Original subtitles

[thunder rumbling]

NARRATOR: The odyssey.

It is the ultimate adventure story.

A warrior King in a desperate race

to get home before he loses the woman he loves and the nation

he rules.

In his way are savage beasts, hurricane winds,

giant cannibals, and he'll have to outsmart them all.

Modern research is revealing some surprising truths

behind this epic myth.

This is the real story of Odysseus.

[music playing]

10 terrified sailors are trapped inside the layer of a one

eyed man eating cyclops.

Two of their companions have been

devoured before their eyes.

Each fears he will be the next to die.

The men need a miracle, and they look desperately

to their leader to deliver one.

His name is Odysseus.

Odysseus deceased never stops thinking, he never lets go.

He refuses to believe that anything can defeat him.

That's a fundamental part of his character.

He's the sneaky guy who will do what it takes to beat you.

NARRATOR: Odysseus is a thinking man's hero.

A leader who relies on his intellect, rather than

his strength, and he will need all of his uncommon wit

to escape the cyclops alive.

The cool thing about Odysseus is that, unlike other heroes,

Odysseus is thoroughly mortal.

He is man.

We connect with him in a special way because of that.

There is a popularity he had among the ancients because

of that.

NARRATOR: The story of Odysseus called "The Odyssey,"

was written by a Greek poet named Homer in the 8th century

BC.

The story of the odyssey, I think, we can all embrace,

because it's about a person faced

with a lot of frustrations and a lot of obstacles.

NARRATOR: Odysseus' journey home from war

is a timeless tale of perseverance.

It is also a story that symbolizes the dawn

of a new era in ancient Greece.

I think "The Odyssey," in a way,

is a bit like a James Bond novel.

If you think about what Ian Fleming wrote,

he always put his hero into real life places.

I think that's what Homer was doing.

NARRATOR: In a time when Greek sailors were exploring far

off lands across the Mediterranean,

Odysseus represented the modern adventurer.

There are a lot of stories that are reflected

in the odyssey of this expansion of the Greeks,

where the Greeks are beginning to colonize

and reports are coming back about various monsters

or various things, sailor tells.

NARRATOR: The story of Odysseus begins

on Ithaca, the mythical Greek island he rules.

KRISTINA MILNOR: He was a happy and successful King.

He had a wife whom he was very fond of,

she was very fond of him.

They had a young son.

NARRATOR: In the myth, Ithaca is an oasis of peace surrounded

by a sea of enemies.

Sparta and Troy, the regional superpowers

have been bitter rivals for years.

Now, a sexual affair involving the most beautiful woman

on earth will bring them to war.

Helen, the Queen of Sparta has run off

with the prince of Troy.

Sparta pressures Ithaca to join the fight

to bring her back home.

Bound by honor, Odysseus enlists.

He heads off to battle knowing that this

may be the last time he ever sees his family or his kingdom.

Odysseus leads a fleet of 12 ships to Troy,

where he soon finds himself on the frontlines of war.

The battle for Helen rages for a decade

until the Greek forces hit a wall.

Literally.

The wall around Troy is so massive, so

impenetrable the Greeks believe it was built by gods.

In antiquity, people thought it actually

had been built by some divine intervention on behalf

of the Trojans.

NARRATOR: With the war on the line,

Odysseus devises an ingenious strategy to get inside the war.

He says, we should build a hollow wooden horse,

which we will leave on the beach.

We will pretend that we've given up,

that we've decided the Trojans are too much for us,

and we've gone home.

Inside the horse is going to be our best heroes,

myself included as Odysseus of course,

and the Trojans are going to drag this horse inside

because they're going to think it's a parting

gift for the gods.

NARRATOR: When dawn breaks, the Trojans are stunned.

The Greeks are gone, and there's a gigantic horse

outside their walls, so goes the myth.

But what is the link to reality?

Scholars long believed Troy was an imaginary city,

and the Trojan War only a legend.

But in the late 19th century, a five acre hill

in Western Turkey yielded something startling.

An ancient city with a massive wall,

and the remains of a large palace,

two key features of Homer's Troy.

