0:00:02 > 0:00:05Throughout my life I've been fascinated by the Greek myths,
0:00:05 > 0:00:07by the tales of those tragic heroes,
0:00:07 > 0:00:10by the loves and personalities of the Gods,
0:00:10 > 0:00:14and their battles with monsters, or even with one another.
0:00:14 > 0:00:17Myths are stories without known authors,
0:00:17 > 0:00:21and I've always wondered, where do they come from?
0:00:23 > 0:00:26On their trail, I will go on a journey of discovery
0:00:26 > 0:00:31East and West across the Mediterranean.
0:00:31 > 0:00:37I will travel from a mountain in Turkey where a god was castrated,
0:00:37 > 0:00:42to the peak in Greece where the young king of the gods was brought up to power.
0:00:42 > 0:00:47I'll trace the fragile beginnings of our Western alphabet and literature.
0:00:47 > 0:00:52This is huge, this is really the beginning of literate Western civilisation for us
0:00:52 > 0:00:54and we are witnessing it in the palm of your hand.
0:00:56 > 0:01:02I will uncover a hidden inscription which tells a remarkable story.
0:01:02 > 0:01:07This really is the lifeblood of ancient history and we're finding it straight in front of us.
0:01:07 > 0:01:11I will enter the underground lair of a once terrifying snaky monster...
0:01:13 > 0:01:18..and look upon his final explosive resting place.
0:01:18 > 0:01:20It's really steaming, hotting up,
0:01:20 > 0:01:25been blazing away for about 5,000 years, it's still not exhausted.
0:01:26 > 0:01:30And I will discover a place where, amazingly,
0:01:30 > 0:01:33the Greek past is still mirrored in our world.
0:01:33 > 0:01:39In this film, I will reveal how Greeks' myths of their battling gods
0:01:39 > 0:01:44were shaped by the minds of people from a particular place,
0:01:44 > 0:01:49living at a time which has been described as a Dark Age.
0:02:05 > 0:02:08I teach ancient history here at New College, Oxford,
0:02:08 > 0:02:13where classical Greek has been studied for so many centuries.
0:02:16 > 0:02:20It really is the place to think about the ancient world.
0:02:24 > 0:02:29And not only think about it, but look at it too.
0:02:29 > 0:02:34Nearby, the Ashmolean Museum is built on classical Greek principles.
0:02:38 > 0:02:43Recently, it's been excitingly redesigned.
0:02:43 > 0:02:48The cultural links between ancient civilisations are at its heart.
0:02:54 > 0:03:00Here I always reflect how Greek art, philosophy, politics
0:03:00 > 0:03:03are at the roots of our Western world,
0:03:03 > 0:03:09and at the heart of their legacy lie the Greek myths.
0:03:09 > 0:03:14These are stories that have inspired art of great beauty...
0:03:14 > 0:03:18and great horror, from the Renaissance to the modern,
0:03:18 > 0:03:22and influenced philosophers and thinkers for thousands of years.
0:03:22 > 0:03:27Even today, the tales of the Greek mythical heroes -
0:03:27 > 0:03:31Odysseus, Adonis, Achilles - are still alive for us.
0:03:31 > 0:03:35But grander still are the myths which made the Greek gods what they were.
0:03:35 > 0:03:40Hera, Aphrodite, Apollo,
0:03:40 > 0:03:45and ruling over them, Zeus himself, the father of gods and men.
0:03:45 > 0:03:48The most fascinating of these myths
0:03:48 > 0:03:52are the stories of the wars of the gods in heaven.
0:03:52 > 0:03:55I believe we can understand their roots
0:03:55 > 0:03:59and understand the world in which they developed.
0:04:05 > 0:04:08Our knowledge of these myths comes from ancient hymns to the gods
0:04:08 > 0:04:11and epic poetry.
0:04:11 > 0:04:15Above all, the great poetry of Homer.
0:04:15 > 0:04:18In the very first book of his Iliad,
0:04:18 > 0:04:24Homer actually describes the singing of just such a hymn with myths to the god Apollo.
0:04:24 > 0:04:29Homer probably composed in the mid to late 8th century BC -
0:04:29 > 0:04:35after 400 years of what historians used to call the Greek Dark Ages.
0:04:35 > 0:04:39They were dark in one respect. Greeks on the mainland
0:04:39 > 0:04:41had lost the art of writing.
0:04:41 > 0:04:46But during this pre-literate age, myths proliferated.
0:04:46 > 0:04:49They were not fantasies of the human unconscious mind,
0:04:49 > 0:04:54they were born through contact with real places
0:04:54 > 0:04:59by a particular people whom I will trace for the first time.
0:05:01 > 0:05:07Theirs is an extraordinary story of exploration and imagination
0:05:07 > 0:05:09and it begins for me with a journey
0:05:09 > 0:05:14to the Greek island from which they came more than 3,000 years ago.
0:05:18 > 0:05:23The island of Euboea was known to the Greeks as Long Island.
0:05:26 > 0:05:30It's not on many tourists' trail
0:05:30 > 0:05:35but at the Euripus Strait, the island lies so close to mainland Greece
0:05:35 > 0:05:39you can actually walk across using a short bridge.
0:05:47 > 0:05:53Towards the end of the Greek Dark Ages, between the 10th and 8th centuries BC,
0:05:53 > 0:05:56there were a number of relatively sophisticated settlements on Euboea.
0:05:56 > 0:06:00I believe that their residents played the crucial role
0:06:00 > 0:06:05in development of the Greek myths about the gods in heaven.
0:06:08 > 0:06:14The contemporary evidence for them comes from archaeological finds.
0:06:16 > 0:06:20'In Euboea, the most telling excavation has been on a hill
0:06:20 > 0:06:22'near the town of Lefkandi,
0:06:22 > 0:06:26'where the excavation is led by Irene Lemos,
0:06:26 > 0:06:28'my colleague from the University of Oxford.'
0:06:35 > 0:06:40So this is the deposit where you put everything you find on the hill, mainly pottery?
0:06:40 > 0:06:42Yes, this is where we keep all our pottery.
0:06:44 > 0:06:48Oh, my God, it looks as though you're clearing up after the party the night before.
0:06:48 > 0:06:52There's so much you can't make any sense of it. All you've got
0:06:52 > 0:06:55is a mass of undecorated pieces, none of which match, as far as I can see.
0:06:55 > 0:06:59Pretty much, yes. This is a normal bag, really.
0:06:59 > 0:07:05Right, and that is the contents of about half a crate out of that?
0:07:05 > 0:07:08And you've got how many hundreds of crates? I dread to think.
0:07:08 > 0:07:11We have 1,000 crates.
0:07:11 > 0:07:14- 1,000?- Yes, in here.
0:07:14 > 0:07:17You're going to be here until you're old and grey,
0:07:17 > 0:07:23they're never going to let you out. You'll be locked in, it's the end of your life.
0:07:25 > 0:07:28'Pottery is so important for historians
0:07:28 > 0:07:32'because it leaves an indestructible human trail,
0:07:32 > 0:07:35'and it's exciting when fragments can be assembled into one object.'
0:07:35 > 0:07:38How many pieces are there in that one, for instance?
0:07:38 > 0:07:41- Around 20.- 20? Are you sure you've got them in the right order?
0:07:41 > 0:07:47- Yes, definitely.- And that's all held together with little bits of glue,
0:07:47 > 0:07:52and then I see it beautifully photographed and think in an airy way that it's a perfect piece.
0:07:52 > 0:07:53Yes.
0:07:53 > 0:07:57All the pottery in the world is waiting to be found, Irene.
0:08:04 > 0:08:07'The most significant of Irene's finds
0:08:07 > 0:08:12'are brought to the Eretria Museum, a few kilometres from Lefkandi.
0:08:12 > 0:08:17'Here, there are objects which reveal the prominence
0:08:17 > 0:08:22'of myths in Euboean society and hint at how they developed.'
0:08:24 > 0:08:27Here, Robin, you will see some of our complete finds
0:08:27 > 0:08:31and some of the best - mostly from the cemeteries
0:08:31 > 0:08:34- of Lefkandi.- What have we got here? - This is a figurine of a centaur.
0:08:34 > 0:08:36A man and a horse, wonderful.
0:08:36 > 0:08:40So this really is evidence of a figure of myth,
0:08:40 > 0:08:43and that must mean that the myths were known
0:08:43 > 0:08:46and being told in Lefkandi in the 10th/9th century.
0:08:46 > 0:08:50I don't think I recall a centaur any earlier than this.
