All language subtitles for Greek Island Odyssey with Bettany Hughes Series 1 Part 2 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

hot-housed 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.

PEOPLE SING

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 across
these seas.

His story, the Odyssey,
is a brilliant tale

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'm following the trail of Odysseus,

who, we're told, journeyed from the
battlefields of Troy

in what's now Turkey, back home to
the island of Ithaca

in the far west of Greece.

It's at times like this you can so
imagine Odysseus and his crew

heading towards the setting sun,

not sure what adventure lay beyond
the horizon.

Last time, rather like Odysseus,
I navigated treacherous waters

and a graveyard of over
50 shipwrecks.

In this episode, I visit one of the
most sacred places in history...

...drink ancient wine.

OK, I'm gonna put it all in my
mouth, and not be afraid.

SHE EXCLAIMS, LAUGHS

And battle through the worst storm
I've ever experienced.

There's somewhere I just can't miss
on my Greek odyssey -

the unique island of Delos,

185 miles from the ancient site
of Troy

at the centre of the Aegean Sea.

Where I'm heading is one of the most
special places on Earth.

It's an island that is so sacred,

no-one is allowed to live
there or stay there.

So to get there before hours,
we've had to hitch a ride

on this rather lovely speedboat.

Delos really mattered to the ancient
world in both history and myth.

Odysseus himself was said to have
come here

to pay his respects to the gods.

Oh, it's so brilliant to be back
here,

cos there are just ruins right
across this island.

It's Greece's greatest
outdoor archaeological museum.

So being here, it's kind of my
happy place, basically.

The island's been a magnet for
travellers for close on 3,000 years.

Just three miles long,

Delos is packed with temples, altars
and shrines,

and there's still three-quarters
of the site left to excavate.

SHE KISSES
Morning!

SHE KISSES

So, if you get here at this time
in the morning,

just basically just after dawn,

then you're greeted by a very
particular welcoming party

in the form of the cats of Delos.
Sacred cats, obviously.

OK, thank you. See you later.
See you, bye-bye.

See you, ciao, bye.

Getting up before dawn was
definitely worth it,

as I've got the island
all to myself.

The Greeks thought Delos was the
birthplace of two super gods.

Apollo, the god of Sun,
light and reason,

and his twin sister, Artemis,

the goddess of the Moon and hunting
and female power.

To keep the island pure,
in the fifth century BC,

the Greeks dug up every grave

and reburied the bodies
on another island.

From here on in,
no-one could be born or die here.

At the time of Odysseus,
it was much more lush,

and it's, kind of,
spine-tinglingly exciting,

because he describes coming here
and finding a palm tree

planted next to the sacred altar
of Apollo.

And there's still one here today.

Visitors flocked here from
right across the ancient world

to pretty hard-core religious
festivals.

One venue, this vast theatre,

could host crowds
of over six-and-a-half thousand.

The festivities here were renowned
for being particularly joyful.

There were music and wrestling
and even beauty contests,

attracting pious partygoers from
Asia, Europe and Africa.

I just want to show you this, erm...

because there's a brilliant bit of
virtual reality

that's been developed that
allows us to

walk through the streets of
ancient Delos.

And it's a fantastic thing, because
it's the technology of the future,

helping us visualise the deep past.

This place hummed with life
and colour.

Archaeologist Marilee Papadopoulou
joins me to share her theory why.

Oh, that's interesting.

So, it has... That's amazing, cos...

So, they would've thought it had
the, kind of,

blessing of the Sun, or the power
of the Sun. Yes.

It's a kind of archaeologists
playground here, isn't it?

Delos was an island of light
and holiness,

but once the Romans arrived in
167BC, that all changed.

I know, it's so terrible,
because it's a beautiful place,

but it's got this terrible
vibe to it.

Slaves were trafficked
across the ancient world.

Under the Romans, huge numbers were
kidnapped by pirates

and shipped here before being
sold on.

