All language subtitles for Greek Island Odyssey with Bettany Hughes Series 1 Part 3 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.

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' path

from east to west.

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

Whoa!

...make amazing new discoveries...

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

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

...and uncover the truths behind
these fabulous myths and legends...

And this is almost certainly
the killer blow.

...to see how they can help us
understand the world, and ourselves.

Join me on this epic voyage,
my Greek odyssey.

I'm crossing the Aegean Sea on the

trail of the legendary Greek hero,
Odysseus.

Last time, like him,
I risked being shipwrecked.

This leg of my journey brings me

to Santorini, Thera for the ancient
Greeks, where I discover

the island's deadly volcano and the
story of the lost city of Atlantis.

The most southern of the
Aegean Cycladic islands, it's a

place of myth, fire and brimstone.

With bad weather forecast
I'm taking the ferry.

Captained by Michael.

Are you from the islands or are you
from Athens? I am from Chios island.

Do you know Chios? Chios,
that's where I started.

You know Chios is an island,

most of the people there are
sailors. I know. Yes.

I always feel very safe if I'm on a
boat and the captain is from Chios.

HE CHUCKLES
I know I'm going to be OK.

Thank you very, very much.
SHE CHUCKLES

Cos I'm doing this journey
all by boat,

we got stuck in some very big
seas from lcaria to Mykonos.

Like, it was quite terrifying.

You know, the Aegean Sea
is a very difficult sea.

You have to pay attention. Yes.

Every time, every day.

Thank you. Efharisto. Bye.

It's not the prettiest of ports
to arrive to at Santorini,

but this is an island that's had
an explosive influence

on the story of the world.

HORNS BEEP

I'm here off-season, as the bulk of
the tourists are leaving.

HORNS BLARE

HORN TOOTS

They were just honking because it
was the last ferry of the season.

Is that why? Yes, it is closing
for the season today. That's great.

So they're all saying goodbye until
next year. Yes.

Oh, I'm glad I got here, then.
Yeah! See you.

Santorini is one of the most popular
destinations in Greece.

Visitors are lured here by the
island's epic landscapes.

Crowding on clifftops, like Oia.

The sunset here at Santorini is one
of the most viewed sunsets on Earth.

And it is absolutely beautiful.

But, ironically, the stories I'm
interested in aren't up here,

but they're right deep in the
earth.

Oia perches on a caldera,
a ridge of a collapsed volcano.

The core is 389 metres underwater.

This beautiful lagoon hides
a geological monster,

more ferocious than any
mythical beast.

Santorini is one giant volcano.

Back in the Bronze Age when
Odysseus' story begins,

it erupted with the force
of 3,000 atomic bombs.

A boat trip is the best way to get a
sense of this volcano's mega scale.

When I first came here the only
way to get up and down

the sides of the volcano was by mule
or donkey. Now it's a cable car.

I actually think I felt safer on the
mule, to be honest.

Anyway, but we're down and the
port now.

Right now I am heading to the
heart of a volcano that erupted

over 3,600 years ago in what
was the most catastrophic

volcanic explosion in the whole
of human history.

Bringing disaster that changed
the course of civilisation and,

I think, gave rise to one of the

greatest myths of all time -
the lost city of Atlantis.

My Greek island odyssey has
brought me to the epicentre

of one of the biggest volcanic
eruptions of all time.

These cliffs behind me,
what you are looking at is

the crater of the volcano
rising up out of the sea.

And the sea that I'm travelling
across now was once the cone

of that volcano, 40 cubic miles
of it that was blown into the sky.

Ongoing eruptions spewed up
these volcanic rocks

inside Santorini's lagoon.

A reminder, this whole volcano is

still active after all these
centuries.

Luckily, volcanologist
George Vougioukalakis

has agreed to guide me to the
centre of activity.

Great, thank you. Perfect, thanks.

Some of the gases here can kill you
if you stand in the wrong place

for too long, so we've got to
tread carefully.

But 3,000 years ago they had a lot
more than just gases to worry about.

So this huge eruption, how wide
reaching were the impacts from that?

Thera triggered the ancient world's
biggest climate catastrophe.

Ash deposits from this devastating
eruption have been found

in the Nile in Egypt, and trees were
affected as far away as Ireland.

But it has kept on erupting,
hasn't it, this volcano?

Wow! 10,000?

I mean, that serious, isn't it?

When's it going to erupt next,
do you think?

