All language subtitles for Greek Island Odyssey with Bettany Hughes Series 1 Part 1 1080p

I'm Bettany Hughes,
and I want to take you

on the ultimate adventure
across the Greek islands.

This has to be one of the most
exciting places on Earth, a place

full of mystery and wonder and tens
of thousands of years of history

and human experience.

A cradle of civilisation, the Greece
of the ancient world hothoused.

Everything from democracy
to medicine.

It gave us the Olympics,
engineering triumphs

and some of the most epic stories
of all time,

stories that have been passed down
for thousands of years

and that still influence us today.

SHOUTING

One of the very greatest centres
on the Greek hero Odysseus,

the legendary warrior
whose cunning won the Trojan War.

After the victory,

he begins a long journey home
to the far west of Greece,

BCFOSS thGSG S885.

His story, The Odyssey,
is a brilliant hail of triumph

over adversity and danger, inspiring
books, movies and adventures.

And on my personal odyssey,

I'm following Odysseus's path
from east to west.

I want to try to experience what
he experienced...

Whoa!

...make amazing new discoveries...

It's just perfect.
Still bright yellow, isn't it?

...enjoy the delights
of ancient Greece today...

Mm!

...and uncover the truths

behind these fabulous myths
and legends...

They killed one young lady.

...to see how they can help us
understand the world

and ourselves.

Join me on this epic voyage,
my Greek odyssey.

I've been travelling here
for 30 years.

It's a hot spot of human history

and where Odysseus's story is set.

Now, it's debated whether he was
a real or a mythical hero,

but his journey has become
the stuff of legend.

The story of Odysseus
is so incredible that the word

for an epic journey, an odyssey,
comes from his name.

And it is an epic tale.

After leading the Greeks to victory
in the brutal Trojan War,

Odysseus sets off for home,

but his voyage
doesn't quite go to plan.

Odysseus gets high on drugs,

he's seduced by goddesses,

he battles monsters...

A journey that should have taken
weeks ends up taking ten years.

We're told Odysseus's voyage
took him from the battlefields

of the Trojan War in present day
Turkey to his home in Ithaca.

So, like him, I'm beginning
my 1,700 mile odyssey

just off the Turkish coast,
where - I've been tipped off -

an underwater archaeology team
is making some extraordinary

discoveries,
revealing hidden history

and the titanic challenges

our hero would have faced
on the seas.

It's a graveyard of lost ships.

58 wrecks spanning 2,500 years
litter this seabed around Fourni.

These waters are as dangerous today
as they were for the ancient Greeks.

So, this is the bit of the journey
where the seas start to get slightly

more treacherous,
and you can understand why

there are lots of shipwrecks
around here.

I think I'm going to
sit down for a bit.

Whoa!

Archaeologist George Koutsouflakis
and his underwater cameraman

Vassilis are about to explore
a wreck that dates back

over 1,500 years.

Hello, hi!

And they've invited me along
as they dive

45m down to the sea floor.

Bettany. Hey, nice to see you.
I'm George.

How lovely to see you.

We had a bit of weather coming
over here. Yeah.

It was a little bit rough.

Is it OK to dive today?

Fantastic.

And what do you hope
you're going to find down there?

Yeah.

I know there are
a lot of wrecks here.

But why? You know, why does it
happen on this particular stretch?

OK. The White Cape of Death.

That sounds like, "Let's go!"

Only specialist divers
can brave these waters.

Here, the freakish winds
whip round like a whirlpool.

In one of the most famous stories
of The Odyssey, our hero is almost

sucked into a monstrous whirlpool
called Charybdis.

Already, I'm seeing
how the epic tales relate

to real conditions here.

So while George and Vassilis venture
to the sea floor,

we're going to wait
in this sheltered bay.

But just as we get settled,

the weather takes a turn
for the worse.

I'm on a Greek island odyssey,

following the trail
of the legendary warrior Odysseus.

After he left Troy
on today's Turkish coast

to travel to his home,

the island of Ithaca in the west.

To understand the dangers he faced,

we're exploring an ancient ship,

wrecked as it travelled to trade
across the Mediterranean.

Underwater archaeologist
George and cameraman Vassilis film

what they find -
untouched human history.