We think the slaves were probably
held in boats in the bays.

At this time, slaves weren't even
thought of as humans.

They were described as
"man-footed things."

So, although this is a hauntingly
beautiful island,

it also has its ghosts and a heart
of despair and sorrow.

Delos, like the Odyssey itself,

reminds us that the ancient world

was both a brilliant and
a brutal place.

Continuing my quest, I discover
an island

that seems to have cracked the
secret of immortality...

Can I try some? Mm!

...before I put my life in the hands
of the gods.

Whoa! Oh!

Oh, my gosh.

I'm travelling around
the Greek islands,

following one of the most brilliant
characters from Greek legend -

Odysseus.

The island I'm heading to now is
full of mystery

and its own kind of magic.

In the Odyssey, our hero lands on
the enchanted island of Aeaea,

where he encounters Circe,
a potion-making sorceress.

Circe produced pharmaca -
drugs, basically,

an ancient Greek word
that gives us "pharmacy."

Now, there's been much speculation
about the location

of Circe's island.

And lkaria, with its local produce
and waters famed for their potent,

life-enhancing properties,
is a contender.

One reason I've come here.

Thank you. Thank you.
Cheers, see you.

I've never actually been to this
island before,

so I don't really know what to
expect,

apart from the fact that people tell
me they live life here

playing by slightly different rules.
So, erm...genuinely exciting.

When I first came to Greece
in the 1980s,

I travelled around the islands
by bike and moped.

Hi, are you Nikos? Yes.
Hi, hi, Bettany.

Hi, nice to see you.
Nice to meet you.

A friend of a friend has agreed
to show me round on his.

Ikaria has been inhabited for
at least 9,000 years.

It's a culture rooted deep in time.

And I can't help noticing
the number of islanders

enjoying a ripe old age.

DOGS BARKING
Hello.

A recent scientific study
at lkaria

showed that it had one of the
highest percentages of 90-year-olds

in Europe.

Thank you.

You've got a really cool car.

Super cool. Drive safely, though.
Bye. Bye.

SHE LAUGHS

Oh, it's so cool.

He's had that 42 years.

They also have 20% lower rates
of cancer,

50% lower rates of heart disease

and minimal levels of dementia.

Ancient heroes gathered wisdom from
the elders,

and I'm meeting two locals
to find out their secret.

Although, our rendezvous time
is a little bit vague,

because on lkaria, they don't rate
watches or deadlines.

I'm Bettany.

Eleni? Eleni.
Ah, like "oraia" Eleni.

THEY LAUGH

So, her name's like Helen of Troy.
Beautiful Helen.

Irini! Beautiful.

Irini. And your name, lrini,
means "peace."

A very beautiful name.

C-Can I ask...? I'm not being rude,

but can I just ask how old
you two ladies are?

What's your age?

You look great for 94.

And then, there are lots of people
here who live to 100, as well,

on the island.

Ikaria is a volcanic island.

Waters are laced with
radioactive radon,

and some think this,
and eating local,

could be the secret to the
islanders longevity.

It feels very calm here.

Why do people not care about time?

So, I understood that word.
So, "philoxenia."

So, it's like a
"lover of strangers" here.

MAN: Yes, yes.
Yeah. So, that's an amazing...

"Philoxenia" is this beautiful
word that you also get in

the tales of Odysseus.
So going right back 3,000 years.

That it's really important to
welcome strangers.

I think I might stay.
I think I might make this my home.

It's beautiful.
It's a magical island.

The OAPs of lkaria are the
incarnation of the wisdom of age.

But one of the island's
most famous legends

warns of the follies of youth.

It's how the island gets
its unusual name.

The story of Icarus,
the boy who tried to fly.

Icarus's father is Daedalus,
the greatest inventor of the day.

But there's a problem, both father
and son are held prisoner,

captive on another island and
desperate to escape.

So Daedalus comes up with
a cunning plan.