0:08:50 > 0:08:55- Is this one of the first? - It is actually the first three-dimensional representation
0:08:55 > 0:08:59- we have of the mythical centaur. - Heavens.
0:08:59 > 0:09:03This particular one has six fingers and a gash on his leg,
0:09:03 > 0:09:06- so it might be a particular one.- Ah!
0:09:06 > 0:09:10- It could be Chiron, the teacher of Achilles.- Absolutely.
0:09:10 > 0:09:15What this really means is that the myths we talk about must have been
0:09:15 > 0:09:19known and circulating at Lefkandi, possibly told in poetry.
0:09:19 > 0:09:22So when we're thinking, "What did they talk about?"
0:09:22 > 0:09:26An object like this gives you a real idea of the surrounding culture
0:09:26 > 0:09:29and understanding of the people.
0:09:32 > 0:09:36This looks likes some kind of a ship, I think, Irene.
0:09:36 > 0:09:39Yes, it is a boat, and it is most probably galley.
0:09:39 > 0:09:42Right, and what sort of date are we talking about?
0:09:42 > 0:09:45Well, it is early 9th century BC.
0:09:45 > 0:09:47What, 9th century BC boat on a pot? I don't believe you.
0:09:47 > 0:09:51- It is the earliest one.- Right. - Actually, when we found it,
0:09:51 > 0:09:55I excavated this part and nobody believed me
0:09:55 > 0:10:00that we had the bit of a boat and then we got the rest of it.
0:10:00 > 0:10:01And proved you right?
0:10:01 > 0:10:03- Yes.- It's very sophisticated.
0:10:03 > 0:10:06We've got the oars, we've got one to steer by,
0:10:06 > 0:10:11we've got the mast and with that they could set out onto the Aegean,
0:10:11 > 0:10:15steering by the stars, we have to remember, pulling on their oars for a long journey.
0:10:15 > 0:10:19So with ships of that sophistication, there's every reason
0:10:19 > 0:10:23why the Euboeans should be able to look outwards from Lefkandi,
0:10:23 > 0:10:27and that's clear evidence that Euboeans would be great travellers
0:10:27 > 0:10:30at a time when the rest of Greece is not capable of it.
0:10:37 > 0:10:40It's extraordinary to think how the Euboeans would have sailed.
0:10:40 > 0:10:43They had no maps, no compasses,
0:10:43 > 0:10:47they didn't have our cardinal points like east or west.
0:10:47 > 0:10:51Their world view was shaped by local landmarks,
0:10:51 > 0:10:54especially distinctive cliffs.
0:10:56 > 0:11:00Undaunted, they would set out from these shores and with them travelled
0:11:00 > 0:11:05a mental cargo of the oral stories which they called muthoi.
0:11:09 > 0:11:16These muthoi were not fixed but were open to new influences and insights,
0:11:16 > 0:11:18and in their travels, I believe,
0:11:18 > 0:11:24the Euboeans encountered landscapes and stories which inspired new myths.
0:11:29 > 0:11:32Their trail takes me first
0:11:32 > 0:11:37to the very eastern limit of settlement for Dark Age Greek travellers,
0:11:37 > 0:11:40out on the coast of modern Turkey.
0:11:53 > 0:11:56From the 10th century BC onwards,
0:11:56 > 0:12:00Euboeans came east in search of metals,
0:12:00 > 0:12:01especially copper and tin,
0:12:01 > 0:12:06which was needed for their newly acquired skill of a bronze working.
0:12:09 > 0:12:11It's here, just by this shore,
0:12:11 > 0:12:14that I'm going to find the crucial Euboean link
0:12:14 > 0:12:21which helps to explain the trail of myths surrounding the Greek gods and their wars in heaven.
0:12:28 > 0:12:33What Euboeans learnt here was nothing less than the stories
0:12:33 > 0:12:38of a violent struggle among the early gods - stories of castration
0:12:38 > 0:12:42and baby eating, and of how their ruling god Zeus came to power.
0:12:49 > 0:12:52My belief stems from the remarkable discoveries
0:12:52 > 0:12:57made by the archaeologist Leonard Woolley in 1936.
0:13:01 > 0:13:07Woolley's excavations lay on the outskirts of the coastal town of Samandag...
0:13:08 > 0:13:11..near the Syrian border with Turkey.
0:13:14 > 0:13:18Today, even to rediscover Woolley's site is not easy,
0:13:18 > 0:13:23it's been covered over and there'd been no more excavations for years.
0:13:23 > 0:13:27So I've begun from a landmark he mentioned,
0:13:27 > 0:13:30the shrine of a local Muslim saint.
0:13:32 > 0:13:38We know Woolley excavated just to the northeast of the shrine.
0:13:38 > 0:13:42This place is about a mile inland from the sea, but believe it or not,
0:13:42 > 0:13:44in antiquity it was actually on the coast,
0:13:44 > 0:13:47just beside a river which has silted it up.
0:13:47 > 0:13:51That was why Woolley named it Al Mina,
0:13:51 > 0:13:55Arabic word for the port or harbourage by which it's still known.
0:13:55 > 0:13:59Now, I'm going to try to get in and see the site that Woolley excavated,
0:13:59 > 0:14:02which is down there among what are now orange groves.
0:14:11 > 0:14:14There are no traces here of Woolley's trenches.
0:14:19 > 0:14:22Oranges now ripen in the fields.
0:14:24 > 0:14:28Most of his finds have been shipped off abroad.
0:14:29 > 0:14:33Woolley found nothing so exciting as gold and sculpture here,
0:14:33 > 0:14:37but for historians he found something every bit as important.
0:14:37 > 0:14:40He dug and dug down through nine layers of time,
0:14:40 > 0:14:43and then on virgin soil at the very bottom,
0:14:43 > 0:14:47he found a layer of predominantly Greek pottery,
0:14:47 > 0:14:51most of which has turned out to be Euboean.
0:14:51 > 0:14:53My natural conclusion, then,
0:14:53 > 0:14:58is that Euboeans were the first settlers right out here at Al Mina.
0:15:04 > 0:15:08Fascinatingly, the pottery fragments from the 8th century BC
0:15:08 > 0:15:13which Woolley found were mainly from simple drinking vessels.
0:15:13 > 0:15:18They were functional and they're not desirable items for foreign trade.
0:15:18 > 0:15:22So I believe Euboeans brought them to these shores
0:15:22 > 0:15:25for their own personal use in the settlement.
0:15:29 > 0:15:34Experts still argue over Al Mina's pottery, which is scattered nowadays
0:15:34 > 0:15:38all the way from the British Museum to Australia.
0:15:38 > 0:15:41But if you actually come to the site,
0:15:41 > 0:15:46you realise there was something much more important in the Euboeans' minds.
0:15:46 > 0:15:49Every day, every night, they looked up
0:15:49 > 0:15:53to the great beacon of a mountain, which rises steeply from the sea.
0:15:53 > 0:15:57It affected the clouds, the rain, the sea itself,
0:15:57 > 0:16:02and round it swirled some of the world's oldest myths about the gods.
0:16:17 > 0:16:22Today this mountain is known as Jebel Aqra - Bald Mountain.
0:16:22 > 0:16:26It had many names in the past, Mount Hazzi was one,
0:16:26 > 0:16:29and for the Greeks, it became known as Mount Casius.
0:16:35 > 0:16:41Mount Casius rises nearly 2,000 metres directly up from the seashore.
0:16:41 > 0:16:46Often wreathed in clouds, it is a focal point for thunder and lightning.
0:16:48 > 0:16:51Nowadays, we sometimes think of a landscape like this
0:16:51 > 0:16:53as a mass of rock and soil,
0:16:53 > 0:16:58which exists independently of an observer's eye.
0:16:58 > 0:17:03But landscapes are also given character by human concepts
0:17:03 > 0:17:06and in antiquity, they inspired myths.
0:17:06 > 0:17:08When Euboeans arrived here,
0:17:08 > 0:17:13they needed to understand the elemental power of the mountain peak,
0:17:13 > 0:17:19and they found that near-Eastern cultures already could explain it.
0:17:19 > 0:17:23For more than 1,000 years, long before any Euboean Greeks
0:17:23 > 0:17:29settled below, this mountain peak was the centre for prayers,
0:17:29 > 0:17:32hymns, and animal sacrifices.
0:17:34 > 0:17:38Mount Casius was a holy mountain for the Hittites.
0:17:41 > 0:17:46The Hittites old empire had fallen around 1200 BC,
0:17:46 > 0:17:50four centuries before Euboeans settled here.
0:17:51 > 0:17:56At its peak, it had ruled over a vast swathe of land,
0:17:56 > 0:17:59from modern Turkey right into Syria,
0:17:59 > 0:18:03and its cultural influence had survived the empire's fall.