George and Vassilis
have been gone two hours.

But then a familiar boat appears.

I'm glad they're OK.
It was pretty gnarly out there.

Hey, guys. Are you OK?

You look tired.

Was it? Yeah.

Was it? Yeah, yeah. Was it?

Gosh, you're heroes.

THEY LAUGH

These are my two Odysseuses.

Huge containers.

George and Vassilis have found
what's left of a merchant vessel,

wrecked over 1,500 years ago.

The seabed here
is littered with amphorae,

huge jars used to ship olive oil,
wine and grain.

They are astonishingly
well-preserved.

So, the Black Sea?

I love... Chios, I'm planning
to spend time there.

Yeah. Because it's, you know, where

some of the stories
of Odysseus begin. Yeah, yeah.

Look at - it's huge, isn't it?

What are they transporting
in that amount?

That's enormous!

And I was just going to say,
it's disgusting.

So garum is this, like,
fermented fish sauce

and it's, for us...
SHE GAGS

Oh, my God, it's so horrible.
But they loved it.

The Romans couldn't get
enough of it.

That's amazing.

You can see. So it's just like
a pile, like a stack of plates

from a cafe or something.

But still in their original
position. God, George,

this is so incredible.

That is so beautiful
to see that, isn't it?

Are there any human remains there?

Because obviously the sailors
would have would have gone down...

...most of them would have gone
down with the ship.

Yes. Yeah.

But I mean, it makes you...
All of this...

Oh, my God,

it really makes you respect
those sailors and heroes.

You know, what you've just done
is pretty heroic.

But it is! It is, guys.

And if you think what they were
doing 3,000 years ago, I mean,

they were good sailors,
but they're absolutely

up against the elements and whatever
the god of the sea throws at them,

aren't they?

No.

And we're about to find out
how Odysseus might have felt.

A weather report's come in,
and a storm is on its way.

OK, so this is
an interesting development.

We can currently tell it from here,
but it is really,

really rough out there.

There's a serious wind blowing up.

So, apparently, we might be
stuck here, in this bay.

If we don't leave now,
we could be stranded here

for the next three days.

So it's definitely time to set sail.

It makes you realise,
when they set out in seas like this,

those ancient sailors
had no idea whether they'd come back

alive or not.

The conditions finally calmed down.

But experiencing such rough weather
makes you realise how essential

it is to have a really good captain.

Luckily, I'm heading to Chios,
an island that boasts some

of the very best captains and crews
in the whole of Greece.

It's also claimed to be
the birthplace of Homer,

who composed The Odyssey.

And it's home to an old friend
who's helping me plan the logistics

for the next 200 miles
of my journey.

Hello!

Hey!

Oh, my goodness.

Hello, Bettany, welcome back.

Oh, thank you.
Nice to see you again in Chios.

How lovely to see you.

How lovely to see you. Let's go.
Let's go. Fantastic.

I met George when I came to Chios
to research one of my first books,

and now he's helping me prepare

for the next leg
of my ambitious odyssey.

I'm very happy to see you
in Chios again.

I thought it would be a good place,
because this is the island

that claims it has the best sailors,
the kind of best sailing conditions.

Well, here deserves that, because
in the vein of the people of Chios,

the sea is circulating.

That's good... That's good to hear.

They've got sea water
running in their veins.

We have the right boat
and the qualified captain.

Great.

It's so beautiful.

Hi, yasas, hi.

Hi, Bettany. Hi, Bettany.

Nice to see you.

Yamas. Yamas. Yamas.

Thank you, thank you so much.

Yasas, pedia! Yasas. Aw, yasas.

Look, George, I've got this, um...

This is the kind of plan of
where I'm going to go. Uh-huh.

I'm going to put my specs on.

So, basically, we're here, in Chios.

We're going out to Lesbos and kind
of zigzagging through these islands,

and then go all the way round
to Ithaca, where we finish.

This is an unbelievable trip.

You will meet different cultures
and different people,

but we are all original Greeks.

Aw! OK.

Well, I'm... No, I'm a...

Honestly, I can't tell you
how excited I am.

Shall I give you a quick telephone
call when I arrive safely in Ithaca?

No, I want a call every morning.