It will happen again on that scale?

Comforting. You're a very
comforting presence, George,

as we stand here right in the heart
of the volcano.

The Greeks, in history
and in stories like Odysseus',

thought natural disasters
were the wrath of angry gods.

For the ancient Greeks gods
and goddesses

and demigods were everywhere
and in everything.

In fact, they didn't have a
separate word for religion.

Asking a Greek if he believed
in the gods would be like asking him

if he believed in the sea.

There were 12 premier gods who
lived on Mount Olympus, and probably

the most famous are Zeus, the king
of the gods and his wife, Hera.

Apollo, the god of the sun
and his twin sister, Artemis,

the goddess of the moon.

Aphrodite, the goddess of love
and sexual desire

whose lover was Ares,
the god of war.

And Poseidon the great god of the
sea and storms and earthquakes.

Poseidon, well, a number of the gods
had it in for Odysseus.

They despised his hubris and his
cold-blooded killing

of soldiers and innocents alike

so they plagues his journey
home from Troy with challenges

and life-threatening storms.

The Greeks believed that the gods
were bigger, brighter,

shinier versions of themselves.

And they were in mortal, but they
were not by any means perfect.

In fact, they were incredibly
flawed.

So they got drunk
and flew into blind rages

and have affairs with one another's
wives.

But the Greeks constantly told
stories about them

to try to understand the world
around them and their place in it.

Thank you. The Greeks may no longer
believe the sea is divine,

but their relationship with it is
still a vital part of daily life.

And Santorini pioneered
sailing technology

centuries before other
civilisations in the Aegean.

How long's your family been
doing these boats here?

My family, 300 years the island.
300 years? Yeah, 300 years.

Were they fishermen, or...?

Yes, fisherman. My father fisherman.
Great.

Well, thank you for giving me
the lift today. Thank you.

It's a proud tradition which
carried on here right

through to the 20th century.

I thought I just had to
show you this.

So I'd been given a tip-off,
actually by an archaeologist

friend, that there's something
rather special in here.

What's this? Oh, it's an oar.

This is brilliant because this is
supposed to be the last

remaining boat-building shed
in Santorini.

A nice touch there, protected by an
oar.

And the family who own it have
agreed to show me in.

If they're here.

Kalimera. Oh, kamlimera!

Ti kanete? Kala, kala.

Kala... Oh, lovely to...lovely
to meet you.

Ti kanete? Kala.
A very warm welcome.

THEY SPEAK GREEK

Wow.

Efharisto.

Wow.

Wow, what a place! What a place.

I know it hasn't been used for 50
years or so, you can just smell

the history here.

So there, those are the moulds

that they would have used to make
the boats.

So each boat has its own mould, it
was made in a kind of bespoke way.

Up at the back there, it's a kind of
forest of abandoned wood

and a lot of that would have
come from Samos.

An island I visited on my odyssey.

And there's actually
a treasure chest.

Don't know if I'm allowed
to open it.

Not gold and silver, not pirates'
treasure, but historical treasure.

So here are all the ships' logs
and records.

And that is going to tell us a whole
lot about the past.

It's actually really moving coming
here because they've been building

ships on Santorini since prehistory,

warships and merchant vessels
and heroic boats.

So the fact that this, the very last
boat building yard has been

abandoned, it doesn't just
feel like it's the end of an era, it

feels like it's the end of thousands
of years' worth of human experience.

But this isn't the only time capsule
on the island.

Next my odyssey on Santorini reveals

the site of a prehistoric lost city.

Now, you're in for a bit of a treat
because I think that this is

one of the most inspiring places in
the ancient world.

In the age of heroes Santorini was
a rich trading hub.

From under the pumice, lava and
ash in the south of the island,

archaeologists are unearthing
Akrotiri - a settlement dubbed

the Pompeii of Greece, which
predates

the Romans by well over 1,000 years.

The apocalyptic eruption of
Santorini, around 1615 BC,

covered the town of Akrotiri with
metres of volcanic debris.

Concealing a treasure.

And I've been given special access
to what's hidden here.

The volcano didn't just destroy,
it also preserved.

And something truly remarkable.

An entire prehistoric civilisation
dating back over 3,600 years.

The terrible thing is that the
people here did actually

have forewarning of the disaster.

So a couple of weeks before the
eruption there were earthquakes.

And we know that because people have
done these like wrapped up their

most valued possessions and stored

them carefully in the corners
of rooms.