0:18:05 > 0:18:11When Euboeans arrived, that influence was still present in local myths and religion.
0:18:18 > 0:18:21On the summit of this mountain,
0:18:21 > 0:18:24the Hittites believed lived the god Teshub,
0:18:24 > 0:18:27whom they later called Tarhunta the Conqueror.
0:18:27 > 0:18:30He was a god of weather and of storms and thunder,
0:18:30 > 0:18:34and when the rain clouds break on this mountain,
0:18:34 > 0:18:39everyone for miles around is only too aware of his power.
0:18:39 > 0:18:42Religious ceremonies were offered to the mountain too
0:18:42 > 0:18:45and we've recently learned something very important.
0:18:45 > 0:18:48From fragmentary Hittite tablets,
0:18:48 > 0:18:53we know that the ceremonies included the Song of Kingship,
0:18:53 > 0:18:55and the Song of the Sea.
0:18:55 > 0:19:00This is crucial because they are the stories we know from other Hittite texts
0:19:00 > 0:19:05about the many battles and fights of the Hittite gods
0:19:05 > 0:19:06for control in heaven.
0:19:10 > 0:19:17Most remarkably, these Hittite myths share many details with the Greek myths
0:19:17 > 0:19:20of how their ruling gods came to power.
0:19:20 > 0:19:25The myths are so similar - did the Hittite one influence the Greeks?
0:19:27 > 0:19:29To answer this question,
0:19:29 > 0:19:32I need first to travel northwards
0:19:32 > 0:19:35to the ancient centre of Hittite power.
0:19:52 > 0:19:55Down this 71-metre tunnel
0:19:55 > 0:19:59lies a spectacular sight from the pre-classical world.
0:20:06 > 0:20:11This is Hattusas. Its remains cover an astonishing area.
0:20:11 > 0:20:13It was the capital of the Hittite kings
0:20:13 > 0:20:18until their empire fell more than 3,000 years ago.
0:20:24 > 0:20:29These scattered limestone foundations can only hint at the city's true grandeur.
0:20:34 > 0:20:39The Hittite Empire was so mighty at its peak that down in the south
0:20:39 > 0:20:44even the Egyptian pharaoh was forced to retreat before its army.
0:20:52 > 0:20:57The kings of Hattusas honoured their gods at a shrine created out of a natural ravine.
0:21:03 > 0:21:08Along its walls run carved reliefs which show the gods in procession
0:21:08 > 0:21:14and at the centre, the Hittite weather god Tarhunta.
0:21:14 > 0:21:19He's visible here in outline, though nowadays the carving is rather faint.
0:21:19 > 0:21:21He's holding out his hand to Hepat,
0:21:21 > 0:21:26a goddess who's come up from Syria and is standing on a panther.
0:21:26 > 0:21:32He himself is standing on these two bended figures who symbolise mountains.
0:21:32 > 0:21:37This is one mountain and this one is Mount Hazzi.
0:21:37 > 0:21:38That is really very neat.
0:21:38 > 0:21:42Mount Hazzi is exactly Mount Casius of the Greeks.
0:21:42 > 0:21:47And the other one is the second peak on Mount Hazzi's ridge.
0:21:47 > 0:21:51The importance of that mountain in Hittite religion could hardly be clearer.
0:21:53 > 0:21:59The song of Tarhunta's rise to power performed on that very mountain
0:21:59 > 0:22:04is known to us from texts found here in Hattusas.
0:22:08 > 0:22:14From them we learn that Tarhunta was not the first king of the Hittite gods.
0:22:16 > 0:22:20He overthrew his own father Kumarbi,
0:22:20 > 0:22:23and Kumarbi himself had usurped the kingship
0:22:23 > 0:22:28from the older god Anu in a myth with a gruesome climax.
0:22:28 > 0:22:30As Anu was losing the battle,
0:22:30 > 0:22:32he flew up to heaven but Kumarbi caught him
0:22:32 > 0:22:36and sank his teeth in Anu's sexual parts, bit them off,
0:22:36 > 0:22:39and swallowed a mouthful of sperm.
0:22:39 > 0:22:43In defeat, Anu warned him that he'd now become pregnant,
0:22:43 > 0:22:48and sure enough Kumarbi conceived a son -
0:22:48 > 0:22:50the storm god Tarhunta.
0:22:52 > 0:22:56So back here in the shadow of Mount Casius,
0:22:56 > 0:22:59the actual scene of those heavenly battles,
0:22:59 > 0:23:03it's no wonder that Euboeans nearby were impressed
0:23:03 > 0:23:08by the ancient Hittite stories of kingship and castration.
0:23:08 > 0:23:13As always, myths were never fixed, they evolved and mutated.
0:23:13 > 0:23:18So Euboeans adapted what they heard, and worked its bloody details
0:23:18 > 0:23:23into what they already suspected of their own early gods.
0:23:24 > 0:23:26The Greek myths tell
0:23:26 > 0:23:28how deep darkness would fall at night
0:23:28 > 0:23:31near the beginning of the world.
0:23:31 > 0:23:36Father Heaven would come down and stretch himself out above the goddess Mother Earth,
0:23:36 > 0:23:40thrust into her and have sex with her so tightly
0:23:40 > 0:23:43that no light could come between the pair.
0:23:43 > 0:23:48After a while, Mother Earth could bear it no longer, she called together her sons
0:23:48 > 0:23:54and asked for a volunteer and young Kronos agreed to go and hide.
0:23:54 > 0:23:58The next night came, Father Heaven approached,
0:23:58 > 0:24:01lay on top of Mother Earth, thrust into her
0:24:01 > 0:24:05and out from behind the bushes came young Kronos,
0:24:05 > 0:24:11armed with a curved sickle with sharp teeth made of adamantine metal.
0:24:11 > 0:24:15And with one sweep, a right-handed sweep we're told,
0:24:15 > 0:24:18he mowed off his father's private parts.
0:24:18 > 0:24:22In agony, Heaven flew up to the sky, light then dawned between them.
0:24:22 > 0:24:25The private parts, they were enormous, fell,
0:24:25 > 0:24:28full of blood and sperm, through the air
0:24:28 > 0:24:31and the sickle, dripping with blood, was thrown away.
0:24:36 > 0:24:43The parallels between the Greek and Hittite stories of castration are obvious.
0:24:43 > 0:24:49In due course, Greeks even located their version of the event here on Mount Casius.
0:24:49 > 0:24:54The mountain was therefore a place of such pagan power.
0:24:56 > 0:25:01Indeed it was so potent that even much later Christians believed
0:25:01 > 0:25:04they needed a way of counteracting it.
0:25:04 > 0:25:10This 6th-century church complex is a witness to their concern.
0:25:10 > 0:25:16At its centre stood literally a Christian storm trooper -
0:25:16 > 0:25:19St Simeon Stylites the Younger.
0:25:28 > 0:25:32St Simeon perched on a 50-foot high pillar.
0:25:32 > 0:25:37Only its base survives, and during 32 years,
0:25:37 > 0:25:39he never came off it.
0:25:39 > 0:25:45Around him clustered pilgrims who would sit and gaze upwards in awe.
0:25:45 > 0:25:48These are the really special seats for the VIPs.
0:25:48 > 0:25:51Even the Roman emperor consulted the saint,
0:25:51 > 0:25:52but on a few days,
0:25:52 > 0:25:57ordinary questioners could sometimes send written requests up to him.
0:25:57 > 0:26:01And they would bring them to the bottom of this stone staircase
0:26:01 > 0:26:04and they would climb, as I am,
0:26:04 > 0:26:06and give them to his attendant,
0:26:06 > 0:26:11who would then take them up a wooden ladder for the saint's blessing at the top.
0:26:11 > 0:26:16And I think we see why he stood particularly here at such a height.
0:26:16 > 0:26:19He is facing directly across to the pagan gods
0:26:19 > 0:26:22who swarmed on Mount Casius,
0:26:22 > 0:26:27and he's there as a Christian challenge, fighting with them - in his view, demons.
0:26:29 > 0:26:33These demons were the gods whom Euboean settlers had honoured long before
0:26:33 > 0:26:36in the myths of this very mountain,
0:26:36 > 0:26:40the place where the gods had established their rule.
0:26:40 > 0:26:42They knew the myths orally,
0:26:42 > 0:26:46especially from local women with whom they lived.
0:26:46 > 0:26:50They did not read them from Hittite texts.
0:26:50 > 0:26:54They took those stories fresh in their mind across the seas
0:26:54 > 0:26:57to the lands of the Greeks and beyond.