Do you?
SHE LAUGHS

OK.

Because this is a real odyssey.

It IS an ambitious journey, but
I'm hoping that one of the oldest

Greek customs will help us
on our way.

This is Greek salad.

Perfect for me.
Whenever I've come here,

I've always been welcomed like this.

Oh, nice.

Yeah? What is this?

This is... Green ball.

Yes, special ball with herbs.

A ball with herbs!
Spinach, onions, everything.

Lovely. Charming. Local, of course.

Of course. Of course.

So I'm always welcomed like this

when I come, because there's
this amazing Greek tradition

which actually goes right the way
back to ancient times, of xenia.

You're very proud of xenia here.

And it means
that you have to welcome strangers

and you have to make them feel
as though they're the most important

person at the table.

I'm certainly getting that.

George is hovering with...
What's this?

Tomato balls. Tomato balls.

Tomato balls, cheese...
Local tomato balls.

Thank you. Efcharisto poli.

Many kinds of...many kinds
of vegetarian food here.

And it's really interesting to me,
this, because in ancient Greece,

it was almost as though xenia
was the mark of a civilisation.

You couldn't be civilised
unless you offered

hospitality to strangers.

That's true, isn't it? Yes.
Xen-IA. Ah, OK. Xenia.

We always welcome visitors with
defend local tradition and food.

And original food. Yes.

Yes!

TRADITIONAL GREEK MUSIC

We share food, wine and dancing
late into the night.

Even our cameraman Tim is persuaded
to down tools and get stuck in.

It's a timeless send-off

for the next phase
of my epic adventure.

SHIP HORN BELLOWS

So with Greek songs of life
on the open seas ringing in my ears,

I'm heading to my next island.

Just 45 miles from here is Lesbos,
where our hero Odysseus landed

for a gorilla attack. To get there,

George has put me in contact
with one of the best captains

on the island,

a fourth generation sailor
called Nikos.

George has told me to look out
for a boat called Nemesis,

which is the name
of the Greek goddess

of fate and retribution.

So I hope that's not a bad omen.

I can't actually see the name,
but I think this is it.

Looks like it.

Hi. Are you Nikos?
Hello, hello, hello. Hi.

Hi. Welcome.

Oh, thank you. Welcome to Greece.

Aw, thank you.

Bye.

Thank you, efcharisto.

I was just going through my bag,

and I found that George has left me

a little gift from Chios to take
with me on my journey,

and I know what these things are.

They're absolutely lovely.

So they're called tama or tamata,

and they're basically like
kind of religious good luck charms.

So you've got a boat to keep
you safe on a boat and a heart.

How sweet is that?

So I don't know whether the idea is

I've left my heart in Chios
or I'm taking the love of Chios

and the islanders with me
on my journey.

I particularly love these things
because they actually used them

3,500 years ago.

But isn't that brilliant
that these are little things

that have power in the ancient world

and still have power
in the modern world today?

Now, the reason Odysseus travelled
so far from his home,

west of the Greek mainland,
was to fight in the Trojan War,

which all started
with another famous Greek,

Helen of Troy, heralded as the most
beautiful woman in the world.

Basically, she falls in love
with a handsome Trojan prince,

Paris,

who then whisks her off to Troy.

As you can imagine, Helen's husband
is not best pleased by this.

Odysseus summons up
the Greek heroes

so they can go and fight

to put on a bloody, brutal ten-year
siege to try to win her back.

But before they launch
their offensive against Troy,

the Greeks raid Lesbos.

Odysseus attacks the locals
mercilessly.

SWORD SLICES

His eagerness to loot and raid
earned him the nickname

Sacker of Cities.

Thank you.

Lesbos is home to an intriguing
architectural treasure that tells us

just how important
these bloodthirsty legends were

to the ancient Greeks.

This was the greatest theatre
in the ancient world.

Theatres were the ancient Greek
equivalent of a Cineplex.

Huge crowds would have flocked
here to watch stories sparked

by tales of the Trojan War
and the adventures of its heroes,

one way that myths were passed
down through the generations.

Roman troops conquered Lesbos
in 88 BC

and were inspired to make copies
of this very theatre

across their vast territories.

