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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'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 truth 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.

Last time, I travelled to Crete, where I explored the extraordinary

palace of Knossos,

discovered remnants of Nazi occupation...

And there's the swastika.

..and braved the fury of the sea.

I'm continuing my quest by travelling to the Peloponnese,

a peninsula connected to the Greek mainland

by bridges over a 6km canal.

It's here you'll find the origins

of some of the most renowned Greek legends,

priceless treasures, and the hardest men of history.

The Peloponnese was visited by our legendary hero, Odysseus.

It's home to one of the world's greatest Bronze Age civilisations -

the Mycenaeans - who dominated the Mediterranean from 1600 to 1100 BC

around the time, I believe, the Trojan War was set.

This prehistoric powerhouse gave birth to many Greek myths,

including the most famous of all.

The story of Helen of Troy

whose adventures involved our own hero Odysseus.

We're about to dock in the ancient sea port of Gythion,

home to a tiny island where, the poet Homer tells us, it all began.

This is the island of Cranae, "rocky" or "craggy island" in Creek.

And the story goes that it was here that Helen of Troy,

the most beautiful woman in the world and the wife of Menelaus,

king of Sparta, had a passionate affair with the Trojan Prince Paris.

Years later, Paris remembers it and he says,

"Irresistible longing laid me low as we locked in love on Cranae."

So, it was a great night for Paris and Helen.

But what happened here kick-started the Trojan War.

It was from these very shores that the runaway lovers Helen

and Prince Paris fled across the Mediterranean to Troy,

rousing Odysseus and the other Greek heroes to follow in hot pursuit.

The Trojan War was a bloody, brutal campaign in which many

of the Greek heroes, including Odysseus, fought for ten long years.

So, I've come to the Peloponnese, where some of the most ferocious

warrior heroes were said to have lived.

Thank you so much. Nice to see you again. Take care! Bye.

See you, bye!

At Bronze Age Greek sites here,

shocking discoveries of human remains dating back to the age

of Odysseus reveal that those tales of trauma

and violent conflict are rooted in real hard history.

This is the body of a warrior who died close on 3,500 years ago.

Now, he's only around 19, but he has really suffered.

So, here, he's been struck by a sword or a dagger

and then been patched up and put back out to battle.

Down here, there's a hole through his skull pierced by a lead shot

that would have come at him like a bullet.

And this is almost certainly the killer blow.

Men like this travelled right across the Mediterranean -

raiding, and trading, and fighting, founding civilisations,

and making history, and their world became the stuff of legend.

Now, we might not have the body of a hero warrior called Odysseus,

but like this young man, he went into battle,

he suffered trauma, and had great adventures.

And his journey became one of the greatest stories ever told.

The warriors of this age aspired to earn the reputation beyond death

of being the ultimate combat hero.

An obsession with military prowess etched in history by the Spartans,

the ancient world's most fanatical fighters.

And I'm about to experience first-hand how that fighting spirit

lives on today.

It's really, really fierce!

I've come to a region of Greece, the Peloponnese,

known for producing some of history's toughest fighters.

From the warrior heroes of the Bronze Age Greeks

around 3,500 years ago,

to the ancient Spartans who dominated this wild landscape

1,000 years later from around

their belief in the value of mega-fit fighters still continues

here today in the practice of pankration.

Pankration's a mixture of wrestling and boxing,

and it stretches right back to at least 2000 BCE.

This is what they're doing here.

It's the ultimate competitive sport cos pankration means "all strength".

So, the guys here are using every part of their body.

And in Homer's tales, it's with shows of strength like this

that Odysseus and his fellow heroes competed

for Helen of Troy's hand in marriage.

In Egypt, there's evidence of this kind of fighting on the walls

of tombs - we see it portrayed.

We know it happened around 4,000 years ago.

But interestingly, it turns up in the myths and legends, too.

So we're told that Theseus when he fought against the Minotaur,

the half man, half bull on Crete, he used pankration

to vanquish the monster.

And I'm not surprised he could kill a monster with it.

Because it's really, really fierce!

And it's making me flinch being this close.

Hyah! Hyah!

What's the youngest child who's here?

What's the youngest age?

They start at six years old.

