All language subtitles for Clash.of.the.Gods.S01E01.1080p.AMZN.WEB-DL.DDP2.0.H.264-deadorbit_track3_[eng]

[thunder crashing]

NARRATOR: A son
battles his father

for control of the universe and
seizes more power than any god

ever had.

This is the story of Zeus, Greek
mythology's supreme commander.

To us, it's a myth,
but to the ancients,

it was reality, a way to make
sense of a terrifying world.

Some Greeks believe Jesus was
the one true god centuries

before Christ, and that
nature's worst catastrophes

were a sign of his wrath.

This is the myth of Zeus
as it was originally told,

and the surprising
truth behind it.

[music playing]

If you control the sky,
you control the world.

In Greek mythology, that power
belongs to one god, Zeus.

He reigns as the enforcer of
justice, the master of men

and gods.

Zeus was the king of the gods,
but he was also responsible

for dispensing justice,
both to the gods,

and to mortals on the Earth.

DAVID GEORGE: This is
something really cool

about Greek mythology.

Because one of the things
that you were supposed

to do as a Greek
when you worship

the gods was simply to do
what was required to keep

the gods from squashing you.

NARRATOR: As commander
of the skies,

Zeus has the power of
nature at his disposal.

That gives him the most
devastating weapon of all.

PETER STRUCK: The most
powerful symbol of Zeus

is the lightning bolt.
This is what Zeus carries.

It's his main accouterment.

And it's the thing that
makes him the most powerful

of all the divinities.

NARRATOR: Attributing
lightning to Zeus

was a way for the Greeks to
explain the unexplainable.

In a time before
science, mythology put

faces on the forces
that shaped the world.

MICHAEL FONTAINE: The
Greeks used mythology

to try and figure out why the
world operates the way that it

does.

They didn't have
scientific explanations

yet for how the world
came into existence,

or why lightning strikes
here but not there,

or why it strikes then
and not some other time.

KRISTINA MILNOR: natural world
was very frightening to them,

so they associated
it with the divine.

You know, these were
symptoms of the gods' power

that they could use to punish
people who hadn't worshipped

them properly.

NARRATOR: Zeus's
command over nature

would make him Greece's
most feared god.

But how did he get there?

[music playing]

What we know of Zeus
begins with the writings

of the ancient Greek author,
Hesiod, around 700 BC.

His book, called "Theogony,"
was the ancient Greek story

of creation, what the Book of
Genesis is to our own world.

PETER STRUCK: "Theogony"
is Hesiod's attempt

to make sense of the world, to
bring order to it by telling

the story of a
dynastic family rivalry

that winds up in a well-ordered
cosmos, that is, the world

that you and I know today.

[music playing]

NARRATOR: In the myth,
Zeus doesn't start out

as the king of the gods.

He rises from obscurity
to challenge his father

for control of the universe.

And that won't be easy.

His father is Cronus.

He is king of the Titans,
the most powerful gods

in the universe.

PETER STRUCK: The Titans are
an older order of Greek god.

They're pretty rough
around the edges.

They're not too bright.

They're also not
very well civilized.

NARRATOR: As leader
of the Titans,

Cronus is expected
to produce offspring,

so he mates with his own
flesh and blood, his sister

and fellow Titan, Rhea.

Incest shows up quite
a bit in mythology.

Among the gods, there's really
nobody else at the beginning

for them to have sex
with so they end up

marrying one another.

There's an old-time
aristocratic idea that says

that no one else is good enough
for our family except only

our family, and the Greek gods
definitely seemed to ascribe

to this kind of a principle.

NARRATOR: These two Titans
siblings, Cronus and Rhea,

produce the next generation
of Greek gods, mythology's

household names, the Olympians.

Among them are Hades,
Poseidon, and Zeus.

But they will not simply
inherit the Earth,

they must fight for it.

Cronus was very worried
about having children

because he was concerned
that his son would be greater

than him and would supplant him.

The father fears being
replaced by the son.

That's human psychology.

I mean, go to Freud and--

actually, Freud found it
in classical mythology.

So this-- this fear
of losing your power

to the next generation was real.

If you had a kid and you
had something worth taking,

at some point, you needed
to keep an eye on the kid.

So his solution
to this problem

was to swallow alive
all of his offspring.

As soon as his wife gave birth,
he would actually ingest them.