He invents giant wings made
out of feathers and wax,

and both of them managed to
break free.

At first, everything is going
brilliantly well.

"Follow me," the father says.

"Don't go so low that your feathers
get wet in the sea."

"Don't fly so high that you
get burnt by the sun."

Icarus obeys, but then he is so
thrilled by the sensation of flight,

that he starts to climb
higher and higher,

dangerously close to the Sun's rays.

They start to melt the wax,
the feathers begin to fall,

and the boy plunges into the sea.

The hero Hercules, Heracles
in Greek, so the story goes,

rescues the boy's body and brings
it here to be buried.

So, this whole island is a monument
to Icarus

and to the dangers of disobedience
and overreaching yourself.

Originally independent kingdoms,
and later city states,

all the islands had their own myths,
histories, culture,

genetic profile and traditions.

I'm told there's someone here who's
called the "Odysseus of honey,"

because he goes to tend his hives
on different islands by boat.

So, he's obviously somebody
I've got to meet.

Yannis has been harvesting honey
for over 25 years,

but honey's been farmed here in
Greece for over 35 centuries.

Oh, that's so good. Hi. Hi!

Sorry to... Oh, do you need a hand?

It's... Yeah.
It's pretty heavy, isn't it?

I just realised I'm helping you with
a hive.

Are there any bees in here? Yep.
Are there?

SHE LAUGHS
Hmm.

The untamed landscape of lkaria is
perfect bee territory.

Yannis's hives are hidden in
pine forests and rocky outcrops.

But there's a good reason why
he's getting so carefully kitted up.

Yannis has told me to just stop
here

because he works with a local
lkarian bee,

which is particularly aggressive,
apparently,

so it's not safe to go any closer.

Look at that! Oh, my gosh,
the honey's coming out.

That's so amazing, because I,
you know...

This is such a timeless sight,
and because humans loved it so much,

it came to be described as
a gift of the gods.

I tell you what I think honey is
in ancient myths.

So, there was this food that the
Greek gods ate on Mount Olympus

called ambrosia, which helped
keep them immortal.

And I think that was almost
certainly honey.

And I tell you why.

Because the ancients used to use
honey as a kind of preservative.

When people died, they sometimes
buried them in honey,

and we know it would've kept
the bodies preserved

for at least eight weeks.

So it would have seemed
as though it was giving immortality.

It was like this kind of amazing,
magic, golden liquid.

Oh, it's such a treat to see it
being gathered in this way

as it has been on islands like this

for thousands and thousands
of years.

But as Tim, the cameraman, found out
to his cost,

immortality can come with
a sting in its tail.

Oh! I think I've got stung!

On my nozzie. Does it look like a...
Yes. Oh, yeah, look.

HE LAUGHS
Look!

The bee man's fumigating your...

Honey was so precious in
the ancient world,

the king of the gods, Zeus,
and his queen, Hera,

were given it as a wedding gift.

And now Yannis is giving me
a gift of his harvest.

Oh, look at this. Mm-hm.

This is yours. Can I try some?

Mm. It's so lovely-looking.

So, honey, when it's...

Ah, fresh bread.

Ancient Greeks described happiness

as being sweeter than
dripping streams of honey.

Mm!

I'm sorry, I've just got to lick
a bit...

It's all coming down my fingers.
That is so delicious.

So, the ancients always used
to eat honey,

obviously because it was delicious
and it gave them loads of energy,

but they thought it had this special
magic properties

and we now know it does.
It's kind of antiseptic

and can be antibacterial.

But the other thing that they used
to do is they used to ferment it.

And basically, if you ferment this
kind of honey,

you can get a bit of a hit,
bit of a trip from it.

And so they'd have thought that
honey was something

that transported them to the worlds
of gods and myths

and legends and heroes.

So it's magic in lots of ways.

How much honey do you eat?

Was that a kilo a week?

One kilo, you eat? Yeah.

A kilo of honey!

