Thousands of years ago,
an amazing story was first told,
and it's been a classic ever since - The Odyssey.
The epic of the hero Odysseus's journey home
is the original adventure story,
full of battles, gods...
..and monsters.
Well, this is a dream come true.
For way over 40 years, ever since I was a kid,
I've been reading Homer's epic stories.
And now, finally, this is my chance to explore the sea,
the island, caves...
the places that inspired The Odyssey.
I'm sailing the Ionian Sea,
in the wake of Odysseus,
facing the challenges that still lie in wait.
That's 7.6.
There you go. That's what happens. That was full over.
Exploring the fantastic landscapes and ancient cities
that inspired this astonishing tale.
So, at the time of Julius Caesar,
this is already a thousand years old.
To them, this was ancient history.
Why do people still love The Odyssey?
What does it tell us about the reality of life in Ancient Greece?
And is there a chance that some of it could be true?
This is the real story of The Odyssey.
No matter how many times you come here,
this is one of the most spectacular experiences in the world.
Climbed up to the top of the Acropolis,
looking out over the city of Athens in Greece.
And there, in front of you, bathed in the sunlight...
..is one of the world's most beautiful buildings, the Parthenon.
The Parthenon is one of the great wonders of the world.
When you think about Ancient Greece, you think about this.
This astonishing temple was built nearly 2,500 years ago.
That's nearly 500 years before the Romans first stepped foot
in Britain.
But it was built 500 years after this book was first written down -
The Odyssey by Homer.
This is one of the oldest stories in human history.
If the Parthenon was what Ancient Greece looked like,
then The Odyssey gave it a voice.
We've got the amazing ruins. We've got beautiful artifacts.
But what The Odyssey gives us is details about the real life
of the Ancient Greeks -
what they did, how they moved about, what they ate.
And so that's inspired me to take this in hand
and go for an odyssey of my own.
But to do that, I can't stay here in Athens.
I have to get out there, on the water.
Looking after me on my voyage is skipper Tom.
How are you doing? Nice to meet you, Dan. Tom.
Nice to meet you, Tom. Thanks for having me aboard.
Odysseus would have slept in the stern.
Where do you reckon I should put my stuff?
I think you should be just as Odysseus was.
DAN LAUGHS Right, we're gonna cast off.
We're gonna head out to the sea. The wine-dark sea.
Here we go.
Rowers, to your benches.
Nicely done. Thank you.
OK, just bring it to the stern. Yeah. Thank you, Dan.
About 20 minutes, and then we'll find some open water. Yeah.
I'll give you a hand through. There you go. Boom.
Don't want my dad shouting at me.
Dan, do me a favour.
If you can pull that car all the way forward.
That's it. Let it out a fair bit, until she flaps a bit.
'I've been sailing all my life...
'..but this is a journey I've been itching to do for decades.'
I think I first came across The Odyssey when I was very young,
and my mum and dad read me the story,
and I just thought it was great -
the hero Odysseus, the gods, the monsters,
the adventures, and all that time spent voyaging across the sea.
I couldn't believe that such an exciting tale
had been written down nearly 3,000 years ago.
Now, most of us have probably heard of The Odyssey.
You might have heard the word used
to describe a particularly long journey.
But what is The Odyssey, the story, all about?
Essentially, The Odyssey is a book about getting home.
The Greeks called it "nostos",
and that's partly where we get our word "nostalgia" from.
Essentially, you've got Odysseus. He's one of the Greek kings.
He's been fighting a war for ten years.
He's desperate to get back to his island kingdom of Ithaca,
to see his wife, Penelope, and his son, Telemachus.
And then The Odyssey is his attempt to get home,
with all its trials and tribulations
and deadly adventures.
And I'm heading to the beginning of Odysseus's voyage
to start my own journey.
200 miles to the east of Athens, across the Aegean Sea,
to the site of one of the great cities of the ancient world,
and one that many people today don't realise actually existed.
Troy.
This is the place where that legendary siege raged
for ten brutal years.
Greeks versus Trojans
to reclaim the beautiful Queen Helen.
And it was here that our hero Odysseus
first made a name for himself.
Odysseus isn't necessarily
the bravest or strongest warrior,
but he's got something else that makes him
one of the most important Greek commanders.
You can put it how you like, really.
Cunning, tricky, sly, wise.
Odysseus has got brains.
And those brains were gonna come in handy.
To break the siege,
Odysseus came up with the most famous battlefield trick
in history - the Trojan Horse.
Odysseus said that rather than throwing themselves time and again
at these mighty Trojan walls,
the Greeks should try something different.
So he built a huge wooden horse
and left it outside the gates of Troy.
The Trojans saw it, dragged it into the city,
assuming it was a gift or something.
What they didn't know is that the horse was hollow,
and inside were elite Greek warriors who burst out,
killed everyone, opened the gates and captured the city.
Now, when early archaeologists started to excavate this site,
they got very excited when they found this ramp here,
and you can see why.
That's a ramp leading up into the Trojan stronghold there.
And they imagined
that was where the wooden horse was dragged up into the city.
Thanks to Odysseus, the Greeks were victorious.
But this was only the beginning of his story.
Odysseus gathered his men down here on the coast near Troy.
He prepared the ships and filled them up with booty and provisions.
And then they got ready for their triumphant voyage home.
With a fair wind, he should have been home in less than a week.
But of course, it wouldn't be as simple as that.
Coming up, I continue sailing in the wake of Odysseus
and face some challenges of my own.
It's a gust off the island there. Whoa! I see what you mean.
And discover how he escaped one of his most fearsome foes,
the Cyclops.
DAN SNOW: The Odyssey is one of the oldest
and greatest tales in human history.