PETER STRUCK: Now, of course,
since they're immortal,

the children that Cronus
swallows are not dead.

They are just locked
away inside of his belly.

He's trying to control
them and keep them

from developing a power base so
they might be able to overthrow

him.

NARRATOR: To the Greeks
who told the myth,

this was an appalling act.

Cannibalism was as
deplorable then as now.

We see the Greek authors
giving voice to their fears

through mythology.

Cannibalism, sacrifice
were horrible taboos,

but when you project these
things onto the gods,

it gives you a safe place
to explore the consequences

of what might happen.

NARRATOR: Rhea is horrified.

All five of her children
have been swallowed alive.

Now, she is pregnant again.

But this time, she has a plan.

She sneaks away and gives
birth in secret to a son,

the future king
of the gods, Zeus.

But Cronus is expecting
another child to swallow.

So Rhea wraps a rock in a baby
blanket and present it to him.

Without thinking twice, he grabs
the bundle and gulps it down.

So the plan of Rhea
is put into place.

Cronus has swallowed down
the stone instead of Zeus.

Zeus, then, as an
infant, is spirited away

and he's put in what the
ancient myth tellers tell

us is the folds of the Earth.

NARRATOR: Zeus has been saved
by his mother's cleverness.

It's a memorable story.

But could that secret cave
at the heart of the myth

really exist?

It seems the
ancients thought so.

[music playing]

They believed Zeus had been
born on the island of Crete

in this mountain cave.

The cave on the island of
Crete is perhaps the most

important sanctuary for the
veneration of-- of Zeus.

It was considered as one
of the possible places

where the baby Zeus was kept
hidden from his own father.

NARRATOR: Excavations
of the cave

have revealed that it
was a major pilgrimage

site for visitors from
across the ancient world.

It was a place that people
would go to worship Zeus.

How do we know?

We've excavated thousands of
dedications to Zeus and ritual

objects to Zeus from all
over the Mediterranean.

NARRATOR: One find
in particular ties

directly into the myth of Zeus.

Amongst material remains
were these cool shields

that probably were
along the walls

and were put up
there to indicate

the clanging of shields that
the people defending Zeus

used to muffle his crying when
he was a baby so that Cronus

could not hear.

NARRATOR: A chosen son
hidden to save his life.

For Christians and Jews,
the story of Zeus's birth

is very familiar.

Many religious and
mythological traditions

have stories of sacred
or divine children

who are hidden away in order to
protect them so that they can

grow to adulthood and
fulfill their destinies.

We think perhaps of Jesus who
is hidden away in the manger

so that Herod will not
be able to get to him,

or of Moses, who is
hidden away in Egypt.

NARRATOR: In the myth,
Zeus quietly comes

of age inside the cave.

PETER STRUCK: He has a kind
of training period there,

out of the eyes of Cronus, and
is able to acquire his strength

and develop into a man.

NARRATOR: Zeus spends his
childhood preparing to fulfill

his self-appointed destiny,
to challenge his father

and the Titans for
control of the universe.

Zeus has escaped the fate of
his siblings, who were all

swallowed alive by their
father, the Titan, Cronus.

Inside a remote
cave hideaway, he

has matured into a
fully formed god.

Now, he is ready to begin the
epic power struggle he was born

to wage to avenge his
father's savagery,

to liberate his five Olympian
siblings from his father's

belly, and to seize
control of the world

from the Titans who now rule it.

The stakes for him
are tremendously high.

If he succeeds, he'll be
master of the universe.

But if he fails, he
may well be the one

that winds up down in Tartarus.

NARRATOR: Tartarus, the
lowest level of Hades,

and the ancient Greek
equivalent of Hell.

Tartarus was the part of
Hades where the damned went.

The people who were bad
or committed offenses

against the gods on Earth
would be sent to Tartarus.

NARRATOR: If Zeus fails in
his attempt to seize power

from Cronus and
the Titans, he'll

be damned to this
place for all eternity.

But if he wins, he'll command
gods and men from his throne

atop Mount Olympus.

[music playing]

In Greek myth, Mount Olympus is
the towering home of the gods,

but it's also a real location.

It's the highest peak in Greece,
rising nearly 10,000 feet

above sea level.

And it's a natural setting
for supernatural powers.