Well, you look...
You look very healthy on it.

THEY LAUGH

Clearly, the kilo a week is doing
wonders for Yannis.

But this isn't the only mystical
produce here.

Ikaria has been famous since the
time of Odysseus

for its rich, heady wine

as the hero found out to his cost
when Circe used it

to seduce and enchant him.

One day, Odysseus sends out some of
his sailors on a scouting trip

and they come across a beautiful
sorceress, witch, goddess

called Circe.

Circe tricks them into drinking
poisoned, drugged wine,

which drives the men mad and they
then transform into pigs.

One has managed to escape and he
warns Odysseus of the danger ahead.

Odysseus takes a special plant from
this island

with white flowers and a black root
to use as an antidote,

and managed to escape Circe's
clutches.

It's a story that was told
again and again.

Some said, with a morality tale
about the dangers of drunkenness.

But I actually think there's something
much, much more interesting.

I think it's saying that men
are very scared

of falling under a woman's spell.

And it's telling us
about the amazing produce

of this beautiful place.

Odysseus's magic flower was
called moly,

probably a Snowdrop, possibly an
antidote to some hallucinogens

and still found on lkaria.

As is an ancient wine variety,
Pramnian wine.

The very wine that Circe was said to
have used in the Odyssey.

In fact, wine plays a huge part
in Homer's epic adventures.

The sea is described as "wine-dark."

Odysseus escapes monsters by
getting them drunk,

and the Greeks drink a potent
cocktail of wine and honey mead.

The Greek tradition of winemaking
is one of the oldest in the world,

dating back at least 6,000 years.

And it was from here that it spread
to Spain, Portugal and France.

Wine was one of ancient Greece's
most profitable exports.

Thank you. Your welcome. Thank you.

Nikos Afianes started
this vineyard over 20 years ago

to keep lkaria's ancient winemaking
methods alive.

Well, it's a pretty lovely place
to make it up to here. Thank you.

What's going on here?

It seems definitely mouldy.
Green with mould, actually.

Can I have a small one?

SHE CHUCKLES

Mm. Actually delicious.

It's like a kind of extreme sultana.

This method of extracting
grape juice

is older even than the story
of Odysseus,

and Nikos can't wait to
demonstrate.

No, no. No.

But just like... OK. You're getting
quite a lot there, Nikos. Look.

I'm told the acid of the grapes
exfoliates the feet,

so I'm strangely tempted to get in.

It's nice in between your toes,
isn't it?

You can feel the juice kind of
working it.

Oh! Oh, that's lovely.

Can we taste some, then?

It's wine exactly as it was produced
in the age of Odysseus.

Yes.
SHE LAUGHS

Nikos, you're full of surprises.
Well...

No, no, no. Oh, it's a little bit
stuck.

I want to try a bit of that,
that you just...

ls that OK to drink?

You sure? Thanks.

Delighted to see that Nikos is
using a kylix,

an ancient form of wine cup.

THEY LAUGH

This is what they'd have used at
the time of Odysseus,

something like this, to drink from.

OK, I'm gonna put it all in my
mouth and not be afraid.

SHE EXCLAIMS, LAUGHS

OK, sorry. Here we go.

SHE EXCLAIMS

Lovely. Well, thank you, Nikos.
That is great.

It's so cool you're doing this.
It's so cool.

Wine clearly brings joy
to lkaria, modern and ancient.

In fact, the god of wine, Dionysus,
was said to be born here.

Ikaria's rich produce has allowed it
to be self-sufficient for centuries,

helping it feel lost in time.

But where I'm heading next
is the opposite.

Down at the quayside,
Captain Sotiris and his crew

are preparing an elegant
60-foot yacht, Osyan,

for the next leg of my odyssey
to Mykonos.

Come on board. I will.
Are you going west?

Of course I'm going west. Oh,
fantastic. I'm always going west.

Oh, nice. Straight away. Lovely.
Thank you.