Six? Yeah. OK. So that's a neat thing.

So, in ancient Sparta, you'd start at seven.

Yeah. They'd be taken away from their families,

and trained here - exactly here - on this side of the mountain.

Exactly here. Exactly here! I mean, that's incredible, isn't it?

It's very significant this place

because it started many, many years ago - many centuries ago.

Yes.

People living here may have revered warrior culture

through the centuries, but this is a land of heroines as well as heroes.

And Helen of Troy was one of the most influential of all.

Originally, Helen of Sparta,

known down history as a home wrecking troublemaker,

but honoured here as a demi goddess and a powerful queen.

It was said that this is where Helen of Troy was buried

with her husband, Menelaus, and throughout antiquity,

it was known as "Tis Elenis Ieron" - "Helen's Shrine".

We know that men and actually particularly women

from Sparta would come here to worship

their gorgeous, adventurous heroine ancestor.

They'd run races in her honour and dedicate these beautiful

little perfume bottles of perfumed olive oil,

and even make animal sacrifice to her up here.

I really just love this place.

One of the most beautiful places on Earth.

And there's more.

The ruins of a real Bronze Age luxury home

where leaders of the day would have hung out.

Now, in The Odyssey, grand feasting was a big deal.

And we're told that Helen's Palace in Sparta hosted returning heroes

from the Trojan War.

During one feast when the men are sharing tales of the Trojan War,

Helen mixes up a kind of druggy brew to make them forget their sorrows.

We've actually analysed the interiors of pots from this time,

and we know two things.

One is that they grew a lot of opium poppies in this region,

and the women of the palaces would mix up big vats of pure laudanum.

So, that's opiates mixed with alcohol.

Which means the feasting that happened here

must have been quite a heady experience.

It's nearly time to move on from Sparta.

But before I leave, I just want to take you on a little detour

to somewhere that I think is rather magical.

It's a medieval ghost town that flourished

from the 13th to the 15th centuries.

Mystras.

The Peloponnese boasts these citadels in the air.

Like a set from Game of Thrones.

Looking out over the stamping ground of Odysseus,

Helen, Achilles, and other legends of The Odyssey.

Not only does this place feel like the top of the world,

there are all kinds of lost worlds here.

Over 1,000 years after the ancient Spartans,

this region was still a key seat of power.

Mystras was a vital outpost for the Eastern Roman Empire.

Societies around here could live really rich lives,

but also because of all the mountains,

they could literally come and hide in the hills.

They had somewhere to take refuge.

So, you get the sense through time here that there are people who love

the living of life, but also know that they have to fight for it.

Crusaders, Venetians, and Turks all captured this key political site.

After centuries as being the centre of power for all kinds

of civilisations, the life slowly started

to ebb away from this amazing place,

and the very last villager left in 1953.

You know, I said that no-one lives here any more.

That's not strictly true because actually there's a small community

of nuns who are still here.

They've been here since the 15th century.

And sometimes they welcome you in, and give you a little something

to eat to say hello.

So, I'm going to see if I can come along come.

How beautiful!

Hello, good afternoon. Hello, welcome. Thank you. Hi, I'm Bettany.

My name is Agnes.

Hi! Thank you so much.

It's such a pleasure to be here.

Thank you - look at these!

I love the cats.

Yes. And the cats, too, of course.

Yes. Thank you, father.

Thank you...

Look at this!

That is so lovely. So, Agnes has just that...

..she has this ready

so that it's given with love for people when they're on a journey.

Honestly, this looks too beautiful.

And I'm very hungry.

Yes!

Red, red wine!

Well, you really...

Mm!

Red, red wine.

To you, to life, to love... ..to the people.

To the people. To the people and then to the love.

Because without him, without love love...

..we have nothing. Yes. Absolutely.

Yamas!

Mm!

Simple things. Delicious.

Simple things.

Yeah. Yeah, simple pleasures.

So some people would say, you know, they wouldn't understand

your life here.

We live a very beautiful life.

This place has a special energy,

has something very mystic.

So I'm going on this big journey, this odyssey.

What is the one bit of advice you'd give me?

To embrace every experience that you have in your life,

good ones and bad ones.

You're so wise, what you're saying.