The structures had been burned just like the mythical city.

The site is close to the coast in a region

where experts believe Troy would have been,

and its terrain is similar to the landscape Homer describes.

But there's more.

Among the ruins, archaeologists found evidence of war.

BARRY STRAUSS: We have found a number of arrowheads

and spearheads at Troy.

We've also found an unburied skeleton

inside the city of Troy.

That's a dead giveaway, usually, of a war,

because ancient people had a horror of leaving bodies

unburied within the city walls.

They wouldn't do so, unless they were

in very extreme circumstances.

NARRATOR: Did the Trojan War really happen?

Is there also some truth behind the story of Odysseus?

Our search for clues leads back to the myth.

Odysseus and his men are huddled inside the wooden horse

as it rolls through the gates and into Troy.

The Trojans have mistaken it for a peace offering.

A horse was a symbol of Troy.

The Trojans are known as great horse breeders the countryside

outside to Troy was to ancient horse breeding

what Kentucky is to modern horse breeding.

So by leaving a Trojan horse, it seemed as if this

was an homage to the Trojans.

A symbol of what Troy was all about.

PETER STRUCK: The Trojans fall for this stratagem,

they celebrate because the war is over.

At the end of a long party, much wine and much eating

has been done, everybody is basically

passed out in the city of Troy.

NARRATOR: As the Trojans sleep, Odysseus and his elite forces

emerge from the horse.

There is a wonderful description

in our sources of the Trojans lying innocently.

Sleeping, dreaming, relaxing, and the Greeks

going through the city like a mist

and creeping through the dark alleyways.

NARRATOR: In the dead of night, the Greeks strike.

The Trojans are caught off guard, and the city of Troy

burns.

Odysseus' unusual strategy has succeeded.

His Trojan horse has won the war,

and he emerges as the hero of the day.

Many of the heroes from that period in Greek history

and mythology were celebrated because they

were great warriors.

They were very strong, good with a bow.

Odysseus was different.

He was a hero who was celebrated because he was crafty,

he was intelligent.

PETER STRUCK: Odysseus is at his best when he's under pressure.

He any number of times gets into places where no human being

should be able to escape.

He faces certain death and all kinds of different turns,

and he always seems to find a way through.

He's like an ancient Macgyver.

NARRATOR: Odysseus has survived 10 years on the frontlines

of a brutal conflict.

He is anxious to get home to Ithaca,

but the Trojan War was nothing compared

with what still lies ahead, a menagerie of monsters

and mayhem.

The odyssey is just beginning.

In Homer's odyssey, the Trojan War has ended.

Now, the journey home begins.

Odysseus' island of Ithaca is 565 nautical miles from Troy.

In ancient times, that was a journey of a few weeks.

When Odysseus has left Troy, he wanted to get home,

but I don't think in any way he's expecting that it's going

to take him 10 years to get home.

I think he thought that he might stop along the way to go

on some raids, maybe to show off some of his success,

in a matter of a month or two, had every reason to think

he would be home in Ithaca.

NARRATOR: Odysseus sets out for Ithaca with a fleet of 12 ships

and a crew of 600 war weary sailors.

It is an impressive fleet by ancient standards,

but could it have been real?

1988.

Two scuba divers stumble upon an unusual shipwreck

off the coast of Southern Sicily.

The ship stretches nearly 60 feet long and 22 feet wide,

making it the biggest ancient vessel of its kind ever

discovered.

But exactly how old is it?

To find out, scientists analyze the tree rings in wooden planks

recovered by the divers.

The results are stunning.

The ship dates back to approximately 500 BC.

Within two centuries of the odyssey.

It's an exciting revelation.

This could be exactly the type of ship homer imagined

for Odysseus.

2008.

The entire ship is finally pulled from the Mediterranean

Sea and dry docked in Portsmouth, England

to be studied piece by piece.

Here, experts are able to compare the remains

with Homer's description of how Odysseus' ships were built.

The result, it's a perfect match.

The interesting thing about this ship, as opposed to north

European ships is that it is made with mortise and tenon,

and it was held together with rope.