At this point in Odysseus's journey,

we hear that the blue,
shadowed waves

slapped under the belly of the boat
as it raked on.

And that is exactly what is
happening now,

which feels amazingly cool.

It seems like a beautiful day,

even with dolphins blessing us
with their company.

Good sailing weather with the wind
at 25 knots,

and what you might describe as a
fresh, if fairly lively, breeze.

Imagine what it would have been like

when you had those tiny wooden
boats,

like they had...the ancient Greeks
had and the storm suddenly whips up.

I mean, you're in serious trouble,
aren't you?

There's a saying that says that
before, there were wooden boats

and iron men. Iron men.

So, that is... ls that what they
describe sailors as?

Boats of wood and men of iron.
Fantastic. Yeah.

But today, are we feeling quite
confident? We're feeling great.

Good, good, good. Then I'm...
There's wind, there's good weather.

There's sun. Yeah.

So you can put up the sail,
if you like. Yeah, OK.

For now, stay a little bit on that
side so the rope cannot hit you. OK.

So now the sails are open,
we're really powering on.

And you can feel how Odysseus and
his men would have loved the fact

they were up on the oceans
and back on course.

Wow! Oh, my gosh.

The winds in this region can be
really ferocious

and that can be treacherous today.

But can you imagine what it would've
been like for Odysseus and his men?

Because as far as they were
concerned, this wasn't just weather,

this was a weapon of angry gods.

Oh, I just got completely...

Completely drenched!

0h!

But as our journey progressed,
we found things getting

a lot more hairy.

Tim, the cameraman, secured his kit
and with lifejackets to hand,

we got our phones out to record what
happened over the next seven hours.

The captain here is... Whoa!

WIND HOWLING

We've finally been summoned in
by the captain

because the waves are now reaching
six metres high.

The sound man has been sick over the
side of the boat.

Tim's camera got covered in
salt water,

and I am wet through with waves.

So we thought, you know...
We've been heroic,

but it's time to add a tiny bit
of being sensible into this trip.

But I think, erm...
I think everybody's enjoying it.

Keeping calm and carrying on,

we didn't think it could get
much worse.

How wrong could we be?

I'm sailing from lkaria to Mykonos,

but I should have read my Homer more
carefully

where the lkarian Sea is said to
surge and rage like a furious crowd.

The wind here reached 40 knots,
that's gale force,

and the conditions really began to
take their toll.

We finally make it to land
on Mykonos at midnight.

Frankly, pretty shaken.

Odysseus survived five storms in
the Odyssey.

We feel lucky to make it through
one.

The morning after one particularly
punishing storm, our hero Odysseus,

just like us, ends up washed up
on an island in need of some TLC.

Given the fact that I am aching
all over still from last night,

from just gripping on to that boat,

and I can still actually taste the
sea salt in my hair,

I thought I would indulge myself and
have a traditional massage

here on Mykonos.

THEY SPEAK FOREIGN LANGUAGE

Oh, my god. That is really good.

So, I'm not doing this to be
completely self-indulgent.

There's a reason, cos it ties into
one of the greatest stories

from the Odyssey. So, when Odysseus
comes to one particular island

after a particularly tough time
out on the high seas,

there's this beautiful goddess
called Calypso

who basically seduces him and she
makes it almost impossible

for Odysseus to leave.

So, she tends to him, gives him
massages with oils

and makes love to him every night
for seven years.

So he gets a bit distracted
from his journey

and just hangs out on the island.

So I'm doing this in honour
of Odysseus and Calypso.

And it's really lovely, Anna.
It's so good.

I can feel my shoulder working
again.

This is timeless indulgence.

Massage oils with ingredients
like Anna's,

were traded across the Mediterranean
by ancient travellers.

The luxury goods of the day.

Post-storm pampered,

I'm ready to investigate the
island's histories and myths.

You are in for such a treat,

because what you have here is the
oldest ever image

of the Trojan horse from anywhere
in the world.