That's what I think the story of Odysseus is about,

is how you meet difficulties.

You're given challenges, moral challenges, physical challenges,

but you have to know what...what matters.

And for him, what matters,

despite all the temptations, is coming home, is making it home.

This is my idea of happiness, Agnes.

A kitten on my lap...

..talking philosophy in a place of extraordinary history.

And a welcome at the end of a long journey.

Little thing!

Next on my odyssey, I'm heading

to a vast citadel fortress,

a power base of the Mycenaean,

the Bronze Age civilisation who came

to dominate this region when the ancient Egyptians

were at their height.

And I want to piece together fact and fiction.

But first, I'm stopping off at a hotel made famous by the man

who excavated my Mycenae's ruins.

Heinrich Schliemann was a wealthy German businessman, with no formal

training in archaeology, who came here in 1876.

A colourful character, his obsession with myths led him

to uncover Mycenae.

And this is where he stayed, a hotel that's become a bit

of an institution.

I always stay here when I come to Mycenae. It's La Belle Helene,

the beautiful Helen, named after Helen of Troy.

Oh, good, it's still here because

I haven't been for years,

years and years and years.

They've got this guest book.

So my name will have recorded in it when I last came, 15 years ago.

Here we go. Look. There it is, fantastic.

So, October 18th, 2004.

Coming here is like stepping into a time capsule.

This is the room that Schliemann used to stay in.

And actually, he was a really interesting character.

He came from a very poor family and his mum died

when he was just nine and he lost himself in the myths and legends

of ancient Greece and was particularly captivated by the story

of Odysseus and his odyssey.

He was determined to see if there's any truth to these tales.

And actually, he did go on to discover the city of Troy,

famous for the Trojan War.

Then he wanted to find the palaces of the Greek heroes who fought

in that mighty conflict.

So that was why he came here to Greece.

Schliemann claimed his discoveries at Mycenae proved that the warrior

heroes of the Odyssey lived and breathed.

Now, I wouldn't go that far,

but there are kernels of truth.

And Schliemann certainly put this place on the map.

The treasures at Mycenae attracted worldwide attention, including

a number of celebrities who actually came and stayed here.

And we know this because of the brilliant thing of La Belle Helene

keeping these guest books.

For instance, Agatha Christie came here when she was just 18,

along with Debussy, actually the same year,

the amazing French composer.

And actually, even British royalty.

So Duke of Windsor, who had been Edward VIII, came here,

although not, we think, with Wallis Simpson.

But there are also slightly more troubling visitors

because this was a story of a warrior culture and a clash

of civilisations and the ultimate male hero,

a number of Hitler's henchmen came to visit

and we have their signatures, too.

So here Dr Goebbels with his wife.

And then also Albert Speer.

He was another of Hitler's followers.

A stark warning, this, for when modern day power brokers

and politicians twist the stories of the ancient past to serve

their own purposes.

I'm on an odyssey around the Greek islands and the Mediterranean.

And right now I'm in the Peloponnese investigating why this peninsula

produced history's toughest heroes.

I'm heading to a vast citadel fortress from the age

of Odysseus that was made famous by the 19th century

archaeologist, Heinrich Schliemann.

Mycenae was built around 1600 BC.

This was the centre of the Mycenaean civilisation,

which gave rise to some of Greece's

most unforgettable legends and heroes,

including the brother of Helen of Troy's husband, Menelaus,

who commanded Greek troops to win her back - Agamemnon.

It's said that a great warrior leader, a king of men, Agamemnon -

Helen of Troy's brother-in-law,

ruled this place, a city that was rich in gold.

And the brilliant thing about Mycenae is that the fact

is as exciting as the fantasy.

The first hint of just how important this place once was is right

here at the entrance.

All power was concentrated here, so the Mycenaeans

decorated their gateway with what for years were thought

to be two rampant lions. Although we now know, they're lionesses.

Mycenae looks out to the sea across the Argive plain

and its power came from the waves.

They had a huge navy and were basically bullyboy buccaneers.

He would travel out to trade and to raid across the waves.

So we find their influence in Cyprus

and Palestine and Egypt.

And even as far afield as Croatia and Italy.

Now, this was over 1,500 years before the Roman Empire.