The Greeks really believed
that their gods actually lived,

physically, on Mount Olympus.

It was important
for them to actually

have a sense of
where heaven was,

where the gods actually resided.

NARRATOR: It is from his
home base on Mount Olympus

that Zeus engineers his
rebellion against Cronus

and the Titans.

Susan is gonna have to get
others to come in and help him

out so that he can
achieve supreme power.

NARRATOR: This is the
ultimate family feud.

And so it is to his
own flesh and blood

that Zeus turns first.

He knows his strongest allies
will be his five siblings,

the Olympians, now
fully formed adults,

but still trapped deep
inside Cronus's stomach.

If they can be
liberated, the Olympians

could tip the scales
in Zeus's favor

and help him destroy
the Titans forever.

He wanted to free his
brothers and sisters,

so he concocted a potion.

NARRATOR: Quietly, Zeus
enters Cronus's lair

and slips the drug into
his nightly cup of mead.

Cronus drinks it and
becomes violently ill.

First, he vomits up the
stone his wife had given him

in place of baby Zeus.

According to
tradition, that rock

is the cornerstone of ancient
Greece's most sacred site,

the Temple of Delphi,
the home of the Oracle.

Delphi is a
sanctuary in Greece

where people would come from
all around to consult with God.

It was a direct phone
line up to heaven

to ask the answer to
anything you wanted.

NARRATOR: To this day, thousands
of years after the story was

first told, the stone that
Cronus supposedly vomited

is still there.

PETER STRUCK: At the very center
of the temple complex at Delphi

is an egg-shaped stone
that was understood

to be the exact stone that
played the role of being

the substitute for
that Cronus swallowed.

And if you go there today
to the temple of Delphi,

the locals will still tell you
that the stone that's there

is the actual one that
was in Cronus's belly.

[music playing]

NARRATOR: In the myth, after
throwing up the sacred stone,

Cronus regurgitates
Zeus's five siblings.

And they are ready to
join Zeus's revolution.

What marks Zeus as a
different kind of leader

from those that have come
before is his intelligence.

He's able to persuade and
convince those around him

that he should be leader, and
he's able to build coalitions.

NARRATOR: Zeus now has
his siblings by his side,

but he still needs more
muscle to take on the Titans.

And there are some other
estranged members of the family

who are out for revenge,
forgotten brothers of Cronus,

the cyclopes, and
the hundred-handers.

But to find them, Zeus
has to go to Hell.

Cronus had feared the powers
of these hundred-handers

and the cyclopes, and he
locked them down in Tartarus.

Zeus knew that if he could
get their power on his side,

he could marshal
it to his own ends.

He goes down and talks to
the hundred-handers and says,

I will pay you great respect.

And I know that my father
Cronus has mistreated you.

Now, I've freed you,
and now, you owe me.

And even they are moved, and
they say, yes, great Zeus, we

realize not only are
you very powerful,

but you also know how
to treat people well.

So we appreciate that and we
will now fight on your side.

NARRATOR: In gratitude
for being liberated,

the cyclopes present Zeus with
a gift, the power of lightning.

Lightning is one of the most
devastatingly powerful forces

in nature.

When lightning arcs
through the air,

the air is briefly raised
to a temperature that can

be more than 50,000 degrees.

That's 5 times the surface
temperature of the sun.

The lightning bolt gives Zeus
the power to rule the universe.

With this lightning
bolt, no one's

going to be able
to overthrow him.

[thunder crashing]

[music playing]

NARRATOR: The battle
lines are drawn.

The Titans will fight from
Mount Othrys, the Olympians,

from Mount Olympus.

Between them lies the
plane of Thessaly.

But this isn't just a
mythical battlefield.

Thessaly's, actually, if
we take into consideration

the modern map of Greece, is
the central parts of Greece.

It's the biggest plain and the
most fertile plain in Greece

from ancient times to today.

NARRATOR: Thessaly has a long,
bloody history, stretching

from the Greco-Persian
Wars of the fifth century

BC, to the World Wars
of the 20th century AD.

And it is here that the
ultimate battle of the gods

will play out.

Armed with a weapon
of mass destruction

and an elite
fighting force, Zeus

braces for an
earth-shattering battle.

And to this day, a real place
may still bear the scars.

Mythology's defining
moment is now at hand.

The battle between father
and son is about to begin.