NARRATOR: This is the same method of ship building

described in "The Odyssey."

Now, after 2 and 1/2 millennia at the bottom

of the Mediterranean Sea, this ship

is giving scholars an unprecedented glimpse

into the world of Odysseus.

This is not a primitive vessel.

This is quite a sophisticated piece of technology.

Odysseus' journey could well have taken place, and what's

exciting about this is that we've got a ship that could

well have been comparable to the ships

that he would have been on.

NARRATOR: The myth continues.

Odysseus is headed for home at last.

His faithful wife, Penelope, and his now 10-year-old son,

Telemachus, are eagerly awaiting his return.

But in his absence, his palace has

been overrun by lecherous men who are out to steal

his wife and his throne.

EMILY ALLEN: Odysseus has been gone a while.

Penelope, of course, is faithful,

but she's surrounded by suitors, and they

want to marry Penelope, and in marrying Penelope, of course,

they want to have the power that goes with it

and take over Odysseus' dominion,

so it's not a good situation.

NARRATOR: If Odysseus doesn't make it home soon,

all that he fought for will be lost.

Odysseus' first stop after leaving Troy

is the coastal city of Ismarus.

There, he will seek vengeance against an old enemy.

These were a group of people who had been allied

with the Trojans, they helped the Trojans against the Greeks,

and Odysseus wants to now exact revenge on him.

NARRATOR: Ismarus may have been one

of the settings in "The Odyssey" that

was based on a real location.

In ancient times, it was said to be

home to the fiercest warriors in the known world.

BARRY STRAUSS: They're absolutely terrific fighters,

and their particular specialty was unconventional warfare.

Great guerrillas and insurgents of the ancient world.

NARRATOR: But that doesn't deter Odysseus.

In the myth, he had his men come ashore, braced for battle.

They clobber the city, steal all the treasure,

and they're on their way home.

Of course, they make a mistake, they drink a little too much,

they eat a little too much, and they pass out on the beach.

NARRATOR: Their victory party is premature.

Early the next morning the natives

ambush the men while they sleep.

Within minutes, 72 sailors are massacred,

the rest barely make it out alive.

It is a hard lesson about underestimating the enemy,

and the first in a series of deadly mistakes

by Odysseus and his crew.

He does get away with the better part of his force,

but he loses a lot and learns a very painful lesson

about keeping everybody on their toes at all times.

This is going to be a very dangerous journey.

BARRY STRAUSS: There is a theme in Homer

that we might simply describe as, always be prepared, never

let your guard down.

Again and again, we see people who

have a little taste of victory and they immediately party,

and their enemy that's leaner and meaner, their hunger

for victory takes advantage of it.

This is a cycle we see again and again in the history

of ancient, and I might say in the history of modern warfare

as well.

NARRATOR: Odysseus and his men are shellshocked.

They stay at sea for the next two weeks, but not by choice.

The fleet encounters another devastating obstacle.

A hurricane.

This storm blows them off the map,

and from here until the very end of his adventures,

Odysseus is kind of in never never land.

NARRATOR: The hurricane carries the fleet

all the way to North Africa.

There on an exotic island just off the coast, Odysseus

and his men unwittingly step into a mythological drug den.

The natives here warmly welcome them

with an offering of lotus, a sweet tasting flower with mind

altering properties.

Odysseus is suspicious, and he's

right to be wary in this situation,

because what happens when his men eat the lotus is that it's

a kind of drug, and they become very

happy and forgetful of what they're trying to do,

which is to get home.

They want to stay in the land of the lotus eaters forever.

NARRATOR: Some experts think the lotus eaters were meant

to symbolize a real scourge of ancient Greece.

Drug abuse.

Greeks knew the poppy.

There are many Mycenaean seals and objects in which you

clearly see the poppies, so they knew about opium,

and therefore, hashish.

The point being, human beings like intoxication.

Within "The Odyssey," its function

is to show how people can get lost on their way home,

and that's very human.

NARRATOR: Once again, the crew has been sidetracked

by self-indulgence.

