapon
of kings and pharaohs.

Not the case 400 years later
in homer's time.

For him,
bows weren't purely heroic.

Instead they were often
the weapon of the coward--

Killing at long range.

For example, he puts a bow
into the hands of paris

To kill unbeatable achilles.

And in the iron age,
this grand chariot warfare

Was nearly all gone as well.

But the larger-than-life
bronze age characters

Skilled in its practice,
outlived their time,

Surviving in popular imagination
and in homer's poetry.

Homer would have loved
all of this,

Because if you read the iliad,

It is almost
cover-to-cover gore.

I mean, he was bothered

By the inconsistencies
and messiness of war,

But he certainly didn't
mince his words

When it came to describing

The various gruesome ways
that men could die.

And this is a passage
from book 16,

And if you're squeamish,
you should cover your ears.

( reading in greek )

Hughes:
"idomeneus skewered erymas
straight through the mouth,

"the merciless brazen spearpoint
raking through

"up under the brain
to split his glistening skull.

"teeth shattered out,

"both eyes brimmed to the lids
with a gush of blood

"and both nostrils spurting,

Mouth gaping, blowing
convulsive sprays of blood

And death's dark cloud
closed down around his corpse."

And, of course, all this
was laid at helen's door.

It was just that one moment of

( speaks ancient greek )
is the greek word,

Abandonment,
that caused the deaths

Of thousands and thousands
and thousands of men.

Once again, it's eros and ares,
love and strife,

Sex and violence
walking together hand in hand.

( men shouting )

Loades:
Homer has latched on
to an oral tradition

Where heroes fought,
where people made their name.

( hooves thundering )

Loades:
Chariot warfare is spectacular;

It is show-offy;
it is glamorous.

So it is the sort of thing
they would do here

On this theater.

Hughes:
Yeah.

Loades:
If you're fighting
warfare like this,

People are going to make
their names--

Names that will last forever.

( men shouting )

Hughes:
Many of the most dramatic scenes
in homer

Involve heroic single combat.

In one of the most famous
episodes in the iliad,

Homer tells how paris agrees

To take on helen's aggrieved
husband menelaus

In full view of the city.

Helen's sitting in her rooms,

But iris, the messenger
of the gods, calls her out.

"you can't miss this," she says.

"your two husbands are fighting
to the death over you."

And as she walks onto the walls,

King priam asks her to pick out
the greek heroes.

"there's wily odysseus,"
she says.

"there's ajax--
he's a giant of a man.

There's red-haired menelaus."

And then she stands up here
in full view of everyone.

She's a prize for greeks
and trojans alike.

The old men of troy
start to gossip,

Whispering in their dry voices
like cicadas.

"ah, there she goes," they say.

"now I understand
why we're suffering such agony.

What beauty-- terrible beauty."

We've only got homer's word
for all of that,

But if you come to troy,
the archaeology fits.

I'm standing on the ramparts
of the royal citadel.

Just below me there,
that pile of stones

Is a late bronze age gate

Which has been blocked in
at some point.

Behind that there's the edges
of the town

And then just beyond
a broad, flat plain.

Travel west
and you hit beshik bay,

Where greek ships beached.

Everything points to this being
the perfect vantage point.

From here, helen could have
watched her two husbands

Fighting to the death.

Homer accounts it
as classic heroic single combat,

Heavy with ritual.

First of all,
the battleground is marked out.

The two fighters draw lots,
and paris hurls the first spear.

( man bellows )

It pierces menelaus's shield,

But doesn't wound him.

He then throws, but now paris's
shield holds firm.

Then the fighting becomes
less ordered, less honorable.

( armor clashing,
fighters grunting )

Helen's first husband grabs
paris by the helmet

And drags him back
to his comrades.

The greeks are going to hack
paris to death.

Yet once again,

Where there's violence,
sex is never far away.

Homer brings
the goddess of love, aphrodite,

Back into the story.

She covers the battlefield
in mist,

Releases the forlorn paris

And spirits him back to safety
in troy.

But aphrodite
hasn't finished yet.

She leaves paris stretched out
languidly on his bed

And goes to fetch helen,

Forcing her to pay homage
with aphrodisia--

The things of sex.

But helen doesn't want
to sleep with paris.

She's embarrassed by him;
he's dishonored her.

She tries to resist him;
she tries to fight aphrodite.

But you can't take on
the goddess of love and win.

The more helen pours scorn
on paris,

The more she provokes him,
the more lustful he becomes.

It's one of the most erotic
moments in the iliad.

"'but come,' paris says.

"'never has longing for you
overwhelmed me so.'

"he led the way to the bed.