In fact, the Mycenaean civilisation was so advanced, that later

generations couldn't get their heads around how citadels

like this were built.

The outer walls of the city were so massive in scale and built

with these huge blocks of stone

that it was thought no human could have constructed them

and they must have been built by the legendary race of giants,

the Cyclopes.

And so they came to be called the Cyclopean Walls.

And that's not the only impressive feat of ingenuity on show here.

At its height, a whopping 30,000 people would have lived here,

all needing to be fed and watered.

There's something down here that I really want to show you.

It's normally closed,

but the curators have said I can take you in.

It's a brilliant bit of engineering,

but it's a bit of engineering with a secret.

Now, in the legendary story of the Trojan War, the city of Troy

is under siege for ten whole years.

Hilltop citadels, like Troy and Mycenae, were especially

vulnerable to being besieged and access to fresh water

was a matter of life and death.

I'm not a fan of the dark underground spaces, but it is worth

coming down here because the thing with Mycenae is it didn't

have a water supply, so they had to bring fresh water,

and somehow from the hills beyond.

So they dug 18 metres down into solid rock, laying a series

of hidden underground pipes to deliver fresh spring water

from 360 metres away.

It doesn't look so fresh now, but in its time it was a life-saver.

It's this engineering know-how

that enabled Great Mycenaean cities to thrive.

Mycenae may be a civilisation that boasts brilliant historical

achievements, but in myth it was also stained with horror.

When Helen is taken to Troy, her brother-in-law, King Agamemnon,

is so determined to win her back, he even sacrifices his own daughter

to ensure the gods' favour.

His gory plan works.

And after many trials, Agamemnon goes on to conquer Troy

and to return Helen to her husband.

Agamemnon is given a hero's welcome, but there is a sinister

surprise in store.

His wife Clytemnestra, quite understandably, has never

forgiven him for sacrificing their daughter.

And as Agamemnon is having a bath, Clytemnestra stabs

and murders her husband.

And that is why the tomb up here is called the Tomb of Agamemnon.

The name might be fake, but we do know, as fact,

that this tomb was used as the final resting place for

Mycenae's greatest warrior kings.

So the king's body, washed and oiled with perfumed oils,

would be brought in here.

It would be covered with all the gold that he'd enjoyed

in his lifetime.

The whole tomb would be fumigated with incence and a great toast

would be raised.

This was the ultimate send-off to the ultimate warrior.

So when Mycenae was excavated,

an extraordinary number of treasures

came at the site. And I am really,

really lucky to have been allowed

this access to just some of them.

So, when Schliemann excavated one grave,

he came across a solid gold death mask.

A unique replica is here.

It is still just the most incredible thing, isn't it?

And it really tells us something about the Mycenaeans.

They're kind of magpie culture.

They absolutely loved gold.

So they used gold in necklaces and bracelets, and rings

and to decorate their furniture.

Um, and what I'm just about to show you here is, if anything,

even more special.

So I've got to be really, really

careful because they're very,

very, very delicate.

Wow, they're just so beautiful.

So what you're looking at here are solid gold rosettes,

and you have to bear in mind

that these are close on 3,500 years old.

And these would've been used to decorate clothes

and decorate dressings within a tomb.

Again, there was this kind of sparkle and glitter of gold everywhere

in Mycenae.

And something extra special in here which I've been allowed hold

if I'm very, very careful.

This is a necklace that would've been worn by a woman

made of carnelian.

And carnelian is a stone that was thought to have kind

of supernatural, magical properties.

Isn't it remarkable to think

that the last time this was worn,

again, was close on 3,500 years ago?

Seeing all of this, you really understand why this is a culture

and a civilisation that becomes the stuff of myths and legends.

The Mycenaeans ruled supreme for around 500 years until 1100 BC.

And then they collapse.

And we don't quite know why it is.

Actually, there's really interesting new evidence that tells us

there was a kind of mega-drought

at the end of the Bronze Age and communities

just couldn't survive any more.

So I think a lot of the stories, a lot of the myths are remembering

this mystical, wonderful golden age because they were composed at a time

when, actually, people were living through torment and trouble,

and what came to be called the Greek Dark Ages.