One influential Roman general
was so impressed by this place,

he determined to build his own one,
only bigger and more splendid,

and that would become the
first-ever stone-built theatre in Rome

that was copied and replicated right
the way across the Roman Empire.

Where I'm walking now was originally
called an orchestra -

which, of course,
gives us our word orchestra -

and it means a singing
or a dancing place.

There's another cool word here -
that slope,

that was the theatron,
which gives us our word theatre,

but a theatron in Greek
actually means a seating place.

And we know that this theatre
at Mytilene could seat

up to 10,000 spectators.

MUFFLED CHEERING OF CROWDS

Now, this wall here is frankly a bit
odd, because you never normally get

walls like this in Greek theatres,

but there's a very good reason
that it's here.

When the Romans took over,
they slightly adapted this theatre.

They were definitely
more bloodthirsty than the Greeks,

and they loved
their gladiatorial games.

So rather than
just watching theatre here,

they put on gladiatorial contests,
and they had to build this wall

because these are fights
to the death.

I mean, they were really gruesome
and gory and bloody.

And they built this
so that the spectators behind

could be protected
from the action down here.

Come over here. I just want to show
you something really great.

OK. At first glance, this might
just look like a pile of rubble,

but it's actually something much,
much, much more exciting than that.

Just a couple of months ago,

archaeologists discovered
a whole new temple here.

So this was built by the Romans,

and it was a temple to the goddess
Nemesis, the goddess

of fate and retribution.

And, of course, that makes sense,
if you think about it,

because gladiators were fighting
here, fighting to the death,

meeting their match,

and so they had to try to keep
the goddess of fate on their side.

It's a reminder that the gods
were ever present in the lives

of the ancients,
even in entertainment.

Now, as well as theatre,
there's another great tradition

we can thank the ancient Greeks for,

and I'm on my way
to discover what this is.

When I first came to the Greek
island of Lesbos to research

its ancient history, I explored
this beautiful place by jeep.

And now I'm back, following the
trial of one of the world's original

action heroes, wily Odysseus.

We know from the Odyssey that
after being caught in a storm

or a particularly tough journey
that there was nothing our hero

liked better
than a hot soaking bath.

And luckily for him - and me -
many Greek islands boast

natural volcanic hot springs.

Now, you might associate bathing
with the Romans, but centuries

before them, baths here tapped
these mineral-rich waters

from over 2km underground.

Welcome. Oh, hi. Bettany.
Hi, nice to meet you. Hi.

PURRING

Hello, beautiful.

Oh, these waters are really lovely

because they're just above
blood heat.

But in some places on the island,
the temperatures in the waters

can rise to as much as
90 degrees centigrade.

And they are absolutely
packed with minerals.

You have people coming here
day in, day out to treat all kinds

of different conditions
like arthritis and bronchitis.

I'll tell you what I really, really
love about this place is the fact

that people have been coming here
to take the health benefits

of the waters - and writing
about it, too -

for over 2,500 years.

Even here in the hot tub, it's clear
the Greek tradition of xenia,

welcoming strangers as friends,
is still going strong.

So I've been invited into
this volcanic Jacuzzi by some

very friendly locals
who are enjoying volcanic waters.

In the traditional baths, you had to
be naked to enter them. Naked?!

Now...
Now they don't allow this.

There was a lot of gossiping.

That's interesting!

So people used to gossip
about each other?

They used to, like,
criticise their bodies? Eh...

But it's still love me.
I love it.

Even with swim suits,
it's beautiful being here,

in these hot baths.
She's great. She's very jolly.

I love the fact she's holding
on to me as well.

We're having a kind of like
hand-holding session underneath...

...underneath the water here.
I love Elvira.

So why...why do you come here?

SHE SPEAKS GREEK

She sort of likes it here.

She's not coming often. Oh.

SHE SPEAKS GREEK

They...they bring her. Oh!

She prefers... She has one at home.

She prefers to stay at home.

That's brilliant!

Elvira... I thought Elvira
came here every day,

you know, it made her the healthy...

But she doesn't like coming here!

She just came
because her friends came.

Well, you look very healthy,
Elvira.

HE TRANSLATES

Yeah.

Healthy and jolly is what the water
here seems to do to people.