"his wife went with him.

"and now while the two made love
in the large carved bed,

"menelaus stalked like a wild
beast up and down the lines.

Where could he catch a glimpse
of magnificent paris?"

The fighting rages on and on,
and one by one, the heroes fall.

Paris himself
is eventually killed--

Ironically
with a poisoned arrow.

Desperate to win the day,

The greeks come up
with an extraordinary plan.

If there really was
a trojan horse,

It certainly didn't look
like this one at troy today.

It's hard to imagine anyone
hiding troops in here.

The trojan horse has become
an icon of the war

And of the superiority
of greek brain

Over trojan brawn.

And it's helped to cement
helen's reputation as dangerous

And untrustworthy.

As she endeavors to betray her
greek kinsmen inside the horse,

She's once again
the archetypal fickle woman.

She walks around the horse
three times, stroking its flank.

As she goes, she imitates
the voices of the women

That the soldiers have left
behind them in greece,

Murmuring sweet nothings,

Calling out
the names of the heroes.

It must have been torture
for them.

They'd been on campaign
for ten long years.

But for once, helen's charms
weren't quite powerful enough,

And troy's fate was sealed.

As the city slept,
the greek heroes crept out

And threw open the gates.

The women of troy
were taken as slaves,

The men slaughtered.

And what of helen?

Was she cowering in a corner
of the city somewhere,

Or waiting, praying,

Desperate for menelaus to come
and rescue her?

Well, the greeks keep
their options open,

And they tell both sides
of the story.

On vast paintings
that portray the episode,

Helen's often plucking
at her veil,

And it's very difficult to tell

Whether she's covering
herself up in fear

Or loosening her clothes
to welcome menelaus back.

But whatever helen felt,

Menelaus just wanted
to kill her.

He tears through the city
hunting her down,

His sword held high.

And then when he sees her again,

All he wants
is to have her back.

The greek playwrights made
a great deal of this,

Saying it wasn't
helen's beautiful face,

But her beautiful breasts
that turned his hate to lust.

Once again, helen is an
irresistible force of nature.

The spartan queen
was returning home.

The ancients tell us
that beacons were lit

On summits across
the eastern mediterranean,

Exactly the way
in the late bronze age

That the news of the fall of
troy could have been carried

All the way back
to mycenae and sparta.

Meanwhile, helen and menelaus

Were taking a slower route home
by sea.

When they travel back to sparta,
they take with them

Many glittering treasures
to decorate their palace,

And one of the gifts that helen
is given is a golden spindle.

A golden spindle has been found
in a bronze age grave.

So once again, homer isn't just
concocting a fairy tale;

He's itemizing specific details
from the distant past.

Helen and menelaus eventually
return to their palace

High above the spartan plain.

This is one of the most
surprising points

In homer's story,

Because there are hardly
any recriminations.

Helen's a home wrecker--
she's destroyed men's lives--

And yet she seems to be
getting off scot-free.

Once she's back in sparta,

She's in charge of the palace
once more.

She welcomes trojan war veterans
to her halls,

Mixing up a magical brew.

Into the potion she slips drugs

That will make them
forget everything,

Soothing away the pain

Of the psychological
and physical wounds

That she has caused.

She might be playing
the good wife,

But she's still a sorceress.

So even in her later years,

Helen still crackles
with danger.

She still controls things,
undimmed by her disgrace.

But, like a flame that burns
brightest before it gutters,

Helen and her golden age
of heroes

Were about to be extinguished.

Archaeologists have discovered

That shortly after the period
of the trojan war,

Round about 1200 b.C.,

The civilizations
of the eastern mediterranean

All suffered major catastrophes.

The hittite empire collapsed.

At troy, there's evidence
of destruction

By earthquake and fire.

And in mycenae, the figures in
the cult center were stowed away

And the palace appears to have
gone up in flames.

The dark ages had come
to greece.

There were great fires here
in the spartan citadel, too.

The only clue we have
to the human tragedy

Are three skeletons--

One of a woman about 30 years
old who'd been trussed up

And then hurriedly buried
in a shallow grave,

And two small children.

From now on, this palace
would be abandoned.

But helen refuses to go away.

If there's one thing
I've learned about her,

It's that she's a survivor.

Civilizations might come and go,
but no one forgets her name.

And although down the centuries

The beautiful helen
came to be vilified,

Here at sparta she lived on,
a vital life force,

Worshipped as a godlike
creature.

And on this hill, right next
to the spartan palace--

Her likely bronze age home--

This shrine was raised to
menelaus and his wandering wife,

A place known for centuries
simply as "helen's temple."