Or here you can actually see they've
taken their beds outside.

So they evacuated the town,

then thought it was safe
and came back,

only to be wiped out by the volcano.

This exquisite gold ibex,
a breed of mountain goat

mentioned in the Odyssey, has been
found in the ruins.

So far only a fraction of the site
has been excavated. And we now

actually think it's ten times bigger
than we previously thought.

And there are new archaeological
excavations happening right now.

Gosh, it's very exciting to be this
close cos you're not normally

allowed to come up to the buildings
like this.

So this is a very typical house for
the people of Akrotiri.

They often have these big, wide
very kind of welcoming open doors,

always with A window next to them.

And inside you can just see this
kind of life interrupted.

There is a little stone bench where
they sat and passed

the time of day, a storage jug
for the food or wine.

And underneath here there's
actually a millstone

so we know that the people who
lived here were somehow

involved in helping to bake
bread for their community.

It's so quiet here now but of
course, it would

have actually been buzzing
and humming with life.

So it's a privilege to be here,
but it is also quite heartbreaking.

There are whole streets here with
buildings two or three storeys high.

Inside there, there would've been
brightly painted frescoes that

would have been enjoyed inside the
house but also visible from outside.

They tell us about life in Akrotiri
and that, just like Odysseus,

the inhabitants faced adventures on
the high seas,

even shipwrecks and were
sophisticated master mariners.

This is where Akrotiri's
treasures are kept.

Stunning paintings decorated
many of Akrotiri's homes.

Aren't they beautiful?

The first and that strikes you is
just how incredibly well done

these are. If you think
of the ancient Egyptian art of this

time, which is absolutely wonderful,
it is quite stiff and formal.

Whereas these paintings just flow
across the walls.

Half used paint pots were actually
discovered in the ruins

and there are images of boxing boys,

and the beauty of the natural world.

One of the reasons I love this site
is because there are these

amazing women everywhere.

This one that you're looking at here
actually comes from somewhere

called The House of the Ladies.

Named for the women in these
frescoes.

Isn't she gorgeous?

We know she is a mature woman

because her hair is allowed to grow
kind of snake down her back.

Got this lovely hoop earring
and her bodice has been

dyed in saffron which grew on the
island and was considered to be

a kind of a magical flower because
they used it in cooking

and as a dye and has
medicinal properties, too.

And then over here you've got this
other gorgeous woman underneath

the stars. You can't fail to notice
that she is bare breasted

and a lot of the women are.

So they have a lot of these
dresses cut away.

And we think this is probably to
show her status or to

celebrate some kind of religious
ceremony or festival.

But whatever the reason,
she is just gorgeous.

The volcano which buried Akrotiri
wasn't just a catastrophe for the

incredible people who lived here,

it may also explain one of the most
enduring legends ever told.

The story of Atlantis is one
of THE greatest myths of all time.

It tells of this magnificent
glittering civilisation

surrounded by circular belts of land
and sea that basically became

too proud of itself and was punished
by being swallowed up

over a day and a night by the sea.

But, surely, that has to have its

foundation in what happened
here on Santorini.

Where you have a beautiful,
sophisticated culture that's

the envy of all around it, but that
suffers a terrible cataclysmic

disaster and ends up being buried

under metres of pumice, and ash
and waves.

I do love the myth of Atlantis and
this place because it feels like

somewhere where fact and fantasy
collide.

And I also love the moral of the
tale, that we

can take things for granted,

we can be complacent and that pride
sometimes can come before a fall.

Next stop on my odyssey,
an island of temptation.

You're wearing lovely...bloomers.
Yeah.

My Greek island odyssey is inspired
by the voyage of the hero, Odysseus.

Like him, I am being lured
from island to island.

And the next stop on my journey is

famous for some of the more
tempting things in life.

Naxos is an island of pleasures
and treasures, with

a reputation for producing some of
the most enticing wine in the Med.

Mind you, I should be wary of too
much temptation,

just as Odysseus discovered in the
Odyssey with the myth of the sirens.

Now, the sirens were these strange
birdlike creatures.

Women with wings and claws.

Had a beautifully,
irresistibly sweet song

and they would lure men to death
on the rocks by singing out to them.

Now, Odysseus, being a bit of an
adventure, wants to hear

the siren song, so he gets his
sailors to strap him to a mast

and plugs their ears with beeswax so
they can't hear.

And begs to be released so he
can follow the siren call,

but the sailors refused to
untie the ropes.