The epic of Odysseus's voyage home after the Trojan War
has been retold for thousands of years.
And now I'm on an odyssey of my very own,
through the waters that inspired this incredible story.
The Ionian Sea is off the west coast of Greece
and is home to many holiday island favourites like Kefalonia,
Corfu and Zakynthos.
But on my journey, I'm sailing from Lefkas
and heading south through the islands.
Odysseus was sailing home to Ithaca. But what about me?
If I'm sailing in the wake of a fictional hero, where am I going?
Now, there's a lot of debate
about where Odysseus's homeland actually was
and whether it existed at all.
But look at this. This is the modern island of Ithaca.
Quite a small island just tucked in here.
It has the same name as the Ithaca
that Odysseus is trying to get home to.
Despite all sorts of amazing theories floated over the years,
we're gonna actually take things at face value
and assume that Homer was talking about a place called Ithaca
which actually existed,
and we are gonna head to that island right now.
Like Odysseus, I'm sailing for Ithaca.
And like Odysseus, I'm not sailing alone.
'He left Troy at the head of a fleet of 12 ships.
'Maybe as many as 600 men.
'I don't have quite that many men with me.
'But I'm pleased that skipper Tom has been sailing these waters
'for the last five years.'
I mean, you must know these waters like the back of your hand.
I'd say so. By now, I'm getting there.
There's still... You still learn different bits every day,
there're still places I haven't seen,
but I know 'em pretty well.
Are there some things you have to keep in mind here in the Ionians?
Just the sheer volume of boats.
You've got to be very careful, keep a good lookout for traffic.
Would have been a lot of traffic here in Ancient Greek times.
Fishing boats, trading boats.
The only way to get around, right? Exactly. Yeah.
With our boat set fair,
what better time to dust off my copy of The Odyssey
and read about the beginning of Odysseus' great voyage?
The journey that should have only taken a week
was quickly turning into a nightmare.
Odysseus already lost a number of men
after a raid went badly wrong.
They were blown wildly off course after a two-week-long storm
and escaped by the skin of their teeth
from a mysterious island, home to the so-called lotus eaters.
Odysseus and his men sailed on, though,
determined to get home to Ithaca.
But with their provisions starting to get low,
they knew that they would have to find an island
where they could stock up.
And like Odysseus, me and Tom need to do the same.
Do you want to be right next to the sloop?
We'll see where my anchor pulls me.
That'll be the deciding factor. OK. One more metre down.
That's good, Dan. Lovely.
And thankfully for me, it's market day.
Homer talks about food and drink a lot in The Odyssey.
And on this voyage, I want to take the kind of things
that Odysseus would have been eating and drinking.
There's lots of nice produce here. I've got a little list.
Barley. A lot of barley in The Odyssey.
Olive oil. It's on there.
Meat... wine - a lot of wine - and honey.
Kalimera. Some honey, please.
OK. A shot of olive oil. HE CHUCKLES
Mmm!
You want a taste? I'll taste, yeah. I'll taste.
Let's get 12. OK. Thank you.
I'll do scrambled eggs for the crew in the morning.
OK. Efkaristo. Thank you, guys. Thank you.
But before I head back aboard with my supplies,
I'm heading to meet Dr Steve Kershaw,
an Ancient Greece expert who can tell me more
about the origin story of The Odyssey
and about its author, Homer.
Steve, we call this one of the oldest stories that survived.
Did it just sort of come out of nowhere nearly 3,000 years ago?
How did it all begin?
No. It's a really, really old tale
that is the product of a centuries-long, probably,
oral tradition of people handing down this tale
from person to person to person, from singer to singer to singer.
So I'm saying read The Odyssey. You're saying sing The Odyssey.
So what's going on here?
What's the best way to listen to it or get into it?
Originally, it's a sung poem. Huh.
It's probably accompanied by music, as well,
and performed by professional singers,
poets, who were called rhapsodes.
So, rhapsodes, is that where we get the word, like a rhapsody?
It is indeed. Yeah. It's exactly the same word.
"Rapsodos" is a singer of songs.
So this would be a lifetime of training.
It would be a real calling. It would indeed.
But we have strong evidence
that people could indeed remember all of that by heart.
These tales became a feature of Greek identity.
This was more than just poetry.
It was a feature of what it meant to be Greek,
was to know Homer.
Was Homer a real person in that case?
This is a major problem.
It's attributed to a person called Homer
who is in the Greek world.
But in fact, it's really hard to pin down.
And I think that's probably going back to this oral tradition
of it being handed down from person to person to person.
And in the end, it's just attributed to a poet,
a wonderful poet called Homer.
And Homer tells us that after weeks at sea,
Odysseus and his men finally found themselves
on a wild, rugged island.
Desperate for supplies, they headed inland
and soon found a cave filled with meat, milk and cheese.
Odysseus's men wanted to swipe what they could and make a quick getaway,
but Odysseus had other ideas.
He wanted to stay, make contact with the local inhabitants
and see if they were interested in exchanging gifts.
It turned out to be a terrible plan.
Because this cave wasn't home to just anyone.
It was home to a monstrous one-eyed giant,
a Cyclops called Polyphemus,
and he wasn't in the mood to host guests.
The first thing he did was roll a huge boulder
over the entrance of the cave, trapping everyone inside.
He did his chores, and during that time,
he noticed the men quivering in the shadows.
He snatched two of them up and gobbled them down.
Odysseus was enraged.
He went for his sword, but he suddenly realised
if he killed the Cyclops,
he wouldn't be able to roll the boulder away from the cave entrance.
They'd be in there for all eternity.
It would become all of their tombs.
If they were gonna escape,
Odysseus needed to come up with a cunning plan.