0:27:05 > 0:27:11When Euboeans travelled on their boats to and from Al Mina and along its coastline,
0:27:11 > 0:27:13they journeyed by island hopping.
0:27:13 > 0:27:18The nearest island to Al Mina is hardly 80 kilometres away.
0:27:18 > 0:27:20In the 10th to 8th centuries BC,
0:27:20 > 0:27:26it was a place of differing kingdoms and a varied population,
0:27:26 > 0:27:29a place where many cultures came together
0:27:29 > 0:27:34and myths floated across the sea - the island of Cyprus.
0:27:40 > 0:27:44One of the most important ancient stopovers on the island
0:27:44 > 0:27:50was the coastal settlement of Amathus near modern Limassol.
0:27:50 > 0:27:55At Amathus, I believe, an important encounter occurred for the Europeans.
0:27:55 > 0:28:01The result of it eventually allowed Greeks to record their myths for posterity.
0:28:04 > 0:28:10In recently excavated graves here, Euboean pottery was found buried
0:28:10 > 0:28:15alongside objects belonging to Phoenicians.
0:28:15 > 0:28:18The Phoenicians were a Near-Eastern people
0:28:18 > 0:28:23and unlike mainland Greeks at this time, they were literate.
0:28:25 > 0:28:30I think it was possibly here that a really important lesson was learnt.
0:28:30 > 0:28:36Somewhere, one day, an inquisitive Euboean sat with a Phoenician
0:28:36 > 0:28:41and looked and listened while the Phoenician wrote out the letters of his script
0:28:41 > 0:28:43and described them.
0:28:43 > 0:28:49And the Greek adapted them and copied them down as letters still in use in the modern Greek alphabet,
0:28:49 > 0:28:54alpha, beta, gamma - exactly the order which we know
0:28:54 > 0:28:59Phoenicians used for their own letters aleph, beit, gimmel.
0:28:59 > 0:29:04The Greek thought he needed signs for the vowel sounds he was hearing so he added them,
0:29:04 > 0:29:11epsilon, iota, and so forth, making the fullest alphabet the one which is most easy to read.
0:29:11 > 0:29:18And it's that Greek alphabet that is the ancestor of all the alphabets we still use in the modern West.
0:29:22 > 0:29:30As the alphabet developed, myths could eventually become more fixed as they were written down.
0:29:30 > 0:29:36But during the Greek Dark Ages, they were still told orally and open to influence.
0:29:36 > 0:29:40On Cyprus, we can follow this happening
0:29:40 > 0:29:44to the story of a local fertility goddess.
0:29:44 > 0:29:51Like other visitors to Amathus, Euboeans encountered her shrine.
0:29:51 > 0:29:55Her worship here dates as far back as the 2000s BC.
0:29:55 > 0:30:00Through contact with visitors from the near East,
0:30:00 > 0:30:04she then took on a wilder sexual identity,
0:30:04 > 0:30:09and then when the Greeks arrived, she became Aphrodite.
0:30:11 > 0:30:13Jacqueline Kariorgis
0:30:13 > 0:30:18has spent her whole life studying the transformations of the goddess of love.
0:30:33 > 0:30:36So the goddess of love and sex is in fact, for the Greeks,
0:30:36 > 0:30:38an introduction in the early Dark Ages.
0:30:51 > 0:30:56You're making this Greek Aphrodite sound as though she lived in Paris! She's sexy and all the rest of it,
0:30:56 > 0:30:58but, Jacqueline, there are said to have been
0:30:58 > 0:31:01prostitutes here serving the cult of the goddess,
0:31:01 > 0:31:04at least by Christian sources. Do you believe that?
0:31:16 > 0:31:18And they kept the money as their dowry?
0:31:24 > 0:31:26But nowadays their fathers build them a house.
0:31:29 > 0:31:34To the west of Amathus is another place now associated with Aphrodite.
0:31:34 > 0:31:40It is known as the Rock of Aphrodite and the local story is that if you
0:31:40 > 0:31:46swim all the way round this rock, you are blessed with eternal beauty.
0:31:48 > 0:31:56The beach alongside is now considered the location of Aphrodite's literal emergence.
0:31:57 > 0:32:02Of course, the story of Aphrodite is connected to much grander stories in heaven, Jacqueline.
0:32:02 > 0:32:08When Father Heaven is castrated, of course, blood and white sperm flies everywhere
0:32:08 > 0:32:12and according to the Greeks, when the sperm falls down into the sea,
0:32:12 > 0:32:17somebody very significant was born from it - your goddess, Aphrodite.
0:32:17 > 0:32:19The Greeks, when they later thought about it,
0:32:19 > 0:32:25tried to connect that name Aphrodite with their own Greek word, aphros,
0:32:25 > 0:32:28meaning foam or foaming white sperm.
0:32:28 > 0:32:31Do think there was any historical truth in that?
0:32:37 > 0:32:39Like a wordplay?
0:32:41 > 0:32:43That was a pretty good way to be born.
0:32:43 > 0:32:48But there is a local story that when she was born, she was washed to this very beach.
0:32:48 > 0:32:52This is what the Cyprus Tourist Board still tells you nowadays, Jacqueline.
0:32:52 > 0:32:54Do think there's any history in that?
0:33:18 > 0:33:20When is the first link, do you think?
0:33:23 > 0:33:26Well, it shows beautifully how what will be a myth, I am sure,
0:33:26 > 0:33:29continued in modern Cyprus, begins and starts
0:33:29 > 0:33:33from a beautiful landscape, and then acquires a force of its own
0:33:33 > 0:33:35exactly as it did in the ancient world.
0:33:35 > 0:33:37This is how myths are made.
0:33:50 > 0:33:55The vision of Aphrodite emerging from the sea is so compelling
0:33:55 > 0:33:58that it has inspired great artists through the centuries.
0:33:58 > 0:34:03The most famous image is by the Renaissance master, Botticelli,
0:34:03 > 0:34:07Aphrodite being blown ashore in a shower of roses.
0:34:07 > 0:34:11She seems far removed from Heaven's castration.
0:34:11 > 0:34:15Without that act, though, she would never have been born,
0:34:15 > 0:34:18adult, erotic, and dangerously desirable.
0:34:23 > 0:34:26Here in Cyprus, the myths were being re-imagined
0:34:26 > 0:34:29under the constant influence of new ideas.
0:34:32 > 0:34:36The goddess had been worshipped for millennia beforehand
0:34:36 > 0:34:43but her waterborne origin became a new, then an accepted, detail.
0:34:43 > 0:34:48This same adaptability is at work when our myths of kingship in heaven
0:34:48 > 0:34:51reach another nearby island, Crete.
0:34:53 > 0:34:58The myth I've come to find continues the story of the god Kronos
0:34:58 > 0:35:01after he'd castrated his father, Heaven.
0:35:03 > 0:35:09In the story, Kronos would in turn be overthrown by his own son, Zeus,
0:35:09 > 0:35:14and Crete is where Zeus was raised to his destiny.
0:35:24 > 0:35:26Every year on the 12th of September,
0:35:26 > 0:35:30on the summit of the highest mountain in Crete,
0:35:30 > 0:35:35Mount Ida, local shepherds gather for a religious ceremony.
0:35:41 > 0:35:47It's a difficult ascent for the pilgrims, as the mountain rises 3,500 metres.
0:35:47 > 0:35:53The winds on its upper slopes, as I found out, are fearsome and freezing.
0:36:00 > 0:36:06At the summit, villagers maintain a simple windowless church.
0:36:06 > 0:36:11Like Mount Casius in Turkey, this Cretan mountain peak
0:36:11 > 0:36:16has seen a long continuity of worship, from pagan to Christian.
0:36:16 > 0:36:18HE CHANTS IN HIS LANGUAGE
0:36:28 > 0:36:33Nowadays, the priest reads a written liturgy and passages of scripture.
0:36:33 > 0:36:38He reminds worshippers that Christ died for their sins on a cross
0:36:38 > 0:36:42whose very fragments are said to be sheltered in this church.
0:36:46 > 0:36:50He calls on God to show mercy.
0:36:50 > 0:36:56The pagan Greeks had no scriptures. They had many gods who never died.
0:36:56 > 0:36:59They never expected mercy from them.
0:36:59 > 0:37:03They prayed to them as if they were great aristocrats in heaven,
0:37:03 > 0:37:08unpredictable in their favours to mortals and unpredictable in their quarrels.
0:37:08 > 0:37:15It's so moving that the mountain is still a sacred place for Cretan pilgrims.