And it's a fantastic story actually
about exposing ourselves

to the dangers of temptations, but
also always knowing when to resist.

And I have to say, I am now being

lured to this island,
which is Naxos.

I am following its siren call
because this is an island famous for

its wine, and more famous for its

ancient celebration of wine
and the god of wine, Dionysus.

The ancient Greeks revered Dionysus

as the god of wine, nature
and ecstasy.

It was said he was raised on Naxos
and lurked in its rich forests.

There are clues carved in the very
Earth itself as to how

massive Dionysus was on Naxos,

and I'm heading to one.

What you've got here tells us

that craftsmen from the ancient
world would actually have

carved their sculptures in situ,
in a quarry like this,

using the natural seams
in the rock.

And it is pretty marvellous
because I'm walking on the very

steps that those craftsmen would
have made in the ancient world.

Although there was obviously
a problem with this one

because it's been left unfinished,

but there's a fantastic clue as to
who this was.

He's got a beard and at this time
it was really unusual for

sculptures to have a beards, apart
from the god of wine, Dionysus.

So what you've almost certainly got
here is the great god Dionysus

lying in stone form.

And, boy, would he have made
an impression.

There's one thing to remember about
the sculpture that

if it had been finished,
it wouldn't have been left this

beautiful crystalline, refined
marble white.

It would have been painted in what
are, frankly, pretty garish colours

because the Greeks covered their
sculptures and statues

in bronze and gold and these...these
frankly rather lurid hues.

So if you look at this, for
instance, one of the most famous

buildings of all probably,

the Parthenon in Athens on top
of the Acropolis. I mean, just look

at this, the caryatids are bright
blue, and a horrible pink and green.

So the palace of the ancient world
wouldn't have been this

sort of classical beauty, but a bit
more like a fairground.

The tradition of marble sculpture
dates back even further,

when Naxos and other Cycladic
islands pioneered

some of the most influential art
in the world.

Only around 1,500 of these

incredible things have been
discovered.

And most of them are women,
or at least, the female form.

But it is just so tantalising

because we don't actually know
what they were used for.

We don't know whether they were
fertility symbols or gods or

goddesses or individual people.

But what you have to remember

is that these are at least 4,500
years old

so, oh, my goodness,
if they could speak,

what incredible secrets
they'd be able to share.

And the one thing that these
figurines do tell us,

is that those early islanders
must have felt deeply

connected to the earth around them.

And I should just tell you
one other thing.

You can see that they've got
beautiful smooth and curved

and there's a kind of sheen on
the marble.

Well, they achieved that
through using emery,

exactly like the emery boards
that we use for our nails today.

So it's something that connects us
to them across the millennia.

Of all the Greek gods, Dionysus

is one of the few still celebrated
today.

The fact that he's the god of wine

and partying is probably
a big clue as to why.

My trip to Naxos coincides with
the annual celebrations

and I've have been invited to the
village of Eggares.

These parties have been happening at
this time a year sometimes on

exactly this day for at least
2,500 years.

And the point of them was to

celebrate the opening of new wine
after winter.

And it's often where young kids
would be given their first drink.

I mean, there's a whole lot to
them. They kind of really mean

lots of things, but it's also where
people basically get hammered.

BOUZOUKI PLAYS

My gosh, it's so... It's hot in
there, isn't it? Sure. Really hot.

So, first of all, you have to throw
that away

and you will drink the wine
that I drink.

The guys that I dressed like me.

Can I just say, that looks,
it looks quite home-made.

Am I right to say that this is
home-made wine that we're having?

Everything that you will drink over
here it is home-made. Great.

But it has the grapes of here
and they do it. OK.

Are you having some as well? Cheers.
Cheers. Yamas.

Welcome to our village. Yamas.
Yamas. Efharisto.

Enjoy the whole event. I will. OK.

Ooh, that's actually what much nicer
than the one I was drinking.

Of course. That is really nice.

So, you've just got to tell me about
the lovely skirt you're wearing.

It was usually a sheet from the bed.

This is so forward of me because
I don't know you, but just now

the wind blew up your skirt and
you're wearing lovely...bloomers.

Yeah. So these were from the
grandma's.

Grandmother's bloomers?
Yes, exactly.

SHE LAUGHS
Lovely.

We used to wear them because
they didn't have anything else. N0.

So we used to borrow them from my
grandma's.