Bathing together gave
the early Greeks a real sense

of community - somewhere
they could chat and share ideas.

But the volcanic landscape here
is both a blessing and a curse.

Where three plates
in the Earth's crust meet,

these islands have been plagued
by natural disasters...

...and man-made ones, too.

Lesbos has long been the refuge
for those fleeing nearby wars.

Some things haven't changed
since ancient times.

So this is the biggest refugee camp
on the island

that I'm just going past.

It was originally built
for 3,000 people,

and there's well over 10,000.

You know what's so awful,
seeing this?

Is that this is a part of the world

where, actually,
refugees have been coming

not just for decades
or for centuries,

but for thousands of years.

Fleeing wars in Asia Minor
and the Middle East,

it's just so tragic
that it doesn't stop.

We're told the Trojan War generated
a mass exodus of refugees

from what is now Turkey.

Some became legendary themselves,
like the Trojan hero Aeneas.

His descendants, Romulus and Remus,
so it's said, would go on to found

the city of Rome.

In both ancient and modern times,
migration has shaped these islands,

and I'm now heading back
across the seas to a place famous

for building the ships that carried
people across these waters -

the island of Samos.

I'm going to release these ropes
so you can hold the wheel.

Sure. Keep the course straight.
Oh... Right.

I'm going to open...
Like actually...

I'm going to open the zipper.

Because am I actually steering it?
You're steering it, yes.

OK. OK...

There's this... You know those
lovely lines of The Odyssey

when they talk about the sails
bellying out suddenly,

like a lady's belly.

OK, straight on the mountain.

OK. Where the clouds are. OK.

Yes, Captain.

I'll do it. And I'll try and miss
the massive boat in front of us.

HORN BELLOWS

In his story Odysseus managed
to navigate these seas with basic

wooden sailing ships, even rafts.

A relief to see that Captain Nikos
sails with the latest technology.

That's cool. ls this us?
Yes, that's us. Ah, cool.

This is the course we're heading.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

200 years ago,

they have these instruments.

I mean, there was... Always,
there was an idea that the people

in ancient Greece, they used
to follow the coast.

But, no, they didn't. No.

They knew how to navigate
in the open sea.

You know, the story is that
Odysseus took ten years,

to Ithaca from Troy.

I mean, just directly,

how many clays do you think
it would've taken him to sail that?

With any kind of conditions,

I mean, like, 20 days,
one month. Maximum? Maximum.

No more. Ten years sailing
in the Mediterranean...

It's impossible. True.

But he kept on getting distracted.

All sorts of things happen to him
along the way, don't they?

Yeah. Quite easy...

Odysseus was waylaid by the delights
of these islands.

And we know heroes like him
and real ancient sailors

provisioned their boats
with local delicacies.

I don't... I think
it would be very hard, Nikos,

for it to be more idyllic right now.

Is it? Well, what could be...?

Just tell me one thing
that would make it more beautiful.

It's impossible.
There isn't anything.

We've got some honey. Mm!

I love proper Greek honey.

Yeah. Bread with it. Bread.

Ah! Look at that.

It's like liquid gold, isn't it?

It's so lovely.

Thank you.

Mm!

That is fantastic!

In The Odyssey, our hero
is shipwrecked

on the mythical island of Ogygia,

where, after a stay of seven years,

he singlehandedly builds
another boat to continue home.

Now, I've always wondered
where this island was meant to be.

So I've come to the real life
boat-building capital

of the Greek islands, Samos...

...which would have been an ideal
place. In ancient times,

Samos was a rich and powerful
city state with a fantastic navy.

It's all down to the plentiful
forests of supple wood

that cover the island.

These pine forests
are the island's secret weapon.

Pine is the perfect wood to make
boats,

just like the wooden ships

that Odysseus
and his crew sailed in,

and Samos ended up commanding
100 ships,

and not just any old boat,
but warships,

which meant this island
was uber powerful.

Samos may be able to give you
the best wood for your boat,

but to really succeed
in your journey, Odysseus

and the ancient Greeks believed
they had to get the blessings

of the gods.

And not too far from the beautiful
forests is a wonderful site claimed

by the Greeks to be
the largest temple in the world.

This has to be one of the most
romantic places in Greece,

and it's got a pretty romantic
story attached.