0:37:19 > 0:37:24Long before Christ, Mount Ida was a sort of pagan Bethlehem
0:37:24 > 0:37:30because of its role in the myth of the Greeks' supreme god, Zeus.
0:37:37 > 0:37:40That myth begins with Zeus' father, Kronos,
0:37:40 > 0:37:44who had castrated his own father, Heaven.
0:37:44 > 0:37:48But it was prophesied that Kronos himself would be
0:37:48 > 0:37:53overthrown by a son, so he swallowed his babies at birth.
0:37:56 > 0:37:58It is this nightmare image
0:37:58 > 0:38:02which the 19th century Spanish master, Goya,
0:38:02 > 0:38:04shows in this painting.
0:38:06 > 0:38:10But when Kronos' wife, Rhea, bore yet another son,
0:38:10 > 0:38:15she handed Kronos a rock wrapped in swaddling clothes.
0:38:15 > 0:38:18He was tricked and swallowed it instead of the baby...
0:38:20 > 0:38:24..and the baby Zeus was flown away to Crete
0:38:24 > 0:38:26to Mount Ida.
0:38:28 > 0:38:32The Greek story is remarkably like that old Hittite story
0:38:32 > 0:38:35of the struggles of their gods and the succession in heaven.
0:38:35 > 0:38:39Kumarbi, the surviving god, had taken a huge bite
0:38:39 > 0:38:45out of Heaven's private parts, swallowed it, sperm, DNA, and all,
0:38:45 > 0:38:49and wondrously, inside his stomach it mixes together, we are told,
0:38:49 > 0:38:53like the metals that make bronze, and he finds he's pregnant.
0:38:53 > 0:38:59In due course, he expels or excretes in some way his firstborn son.
0:38:59 > 0:39:04And then we can follow tattered texts that amazingly say,
0:39:04 > 0:39:09"I will eat my son, I will crush him, Tarhunta."
0:39:09 > 0:39:15Instead, he's given a very sharp rock on which he bites and in agony,
0:39:15 > 0:39:20throws the rock away where it is to become an item of cult forever.
0:39:22 > 0:39:30Like his Hittite counterpart, Tarhunta, the young Zeus, too, would eventually defeat his father.
0:39:30 > 0:39:35But first he had to be raised secretly to maturity.
0:39:39 > 0:39:44The myth tells how the baby Zeus was hidden in a cave, this one,
0:39:44 > 0:39:49I believe, about 1,000 metres below the summit of Mount Ida.
0:39:53 > 0:39:58During the Greek Dark Ages, Euboeans were among many pilgrims who came here.
0:40:02 > 0:40:06The cave had had a long sacred history.
0:40:06 > 0:40:10People of Crete had been worshipping here for at least 1,000 years
0:40:10 > 0:40:14before it became associated with stories of Zeus.
0:40:21 > 0:40:27Nobody yet knows how deep this cave is, the nursery of Zeus, or how far back it runs.
0:40:27 > 0:40:30It's been excavated and the covers have concealed
0:40:30 > 0:40:34what was recently found, but it's still never been fully excavated.
0:40:39 > 0:40:45Before Zeus, this cave was sacred to a young Cretan fertility god,
0:40:45 > 0:40:46invoked as Kouros.
0:40:46 > 0:40:49His worshippers, the Kourites,
0:40:49 > 0:40:53would honour him by dancing and clashing shields in the cave.
0:40:56 > 0:41:01By the 8th century BC, this Kouros had had been merged with Zeus,
0:41:01 > 0:41:08so the noisy ritual worship had to be brought into the myth of the baby Zeus, too.
0:41:10 > 0:41:16The dancing is explained as the Kourites attempt to make the baby inaudible
0:41:16 > 0:41:18so that Kronos wouldn't realise his abusive father.
0:41:18 > 0:41:22Well, of course you can see there is a slight inconsistency.
0:41:22 > 0:41:25They're trying to hide the baby deep in this cave
0:41:25 > 0:41:27and at the same time, they're making a noise that
0:41:27 > 0:41:30you would think would alert anyone to his presence,
0:41:30 > 0:41:32but that is the way the story grew and developed.
0:41:33 > 0:41:40Like the goddess Aphrodite of Cyprus, the early god of the Cretans, Kouros-Zeus,
0:41:40 > 0:41:47was evolving and adapting to the multicultural exchanges of the time.
0:41:47 > 0:41:51The myths go on to tell how, when Zeus had reached manhood,
0:41:51 > 0:41:55he emerged from his cave and defeated his father.
0:41:57 > 0:42:03But first, father Kronos had been forced to vomit up all his children
0:42:03 > 0:42:06and the very stone that had replaced Zeus.
0:42:17 > 0:42:19This myth was to become central
0:42:19 > 0:42:23at the most famous sanctuary in antiquity,
0:42:23 > 0:42:28one in which a sea voyage was also to play a major role.
0:42:33 > 0:42:37To understand how, we have to turn to a hymn
0:42:37 > 0:42:41in honour of one of Zeus' many children -
0:42:41 > 0:42:45Apollo, god of the light and the sun, poetry and prophecy.
0:42:45 > 0:42:52In fine hexameter verses, the poet describes how Apollo chose his first priests.
0:42:54 > 0:42:59On the wine dark sea, he tells us, the god spied a swift, dark ship
0:42:59 > 0:43:05with a crew of travelling Cretans who were going on business to sandy Pylos.
0:43:05 > 0:43:08Miraculously, the god jumped in
0:43:08 > 0:43:14in the shape of a large and fearsome dolphin, and redirected the ship.
0:43:15 > 0:43:19He prevented it from landing at Pylos, and guided it
0:43:19 > 0:43:24along the Gulf of Corinth to Krisa, near modern Itea.
0:43:31 > 0:43:36Apollo then revealed himself to the terrified Cretans and told them
0:43:36 > 0:43:40to follow him up Mount Parnassus to a site on its flank,
0:43:40 > 0:43:43where he would found a rich temple.
0:43:47 > 0:43:52Today, their route takes us through the finest olive grove in Greece,
0:43:52 > 0:43:54up a winding mountain road.
0:43:57 > 0:44:01When the Cretans arrived at their destination, their hearts,
0:44:01 > 0:44:04the hymn tells us, were stirred within them.
0:44:28 > 0:44:30In the early morning light,
0:44:30 > 0:44:35Delphi remains one of the most magical places in the world.
0:44:35 > 0:44:41Apollo's first shrine here dates from the Greek Dark Ages,
0:44:41 > 0:44:46probably from around 825 BC.
0:44:46 > 0:44:52At Delphi, a prophetess would predict the future as an Oracle.
0:44:52 > 0:44:58Her prophecies were made here at the Temple of Apollo itself.
0:44:58 > 0:45:03In response to petitioner's questions, she would enter a trance
0:45:03 > 0:45:07and her garbled words were later translated
0:45:07 > 0:45:10into elegant hexameter verse.
0:45:10 > 0:45:13But the ambiguity of her predictions
0:45:13 > 0:45:16sometimes lead to unexpected outcomes.
0:45:16 > 0:45:20The most famous example? It has to be Croesus,
0:45:20 > 0:45:22the richest man in the world,
0:45:22 > 0:45:26the King of Lydia who was planning in Asia to invade eastwards.
0:45:26 > 0:45:30So famous was Delphi that he already sent messengers
0:45:30 > 0:45:34to ask the Greek god Apollo whether he would succeed.
0:45:34 > 0:45:37And the prophetess gave the answer,
0:45:37 > 0:45:42"If you cross the river, you will destroy a great empire."
0:45:42 > 0:45:47So Croesus did invade, crossed the river, and yes,
0:45:47 > 0:45:49he destroyed a great empire.
0:45:49 > 0:45:52But the empire was his own.
0:45:53 > 0:45:56Today, Delphi is still a place of great pilgrimage.
0:45:56 > 0:45:59Hundreds of thousands of visitors every year
0:45:59 > 0:46:07wind up the sacred way, past the remains of the great Treasuries, once full of gifts to the temple.
0:46:08 > 0:46:11INAUDIBLE
0:46:18 > 0:46:22For me, all the treasures they contained
0:46:22 > 0:46:27pale beside one ordinary looking object now lost to us.
0:46:27 > 0:46:33It's an object that had been set up at Delphi as a sign and wonder to the future...
0:46:35 > 0:46:42..the very stone that Kronos had swallowed believing it to be his son, Zeus.
0:46:42 > 0:46:47And it would've been seen by our 8th century Euboeans, for they'd come
0:46:47 > 0:46:53then seeking the Oracle's advice on their settlements abroad.