SHE CHUCKLES
So, yeah. We got the whole costume.

Cheers. Yamas. Here's to wine
and parties.

And bloomers.
THEY LAUGH

Dionysiac parties happened
across Greece.

One of my regulars is
the carnival at Skyros.

Here villagers dress up in goat
masks and goat bells.

There's plenty of cross dressing,

something that actually features in
the tales of Odysseus.

There's a fascinating story
that links the tradition

of cross dressing with the hero,
Achilles.

Now, Achilles was a comrade of
Odysseus and he was renowned

to be the ultimate warrior.

But, in fact, in the lead-up to the
Trojan War Achilles tried to avoid

fighting by hiding himself dressed
as a woman on the island of Skyros.

Now, Odysseus being super clever,

conceived a cunning plan to
wheedle him out.

He took a beautiful sword to the
island knowing that Achilles

would not be able to resist.

And, indeed, as he presented the
gift, Achilles leapt up

and grabbed the weapon,
blowing his own cover,

proving that he was a man.

It's time to leave Naxos
and continue my odyssey.

I am about to discover
something very special.

This little tiny thing, I think, is

the key to understanding the myths
and legends of the ancient Greeks.

My journey across the Aegean Sea
has brought me to one of the

wealthiest islands in the ancient
world - Siphnos.

And what I love about it is there's
hard history here

to back up some of Odysseus'
stories.

So, this island is really rich in
natural resources.

It's got gold and silver and lead.

And all of that was mined in the
ancient world and you can just begin

to see these kind of little holes in
the rocks which is

where the mines once were.

Because of that, it got a reputation
as being an island that was

filthy rich because Siphnos was
one of the very first places

in the ancient world to mint
coins, so it's a pioneering island.

Siphnos really was a treasure
island.

It's old capital, Kastro, built like
a fortress,

means "castle" in Greek.

Local historian Christina is
showing me its secrets.

Hello! Aww. Welcome to our island.
Ah, thank you!

How many gates like this
lead into the city?

Uh-huh.

Wow.

Yes. Well, I suppose it's got
a reputation for being such

a wealthy place, this. Yes.

That they know it's going to
be worth attacking.

Hello, darling!
CHRISTI NA CHUCKLES

BARKING
Hello.

DOG BARKS

Yes, a very good guard dog.
Yes, hello. Hello.

Yes.

How many families live here now,
then?

Yeah, I bet they do, yeah.
Amazing, beautiful.

Yes.

It is an open-air museum, yeah.

There's been a settlement here

since at least the 18th-century BC.

For thousands of years these city
walls have kept the inhabitants

and their riches safe.

Even up to the present day there are

tiny treasures to be found here
in Kastro.

Is it...? Can I have a look inside?
Yes, of course. Oh, thank you.

Gosh, that's a treat.

Look at this, look at this!

So these are beautiful
gold coins from Byzantium.

They were called the solidus
which are kind of very famous coins.

Actually, soldiers were painting
them which is where we get

the word "soldier" from.

That is just lovely. And over here.

So this is one of the lovely silver
coins minted in classical times

so this is only 2,500 years old.

How brilliant. And they're still
kept safe here.

Isn't that fantastic? They've been
here for all those centuries

and they are still safe right in
the middle of the town.

Ah, it's great. Thank you. Thank you
so much. Efharisto. You're welcome.

Thank you.

The coves of the Aegean islands were
infamous pirate hideouts.

Marauding mariners even dared

capture the mighty Roman leader,
Julius Caesar.

In fact, the word pirate actually
comes from the ancient Greek,

peirates, which means someone who
attempts to make a robbery.

Piracy also turns up in the Odyssey,
too.

So we hear that when Odysseus lands
on particular islands

in order to prove that he's not a
pirate, he will go with

only a few people and unarmed.

But there's this brilliant passage
where we actually find out

that Odysseus himself is a pirate,

because he lands on the island, he
sacks the city, he rapes the women,

he plunders the treasure and then
divides it up between his men.

So at that point he isn't a hero,
he's a villain.

Scattered across Siphnos
are anti-pirate watchtowers.

There are 77 in total right
the way across the island.

This is one of them which is
2,400 years old.

What they'd do is
they would signal to one another

and they did that by using
a kind of early form of mirror

of polished metal or smoke signals,
which helped to keep their

gold and silver, and themselves,
safe.

Towers like this once formed
a communication network

across the Aegean, as far back as
the Bronze Age,

and they relate directly to
Odysseus' story.