And thankfully for him and his men, just like at Troy,
Odysseus's brains didn't let him down.
When the Cyclops went out the following day
to put his sheep out to pasture,
Odysseus and his men picked up the Cyclops's walking stick
and sharpened the end of it into a very fine point.
When he got back, Odysseus sort of tried to befriend him a bit.
He told him that his name was Nobody,
and he also offered him a lot of very powerful red wine.
Cyclops was quite pleased with that.
He ate two of Odysseus's men, drank all the wine and passed out.
At that point, Odysseus and the survivors
picked up the sharpened walking stick
and dipped the end into the red-hot embers of a fire,
and they rammed it as hard as they could
into the Cyclops's one eye.
The eyeball sizzled and popped.
He leapt up screaming.
His neighbours, other Cyclopes, came from nearby caves
and shouted, "What's up?" And he said, "Nobody's hurting me."
So they told him to be quiet and go back to sleep.
In the morning, the terribly wounded Cyclops
still had to let his sheep go out and graze.
So, blinded, he put his arm across the door
and let the sheep out one by one,
being very careful to make sure that Odysseus's men couldn't escape.
What he could not see is that on the underside of the sheep,
clinging to the fleece around their bellies,
were Odysseus and his men.
They made it past the Cyclops, through the entrance to the cave
and got back to their ship.
But while they were still in earshot of the shore,
Odysseus had a sudden rush of blood to the head.
Just as they're on the verge of escaping from the Cyclops,
Odysseus made another crazy decision.
He shouted up from the deck of his ship,
"Cyclops, my name is not Nobody.
"It is Odysseus of Ithaca."
SIGHS
It must have felt like the right idea at the time.
The trouble is, the Cyclops was the son of the sea god Poseidon,
and now he knew Odysseus's name.
The Cyclops immediately bellowed out,
hoping his father, Poseidon, god of the oceans, would hear him.
He said, "Father, grant that Odysseus, sacker of cities,
"may never reach his home in Ithaca."
Poseidon heard his son's pleas, and he answered.
What do you want to do? Go round?
I'm gonna bring a double gybe. Just... Yeah. OK. All right.
The god of the sea cursed Odysseus.
His odyssey had only just begun.
Coming up, I explore an enchanted island...
That's brilliant!
How strange.
..and follow Odysseus to a place
where few mortal men dared to tread - the underworld.
When you're ready, Dan. Stand by.
Go, go, go, go, go!
Golden. That'll do. That'll do. OK.
We might even hit that south side in one tackle.
We might. It's amazing.
DAN SNOW: I'm sailing the glorious Ionian Sea,
exploring gorgeous islands,
mysterious caves and incredible coves.
Following the greatest story ever told, The Odyssey.
Just a few weeks into his journey, Odysseus and his crew
had already been smashed by a storm
and escaped the clutches of the Cyclops.
But on they sailed, desperate to return home to Ithaca.
This is a story of heroes, gods and monsters,
but one of the most important characters
is actually the sea itself,
and The Odyssey is filled with incredible descriptions
of these waters.
I've written a list at the front of my book.
Sometimes, it's "wide". Other times, "restless".
He calls it "wine-dark, open,
"broad-backed, barren,
"boundless, greyish."
And that set me thinking, because we all think of Greece
and the beaches and the lovely clear water, its blue seas.
Nowhere does Homer call it that.
Homer never describes Odysseus
as just being too hot and having a lovely time in the sun.
It is a book about terrible weather.
These seas are a challenge for sailors in any century,
and sailing these waters day in, day out,
Tom knows that better than most.
It's funny, isn't it? You think of the Greek islands,
you think it's all just sandy beaches, turquoise water.
But the winds get wild here, don't they? They do.
They really change on you.
The fact that there's all these islands means lots of harbours,
space to go, but the winds can twist and turn around. Exactly.
So you get some weird, flukey conditions.
Especially when you're closer to shore.
So when you're within, you know, a kilometre or so of the shore,
you've really got to watch what's happening,
think about how those coastlines, and the mountains especially,
are gonna affect the wind.
You can see why they'd have thought it's crazy.
You get steady wind, then in certain places,
it just goes bonkers. Bonkers, yeah.
It would have been a god or a spirit on the hill.
You could definitely see why.
Me and Tom have sailed on, speeding south on the wind,
slipping into this calm, dreamy bay on the tiny island of Atokos.
Let's do 25, please.
That'll do, Dan, I think. That'll do.
Odysseus's men were exhausted.
They were traumatised by everything they've been through.
Of the original fleet of 12 ships,
there was now just one left.
So I imagine they were pretty pleased
when they stumbled across a safe-looking harbour
on the beautiful island of Aeaea.
They rode up to the beach, dragged the boat ashore,
and could do nothing else
but collapse on the sand next to it, exhausted.
For two days, the men rested on this seemingly deserted island.
The only clue that they were not alone
was some mysterious smoke rising from inland.
The men split into two groups,
and one of them went inland to investigate the smoke,
and what they found was a sumptuous palace
owned by the sorceress Circe.
The men were entranced by her beautiful singing,
and she invited them to feast with her.
But when they'd completely let their guard down,
she cast a spell on them,
turning Odysseus's crew from men into pigs.
Now, Circe's enchanted island of Aeaea
is obviously a fantasy location,
but real-life Atokos is eerily similar.
It's small, it's got a beautiful harbour.
There's a path that leads from that harbour
to a magnificent house in the middle,
and there is even a set of wild boar,
the set of pigs that live here, a little colony of them.
They even sometimes come for a swim.
'I wonder if they might come out while I'm here.'
Hey, you piggy, piggy, piggy, piggies!
WHISTLES
PIGS SNORT
Look at this. Two big pigs and lots of little piglets.