It's the old guard of Cronus and
his Titans versus the new blood

of Zeus and the Olympians.

The outcome will determine
who controls everything.

From the top of Mount Olympus,
Zeus sends a fury of lightning

down upon his father's army.

The fighting shakes
the Earth to its core.

The only way we can
conceive of this battle

is simply worlds colliding,
all the forces in the universe

smashing together at once.

PETER STRUCK: You've
got the hundred-handers

over on one side
that are ripping off

huge hunks of mountain
and throwing mountains

at the other side.

From the Titans, you've got
a lot of just brute force

and brute strength.

They're able to take a punch and
keep coming back, coming back,

coming back.

NARRATOR: It's an apocalyptic
scene, and not entirely a myth.

[music playing]

Experts have recently determined
that a real event, just

as frightening, actually
happened in the ancient world.

About 3,600 years ago, the
Greek island of Santorini

experienced one of the most
devastating volcanic explosions

ever.

Its effects were felt as
far away as California.

The volcanic blast was the
single largest seismic event

on Earth in the
last 27,000 years.

To give you an idea
of how massive it was,

imagine a mountain about
3 and 1/2 miles tall

being blown into
the sky all at once.

NARRATOR: In 2006, scientists
discovered that the Santorini

eruption was even larger
than originally believed.

Excavations uncovered
deposits of volcanic ash

piled 20 stories deep,
blanketing a 30-mile radius

around the island.

Based on this evidence, it's now
believed the eruption unleashed

the equivalent power of
50,000 Hiroshima bombs.

An explosion that powerful
would have annihilated

much of the Greek world.

For the survivors, who knew
little about how volcanoes

work, it could only have
been the wrath of the gods.

When the ancient myth
tellers told the story

of great cataclysmic battles
that shook the earth,

they weren't doing
so in a vacuum.

There had been massive seismic
events that had happened

in the memory of some of the
earlier generations of Greeks

before these myth tellers had
written down their stories.

NARRATOR: As the clash of the
gods plays out in the myth,

it appears that Zeus is
finally about to seize control

of the universe.

His powerful allies
have tipped the balance,

and the Olympians are
closing in on victory.

But the Titans have one last
weapon at their disposal.

From the depths of
Tartarus, they call forth

a colossal beast, Typhon.

Typhon is a tremendously
strong, powerful monster that's

challenging Zeus himself.

It's a last gasp effort
and the final monster,

the final challenge he has to
put down in order to secure

his reign over the universe.

NARRATOR: It is a
supernatural death match,

a decisive struggle
between good and evil.

And it will all come down
to the ultimate weapon.

PETER STRUCK: As Zeus and Typhon
are engaged in this final epic

battle, Zeus eventually
gets the upper hand

and wins by his lightning bolt.

NARRATOR: With
one final assault,

Zeus drives Typhon
and his Titan allies

down into Tartarus, where they
are damned to spend eternity

in a fiery abyss.

According to the ancients, it
was across the Mediterranean,

on the island of Sicily,
that Zeus's enemies descended

into hell through the
volcanic crater of Mount Etna.

Local legend says
Typhon is still inside

and has been behind all
of the volcano's eruptions

over the centuries.

Greeks use this myth
as a way of explaining

why lava was constantly
pouring out of the volcano.

They explain that as either the
remnants of Zeus's lightning

constantly shooting out,
or of the flames of Typhon

still breathing just a little
bit exploding flame out

of the center of the volcano.

NARRATOR: It is also
said that Typhon causes

destructive windstorms storms.

In fact, his name is the
basis for the word typhoon.

But in the myth,
the storm clouds

have broken, for the time being.

Zeus's victory over his father
makes him the king of the gods,

the absolute ruler
of the universe.

So goes, the myth but what
is the link to reality?

In 2003, at the base
of Mount Olympus,

a lost temple was discovered.

It was the centerpiece of an
ancient city known as Dion,

and it was dedicated to Zeus.

DAVID ROMANO: Dion
was a city that

was built at the
base of Mount Olympus

and so it's very close to
the home of the Olympian gods

and goddesses and where Zeus
lived in Greek mythology.

In fact, the name of the
town, Dion, means Zeus.

NARRATOR: The Dion
temple dates back

to the fifth century BC, the
golden age of Greek mythology.