It was said that this was
the birthplace of the goddess Hera,

and it's also where she married
the king of the gods, Zeus,

making her the kind of first lady
of the Greek pantheon.

In the adventures of Odysseus,
it was Hera who helped the Greeks

win the Trojan War.

As soon as you arrive, you get
a real sense of the status

of Hera in this place
because it's approached

by this beautiful, sacred way.

It was the road that led
from the ancient town

right to the temple.

This site was actually so rich

that most of it has been nicked
down the centuries.

So there are hardly any stones left
here, but you just have to try

to imagine this place in its heyday.

It would have been a brilliant,
buzzing, heady, cosmopolitan place.

MUFFLED MUSIC PLAYS

We also know that sailors,
like the mythical Odysseus,

came here to leave offerings
to the goddess Hera in exchange

for safe passage.

So when archaeologists were
excavating here, they found tiny

fragments of what was originally
a 30m-long ship

that was dedicated here
to the goddess

over 2,500 years ago.

In the adventures of Odysseus,
there's a beautiful description

of the goddess Hera preparing
to seduce her husband Zeus.

She oils her body with olive oil
and kneads her skin with perfume

and dresses her hair

so it tumbles down in these
kind of lustrous tendrils.

So the two of them obviously enjoyed
a pretty hot relationship.

But the problem was
Zeus was not a faithful husband

and he continually had affairs
with mortals

and priestesses and goddesses.

And as you can imagine,
Hera was not too pleased about this.

And the two of them often had
the most almighty rows.

After one infidelity,
Hera was so furious,

she took herself off,
and with her pure rage,

managed to make herself pregnant
without the involvement of any man.

But there was a problem.

When the child was born,

Hera considered him to be so ugly,
she threw him off Mount Olympus.

The mountain in mainland Greece

where the premiere gods
and goddesses

were believed to hang out.

Now, that young child would become
the god Hephaestus,

the God of volcanoes,
and the Greeks explained

the fire and fury
of volcanic eruptions

as a fact of Hephaestus's

dramatic and traumatic conception
and childhood.

What I love about these legends
is the insight they give us

into human nature. Notjust
worshipped, the gods were used

as a model for how humans should
and shouldn't behave.

The Greeks sought wisdom
of all kinds -

not just myths,

but also maths.

And I want to take you
to the birthplace here

of an ancient Greek whose
mathematical genius touches

all of our lives.

When you come to a beautiful
little Greek fishing harbour,

then mathematical theories
probably aren't the first thing

that would spring to mind.

But this place
is called Pythagoreio,

and it was home to arguably one of
the most influential mathematicians

in the story of the world.

Hello, my dear. Hello.

A nice salad.

Lovely, lovely Greek salad.
Thank you. Here we go. Delicious.

Special wine leaves, home-made.
Yeah.

Great. And we have
the thick aubergine rolls.

Thank you. With grated thyme
and herbs. Perfect. Thank you.

Thank you. Efcharisto.

So Pythagoras lived and worked
here most of his life.

We think he actually taught
his students in a cave.

And, of course, one of
the brilliant things that he came

up with was his theorem,
which probably bugged

you all at school, which was...

...A squared plus B squared

equals C squared.

And it's a bit of geometry
that allows all kinds of things

to happen - architecture
and technology and science.

So that is obviously very cool.

But as well as the grand challenges
of civilisation, Pythagoras also

seems to have applied his brilliance
to the temptations of the flesh.

LIQUID POURING
Genuinely, genuinely impressive.

I'm on the Greek island of Samos,
the birthplace of an ancient Greek

whose mathematical genius
has made a difference

to each and every one of us.

I'm talking about Pythagoras.

I'm told there's a souvenir
that I absolutely have to get,

which apparently is a cup invented
by Pythagoras, which I have to say

I find slightly hard to believe,

but I'm going to go
and check it out.

Hi. Hello.

I've heard about
this Pythagoras cup.

The ancient writers talk about it,

and they say that basically
it stops you getting drunk.

But I don't... Yes, there is a line
here, that is the limit. Uh-huh.

So if I put water or wine
until the line...

Stop there. OK.

Here, I'm OK.