Helen had moved from real woman
to sublime beauty.

There'd have been a small
wooden idol of helen up here,

And men and women would have
come to pay their devotions

To their dynamic heroine.

They left her gifts
and made sacrifices in her name.

Archaeologists have found

A little perfume jar
inscribed to her

And a fleshhook used
for hanging sacrificial meat.

It's helen who's given the honor

Of what has to be one of
the most spectacular locations

In the whole of greece.

I'm convinced that helen, the
gorgeous spirit worshipped here

And the fatal beauty
at the heart of homer's epic,

Derived from a woman
of real flesh and blood.

The earliest written sources
for helen describe

A brilliant and brutal queen,

And that is an accurate picture
of the late bronze age world.

There's no doubt that here
at sparta there lived

A dazzling, aristocratic woman

Who had a special relationship
with her gods

And who controlled the lives
of the men around her.

A figure of such power and
allure couldn't be allowed

To fade from history.

She'd inspire desires,
fantasies and fears

For millennia.

Helen was remembered
as such a vital force

That her name
came to be associated

With a number
of natural phenomena.

She has her own flower--
helen's flower, the helenium--

That was said to have
sprung from her tears.

And st. Elmo's fire,
that vivid electrical charge

That can occur
during storms at sea,

Was throughout antiquity
known as helena.

A belief in helen's
natural strength

Still exists in greece today.

Here at a little peloponnesian
town named loutro elenis

Are the baths of helen.

For 2,000 years, people have
been coming here to honor helen.

It's a really curious little
spot, because you've got

This mountain stream gushing out
into the aegean,

And apparently if you stand
right in the epicenter,

Then the jets have got
magical restorative powers,

So you go... Right down
where it's really cold!

Oh, it's really cold.

I don't know if it's giving me
helen's beauty,

But it's certainly invigorating.

And the spring still draws
a steady stream of bathers

Seeking the healing power
of helen.

What kinds of things
does the spring cure?

In the ancient world,

Fertility idols were often
brought to springs

To be ritually cleansed,

And aphrodite,
the goddess of love herself,

Was born out of the sea.

So I think what's happening here
is that helen's being remembered

As a woman of such potent
and extraordinary sex appeal

That when she's worshipped,

She's being worshipped in a way
appropriate to a sex goddess.

Throughout my journey,
I've seen that as a sex goddess,

Helen's been
perpetually hijacked

For the purposes
both of men and women.

Homer made her
the excuse for war,

Her abduction justifying
the death of thousands,

A dangerous ally of the gods.

In greek plays,
she's an effortless manipulator,

The cause of hatred
between east and west.

Right through history,
she's been an object lesson

In women as victims--
sometimes passively,

Sometimes as rape fantasy.

At other times,
she's the skilled seductress,

The powerful woman able
to control men to suit her will.

But women revered her
for her potency and beauty.

Spartan girls rode chariots
in her honor

And danced by the river

To recall her coming-of-age
and marriage,

Hoping to catch
some of her charis--

Charisma and sexual power.

From greece to hollywood,
helen the myth endures.

But what
of the bronze age helen--

The spartan queen who lived
in the peloponnese

Over 3,000 years ago?

With her palace obliterated,
no evidence has ever been found

For a tomb of helen.

But we do know how a mycenaean
aristocrat of helen's status

Would have been buried.

Magnificent tombs
of the late bronze age

Have been excavated
across the peloponnese.

A spartan queen would probably
have been buried

In one of these vast
man-made caverns.

It's still easy to imagine
that echoing cacophony

As official mourners
extolled the dead.

We can piece together
the ceremony

From archaeological discoveries
in tombs.

The corpse would be laid down
on the ground or on a bench

And surrounded with rich goods.

In one grave,
a woman's been buried

With a bronze mirror pressed
right up close against her face.

Religious figurines
were placed around the body.

Daggers have been found
in women's graves...

Along with the tools used in
life to enhance their beauty.

The corpse was finally
covered in a shroud

Decorated with gold.

There'd be little incense
burners here and oil lamps, too.

A final toast would be made,
the final libation poured,

And then the tomb
would be closed

And the woman would be
left alone in the dark.

Because the late
bronze age tombs

Of the king and queen
of sparta have disappeared,

We will never find helen's body.

And so it seems her prophecy
from the iliad,

That she has an evil destiny

To be a singer's theme
for generations to come,

Will always be fulfilled.

Until we've seen helen
as a dry, dusty corpse,

A sad, flawed mortal,

We will never stop
fantasizing about her,

Never stop blaming her

For being the most beautiful
woman in the world.

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access.Wgbh.Org