It will become a running theme throughout "The Odyssey,"

but their leader, Odysseus, stay sober.

He has just one goal.

To return home to Ithaca, where his wife and son are waiting.

He just says, come on, come on,

you knuckleheads, let's get back on the boat, and off they go.

It's this incredibly short episode,

and yet, it's been written about so much,

and I think the reason is because everybody knows

that experience.

Everybody's tired.

Everybody's been through too much.

What could be more attractive than to eat, drink, smoke,

ingest something that would just let you forget?

NARRATOR: The journey home has begun again,

but the crew's curiosity may yet be its death.

When the fleet comes across another island teeming

with wild game, it seems like a dream come true,

but it's about to become hell on earth.

Odysseus and his men have stumbled

upon the land of a giant man eating cyclops,

and it's almost dinnertime.

The mythical hero, Odysseus, is trying to get back to his wife

and son after a decade at war.

But this is not the trip home he envisioned.

After several weeks at sea, he has lost 72 of his men

in an ambush and confronted hurricane winds that pushed him

far off course.

Now, an unknown island offers a chance

to replenish both supplies and morale, or so it seems.

There are a number of reasons why Odysseus would have

to put to shore.

One, they've been able to sea for a while,

and you need to put ashore for supplies and provisions,

but the other thing that you always

have to remember about Odysseus is he is just fundamentally

curious.

Sometimes too curious for his own good.

He wants to know.

He is intrigued by knowledge, and so sometimes, he

pushes that little bit too far.

BARRY STRAUSS: And there's such an insight

into the Greek character here.

This is a period of vast Greek expansion and colonization.

The Greeks themselves, in Homer's day,

wanted to go out into the world for many solid economic

reasons, but also because they were simply curious.

NARRATOR: Odysseus selects his 12 best men

to explore the island with him.

Just before he sets off, he grabs one last item,

a goat skin full of wine.

It will prove to be a lifesaver.

Priority number one for the explorers

is to find something to eat.

Just off shore, the men hit the jackpot.

They come across a cave filled with food.

Only one thing is missing, the cave's owner.

When they get into the cave, Odysseus' men

see wonderful stores of food, and they're

ready to steal it and take off and get out of danger.

Odysseus, though, is very curious.

He wants to stick around.

He thinks that the person that lives there

should owe him a gift, and this is

traditional in ancient Greek society,

that a person who arrives as a stranger on someone else's

shores is owed a gift.

When a stranger shows up in your town, you take him in.

You give him a place to rest, you give him food,

you treat him kindly.

NARRATOR: Inside the cave, Odysseus and his men

help themselves to a long awaited feast.

As the sun sets, the man of the house

finally returns, but he is not what the sailors were

expecting.

He is a giant cyclops.

A ravenous beast with a strength of 20 men and one massive eye

in the middle of his face.

The sight of him sends Odysseus and his men

cowering into a dark corner.

The cyclops light his nightly fire, and the men are exposed.

PETER STRUCK: When the cyclops arrives home,

he sees that these men have come in to steal his food.

He's angry, and then Odysseus steps up and beats his chest

and says, hello, we've just arrived from faraway lands,

where's our gift, and he's being a little bit rude, too.

So you can see how the cyclops is a little bit miffed.

This has all just gone terribly wrong.

NARRATOR: In the blink of an eye,

the cyclops lunges forward, grabs two of the sailors,

and devours them.

He leaves not a morsel behind, not even the bones.

When the Greeks see the cyclops eat

two of their fellow Greeks, they're shocked,

they're frightened.

KRISTINA MILNOR: Cannibalism in ancient Greece

was an incredibly barbarous act.

For them, a mark of a civilized person

was actually the way they ate and drank.

The men are terrified.

They're also frustrated with Odysseus for leading them

into this unkindly mess, and they decide, well,

while he's asleep, let's kill him,

but Odysseus, fortunately, is the smartest guy in the bunch,

and he says, we can't kill him.

Odysseus has a problem.

If the sailors, if Odysseus kill the cyclops now,

they'll be trapped within the cave

because they're not strong enough

to move the stone on their own.