Oh, the big pigs are coming to cool down in the sea.
That's brilliant. How strange.
Well, there you go.
On Circe's magical island,
there are all sorts of strange, enchanted animals around.
But these are not the men of Odysseus's crew.
Thankfully, he heard of their fate and dashed to their rescue.
Odysseus ordered Circe to turn the pigs back into his men,
and in fact, after that slightly awkward start,
Circe became the most incredible host.
Homer tells us, "In her house,
"she gently bathed them, rubbing them in oil.
"She had them dressed in woollen cloaks and tunics,
"and they feasted on meat and sweet, strong wine every day."
They obviously enjoyed themselves, particularly Odysseus,
who, by this stage,
was romantically involved with Circe,
because they stayed for a year,
and only after a year did all the men come to Odysseus
and go, "Boss, I think we might have been here long enough.
"Should we try and get home?"
PIGS SNORT
And I think it's about time that I followed them too.
I wonder if some of Odysseus's men had mixed feelings
on leaving Aeaea behind them.
They definitely had quite a nice life there
on that island while it lasted.
But leave they did.
They couldn't head straight home, though.
Circe had sent them off with quite the instruction.
They had to make one of literature's greatest pit stops.
She told him that they had to go to Hades to speak to a spirit
who would tell them how to break the curse of Poseidon
and guide them on the rest of their journey home.
Next stop for The Odyssey, the underworld.
Some things don't change.
We're still using old muscle power to get the sails up,
as they would have done thousands of years ago.
OK. All right.
If you can lock the vang and pull it on for me.
Circe gave Odysseus very clear instructions
on how to get to the land of the dead,
full of landmarks to spot as he sailed these seas.
Greece is so well-known for its islands.
They're famous the world over.
Today, we tend to think of the sea between the islands
as a bit of a barrier, a bit of an obstacle.
But thousands of years ago, the opposite was true -
it was actually a bridge.
They became masters of the sea.
Obviously, there was no sat nav, nor were there any charts.
And the compass, well, that wouldn't be used for navigation
until around 1,500 years after The Odyssey was written down.
So Ancient Greek mariners like Odysseus
had to rely on something a little more basic...
but reliable nonetheless.
They had to memorise the coastline.
'Skipper Tom might not have been born here,
'but he has sailed the Ionian Sea with Sunsail more than most now,
'and he's no stranger to this technique.'
You've got access to the charts but presumably don't use them much,
cos you know these waters so well.
To be honest, I do more navigate visually,
just by where I am and knowing what's around
through having done it a couple of times before already.
I suppose all the islands, looking as they do,
they're quite individual.
You can sort of tell them immediately.
Yeah, you've got a lot of different types of terrain
around these islands, right?
You've got islands like Atokos and Kalamos,
which are very mountainous,
and then, say, Meganisi behind us and Kastos,
which are much, much flatter.
So it makes it quite easy to differentiate between.
The trouble is, I suppose when you do leave sight of land
or get to a new area, then you're ignorant.
Then it's quite dangerous. Yeah. Very much so.
Probably the biggest difference between sailing back then
and sailing now is we can do that and leave sight of land
because we have the electronic navigation aid.
So, we're just getting ready to moor up,
exactly as they would have done in Odysseus's time,
on this mysterious island that we've arrived at.
No harbours, no marinas back then.
So it's a matter of take ropes to the shore,
put an anchor down and make yourself safe and snug
against anything the weather can throw at you.
This is how, traditionally, you tie a boat to the land.
How you get off the boat and head on to the land, isn't it?
Even today in Greece, it's still how we do things here. Yeah.
Still not the infrastructure
that you have in other places around the world.
So we're not just doing this for show. No.
This is how we do it. Exactly.
'Tom has to carefully back the boat into position,
'avoiding any shallow water before the anchor is dropped.
'And then it's a race to get the lines out to shore
'as fast as possible.'
It's pretty sketchy.
With the boat securely moored up,
I can now get on with some inland exploration.
Odysseus, following Circe's instructions,
headed directly to the underworld.
And amazingly, for the Ancient Greeks,
Hades was a real place...
..a place you could visit.
And that's where I'm heading to.
The river Acheron
flows from the mountains of northern Greece
and out into the Ionian Sea.
And for the Ancient Greeks,
this river led directly to the underworld.
Well, the path's come to an end, but I'm gonna keep going.
Ooh! That is cold.
Look how beautiful that is, though.
Amazing.
Everything feels different down here.
It's much cooler than it is out there.
The plants, the trees are different.
And you can see why, to ancient people,
this gorge, with its rock and its icy-cold water
and its strange echoes,
it would have felt like a portal to the underworld.
Now, Odysseus didn't have to go into the underworld
but rather speak to someone who was on the other side -
a wise old man named Tiresias.
Only through speaking to him
could Odysseus learn how to break the curse of Poseidon.
But to do that, Odysseus would need to perform
a sacred ritual that is written down in The Odyssey.
So naturally, I want to give it a go myself.
But I can't do it alone.
'So Odyssey expert Dr Emily Hauser
'has come to give me a hand.'
All right, Emily, what's up first?
Well, first, Dan, we're gonna need to need to dig a pit,
so get digging. Right here? Right here.
And is it a square? It's gonna be a square. Yep.
Now, what we're gonna do once we've done that
is to put some libations in there. So... What's a libation?
Like an offering, or...?
Yeah, a libation is a ritual liquid,
basically a bit of a tipple for the gods.
So, first, we're gonna pour in some of the honey and the milk.
OK. Here we go.
God, this is exciting. I know.
Is this the honey? This is honey and milk.
This is your first libation that you're gonna pour in.
All the way, all of it? All of it, all the way.
And we want it to really soak down into the ground. Oh!