I'm now heading 80 miles southwest to the other side of the Peloponnese

to a place steeped in naval history - Navarino Bay.

Our hero Odysseus was blown off course and eventually shipwrecked

off the Peloponnesian coastline.

But storms weren't the only enemy here.

This strategic coast has been fought over for centuries.

Naval battles have littered the seabed

with the carcasses of ships.

Hey. Is that George? Hello. I'm George. Hi. Hi, nice to see you.

Nice to see you. Good morning. Welcome on board.

Local boat captain, George, is taking me out on his speed boat

to have a closer look.

It's great getting up this close because there was so many

really significant battles here. Yes. In the ancient world

and then through to the 19th century, weren't there?

Yeah, the battles Navarino over here, in all this area.

That's why, just to explain,

this is in the 1820s and it's when, basically, Greece

is fighting for its independence.

So it's the allies. It's British,

French, Russians, Greeks versus the Turks and the Egyptians.

I mean, it was a serious conflict.

60 boats went down and they're here somewhere underneath us.

And after that, the Greeks win,

and that's when you get the Greek independence, so...

That was the end of the Turkish and Egyptian army in Greece,

I would say. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, it's true.

And this is, my goodness,

if anywhere in Greece has a tradition of heroes, it's here.

It's the Peloponnese.

All those stories of Hercules and Theseus, it all happens here.

Everything started from the south Peloponnese.

Do you still talk about those stories of the heroes here?

There are so many legends that even from my grandmother,

they can recall. Here the kids,

they're getting born with the mythology inside them, I would say.

Ah, good. Good to hear.

Cos they're good life lessons.

They're good stories and they're good life lessons.

Because there's been so much history here,

the seabed is absolutely covered in wrecks.

Most of them got smashed up through time because they've been wrecked

here for over two and a half thousand years,

but there are a few that survived and this is one coming up here.

I'm quite eager to get in and have a look at it.

Can I go in, do you think? You want to swim? I do.

It's going to be refreshing.

Listen, I live in England.

This will feel like a hot bath when I go out.

There it is. OK, shall we do it? Let's do it, let's do it.

Navarino Bay is in the middle of an ancient trade route linking

Italy with the Near East.

This cargo ship was called the Ramona and ran aground

just over a century ago.

But other wrecks on the seabed here date back

two and a half thousand years.

Visibility is not great.

But it's amazing seeing it, actually,

the whole at the bottom of the seabed.

It's like a massive archaeological museum.

So it's cool to get to be able to see this.

It's doubly thrilling to be here because these very beaches

are mentioned in the Odyssey.

Sandy Pylos. And up the hill is a Mycenaean palace that pretty

certainly features in Odysseus' story.

Dating from around the 13th century BC

it's been named the Palace of Nestor after the King, who features

in the Odyssey and who sent

90 of his ships to fight in the Trojan War.

And so the story goes, when Odysseus still hasn't returned

home from the war ten years on,

his son Telemachus comes here to this lofty house

seeking news of his father.

So we're told that Telemachus came into the throne room

with a raging fire.

We've actually got a wall painting from the palace of someone sitting

and playing the lyre, singing the tales of heroes, the tales

of the Trojan War.

And that's why Telemachus came,

cos he wanted to hear the stories of his father from King Nestor

when they fought together at Troy.

Following discoveries made here in the 20th century,

this is a place where, when it comes to stories of elaborate feasts

for heroes like this, the fact backs up the fantasy.

We know that hundreds of sheep and goats and cattle were brought

in to be eaten. In one store room

there was 1,600 litres of wine

and 2,856 wine cups.

And I've heard a brilliant new dig is revealing that other details

in the myths have their roots in real human history.

It's one of the most extraordinary

Greek archaeological discoveries of the last 50 years.

Amazing.

And I've got very special access.

I'm on the adventure of a lifetime in the Peloponnese,

the Greek Peninsula, famed for its fighters and where many

mythical heroes were based.

I'm finally coming face-to-face with one of the actual ancestors

of this incredible warrior legacy.

In 2015, in a small olive grove behind Nestor's palace,

Sharon Stocker and her team found an untouched warrior king's grave

dating back over 3,500 years.