Scattered around the
site are marble blocks

with unmistakable
engravings, eagles.

In ancient Greece, eagles were
the divine symbol of Zeus.

But there's more.

This headless statue was
found in a nearby riverbed.

Carved into its 2,400-year-old
base are three words,

"Zeus the highest."

There's a debate among experts
about what this reference

to the highest means.

Some believe the statue could be
a missing link between Greece's

worship of many gods and
the single God philosophy

of Christians and Jews.

And at this find is proof
that the Greeks were embracing

the idea of one god on
their own before the arrival

of Christianity.

The Greeks sometimes
identified that highest god

with Zeus.

After all, the word
Zeus in its dative form,

"dios" is where we
get our word, "deus."

So there's an etymological
reason to understand Zeus

as the highest deity.

Starting in about the third
and second and first centuries

BC, we have different
philosophical and theological

schools that arise
and that start

to propose a very strong view
that there is only one God.

And that all the ancient stories
and all the ancient tales

are actually just metaphors
that reflect different aspects

of what this divinity
is all about.

NARRATOR: For the people
who worshipped at Dion,

it's clear that Zeus
was different from all

the other Greek gods.

In fact, he may well have been
the only one that mattered.

In the myth, Zeus has
achieved the absolute power

he has long sought, but that
power will soon be threatened

by an unexpected foe.

The king of the gods
is about to be betrayed

by the person closest to him.

[music playing]

Zeus has won his epic
clash with the Titans.

He now sits atop Mount Olympus
as king of the gods and master

of mankind.

The ancient Greeks worshipped
Zeus above all others,

even though he was
fatally flawed.

The ancient Greek
gods are very relatable.

They have faults,
they have strengths,

they have weaknesses,
they have all the things

that normal human beings would.

In fact, when the Greeks
in these early times

think about their gods, one
way of trying to understand it

is that they see their gods
as being a lot like you

and I, just really, really big.

NARRATOR: According
to the myth, Zeus

has one very human weakness that
threatens to be his undoing,

an uncontrollable sex drive.

SCOTT HULER: Zeus
likes the ladies.

That's one of the most
endearing and enraging things

about him is that he has this
very, very human character

that he just-- he never saw
a girl that he didn't like.

NARRATOR: Zeus will
stop at nothing

to seduce his conquests.

He even uses disguise.

Zeus visits mortal women
in various guises, whatever

it takes to consummate
the relationship.

So in different tales, we hear
of Zeus turning into an eagle,

turning into a swan,
turning into a ball,

turning into all these
different shapes,

turning into a human being to
mimic a woman's husband's face

to trick the women as best he
can into-- into having union

with him.

NARRATOR: A beautiful
young goddess

named Metis is the first to
capture Zeus's attention.

He takes her as his wife.

Metis is a very attractive
and appealing young woman.

And the quality that really
sets her apart is she

has practical wisdom.

In fact, her name in Greek
means practical wisdom.

When Zeus spies her, he
finds her very appealing.

NARRATOR: But Zeus's
affection for Metis

is overshadowed by
a dark prophecy that

threatens his grip on power.

He is told that she will
bear him a child who

will one day seize his throne.

Suddenly, Zeus, like his
father, must fear his offspring.

Zeus is representative of
this awful tradition that starts

literally from the dawn
of time of sons destroying

their fathers in order
to take prominence.

NARRATOR: But Zeus vows that
this time will be different,

and he takes a drastic
step to make sure of it.

He swallows his wife alive.

Once again, family love
falls prey to power.

It's history repeating.

But this horrifying act will
make Zeus stronger and wiser.

MICHAEL FONTAINE:
By swallowing her,

Zeus internalizes Metis,
her cunning and prudence

all at once.

She becomes a part of Zeus.

In a sense, she's probably
imprisoned in his stomach,

but he also takes on
these greater qualities

of intellectual ability.

This, to us, seems
a little strange,

but it's important to remember
that for the Greeks, one

of the places that some Greeks
thought that they carried

their wisdom and their ideas
was actually in their stomach.

So when Zeus swallows
Metis, he actually

takes her into the
part of himself

where really, a lot of his
best thinking was done.

NARRATOR: With Metis gone,
Zeus is in need of a new wife.

And like his father
before him, he

finds one in his own family,
his sister and fellow Olympian,

Hera.