Right. Our next one is gonna be... Oh, that smells good.
It's gonna be some sweet wine. Ooh.
Seems like a waste, but there we go. Yeah.
No, that's good for the spirits.
And why are we putting these into the ground?
Are the spirits down there, they're not up there? Yeah.
So, we're trying to summon up the spirits of the underworld.
And because the underworld is conceived of
as being kind of down in the ground, under the earth,
we're gonna get everything to go seeping down into the ground,
as opposed to what you would do
if you were trying to communicate with the gods of the sky,
where you would be burning,
you'd be creating smoke that they could sniff in their nostrils.
That makes sense. Sending smoke up there.
We're not going up. We're going down.
Right, our next and final one
is going to be just a little bit of water
to pop our final libation on there. Water. Fine.
And then to finish it off,
we've got a little bit of barley to sprinkle over the top. OK.
Again, a staple crop. Another staple. Yeah, exactly.
Very common in sacrifices.
So, the last thing that we'll need to do
is you're gonna need to sacrifice a ram and a yew. OK.
So I'll go and see what I can find. OK.
Right. Here she comes. I've got a goat.
If you were in the Ancient Greek world,
you would be sacrificing the animal
in order to get the blood sinking down into the pit,
under the ground, to the spirits of the underworld.
Well, now that we've got to point no return,
I'm actually not sure I want to open the underworld today.
Do you know what? I think she is far too cute for that. Yeah.
I think we're gonna have to leave it at that.
The spirits can go hungry for longer.
BLEATS
Odysseus, however, did open the underworld
and spoke to Tiresias,
who gave him guidance for the next leg of his journey.
But what was now very clear was that his return to Ithaca
was going to be long and testing.
Coming up, I head to one of the greatest cities
from the Ancient Greek world,
and Odysseus's journey goes from bad...
..to worse.
There you go. That's what happens.
That was full over.
DAN SNOW: My journey into The Odyssey
has taken me across the seas,
from Troy in Turkey to Greece's Ionian Islands.
But now I'm heading ashore...
..travelling to an ancient city
that lies at the heart of our story.
It's pretty clear that The Odyssey is not a true story,
but there are places mentioned in The Odyssey that are real -
the island of Ithaca, Troy.
And there's also quite a few mentions of this place here.
One of the most important,
one of the most magnificent cities
in Ancient Greece, Mycenae.
At the time of the Trojan War,
Mycenae was the most powerful of all the Greek cities,
home to the legendary king Agamemnon.
This isn't the later Greek world of the Parthenon, though,
with its beautiful columns.
Mycenae is a chunky fortress,
the perfect place
to explore the spectacular world of The Odyssey.
'Meeting me by its famous Lion Gate
is ancient historian Tristan Hughes.'
Look at this. This is an overwhelming entrance, isn't it?
It's extraordinary.
It is one of the greatest sites in Greece.
And that is saying something -
there's quite a few sites to choose from.
But, yes, this place, Mycenae,
it enjoyed its height more than 3,000 years ago,
at the time that the story of The Odyssey is set.
So at the time of Julius Caesar,
this is already a thousand years old.
More than a thousand years old.
We like to think of great monuments like the Colosseum and the Parthenon
being ancient, but to them, THIS was ancient history.
It's just such a dramatic...
You're channelled in, past this living rock here.
The enormous building blocks, they're creating such an effect
as they push you through this gate with the lines above.
They really are. And when people came here back in ancient times,
and they marvelled at this gateway,
and they looked at the walls, the stones themselves,
they thought these couldn't have been built by men.
They must have been built by the Cyclopes.
Wow. Giants. Yes. Fantastic.
Once you've entered through the Lion Gate,
you have to climb to the very top to reach the throne room.
And this is a palace with a view.
It's quite the walk. It's a great walk. Worth it, though.
Look at that view. Extraordinary, isn't it? It is worth it every time.
I mean, look at that.
So, Greece today, one big country, all unified.
Not the case back then. Absolutely not.
So, at the time that The Odyssey is set,
Greece is divided into many, many different kingdoms,
some more powerful than others.
That's why you've got so many kings knocking around
in The Odyssey, I suppose. Yeah.
You've got several mentioned in The Odyssey.
You've got Sparta, and you've also got
what is the capital of Greece today, you've got Athens.
But in the story of The Odyssey,
who is the most powerful king of them all?
It's Agamemnon, the King of Mycenae, who would have resided here.
They are evidence that, yes, this was a powerful centre,
a powerful place, more than 3,000 years ago.
So you've got Odysseus, king of the little island of Ithaca. Yeah.
Agamemnon and him, they're both kings,
but Agamemnon's definitely a bit above him, isn't he?
So, this is a big topic of debate.
It could be for a time that maybe the Mycenaean king,
the person who ruled from here, was almost a king of kings
who could command lots of people to come together
and join him for a raid or two across the sea.
But as Odysseus is travelling, he's able to talk to,
he's able to, you know, have common customs and religion
with the people he's interacting with.
Yes. I'd like to think of it as that world,
politically divided with all of these kings,
but culturally pretty similar -
all speaking the same language, all worshiping the same gods.
Mycenae towers over the landscape even today,
but it's spectacular below ground too.
Built into the hillside are royal tombs.
If you thought the Lion Gate
and the fortress above were impressive,
this just takes your breath away.
The scale of the engineering, it really is, I think,
on a par with places like the pyramids in Egypt.
Look at that amazing vaulted roof
and the way that beautiful masonry...
they all fit in together perfectly, even after 3,000 years.
The way the sound reverberates,
focusing on this point right in the middle,
I think tells you just how impressive the engineering was.
It's a magical place.
We've got really no idea who this was for.