On this giant pithos,
this earthenware jar.

During the siege of Troy, Odysseus,
renowned for his resourcefulness,

came up with the idea of hiding
Greek troops in a wooden horse.

Thinking the horse was a gift,

the people of Troy wheeled
it inside their city

and that night, the Greek warriors
burst out

and slaughtered the Trojans
as they slept.

So, this was actually a burialjar.

There were human bones found
inside,

and it was made sometime in
the seventh century BC.

So around 100 years or so after the
Odyssey was first set down.

So, here is a Trojan horse
entering Troy

with all the Greek soldiers inside.

And there's all kinds of different
bits of the Odyssey story.

So, you've got Helen here,

Helen of Troy, meeting Menelaus,
her husband.

We know it's him cos he's got
a beard, the beard of a king.

And he's grabbing her wrist
and he's unsheathed his sword.

Around the base of the pot you've
got these other soldiers

attacking defenceless Trojan
women and children.

So, what's amazing about this is
that it tells us the story

of the Trojan War.

So, the celebrities of antiquity
were renowned here.

And Mykonos is still a honeypot for
the glitterati,

graced by everyone from
Elizabeth Taylor to Marlon Brando.

And there's one celebrity visitor
who stood out from all the others,

putting Mykonos on the map
in the 1960s.

Probably one of the most influential
people to come here

was Jackie Kennedy, who became
Jackie Onassis, Jackie O.

She absolutely loved this place.

So Mykonos loves her.

There are Jackie O bars
here and everywhere you turn,

there are little mementos
of her visits.

When she first came here in 1961,

she was married to US President
John F Kennedy.

After her husband was assassinated
in 1963,

she sought comfort from Greek
billionaire shipping magnate

Aristotle Onassis.

Marrying Onassis in 1968,
she was now Jackie O.

So, something really charming here
I just want to show you.

So, Jackie O loved this place.
It's owned by an artist,

and he crocheted her a little,
sort of, traditional, kind of,

waistcoat for Mykonos. And this is
her thank you letter to him.

So, "Dear Mr Yannis, I write
to thank you for your"

"original work of art and
lovely sweater."

"Your..."
Spelt wrong, I'm afraid to say,

"..a true artist.
Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis."

And they're so proud of it. So
they've still got it here in the shop.

But even the cult of celebrity
goes back to ancient times.

For the ancient Greeks,
two things really mattered.

Kudos, the word for reputation
that we still use today,

and kleos - to be heard of.

A good hero did great deeds
so that he could become famous.

Basically, it's an ancient
Greek form of celebrity.

Now, I think there are two
reasons for this.

One is that in ancient Greek
religion,

there was no sense of
heaven or hell.

So in order to gain immortality,
you couldn't have an afterlife.

You had to be known by your deeds.

And there's something else.

In the age of heroes,
as warriors and traders

were nipping between one island
and the other,

it was really important that
you were heard of,

either so that people welcomed
you in with open arms,

or so they trembled at the very
mention of your name.

Before I leave Mykonos,
I want to share another bit of

the deep past with you.

It's prehistoric and pretty special.

I'm on a Greek island odyssey
exploring Mykonos.

It's easy to get the impression that
this is an island

dominated by the delights of the
21st century.

But I'm discovering it's a place
brimming with myth and history.

And I just love this little place,
because basically,

it's a kind of homage to all things
maritime,

not just from centuries ago,
but from thousands of years ago.

Have a look at this boat here.

So, this is a replica of
a prehistoric sailing ship

from around about
three-and-a-half thousand years ago.

So it could have been the kind of
ship that Odysseus and his men

sailed away from Troy in.

Mykonos's maritime past isn't
only in its museums.

I've been tipped off I must meet
Kostas,

one of the last traditional
fishermen on the island.

He lives in Kalafati,
a village soon to be developed

as tourist accommodation.