She's not like Zeus's
earlier conquests.

She's mythology's
most powerful goddess.

The king of the gods
has met his match.

Between Zeus and
Hera, we actually

see a relationship which
is between two people who

are, on some level, equals.

So some of the conflicts
between Zeus and Hera

I think we can see as the Greeks
culturally working out, wow,

what would it look
like if you actually

had two people with equal
power within a relationship?

MICHAEL FONTAINE: She's
the queen of the goddesses,

and she has wonderful beauty,
she's supremely intelligent,

she's mighty, but she's
also exceedingly jealous

because Zeus is always
running after other women.

NARRATOR: The king
of the gods continues

to step out with an endless
string of sexual partners.

He conceives well
over 100 offspring

with a host of lovers,
both divine and mortal.

If I'm not
mistaken, Zeus never

has an encounter with a woman
that does not produce a child.

So in that sense, it's extreme
virility, it's extreme power.

Zeus's ability to
sleep with anybody

matches a kind of fantasy of
what ancient Greek males would

hope or desire
their lives to be.

Men fantasized
about such things,

and they thought if there was
an all-powerful god out there,

well, he would surely
act on those fantasies.

NARRATOR: Zeus's promiscuity
provided a perfect way

for Greeks to connect
themselves to him.

Every corner of the
Greek world boasted

of having its own
hometown lovechild.

PETER STRUCK: As
Zeus's fame and power

grow across ancient Greece,
more and more cities and towns

want to be associated with him.

And they, therefore,
claim that there

was some kind of actual
liaison between Zeus

and some mortal woman
within their family tree

that then produces the offspring
that produces local ruling

families.

NARRATOR: Evidence
of this connection

can still be found in cities
throughout the Greek world.

Athens, Thebes,
Magnesia, Macedonia, all

are named after
children of Zeus.

But there is one individual
who isn't happy about Zeus's

abundant fertility.

In the myth, his wife,
Hera, has had enough.

She vows to make
the king of the gods

pay dearly for his
chronic philandering.

She doesn't like
to be humiliated

in front of the other gods,
so she will take it out

on her husband.

NARRATOR: Hera gathers the
other Olympians together

and lays the groundwork
for a revolution.

Hera actually goes to the--
her fellow Olympian gods

and says, why is Zeus in charge?

He's no more important or
powerful than the rest of us.

If we all get together,
we can kick him out.

So, in fact, they rise up and
they bind Zeus with chains.

NARRATOR: Zeus awakes from a
nap to find himself tied down,

a prisoner in his own bed.

It is the ultimate
betrayal, a conspiracy

carried out by the
siblings he once saved.

The god revolt was
the greatest threat

that Zeus ever faced.

There was never any sense
that mortals could challenge

his power, but
the combined power

of all of the Olympian gods
really could have defeated him.

This was indeed one of
the most horrifying moments

in Zeus's career.

He was actually about
to lose everything.

NARRATOR: But just
when all seems lost,

help comes in the form of an
old ally, the hundred-handlers.

When they hear
Zeus is in trouble,

they come to his rescue,
breaking his chains

as the Olympians run for cover.

[shouts]

NARRATOR: Zeus survives
the coup attempt.

Now, it's time to
exact his revenge.

His wife, Hera, is sentenced
to hang from the sky

by golden chains.

His son, Apollo, and
brother, Poseidon,

are condemned to hard labor.

They are ordered to build one of
the ancient world's most iconic

monuments, the
massive walls of Troy.

It's another example of myth
explaining the unexplainable.

To the ancient Greeks,
the walls of Troy

seemed too strong to
have been built by man,

so Zeus's punishment
of Apollo and Poseidon

helped explain their existence.

The ruins survive to this day.

In antiquity, people
thought it actually

had been built by
the gods or some kind

of divine intervention
on behalf of the Trojans.

NARRATOR: In the myth,
Zeus has dealt justice

to those who crossed him, but
it will be human beings who

bear the brunt of his wrath.

That wrath will arrive in the
form of a massive flood, one

that may even be linked to
the biblical story of Noah.

[music playing]

Greece's most powerful God
has survived a coup attempt.

He dealt swift justice
to the conspirators,

but he's not through yet.

Now, mankind will experience
the full measure of his rage.

In ancient times, fear
of Zeus's punishment

kept a lot of Greeks
out of trouble.