One thing you can say,
whoever was laid to rest in here was a powerful person.
What I've really taken away coming here
is that The Odyssey is a story about mighty kings and princes
and palaces and cities,
and maybe that's not exaggerated.
There's clearly something going on in the Greek world in this period.
They're capable of building structures like this.
Why aren't they capable of launching mighty fleets
and armies across the sea?
Somehow... coming here
makes the scale of The Odyssey seem more real.
Mycenae was much grander than Odysseus's own kingdom of Ithaca...
..but it gives us an idea of the kind of place
that he was longing to get back to.
By this stage of his journey,
Odysseus has been trying to get home for about three years,
and he is about to meet some of his most infamous,
most fearsome foes.
But to tell those stories, I need to get back on the water.
At this stage of his journey,
Odysseus had been warned that he and the remains of his crew
were approaching the island of the deadly sirens.
The story goes that sirens would sing such an enchanting melody
that it would force sailors, so desperate to hear more,
to change course and smash their ships on the rocks.
Odysseus knew the risks,
and so he told his men to put wax in their ears.
Tom, there you go. Got some wax earplugs for you there.
But don't put them in just yet, cos I've got a job for you. Oh, God.
Odysseus, he wanted to hear what the sirens had to say.
So he came up with a plan.
He would get his men to lash him to the mast
so he could hear it,
but he wouldn't be able to swim over to face certain death.
So, Tom, let's head up to the mast. Yeah.
I need you to lash me tight to it. Let's give it a go.
DAN CHUCKLES
Up at the mast.
Right, here we are, Dan. Nice and tight.
Oh, that does feel tight. Yeah.
Can still breathe, can't you? Just about. Just about.
That's where we want it. Yeah. It's that the sweet spot?
So, Tom, you ever heard the sirens?
You've heard a sweet melody that's made you want to jump overboard?
Not here. They must have... They must have moved away.
Some people say it could have been the sounds of mating seals.
That makes a little bit more sense,
cos we do have a good few monk seals in the area.
I'm not sure that would make me want to leap overboard.
No, the sound of mating seals,
it doesn't sound all that appealing to me either, Dan.
Tied off. Lovely. OK.
How does it feel? Now, you go back to the helm.
Stick that wax in your ears, buddy.
Tom, can you hear me?
Hey?
Perfect. Perfect. Keep them in.
The ship neared the island,
and across the waves came the sweet tones of the sirens.
FEMALE VOICE: 'Stop your ship and listen to our voices.
'All those who pass this way
'hear honeyed song poured from our mouths.'
They came to the island of the sirens.
The men rode, earplugs in, completely unconcerned.
But Odysseus heard these enchanting melodies.
He was so drawn to them. And you know what?
They were about him, Odysseus, his greatness, his epic journey.
And that's why he was so excited.
'Odysseus... come here.
'You are well-known for many stories.
'Glory of the Greeks.'
He screamed, and he wriggled, but it was all in vain.
He could not get out of his bonds. Thank goodness.
And on they sailed,
his crew blissfully unaware with their earplugs in.
Eventually, the sound of the sirens died out,
and it was safe for the men to take their earplugs out,
and they sailed on.
Odysseus had controlled his impulses, but only just.
Coming up, the mother of all storms...
..and I head off to the cave of the goddess Calypso.
It's absolutely massive in here.
DAN SNOW: I'm voyaging in the wake
of the greatest journey ever told, The Odyssey.
Having narrowly survived the deadly song of the sirens,
Odysseus and his crew were exhausted and in need of rest.
They arrived at the island of the sun god Helios.
Odysseus had been warned to avoid this place,
but his tired men threatened mutiny.
Odysseus agreed to land but made them swear
not to eat the cattle or sheep of the sun god.
The men agreed, but of course, this wouldn't be The Odyssey
without a twist.
Me and Tom are heading for a sheltered harbour
where we can moor up for the night.
That's a very special harbour, this one. It's called Sivota.
It's a great example of the kind of harbours you get
in this part of Greece.
It's actually protected 360 degrees by big, rocky cliffs,
which means that whatever the storm, massive hurricane,
you come in here, and you could ride it out.
So, the perfect place for us to spend the night.
And luckily for me, a beautiful restaurant beckons.
There is nothing better after a long day on the water,
with the sun beating down and the wind in your hair,
than tying up your boat safe and sound in a harbour,
coming to a taverna and enjoying some of the world's greatest food.
Greek food.
I've got a sample of it here in front of me.
Absolutely delicious.
And you get a real sense of that in The Odyssey.
Eating was a highlight for these guys.
There are so many feasts in The Odyssey.
Homer describes them.
He also describes what they're eating.
It tends to be bread, meat, and what he calls sweet wine.
In fact, it's meat,
more specifically beef, like this here,
that gives us one of the most tragic,
one of the most traumatic moments, of The Odyssey.
Odysseus's stop on the island of the sun god
was only supposed to be a quick one,
but the weather changed once again,
and Odysseus and his men were trapped on the island.
They ate all the supplies they brought with them.
Then they started hunting across the island for birds.
They picked the place clean.
They fished in the seas around the island.
But still, the bad weather continued.
One day, it got to the point where they were facing starvation.
They were desperate.
They were going to die of malnutrition on this island.
And when Odysseus went off for a bit of quiet time by himself,
the rest of them came together and hatched a plot.
They agreed that they would rather anything
than die a slow death of hunger on this island.
They were gonna take their chance with the wrath of the gods.
All these delicious-looking cows wandering around,
it was too much temptation.
They sharpened their blades
and got ready to cook up some barbecued beef.
That was delicious.
I can see why they did it.
I'd throw my life away for a decent bit of beef.
And they said, "You know what?