So we are told that at the end of
the Trojan War

when the Greeks won, beacons were
lit all the way from Troy

through Greece to the
Greek mainland.

And archaeologists have worked out
that would have been possible.

That you could have had this
line of fire,

from Turkey right the way
through Greece.

So these beacons really heralded the
beginning of the original Odyssey.

In fact, this whole island is
a treasure trove where

clues in the legends of Odysseus are
backed up by hard historical fact.

Especially at the beautiful Bronze
Age settlement of Agios Andreas.

The kind of place we're told
Odysseus and other warrior

king heroes ruled over.

When you make it up into the clouds
here you find a whole

fortified city that dates
back 3,500 years.

It's Mycenaean.

The Mycenaeans were an ancient
superpower who dominated the Aegean

when the Egyptians were at
their height.

Mycenaean weapons, clothes, customs

all feature in the stories of
Odysseus.

The Mycenaean, who start off in
mainland Greece, were well organised

and very ambitious.

And they started to take over
territories

right across the Aegean
on islands like this.

Filling their sites
with impressive technology.

This is a system that was built to
collect rainwater and that was then

delivered down to the town in this
complicated sophisticated system.

It's brilliant, isn't it,
when you think about it?

Because all of this is happening
well over 1,000 years before

Romans start to do their thing
with aqueducts and water supplies.

So in some ways what
you are looking at here is

the beginning of civilisation
as we know it.

This rich citadel would have enjoyed
massive communal feasts,

like the ones we hear about in
the Odyssey.

I love the finds here cos you get a
real sense of how the people here

didn't just survive, but tried
to live a good life.

So what you're looking at is
a giant earthenware storage jar.

It's called a pithos and we know
that in here there would have been

grain and figs, and quite often

these things were buried in the
earth so, basically,

they acted like a kind of
prehistoric fridge.

And what's particular nice about
this one is they didn't just

bang it out, but they decorated it.

So all around the surface you've got
this design of a rope

so that it looks like there
are ropes running around the edge.

I'm really, really very lucky to be
allowed to hold these.

These are finds from the site.

This is a beautiful decoration for
a piece of clothing.

And it's silver gilded which was
something the Siphnians did a lot

because they had access to all this
amazing silver and gold.

So that is one treat,

this is possibly even more special.

So this is close on 3,500 years old.

And it's a stone head carved
into the shape of an opium poppy.

Now, this tells us
that back in the Bronze Age

they would have been using
opium drugs, opiates,

basically to get high.

And I wonder if this explains all
those amazing myths and legends.

So if they drank opiates,
if they smoke them,

if they drank liquid opiates
in the form of laudanum,

then you can just imagine
they were tripping, basically.

So they would have had these dreams
of gods and spirits and monsters.

So in many ways this little tiny
thing, I think, is the key to

understanding the myths and legends
of the ancient Greeks.

Like one of the most famous,
the story of Perseus

who, as a young boy, falls foul
of his grandfather and, along with

his mum, ends up cast adrift in a
wooden box off these shores.

They arrive on these waters and are

then rescued by fishermen
and brought ashore.

But it's an interesting start to
life and Perseus

constantly has challenges.

He has to find and kill a monster,

Medusa - that goddess with snake
for hair.

And then he had to rescue a naked
princess from a rock.

The Ethiopian Andromeda,

a clue that the Greeks had strong
relations with Africa and the East.

And then he has to go and found one

of the greatest empires of the
whole of Greece.

The mighty Mycenaean empire.

Medusa is the ultimate man-eater

whose petrifying stare turns men
to stone.

The only way that Perseus can kill
her is by facing down his fear.

And the moral of that tale
is that the greatest enemy of human

happiness is not fear,
but fear of fear itself.

The myths are all about learning
from experiences.

Our hero Odysseus meets epic
challenges,

but he's changed by them.

And now it's time for me to leave
Siphnos. There will certainly be

more adventures to come on
my Greek odyssey.

On this leg of the journey I've
really felt the raw power of nature.

And that's something that the

ancient Greeks and the Odyssey
talk about a lot.

Whether that's us as humans

exploiting the earth or being
at its mercy.

Something that you are definitely
aware of out on the open sea.

Next time...

I meet charming modern day
inhabitants of Crete.

BLEATING
Ooh!

And come face-to-face with a savage
reality from the age of heroes,

human sacrifice.

Very macabre.

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