NARRATOR: On the other hand, if the men don't kill the cyclops,

they will surely die.

It is a hopeless situation, but Odysseus has overcome too much

to give up now.

If he can't use his strength to beat this monster,

he'll use his intelligence.

He never gives up hope.

Even though his men in the cyclops cave feel it's over,

Odysseus is always scheming, planning, thinking.

NARRATOR: The giant cyclops is one of mythologies most

memorable monsters, but could it be more than just a figment

of Homer's imagination?

Today, some experts think it was inspired by a real life beast,

and this may be the proof.

The mythical hero Odysseus and his men

are facing all but certain death inside the cave

of a monstrous cyclops.

Two have already been eaten, and the beast is hungry for more.

At sunrise, the cyclops devours two more men.

Then he heads out to graze his sheep,

sealing the cave behind him.

Time is running out for Odysseus.

The mastermind of the Trojan horse

desperately needs a new stroke of genius and fast.

Odysseus as someone who survives on his wits.

But what makes Odysseus different

than all of the other mythic characters

is that he thinks before he acts.

He's likely to come up with a cunning solution, rather than

a direct one.

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

The giant cyclops seems like the work

of a disturbed imagination, but it

may be based on actual science.

There are three very different facts

of ancient life that could have inspired Homer's monster.

The first is a rare disease that causes fetuses to develop

only one large high.

It's a condition called cyclopia,

and it may have been widely known to the ancient Greeks.

Exposure to certain sorts of alkaloid toxins

that are found in some herbs can cause pregnant women

to deliver children that have cyclopia.

Now, this is very interesting, because some of those herbs

that happened to have these dangerous compounds happen

to be ones that ancient Greek medical men prescribed

to their patients.

NARRATOR: Cyclopia results when these toxins prevent the brain

from developing properly.

As a result, instead of having two separate eye sockets,

you'll get one big one.

You have a cyclops birth.

And this could have served as an inspiration for legends

about these one eyed creatures that roamed the earth.

NARRATOR: But it's also possible that Homer's cyclops was

inspired by something much bigger, a volcano.

In the myth Odysseus describes the cyclops

as a man mountain bearing head and shoulders over the world.

JOHN RENNIE: It's very possible that the ancient Greeks looking

at erupting volcanoes like Mount Etna

might have looked at that huge angry red eye of the volcano

as it erupted hot rocks and lava,

and they might have pictured a sort of monstrous man mountain

with a single eye that was angrily raging at mankind.

[growling]

NARRATOR: But there is one more, potential real world

inspiration for the cyclops.

Fossils dug up by ancient archaeologists.

JOHN RENNIE: The ancient Greeks were extremely interested

in the natural world, and they collected lots of specimens

of everything, and of course, they

did find samples of fossils out in the wild as well.

Now, if you look at the skull of an elephant,

it's a pretty impressive thing because there's a huge opening

right in the middle of the forehead.

The actual eye openings look relatively small in comparison

and are shunted off to the side.

So if you didn't know what it was,

you might very easily imagine that this

was the skull of some sort of gigantic, one eyed creature.

NARRATOR: The odyssey continues.

Odysseus and his men are hostages

in the cave of the cyclops.

Unless something changes fast, they will all be eaten.

But Odysseus remains focused.

There's a great fear that surrounds the entire episode,

and the men around tend to fall apart under this fear.

Odysseus never does.

He realizes in a very cold, calculating, rational way

that these emotions will only get in the way

and will only get in the way of his escape and his solution

to the problem.

He focuses always on the problem and only on the problem.

NARRATOR: While the cyclops is out tending his sheep,

Odysseus spots the massive wooden club he

left behind and gets an idea.

With the help of his men, he shaves the narrow end

to a fine point, hardens it over a flame, and waits.

As night falls, the cyclops returns.

He snatches two more sailors and eats them alive.

As the dust settles, Odysseus steps forward with the wine

he brought from his ship.

He offers it to the cyclops.

The beast downs one bowl, then another, and a third.

Instantly, he begins to teeter.