When people did
something wrong,

they would have to be very, very
careful that Zeus did not smite

them with a thunderbolt.
There are many, many examples

in Greek history of Zeus
destroying entire cities

and civilizations because he
felt that they had overreached

themselves, that they had
blasphemed the gods, that they

had become too proud to be
allowed to live any longer.

NARRATOR: The
Greek author Hesiod

wrote that without the
fear of Zeus's wrath,

humans would live like
beasts, and the weak would

be in the hands of the strong.

Zeus is the order-bringer.

Zeus is the bringer of
justice and the bringer

of civilization.

NARRATOR: When natural
catastrophes occurred

in the real world, the Greeks
believed that they were sent

by Zeus to punish evil men.

Often, stories were invented
to explain what had made

the supreme god so angry.

[music playing]

According to the myth, Zeus's
most frightening moment

of wrath comes after he sees
humans engaging in cannibalism.

Cannibalism was
as important as it

was in ancient Greek religion
because they considered

it to be so heinous.

In fact, identification
of eating human flesh

is something that you would
attribute to wolves or to dogs,

but hardly to human beings.

NARRATOR: Zeus is no
stranger to cannibalism.

His own father,
Cronus, once swallowed

all of Zeus's siblings.

When he is confronted with
the sight of mortals doing

the same thing,
he becomes enraged

and vows to destroy the human
race with a catastrophic flood.

Nine days and nights pass.

The rain is relentless, and
the Earth slowly drowns.

The waters reached the peak
of Mount Parnassus, which

stands over 8,000 feet high.

In all corners of the Earth,
the human race perishes.

When the rain stops, only
two mortals are still alive.

Incredibly, they have survived
the storm by building an Ark.

A raging flood, an Ark, and
only two surviving humans.

The parallels with the Old
Testament are striking.

It could be the
biblical flood of Noah.

It could be Zeus's deluge.

It could be similar sorts
of giant watery disasters

that we see figuring in a wide
number of different cultures

around the world.

IOANNIS MYONOPOULOS: All
these stories go back

to a natural catastrophe that
affected the collective memory

of peoples living in the eastern
parts of the Mediterranean Sea.

NARRATOR: A deluge like the
one described in these myths

would have devastated humanity.

But could such a flood
have really happened?

In the past decade,
scientists have

uncovered some stunning
clues that prove it did.

Research has shown that
as the last Ice Age ended

about 7,000 years ago,
runoff from melting glaciers

surged into the Black Sea
basin, violently submerging

nearly 170,000 square
miles of dry land.

For these people, their
entire world was flooding,

and it surely must have seemed
like they had angered the gods

to have brought down this kind
of disaster upon themselves.

NARRATOR: Could this be the
real-life disaster that spawned

the story of Zeus's flood?

[music playing]

In the myth, Zeus
has held onto power

in the face of
strong opposition.

But there is one more
challenger he didn't count on,

Jesus Christ.

In the first century
AD, his message

would take the world
by storm and dethrone

Greece's dominant god.

IOANNIS MYONOPOULOS: When
Christianity came and promised

salvation in the afterlife,
so gave people something

to believe in, something
that could happen to them

after their death, Christianity
found many followers.

NARRATOR: Zeus's
stranglehold on humankind

faltered as this
new religion spread

across the Mediterranean world.

Ultimately, the
same civilization

that worshipped him
would reject him.

In antiquity, there was no
more powerful force than Zeus

except for one, fate.

Not even Zeus himself
could overturn it.

Much as he wants
to, on occasion,

try to change fate or
redirect it, he himself

is even subject to its dictates.

NARRATOR: Before the
rise of Christianity,

Zeus's myth captivated the Greek
world for thousands of years

and made him the most feared
and respected of all the gods.

But he was only one of many,
from Greece and beyond,

who would leave their
mark on mankind.

Some are still familiar names,
Hercules, Hades, Medusa,

and each of their stories is a
window into a long-lost world,

a code waiting to be deciphered.

These myths reveal to us
in a uniquely powerful way

the hidden strata that lay
underneath our conscious, awake

lives, our understanding
of the world.

And like an archeology
of the human mind,

we can dig into them and see the
deep recesses of human psyches.

And I think that's what makes
these myths so powerful.

[thunder crashing]