There's a really odd thing
in the Odyssey,

that even though it's set
on the sea,

there's actually very little mention
of fishing or fishermen.

And that's partly because this was
a story of heroes and kings

and aristocrats who ate meat. But
of course, most people survived...

Hi, hi. Hello.

...by eating fish, and there are
just a few

tiny traditional fishing communities
left here on Mykonos.

Hi, hi. I'm Bettany. Hello. Hi.

Hello, hello. Nice to see you. Hi.
I'm Bettany, hi. Markos.

What's your name? Markos. Markos.
Bettany.

You see him?

THEY SPEAK FOREIGN LANGUAGE

ENGINE STARTS
He's doing it.

OK. So... He's a good captain,
isn't he?

THEY CHUCKLE
Pretty impressive.

THEY SPEAK FOREIGN LANGUAGE

Does your son always drive the boat?

He's good, though. He's really good.

Following in the footsteps of his
grandfather and father,

Kostas has been fishing here
for over 25 years.

But he's not sure how much
longer he can carry on.

No, no.

Because there are less fish? Really?

What would you say is the one
thing...? Ah, look. Yes.

Hi.
THEY SPEAK FOREIGN LANGUAGE

Hi, Bettany.
Nice to see you.

Who should we bump in to,
but Kostas's cousin?

Who, would you believe it,

tells me he's just been watching my
recent TV series about the Nile.

No way! No way.

How did that happen? Great.

Bravo. Well, I came from Egypt...
Egypt to here. From Egypt to Greece.

How's it going? ls it a good night
for fishing?

Yeah. Good luck. Nice to see you.

Kostas's cousin is also obviously
struggling

to make a living from fishing.

So, why... If it's really tough,
why do you still do this?

Yes. Yes? OK.

HE SPEAKS FOREIGN LANGUAGE

Bravo. Bravo.

Marko? Bravo.
HE SPEAKS FOREIGN LANGUAGE

0h!

Put him in. Let's put him in.

It's on this very coastline
that the warrior Ajax,

who fought with Odysseus in the
Trojan war, is said to be buried.

The story starts with Cassandra,
a priestess of Troy,

with the ability to view the future
as well as the past.

One day she's in the
Temple of Apollo,

and the Greek warrior Ajax comes
upon her and rapes her.

The god, Apollo, is so furious that
when Ajax is travelling home,

he sends storms and waves and
the hero drowns in the sea.

And then, it is said, his body was
washed up on these shores.

But there may be some truth
behind the fantasy.

Every year, archaeologists here make
discoveries

in slightly unexpected places that
help us jigsaw puzzle together

the story of the island.

Now, what I'm just about to show you

is not the most dramatic of
monuments,

but it really helps us understand
the ancient history of this place.

So, up here, there's a settlement
from the Bronze Age.

So we know that people were living
here at the time of warriors

like Odysseus.

So, if everywhere you look in the
walls,

there are little bits of pottery
from the settlement that was here.

So this, I think, will probably
be...

That's probably about
three-and-a-half thousand years old.

I'll put that back where you found
it, because that's its lair.

I don't know if you can see,
all the way in the sand here,

there are these little shards
of pottery.

Some people come here to go
to the beach,

I come here to look at these ruins,
and I feel

very at home and very excited.

Just imagine the life here.

Over 4,000 years ago, people carving
out an existence for themselves.

This beautiful landscape
and beautiful sea.

And, you know, trying to live
and live well.

So, it's very emotional.
It's really, really exciting.

Before I set off on this journey,

I wanted to understand
history and myth

by living the experiences
of the past.

I've shared some of the challenges
Odysseus faced,

and learnt how ancient stories
can contain kernels of truth.

Next time on my Greek island
odyssey

I dice with one of the most
destructive volcanoes

known to mankind,

search for the truth behind
the legend of Odysseus,

and hunt for more ancient treasures.

Look at this! Look at this.

So, these are beautiful gold coins.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media