Some people might think when they hear that the cyclops has

a couple of glasses of wine and then passes out on the floor

that he must have been a real lightweight.

He didn't really have any tolerance for alcohol.

The truth is that ancient wine was a lot stronger and a lot

harsher than wine is today.

In antiquity, there was very strong one,

we might even call it fortified wine,

that had a very high alcohol content,

and typically, what one would do is measure it out and then

delude it with water to be an appropriate drink at a dinner.

The wine that Odysseus gives to the cyclops

is an entirely undiluted form.

NARRATOR: As the drunk giant stumbles around the cave,

he asks Odysseus his name and gets a clever answer.

Odysseus says, oh, well my name is nobody.

At that point, there's no way that any of us

can quite realize how this will fit into the plan,

but it's been part of Odysseus' plan all along.

NARRATOR: With that, the cyclops crashes to the floor

and passes out.

Odysseus springs into action.

With the help of his men, he lifts the buried stake,

charges forward, and plunges it into the eye of the beast.

[growling]

PETER STRUCK: Hearing the screams of the cyclops inside

of his cave, the other cyclopses come around and ask him, what's

going on inside of there?

We hear your screams.

Something horrible must be happening.

The cyclops at that point then answers, nobody is hurting me.

Nobody is harming me, and the neighbor cyclopses then

scratch their heads and say, well, I

guess nobody's hurting him, we might as well go back to bed.

So this trick that Odysseus has actually put in place

earlier on in the story by not giving his real name

but by saying his name was nobody,

we now see it comes to fruition.

NARRATOR: The wounded cyclops opens the doorway

in a blind rage.

Odysseus sees his opening and makes his move.

The cyclops is sitting in front of the door,

and Odysseus doesn't let them try to creep out,

he knows the cyclops will get them,

and he doesn't let them ride the sheep out,

because he knows he's going to be clever enough for that.

He ties them beneath the ship.

NARRATOR: As dawn breaks, the sheep

head out to pasture with Odysseus

and his men clinging to their underbellies.

The cyclops is not entirely a fool.

He knows that the Greeks might be trying

to escape from his cave, but as the sheep pass by,

he feels each one on top, but the Greeks are underneath

and he doesn't feel them underneath.

Odysseus' escape from the cyclops cave

is the perfect example of brain over brawn.

It's Jack and the beanstalk, it's David and Goliath,

it is the sneaky little guy defeats the big dumb guy.

These much, much bigger obstacles that we face,

this brain of ours can overcome them.

It's this fundamental story that is absolutely core to humanity.

NARRATOR: Odysseus is a master of deception,

but he hasn't yet mastered his own pride.

As his ship sails away from the coast,

he can't resist revealing his own true identity.

It's a mistake that will haunt him for years to come.

The cyclops is standing there cursing him.

Suddenly, Odysseus almost inexplicably turns and says,

you know who I am?

I am Odysseus, son of Laertes.

Now, to us, that seems like a really stupid move,

but the most important thing for a Greek hero

was something called Kleos.

Fame.

So it was your fame, your reputation

that really mattered.

So one thing that it seems is doing at that moment is really

making sure that he gets credit for what happened.

NARRATOR: The cyclops is blinded and beaten,

but he has one last hope for revenge.

His powerful father.

It turns out, the cyclops is a son of the sea god, Poseidon,

and he intends to make Odysseus pay with his life.

Mythologies greatest mortal, Odysseus,

has been lost at sea for more than two months.

He's desperate to get home to his kingdom and his family,

but he's not even close.

All the other heroes that are still

alive from the Greek force of Troy have made it home.

Only one is not home yet, and that's Odysseus.

He's literally the last hero on the sea.

From the outset, Odysseus' return voyage

has not gone according to plan.

He has come face to face with a lethal army and a blood

thirsty cyclops and been driven hundreds of miles

off course by Hurricane winds.

Threats like these would crush the spirits of most men,

but Odysseus isn't most men.

One of the things that, I think,

makes a decision such an appealing character

is really every challenge that comes along, he treats as just

an obstacle to be overcome.

NARRATOR: Now, Odysseus must confront his most

terrifying obstacle yet.