0:46:53 > 0:46:58That wondrous stone at Delphi is the West's first holy relic.
0:46:58 > 0:47:01It fitted beautifully with the Euboeans' insights
0:47:01 > 0:47:04into the origins and battles of the gods,
0:47:04 > 0:47:10gathered in their travels around Al Mina, Cyprus, and Crete.
0:47:10 > 0:47:13And among the other pilgrims who'd marvelled at it
0:47:13 > 0:47:18in the late 8th century was the poet, Hesiod.
0:47:18 > 0:47:22It's Hesiod's poem, the Theogony, or the Generation of the Gods,
0:47:22 > 0:47:25which is our fullest early Greek source
0:47:25 > 0:47:28for the stories of the struggles in heaven,
0:47:28 > 0:47:32the struggles of heaven and earth, Kronos and the emergence of Zeus.
0:47:32 > 0:47:37He knew them, surely, after confirming them and elaborating them with the priests here.
0:47:37 > 0:47:39He was not a widely travelled man.
0:47:39 > 0:47:44Apart from travelling here, he made one other journey further afield.
0:47:44 > 0:47:48He took his poem off to perform it at a competition.
0:48:03 > 0:48:09To reach his competition, Hesiod risked this very sea crossing.
0:48:09 > 0:48:16He went to compete at the funeral games of the fallen warrior, Amphidamas.
0:48:16 > 0:48:19Better still, he even won the prize for poetry.
0:48:22 > 0:48:27Now, it's a fair guess that the poem with which he won
0:48:27 > 0:48:31was nothing less than his Theogony, the Generation of the Gods.
0:48:37 > 0:48:42The site of the competition may help us understand why he won.
0:48:42 > 0:48:46Amphidamas' funerary games were held in Euboea,
0:48:46 > 0:48:52so Hesiod sang before Euboean judges the very stories which featured
0:48:52 > 0:48:56in the Euboeans' own discoveries about the battles of the gods.
0:48:56 > 0:49:01No wonder he met an appreciative audience here and won the prize.
0:49:03 > 0:49:07When Hesiod came to Euboea in the late 8th century,
0:49:07 > 0:49:11Lefkandi had been eclipsed by the nearby settlement of Eretria.
0:49:15 > 0:49:19Here in the storerooms of the Eretria Museum,
0:49:19 > 0:49:26the shelves are crammed with boxes full of objects excavated here by the Swiss School of Archaeology.
0:49:26 > 0:49:31They have given us a clearer picture of the lives of our Euboean travellers,
0:49:31 > 0:49:37and the Greek culture into which the myths we've traced were born.
0:49:37 > 0:49:41OK, Robin, I wanted to show you here two shards with the graffiti.
0:49:41 > 0:49:43- Early writing. - Writing, early writing.
0:49:43 > 0:49:46They were found in the sanctuary of Apollo.
0:49:46 > 0:49:49The first one is dated from the end of the 9th century,
0:49:49 > 0:49:50early 8th century.
0:49:50 > 0:49:53We can see four letters.
0:49:53 > 0:49:54Well, they're not Greek.
0:49:54 > 0:49:57- I can't understand them. What are they?- They are Semitic.
0:49:57 > 0:50:00Good heavens. So this is at the turning point
0:50:00 > 0:50:02when some near Easterner has either
0:50:02 > 0:50:04taught a Euboean to write,
0:50:04 > 0:50:09or the Euboean is copying what he's learned perhaps in the near East?
0:50:09 > 0:50:12Absolutely, but it was carved on an Euboean pot.
0:50:12 > 0:50:14This is a typical Euboean drinking cup.
0:50:14 > 0:50:17We are right at the start of the origin of writing.
0:50:17 > 0:50:19How extraordinary. Yes.
0:50:19 > 0:50:24And at the end of the series, we have again a graffito carved on
0:50:24 > 0:50:28a local pot, Euboean, with another four letters.
0:50:28 > 0:50:33- I think I can read it. It's Hera... - Hera.- Yes. Four Greek letters.
0:50:33 > 0:50:36So what we have is a real moment of transition.
0:50:36 > 0:50:39We have somebody trying to write Greek in a non-Greek alphabet,
0:50:39 > 0:50:43and then we have Greek written in the real Greek alphabet.
0:50:43 > 0:50:48This is an enormously important change. This is really at the root of all Western civilisation.
0:50:48 > 0:50:53The Greek alphabet and we have the Roman alphabet, the Etruscan alphabet, our alphabets.
0:50:53 > 0:50:56If they couldn't write, we wouldn't know anything about them.
0:50:56 > 0:50:57If they couldn't write down Homer,
0:50:57 > 0:50:59we wouldn't be able to read his poems.
0:50:59 > 0:51:01We wouldn't know anything about Hesiod.
0:51:01 > 0:51:04This is a real change for people and we're witnessing it
0:51:04 > 0:51:07in the palm of your hand. Incredible.
0:51:07 > 0:51:11- Now, I want to show you the neck of an amphora.- Euboean women, wonderful.
0:51:11 > 0:51:13- Look, they're dancing. - Yes, or it's a procession.
0:51:13 > 0:51:18And they are holding garlands, it looks like, and these very trendy skirts.
0:51:18 > 0:51:21They've had to breathe in for the painter anyway.
0:51:21 > 0:51:25Tight waists, long skirts, 8th century BC fashion, wonderful.
0:51:25 > 0:51:28Now, this was found in the west quarter near Eretria.
0:51:28 > 0:51:34It's a very important find and it's a monumental amphora.
0:51:34 > 0:51:37- Which stood then buy a grave, would that be right?- Exactly.
0:51:37 > 0:51:39And I can see a chariot.
0:51:39 > 0:51:44It's a sort of chariot race or on this bit, there's somebody...
0:51:44 > 0:51:47Oh, they're trying to jump off and on the back of the chariot.
0:51:47 > 0:51:51- The apobates.- Yes, this is a sort of Greek game they play where the skill
0:51:51 > 0:51:54is to jump onto a chariot when it's moving and jump off the back of it.
0:51:54 > 0:51:57- Probably during funerary games. - Fantastic.
0:52:11 > 0:52:14In the Greek Dark Ages, Euboeans were not only renowned
0:52:14 > 0:52:20for their horsemanship. Their soil was fertile, especially for the cultivation of grapes.
0:52:32 > 0:52:36During the grape harvest nowadays, families traditionally gather
0:52:36 > 0:52:41at the end of work to eat and of course to drink.
0:52:43 > 0:52:48And to swap stories as their Euboean predecessors also did.
0:52:53 > 0:52:58We can imagine Euboean travellers, perhaps fresh from a journey out to Al Mina,
0:52:58 > 0:53:02full of stories of those castrated gods and waterborne goddesses.
0:53:02 > 0:53:10And the wine made here was an important item in the trade that had sent them sailing eastwards.
0:53:16 > 0:53:21The ground, the soil, is the best here in Euboea for wine?
0:53:21 > 0:53:24Yes, it's very good ground
0:53:24 > 0:53:29- because here...- It's rich. - It's rich, yes, very rich.
0:53:29 > 0:53:33You live the year of the poet Hesiodos.
0:53:33 > 0:53:41Hesiod tells us we pick the grapes in mid-September, like you, and in mid July
0:53:41 > 0:53:43we cut the corn.
0:53:43 > 0:53:48When the goats are very fat, the wine is very good
0:53:48 > 0:53:51and the women are very sexy,
0:53:51 > 0:53:55but the poor men are exhausted, not by the women but by the heat.
0:53:55 > 0:53:58THEY LAUGH
0:54:03 > 0:54:10Hesiod's great poetic legacy is not only his account of the tribulations of the farming life.
0:54:10 > 0:54:15He was, above all, a poet of battles in heaven.
0:54:17 > 0:54:22His Theogony doesn't end with Zeus' victory over his father.
0:54:22 > 0:54:27Hesiod tells us that Zeus' rule in turn is challenged.
0:54:27 > 0:54:33Mother Earth, to avenge her son Kronos, raises up a vast snaky monster, Typhon.
0:54:36 > 0:54:43When Hesiod performed his prize poem, its first verses, about Typhon, I believe,
0:54:43 > 0:54:47will particularly have caught his Euboean audience's attention.
0:54:47 > 0:54:52They may even have given him more details after the performance,
0:54:52 > 0:54:57for there were Euboeans there who knew so much more than Hesiod about Typhon.
0:54:57 > 0:55:03They had tracked him, they believed, from one end of the Mediterranean right across to the other.