"We're gonna sacrifice to the sun god when we get back,
"build the biggest temple you've ever seen,
"sacrifice all our best animals.
"He'll be fine with it. He'll be fine with it."
SIGHS
But he wasn't.
Helios appealed to Zeus, king of the gods,
and he vowed to destroy Odysseus and his remaining crew.
After a few days, the weather improved enough
for Odysseus's men to put back out to sea,
but Odysseus did so with a heavy heart
because he knew what was coming.
And indeed, divine retaliation was swift and terrible.
I'll let Odysseus pick up the story here
because he describes it in The Odyssey.
MALE VOICE: 'Zeus made a mass of dark-blue storm clouds
'hang over our ship.
'Then came the winds, shrieking noisily,
'rushing with torrential tempest.'
That's a bit of a gust off the island there.
Whoa! I see what you mean.
'Zeus thundered and hurled lightning bolts to strike the ship.
'All the men fell overboard, and they were swept away.'
And that was it for Odysseus's crew.
None of them would ever see Ithaca again.
But Odysseus didn't share their fate.
He managed to grab onto some wreckage
and survive this terrible ordeal.
Unlike his crew,
who had been fatally punished for offending the gods.
Throughout The Odyssey, the gods play a huge role
in the day-to-day lives of ordinary people.
'I'm meeting with Greek goddess expert Dr Tulsi Parikh
'to see if this is how Ancient Greek people
'actually saw the world.'
So, the gods play a massive part in The Odyssey.
Is that just storytelling,
or do you think this is something that the Greeks would have believed?
I think it's a bit of both, really.
The gods are so important in The Odyssey,
and they really kind of steer the events and the outcomes,
good and bad.
But it's based in the belief that the gods were everywhere.
They were really present in the lives of everyone,
so from jobs to relationships,
marriage to health.
But the gods are a bit like humans in that they change their minds,
they are jealous and angry.
They're not very godlike, in some way.
They're just extremely powerful.
Yeah. I think that's the main thing.
That's the main difference between the gods and humans.
They're immortal, and they're powerful,
but they still do have those emotions -
the jealousy, the rage.
But those are the things that humans fear and avoid.
It's very important to keep their gods happy and on your side.
So when there's bad weather or there's a coincidence,
it seems like the Ancient Greeks suddenly go,
"Oh, it must be the gods."
Whereas, we might say it's coincidence,
or it's science, whatever. Exactly.
The Ancient Greeks see the gods everywhere.
So a storm, a shipwreck,
anything that happens that is either good or very bad
must be the gods.
There's a bit in The Odyssey where it said,
"You've got to be careful who you're mean to
"cos it could be a god in disguise."
So they occasionally just pop on a disguise and walk among us.
I mean, we see that a lot in myths and stories.
Whether this happened,
or people believe this was happening in daily life,
very difficult to know.
I would definitely go around saying, "Hey, be nice to me.
"I could be Apollo." Exactly.
For Odysseus, it must have seemed like the end of the road.
He would surely never see his homeland again.
Just me and my little boat now in the middle of the Ionian.
This reminds me of the part in The Odyssey
where, finally, Zeus has smashed them with his lightning bolts...
..and this is really, I think, Odysseus's lowest point.
'But then, on the horizon, a speck of land appeared.'
As for me, well, I'm arriving at Meganisi,
another island that feels like it has been plucked
right out of the pages of The Odyssey.
It's absolutely massive in here.
ECHOING: The sound is extraordinary.
Odysseus of Ithaca!
Whoo!
OK, I'm landing on the beach.
GRUNTS
By this point of The Odyssey,
Odysseus is now completely alone.
He's lost his crew. He's lost his ship.
But he does get washed up on yet another island.
This one... home to the divine Calypso.
Calypso was a beautiful nymph
living on the paradise-like island of Ogygia.
She quickly fell in love with Odysseus
and made sure that despite his desire to leave,
he couldn't.
Calypso kept Odysseus prisoner.
He slept alongside her in her cave for seven years.
By day, The Odyssey reports that he would go down to the shore.
His eyes were always tearful.
'He wept sweet life away in the longing to go back home.
'He had no choice.
'He spent his nights with her inside a hollow cave.'
Odysseus must have felt like he was going nowhere
and his life was slipping away.
Eventually, after seven long years,
the goddess Athena came to Odysseus's rescue
and organised his release.
After more adventures,
he eventually found himself on a ship
that sailed him home to Ithaca.
After ten long years of voyaging,
his own crew were all dead,
but his homeland was in sight.
Right. We're getting close. We're almost there, Dan.
Feels good to get to Ithaca. This is the northern end, is it?
This is pretty much as north as we can go.
There's a little bit more extending past,
but we're pretty much as north as you can get.
We're mooring up for the night just off shore,
ready to explore Ithaca tomorrow.
I'm getting a bit carried away now. I mean, I know it is a myth,
but wouldn't it be great if there was a little bit of truth to it?
If this was Odysseus's island
and this is where he came back in after 20 years.
Ah, there we go.
Ithaca.
Ah.
It's nice and early.
You often wake up early on boats, whether you like it or not.
Luckily, I do like it,
particularly cos you get to look at these beautiful sunrises.
We can guess that Homer would have loved a dawn like this
because he's often referring to them,
and he uses different expressions which are fantastic.
He says, "Dawn rose and filled the sky with blossom."
Or, "Dawn, with her pinky fingers, rose from the sea."
So it's easy to imagine Odysseus, thousands of years ago,
watching sunrises just like this in these waters.
But I can't admire this sunrise for long.
It's time to go ashore like Odysseus and explore Ithaca.
Ithaca is absolutely covered in caves,
and because of its famous connection
to The Odyssey,
every single one of these caves has been given a legendary status.