The cyclops he just blinded and escaped from

is the son of one of mythologies most powerful gods.

The master of the seas.

Poseidon.

The cyclops asks his father the god Poseidon

to take vengeance on a viscous.

To kill him, or if not to kill him,

to make the rest of his trip a living hell.

KRISTINA MILNOR: By attacking the son of a god,

by attacking the cyclops who is the son of Poseidon,

he makes a double mistake.

One is he angers a god, but the second

is he angers the god of the sea.

He's sailing home.

NARRATOR: Odysseus now faces two daunting challenges.

Survive the wrath of Poseidon and get home before another man

steals his wife.

As the days and weeks pass, the suitors courting Penelope

grow more and more brazen.

The locals realize that here is this wonderfully,

beautiful, capable woman, Penelope, and she's all alone.

She also happens to be sitting atop a store of great wealth,

so there are many people who would

try to vie for her affections.

NARRATOR: But Penelope still clings to the hope

that her husband is on his way home.

She still believes that a decision is coming home,

and she is willing to do everything in her power

to make sure that his throne is still available for him

when he returns.

NARRATOR: A few days after surviving the giant cyclops,

Odysseus encounters someone who can help him get home.

On the island of Aeolia, he meets a King named Aeolis.

King Aeolis has a special power.

He has control over the winds.

He's able to regulate and control

which way the winds blow.

NARRATOR: King Aeolis secretly gives Odysseus a present.

A bag containing all the winds that could blow him off course.

As long as that bag remains closed,

he'll have smooth sailing all the way back to Ithaca.

This is an enormously important gift

for ancient travelers.

It's the equivalent of him giving Odysseus

a fleet of jet planes.

The winds are the motive power of ancient shipping,

so this is a very great gift because the winds can bring you

home.

NARRATOR: For nine days and nights,

the Greeks sail straight for Ithaca,

aided by favorable winds.

Finally, Odysseus is on his way home.

He stays awake the whole way, working his ship

around the clock.

On the 10th day, Ithaca appears on the horizon,

but in the last mile, fatigue finally overcomes the hero.

As Odysseus dozes, his crew seizes the chance to find out

what's in the mysterious bag.

His men immediately decide there's gold, there silver,

there's treasures, and Odysseus doesn't

want to share it with us.

They want it for themselves, so curiosity

tinged with a bit of greed leads to their undoing.

NARRATOR: With the shores of Ithaca in plain sight,

they open the bag, and the Poseidon curse

is unleashed with a vengeance.

In seconds, Odysseus' hopes of getting home are destroyed.

The winds immediately drive his fleet back to Aeolia,

but this time, he won't get any help from the King.

Odysseus says to Aeolis, can you help us again?

And Aeolis says, no, you are clearly cursed by the gods.

It could not have been easy for you to get home

given what I gave you, and if you didn't get home,

some god has it out for you, and I am not messing with that.

Go on your way.

NARRATOR: It's another painful setback for Odysseus,

but he wastes no time worrying about what might have been.

He may be knocked down just as much as all the rest of us

and even harder than all the rest of us,

but he always can get back up.

He can always find a way.

NARRATOR: Odysseus' ability to persevere is put to the test

again, just days after he leaves Aeolia.

His fleet pulls into a mysterious harbor

and gets attacked out of nowhere by a race of giant cannibals.

In a matter of minutes, Odysseus' loses hundreds of men

and all but one of his ships.

The waves run red with blood.

Once again, the Poseidon curse is devastating in its cruelty.

When Odysseus left Troy, he did not

think this is going to be an epic journey home.

I don't think you could ever have imagined

the kind of journey and the kind of troubles and adventures

that he'd find along the way.

NARRATOR: For Odysseus, the adventures are just beginning.

The rest of his journey home will present challenges

more daunting than any man has ever faced.

When the story of Odysseus continues,

our mortal hero is a marked man.

Poseidon has put a bounty on his head.

Each day, his crew and his chances

will diminish, until Odysseus finds himself alone.

One man against all odds, one goal,

get home before it's too late.

[music playing]