0:55:05 > 0:55:09I even believe that the Euboeans bigger picture of Typhon
0:55:09 > 0:55:15may have been incorporated later by Hesiod into his Theogony,
0:55:15 > 0:55:20so I've returned to Mount Casius in modern Turkey on those Euboeans' trail
0:55:20 > 0:55:25to discover the roots of their great knowledge about the monster.
0:55:26 > 0:55:32In the 8th century BC, when Euboeans journeyed across the sea to settle in Al Mina
0:55:32 > 0:55:34in the shadow of Mount Casius,
0:55:34 > 0:55:39they settled where near Eastern myths swirled around them.
0:55:40 > 0:55:45Just as they'd adapted the story of Father Heaven's castration by Kronos,
0:55:45 > 0:55:51so they adopted another Hittite story heard on this very mountain,
0:55:51 > 0:55:54the story that gave them details of the myth of Zeus
0:55:54 > 0:55:56and his battles against Typhon.
0:55:58 > 0:56:03Here they learned how the power struggles of the Hittite gods
0:56:03 > 0:56:08had not ended with the defeat of Kumarbi by his son, Tarhunta.
0:56:10 > 0:56:15In revenge, Kumarbi raised up a series of monsters,
0:56:15 > 0:56:18including the serpent monster, Hedammu.
0:56:18 > 0:56:25The story of Hedammu has recently been pieced together from fragmentary Hittite tablets.
0:56:25 > 0:56:30But we also now know that it was part of the ancient song of kingship
0:56:30 > 0:56:35sung by choirs on the very slopes of this mountain.
0:56:41 > 0:56:46And here is the king of Hittite gods himself, Tarhunta,
0:56:46 > 0:56:53the storm god who fought a snake monster just like his Greek counterpart, Zeus.
0:56:53 > 0:56:59Around the bay from Mount Casius in this ruined fortress of Karatepe,
0:56:59 > 0:57:02his statue still stands.
0:57:05 > 0:57:08As the worn inscription on it reveals,
0:57:08 > 0:57:13in the 9th and 8th century BC, the end of the Greek Dark Ages,
0:57:13 > 0:57:19the House of Muksas ruled this region, what we know as Cilicia.
0:57:24 > 0:57:29The kingdom was one of several which had succeeded the Hittite Empire.
0:57:31 > 0:57:38We know that these neo-Hittites maintained some of the older empire's gods and traditions.
0:57:40 > 0:57:46And it was through them that Euboeans heard the story of the Hittite snake monster.
0:57:46 > 0:57:51We are even able to locate the creature's mythical lair,
0:57:51 > 0:57:55a place that became the home of their Typhon, too.
0:57:59 > 0:58:02The coastal kingdom of the House of Muksas
0:58:02 > 0:58:06included ravines to the southwest of Karatepe.
0:58:06 > 0:58:11Turks now call them the Caves of Heaven and Hell.
0:58:12 > 0:58:16This fearsome abyss has been hollowed out over thousands of years
0:58:16 > 0:58:21by the rivers, and it drops straight down for hundreds of feet.
0:58:25 > 0:58:28It still known in Turkish as jehenem,
0:58:28 > 0:58:33that's gehenna or hell in Muslim and Christian tradition.
0:58:33 > 0:58:37And it really would be hell now to try to get to the bottom.
0:58:41 > 0:58:45Fortunately, Heaven doesn't require a climbing rope.
0:58:45 > 0:58:48It's a few hundred metres from Hell,
0:58:48 > 0:58:51where stairs lead down into the ravine.
0:58:53 > 0:58:57In ancient times, saffron crocuses grew here,
0:58:57 > 0:59:01objects of cult for the ancient Hittites.
0:59:03 > 0:59:06Modern Turks named this place cennet, Heaven.
0:59:08 > 0:59:12But beyond Heaven is the underground lair of a monster.
0:59:21 > 0:59:26One of the stories we have of the Hittite snake monster is that
0:59:26 > 0:59:30at first, it defeated the storm god Tarhunta,
0:59:30 > 0:59:35then stole his eyes and heart, which it hid in a cave.
0:59:36 > 0:59:40In later Greek myth, Zeus, too, is defeated at first
0:59:40 > 0:59:43by the snaky monster - in Greek, Typhon -
0:59:43 > 0:59:46on Mount Casius itself, we are told.
0:59:46 > 0:59:51And Typhon cuts away the god's sinews using an adamantine sickle,
0:59:51 > 0:59:57wraps them up in a basket, and conceals them in his lair of the Corycian Cave.
0:59:57 > 1:00:01If we consider the story in its real context, we can understand for the
1:00:01 > 1:00:07first time how and when the story passed to the Greeks and then grew.
1:00:10 > 1:00:13Visible beyond the remains of this Christian church
1:00:13 > 1:00:16is the Corycian Cave of the Greek myth.
1:00:28 > 1:00:30At its mouth, there's actually an inscription
1:00:30 > 1:00:37which identifies it, although it dates from some 600 years after the Greek Dark Ages.
1:00:40 > 1:00:43To protect it from damage, it has been concealed
1:00:43 > 1:00:49and its location is known only to the cave's Turkish guardian.
1:00:50 > 1:00:53He's agreed to uncover it for me.
1:00:53 > 1:00:57I am the first scholar to see it in years.
1:00:57 > 1:01:00In 1896, an inscription was reported here.
1:01:00 > 1:01:03It's absolutely thrilling. We've managed to find it again.
1:01:03 > 1:01:07As far as I can see, beautifully cut Greek lettering.
1:01:07 > 1:01:10This really is the lifeblood of ancient history.
1:01:10 > 1:01:14This is what we rely on and we are finding it straight in front of us.
1:01:14 > 1:01:19And it looks as though it's lines of verse by one Eupaphis,
1:01:19 > 1:01:25who is in the dells of... and the cave...
1:01:25 > 1:01:28We'll have to wait till the lines are clearer.
1:01:31 > 1:01:33After a couple of hours of digging,
1:01:33 > 1:01:36all four lines of verse are revealed.
1:01:36 > 1:01:41Wary of going into the depths, Eupaphis wrote his verses
1:01:41 > 1:01:44and had them inscribed on this beautifully dressed stone.
1:01:47 > 1:01:50What he tells us is so important for fixing its context.
1:01:50 > 1:01:56He tells us, how I honoured and propitiated the gods Pan and Hermes.
1:01:56 > 1:02:01Now, that's immensely important because in the story, precisely Pan
1:02:01 > 1:02:05and Hermes are the gods who rescue the stolen sinews of Zeus.
1:02:05 > 1:02:09So this is the cave, certainly, where it happened.
1:02:09 > 1:02:12And he calls it, "En arimois",
1:02:12 > 1:02:16in Arima, a name which is going to be so important for our Greek travellers
1:02:16 > 1:02:21but which also ties up with the Hittite place name here -
1:02:21 > 1:02:26Erima on the map - and he describes how he entered the depths
1:02:26 > 1:02:32which are echoing with the sounds of the streams of a river.
1:02:32 > 1:02:36So when he was in the bottom, he heard the echoing noise of a river.
1:02:48 > 1:02:53The Arima cave is a quarter of a kilometre deep.
1:03:00 > 1:03:06As I descend, I well understand the dark demonic nature of this cave
1:03:06 > 1:03:08in the ancients' imagination.
1:03:10 > 1:03:15Arima was a continuing place of pilgrimage for Greeks
1:03:15 > 1:03:18and then Romans, a continuity, I believe,
1:03:18 > 1:03:23which goes right back to the age of the neo-Hittites and even earlier.
1:03:23 > 1:03:29And like those ancient pilgrims, at the bottom I find my way is blocked
1:03:29 > 1:03:34and beyond, the river does indeed echo.
1:03:34 > 1:03:37DISTANT GURGLING
1:03:37 > 1:03:43When I hear this sound of the river behind the rocks as it snakes its way down into the next world,
1:03:43 > 1:03:49I realise we have elements of immense religious significance for the ancient Hittites.
1:03:49 > 1:03:55Every year, the Hittite king would hold rites and a festival at the watery abysses
1:03:55 > 1:04:01throughout his kingdom to assure his control over the waters of the land.
1:04:01 > 1:04:07And here, the neo-Hittite king, centuries later, the sons of Muksas, had exactly the site
1:04:07 > 1:04:12at which to maintain those same rites and festivals that were part of the tradition.
1:04:12 > 1:04:14And it is through knowledge
1:04:14 > 1:04:18of the hymns and the stories told round the cave,
1:04:18 > 1:04:22that Euboean Greeks became aware of the snaky monster here
1:04:22 > 1:04:24whom they turned into Typhon.