If I put more and pass the line,
then I lose everything.

How does that work?

That's really... Because
you can't see any holes inside.

Yes, but actually
there are three holes.

Are there? How does that work?

You must see the inside

to understand how it works. OK.

That's genuinely,
genuinely impressive.

So you see, it's totally empty.

Yes, totally empty.

That's very tragic.

All your wine gone.
And now is the mystery.

There are two holes here
and one here. Yeah.

So the water passes
from that two holes,

it comes up here,

and when it reaches that hole,
that is the line outside.

Then it makes a syphon, and the air
press all the water down.

That's extremely sneaky!

So it's like a kind of...

It's a sort of... Well, it's a kind
of morality lesson

and a kind of practicaljoke
at the same time. Yes, exactly.

It's a lesson for the life.

Don't want more and more and more,

because, at the end,
you have nothing.

You see, that is one of the reasons
I love Greece, ancient and modern,

because there are these little kinds
of, you know, little life lessons

in everything, even in
a simple thing like a cup.

Pythagoras made this
for his students

because he want all to drink
the same quantity of wine.

So it's a little. Yeah.
Good. Good for him.

I'll have those. Thank you so much.

Brilliant.

Genius.

A full cup of wine
and a morality lesson,

all in one swift purchase.

Thank you.

It's said that Pythagoras designed
his cup in the 6th century BC,

when Greek civilisation flourished,
leaving us feats of ingenuity

we can still marvel at today.

And there's one here
I really want to show you -

an underground aqueduct,

built to supply the city state
of Samos with fresh water all year

round so the city could survive
a siege, a fate suffered by Troy

during the Trojan War.

You know why it's narrow?

Helping me explore
is archaeologist Irene Haralambakis.

Look up.

Up there? Yep. Wow.

Work began
in the mid-6th century BC,

with two teams digging
simultaneously from either side,

carving a kilometre-long tunnel

through the solid rock.

Putting their geometric theories
to the test -

pretty impressively -
they managed to meet in the middle.

You are out of the narrow part.

Now you can breathe and stand up.
Look at this!

This is amazing.

It goes all the way through
the mountain, one kilometre.

This is just a tiny fraction
of what you're seeing.

Incredible.

And that would have fed
the city for...

...1,500 years, then?

Yeah. Yeah. Over 1,000 years.

Really remarkable.

And why was it so important
for them to create this?

It was the solution to a very simple
problem - 60,000 thirsty people,

the only good supply behind
the mountain,

a secret source of water
that no enemy could find.

And they've got pretty simple tools
still then. Very simple tools.

Are those the chisel marks
you can see? Yes. Look at that!

That's incredible, isn't it?

And here - all of these
are chisel marks.

I mean, it's terrible, though,
to think of it, really.

I'm presuming slaves
or prisoners of war?

Yes.

You always have to remember that.

So you've got these extraordinary

achievements of civilisation...
True.

...but there were almost always men,
and women often too, who achieved

that through their own blood
and sweat. Yeah, that's true.

I'm back on the high seas again.

I've still got many miles
of my own odyssey ahead of me,

so it's wonderful to see
my boat has attracted some

very auspicious visitors.

Guys, dolphins in front of us.

Wow! Look straight by the boat,
by the boat.

I can see! Yeah, we can see.
We can see it here.

This is the most incredible thing.

So four, five, six dolphins
have just come to play

with the prow of the boat,

and they're swimming over -
you can see them there -

and diving out
and actually whistling to us.

It's so beautiful! Of course,
dolphins were supposed to be

the messengers of the god
of the sea, Poseidon,

and if they came
to visit your boat,

it was thought to be very,
very good luck.

That's just so lovely. Look.

GIGGLES: Hello!

Here they go.

When you come here
and when you sail on the sea,

you are living
as the ancients did.

It's at times like this,
you can so imagine Odysseus

and his crew heading
towards the setting sun,

not sure what adventures
lay beyond the horizon.

Next time, as I continue my journey,

I go in search of the biggest
archaeological site

in all of Greece...

SHE GASPS

...seek out the delights
of ancient wine...

Can we taste some, then?
Of course.

...and following Odysseus's trail,

I battle the elements.

I just got
completely...completely drenched!