This one is said by some people to be where Eumaeus lived.
Now, Eumaeus is the swineherd of the King of Ithaca,
the person who looks after all his pigs.
He's a lowly servant, a slave even.
But Odysseus decided that he could be trusted,
and so when he first arrives at Ithaca,
he actually goes and stays with Eumaeus,
judges the lay of the land, sees what you can find out,
and then starts to hatch a plan
about how he's gonna win back his kingdom.
Eventually, Odysseus decides to find out
what's going on at the palace.
I'm climbing up to investigate some very mysterious ruins.
You just get a sense of how rocky Ithaca is.
Up quite high now, and look here.
We've got some big, nicely shaped stones there,
so I think we're getting to the start
of the archaeological site.
Let's keep pushing on up there.
Here we go. This is getting...
Oh, yeah, much more substantial here.
You can see, look, we've got some buildings
from different periods and different styles,
but this one's majestic here. Very palatial.
That does remind me, in some ways, of the Lion Gate at Mycenae.
But also, look at this position.
If you're trying to dominate an island,
well, you're dominating physically the landscape here.
You can see the sea down there, other islands,
the sea over in that direction.
It's quite the place.
And it's not for nothing that this place was known for centuries
as the palace of Odysseus.
It's nothing like the monumental scale of Mycenae,
but the large stone blocks are similar.
Clearly, this was once a wealthy place,
maybe even the home of a local king.
You can see why Odysseus was so keen to get home.
It's a spectacular stretch of wall here.
I'm pretty sure I'm not the first history-loving tourist
to come here and wonder whether, just possibly,
this place could be connected with Odysseus.
I do feel a little bit silly about the fact
that I just, deep down, would love this to have been Odysseus's palace.
But I feel better because we know
from the things that archaeologists have found here
that for thousands of years, visitors like me
have been doing exactly the same thing.
Ancient Greeks, Ancient Romans, people ever since have been coming.
They've been leaving trinkets with the name of Odysseus on them.
This has always been a place where people have come,
wanting to connect with the greatest story ever told.
Coming up, The Odyssey's bloody homecoming,
and I get to the end of my own odyssey.
DAN SNOW: I've sailed across the glorious Ionian Sea,
following the story of The Odyssey,
loving every moment.
Now I'm on Ithaca, Odysseus's home island,
and the story is about to reach its famous conclusion.
Starting with our wily hero
patiently plotting how to safely reclaim his throne.
Odysseus decided to approach the palace,
to go up and have a little snoop around,
work out what to do next, disguised as a beggar.
But as he got close, he was recognised not by a human
but, very movingly, by his old dog Argos,
who he'd last seen as a puppy 20 years before.
Now Argos is old, he's been neglected.
He's actually lying on a dung hill.
But his ears go back.
He recognises that his master has finally, finally returned.
He gives a joyous yelp.
At that same moment, he dies.
I think, for Odysseus,
this is a real moment where it just hits him.
How much life here at home he's missed out on
during his decades-long journey.
And Odysseus hasn't got back a moment too soon,
because the crisis that has gripped his household for decades
is about to come to a head.
Bear in mind Odysseus has been away for 20 years.
Everyone assumes he's dead, fish food.
And so all the eligible lads
from this island and the surrounding islands
have come to Odysseus's palace
trying to marry his widow, Penelope.
So Penelope and her young son Telemachus
are surrounded on every side by these suitors.
And by the way, while they're asking her to marry them,
they're eating all the food, they're banqueting.
They're taking advantage of that hospitality.
So if Odysseus is gonna get his wife back, get his happy ending,
it looks like his biggest battle is yet to come.
But surprisingly, it wasn't something that Odysseus did
that would spark his triumphant comeback.
Instead, it was his wife.
Penelope announced that there would be an archery competition.
She had 12 battle axes lined up, one behind the other.
Each of them had a hole in it,
and she demanded that the suitors all have a go at shooting an arrow
through all of those holes.
To make it even harder,
she said that they had to use Odysseus's great bow.
This was a weapon that only someone
with the strength and skill of a hero would be able to wield.
Whichever suitor proved successful,
that man would have her hand in marriage.
Suitor after suitor failed to even string the bow,
let alone complete the challenge.
Until finally, Odysseus,
disguised as a lowly beggar, stepped forward.
Odysseus took up the bow.
There were gales of laughter from the suitors
as they scoffed at the idea
that this beggar would be the one to complete Penelope's challenge.
But he calmly strung the bow
and prepared to shoot.
The arrow whistled through all the arrowheads.
The suitors stood there in stunned silence.
But before the suitors could react to this incredible feat,
Odysseus knocked another arrow
and turned to the men who had laid siege to his home for years...
..and he launched a barrage of arrows at them.
The palace becomes a battlefield.
Telemachus joins his father,
and father and son fight side by side
against the men who have been tormenting the family,
who have been eating up, devouring their wealth.
It ends with Odysseus and his son
surrounded by mounds of corpses,
splashing through blood shin-deep.
Silence reigned over the island once again.
Finally, Odysseus was home with his wife and son,
reclaiming his palace and throne.
Behind him lay a trail of death and destruction from Troy to Ithaca.
His odyssey was over.
It has been the greatest experience, sailing the waters of The Odyssey,
visiting these islands, exploring the caves...
..ancient palaces and tombs.
It's brought this great tale to life.
The wonderful thing about The Odyssey
is that it's an unbeatable story. It's got it all.
It's got gods and monsters and fighting and romance,
a climactic battle, and then a happy ending for the hero.
But as well as that, it is a time machine,
and it takes us back to the people
who lived in this landscape and sailed these seas
3,000 years ago.
It has been one of the greatest experiences.