It not only still contained the adult male warrior skeleton,

but all the personal treasures he'd been buried

with for over three millennia.

He was named the Griffin Warrior after the image of the mythical half

lion, half bird found on artefacts in his grave.

And I've been allowed to come to take a look.

Hi, it's Bettany. Shari Stocker. Hi. Welcome to the Palace of Nestor.

Thank you. It's so nice to have you here.

Sharon's team went on to find two nearby tombs crammed with bodies

and treasures, old dating back to around 1550 BC,

the Bronze Age of Greek heroes.

This is like a kind of cathedral. Yes. It's incredible.

They're still excavating.

And I've been given privileged access.

It would have been the final resting place of people

who were very important in the society.

There is a lot of vying for leadership at this time period.

So it's not a given that somebody will inherit.

We don't think that there was a monarchy yet.

People had to earn it.

They had to, for example, hunt wild boars and bring them and use them

for their armour.

And, you know, show their strength and their prowess and actually

earn their position at the top of society. Heroes and heroines

in the true sense of the word. Absolutely. Yeah.

While we're filming the team physically strike gold once again.

Wow, this is really exciting.

It's so bright, though, isn't it, the colours. Isn't it? It's perfect.

Look, look!

Ah!

Clearly, it's the edge of something.

It could be part of a piece of furniture. Mm.

It's just the colour's so...

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

It's so amazing.

It's always exciting with gold. It is.

In that earth even after... Thousands of years.

..thousands of years, it still has that glitter. I know.

It's a wonderful thing. It's amazing. Oh, Maria.

Are you happy?

Yes!

Pretty good way to start a day, isn't it? It is. Good luck.

I hope tomorrow's as exciting if your heart can stand it.

And the excitement doesn't end there.

Using the Griffin Warrior's skull and DNA, a facial reconstruction

has been made.

I'm about to come face-to-face

with a 3,000-year-old warrior king.

We can tell that he was a relatively young man, probably 30 to 35 years

old, and that he was robust, his bones are strong, which ties

in with militaristic aspects of him.

And he's described as a as a warrior.

I mean, do you think he's also what we would call a king?

Yes, I think that at this time he probably played many

roles in society.

So I think he was a leader.

I think he was a warrior

and he probably held some religious function as well.

The priceless possessions buried with the Griffin Warraror tell us

what mattered to him - exotic riches,

warrior warfare and the world of the gods.

The same values embodied in the tales of Greek

heroes like Odysseus.

We found four gold rings.

Here is the biggest and the most amazing ring of all.

And it's the second largest gold ring in the Greek world.

Ah! And so the detail on it is just incredible.

Look at this. It's incredible!

And it's a religious scene.

So we have three women who are approaching a shrine in the middle.

So we have some kind of a festival, a ritual

as they're honouring the goddess.

Please tell me about this exquisite necklace.

Do you think he'd have worn this in his lifetime?

Yes, I'm sure that he would have worn it in his lifetime.

It has two agate beads in the centre.

And this is most likely a glass bead.

I mean, that's... Bright. ..so beautiful.

It's like a snake, isn't it? It is.

That's really, really, really hard to get that craftsmanship. Yes.

And this is solid gold and it's very, very heavy.

It's an amazing piece, absolutely. It's beautiful.

It's giving messages about his standing in the world. Yes.

It's a very loud statement. It's wonderful.

It's mind-blowingly extraordinary. Yeah. I mean, I'm just having a

moment of you find this.

Oh, my goodness. I was blown away.

I have to say, it was really, it was so exciting.

It's just wonderful to see history still being made

here in this exceptional place.

Thank you.

I first came to the Peloponnese 30 years ago.

It has been such a trip coming back.

I knew that this was the birthplace of myths and legends and the home

of heroes.

Like Odysseus, Agamemnon and Helen of Troy.

But you know what, coming here, you really feel as if people are

living the myths, they're living legends.

So this is a place where the past is not dead.

It's very much alive.

Next time on my Greek island odyssey...

I reach the climax of my epic voyage in the beautiful

Western islands, discovering

how Odysseus finally made it home.

I put Greece's finest archers to the test.

And I feel the earth move.

I can't quite believe that just happened.

We've just had an earthquake.

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