1:04:37 > 1:04:44And at the mouth of the cave, visible proof of the continuing power of the myth.
1:04:44 > 1:04:48This church was built in the 5th century AD
1:04:48 > 1:04:53using the stones of an earlier pagan Greek temple dedicated to Zeus,
1:04:53 > 1:04:57and marking his battle against Typhon.
1:04:57 > 1:05:00By building a church in ancient Arima,
1:05:00 > 1:05:04the early Christians had a clear purpose.
1:05:04 > 1:05:08It is a fine tribute to the power of the pagan gods and monsters
1:05:08 > 1:05:10we've met in the cave behind.
1:05:10 > 1:05:15It sets straight across the opening of the Corycian Cave to cancel them out.
1:05:15 > 1:05:20A deliberate counterweight dedicated to the Virgin Mary.
1:05:20 > 1:05:23We should think of Christian pilgrims coming once a year
1:05:23 > 1:05:28all the way down to this very inaccessible place to celebrate the Christian liturgy,
1:05:28 > 1:05:33knowing that they were now safe from the demons, from Typhon,
1:05:33 > 1:05:36the terrible Typhon, in the cave behind.
1:05:36 > 1:05:40In the Greek myths, with his stolen body parts restored,
1:05:40 > 1:05:44Zeus hurled thunderbolts and lightning against the monster.
1:05:47 > 1:05:51It was believed that traces of his mythical fight
1:05:51 > 1:05:54could be found elsewhere in Cilicia.
1:05:54 > 1:05:58Just to the northeast of the caves, there's another huge ravine
1:05:58 > 1:06:04known nowadays as Kanlidivane, meaning, "The crazy place of blood."
1:06:08 > 1:06:10In the 3rd century AD,
1:06:10 > 1:06:16the Greek poet Opian served as a priest of the gods at the nearby Corycian Cave.
1:06:16 > 1:06:22And Opian tells us how Zeus took the monster Typhon and battered him all
1:06:22 > 1:06:26the length of the seashore, hitting his hundred heads against the rocks.
1:06:26 > 1:06:33And he goes on, "Even now the tawny banks and rocks run red with the blood from Typhon's heads."
1:06:33 > 1:06:38Standing here, I can see exactly what the local poet meant.
1:06:41 > 1:06:46The rock seems stained with conspicuous streaks of red,
1:06:46 > 1:06:49especially now as the light fades.
1:06:56 > 1:06:59From the 5th century AD onwards, the Christians
1:06:59 > 1:07:05built no less than four Basilica churches by the rim of this ravine.
1:07:06 > 1:07:11No text survives to explain this surge of new Christian building
1:07:11 > 1:07:14but pagan buildings had existed on this site.
1:07:21 > 1:07:24At this ravine, just as at the cave in Arima,
1:07:24 > 1:07:28the churches were built as a counterweight,
1:07:28 > 1:07:33designed to cancel the traces of Typhon's demonic blood,
1:07:33 > 1:07:37an old cult of Zeus at the ravine itself.
1:07:37 > 1:07:39Kanlidivane is stained with blood
1:07:39 > 1:07:44but it cannot be Typhon's last resting place. He was far too big.
1:07:44 > 1:07:48His head brushed the stars, his arms spread out across east and west,
1:07:48 > 1:07:53he had those hundred hissing heads. He needed somewhere far bigger.
1:07:53 > 1:07:57So where was he, then, Euboeans would have wondered.
1:07:57 > 1:08:02He had to have a resting place commensurate with his size, one which measured up
1:08:02 > 1:08:06to the great cosmic war with the great majesty of Zeus himself.
1:08:09 > 1:08:14On their travels, Euboeans were to find just such a place,
1:08:14 > 1:08:17away at the furthest edge of the Greek world.
1:08:34 > 1:08:39In the mid 8th century BC, the Euboeans founded settlements
1:08:39 > 1:08:43on the island of Sicily's eastern shore.
1:08:43 > 1:08:49And every day, dominating the view, was the great volcano, Mount Etna.
1:08:53 > 1:08:56This is an eerie, dangerous place.
1:08:56 > 1:09:01Climbers like me have to be accompanied by a guide.
1:09:04 > 1:09:08These fumes can choke unwary travellers and up here,
1:09:08 > 1:09:11the wind can change in an instant.
1:09:15 > 1:09:21How did early Greeks explain this extraordinary burnt landscape?
1:09:21 > 1:09:27By myth - the very myth Euboeans had met in the east.
1:09:27 > 1:09:32Euboeans reasoned that the victorious Zeus had scorched Typhon
1:09:32 > 1:09:34on these very slopes, and below us,
1:09:34 > 1:09:40the monster is imprisoned and being lashed in punishment.
1:09:40 > 1:09:45And when he tosses and turns, his fiery anger erupts.
1:09:47 > 1:09:52300 years after the first Euboeans settled in this mountain's shadow,
1:09:52 > 1:09:56the great Greek poet Pindar witnessed an eruption
1:09:56 > 1:10:00and described it here belching out streams of unapproachable fire,
1:10:00 > 1:10:04the writhings of the monster.
1:10:07 > 1:10:12Well, this is Typhon's latest hole, blasted in 1968, quite amazing.
1:10:12 > 1:10:16- I think you have to remember that poet Pindar... - HE SPEAKS IN GREEK
1:10:21 > 1:10:25During the day, he sends out rivers of blazing smoke.
1:10:25 > 1:10:30Now I think that Pindar the poet in the 470s BC stood pretty near here,
1:10:30 > 1:10:34and then the whole thing exploded into the sea
1:10:34 > 1:10:37and the rocks came down with a crash, it's wonderful.
1:10:37 > 1:10:40He's really steaming this morning, he's hotting up.
1:10:40 > 1:10:44Under there he's been blazing away for about 5,000 years,
1:10:44 > 1:10:46still not exhausted.
1:10:46 > 1:10:50There's a great argument as to whether myth is contrary to reason.
1:10:50 > 1:10:54If you stand here, nonsense, myth makes perfect sense.
1:10:54 > 1:10:57There's no application, no opposition between the two.
1:10:59 > 1:11:05In the Greek imagination, the myth of Typhon did not end on Etna.
1:11:07 > 1:11:12Euboeans had found signs of his presence north of Sicily.
1:11:13 > 1:11:17In their journey westwards, our travelling heroes had sailed
1:11:17 > 1:11:21through the Straits of Messina and along Italy's coast.
1:11:27 > 1:11:31Even before they founded their Sicilian colonies,
1:11:31 > 1:11:35Euboeans had travelled as far north as the Bay of Naples.
1:11:37 > 1:11:41Etruscans were present in the area, so at first Euboeans avoided
1:11:41 > 1:11:44settling on the mainland.
1:11:44 > 1:11:48Instead they headed out to an island beyond the bay.
1:11:48 > 1:11:52This is the island which the Euboeans chose to settle,
1:11:52 > 1:11:57known nowadays as Ischiam, but they called as Pithecusa,
1:11:57 > 1:12:00which in Greek means "Monkey Island".
1:12:00 > 1:12:05Zoologists claim that in early times there were no monkeys here,
1:12:05 > 1:12:08and nowadays it's crawling with tourists.
1:12:08 > 1:12:11The ferry journey from Naples takes less than an hour.
1:12:11 > 1:12:14Hundreds of thousands of holidaymakers
1:12:14 > 1:12:17visit the little island for its health spas and beaches.
1:12:19 > 1:12:23We can follow Euboeans in the west with the help of ancient texts,
1:12:23 > 1:12:27supported by archaeological evidence, which suggests
1:12:27 > 1:12:34they arrived on Ischia about 770 BC, and if correct, that's very soon
1:12:34 > 1:12:37after they had settled at Al Mina in the East.
1:12:38 > 1:12:43They found Ischia thinly inhabited so they settled beside this cove.
1:12:44 > 1:12:49And a local name for the island would have caught their attention,
1:12:49 > 1:12:54in Etruscan it meant "monkey", and the word no less was Arima.
1:12:54 > 1:12:59Out east in Cilicia and Turkey, they had come from one Arima,
1:12:59 > 1:13:03the cave in which Typhon had hidden the body parts of Zeus,
1:13:03 > 1:13:09and now they'd travelled to their furthest point west and had landed on yet another Arima.
1:13:09 > 1:13:11Was Typhon to be seen here, too?
1:13:11 > 1:13:16Yes, if they looked carefully even at the beach because on the ground
1:13:16 > 1:13:19the sand here is dark and volcanic
1:13:19 > 1:13:22as if Typhon himself has been active.
1:13:22 > 1:13:26It must have seemed heaven sent, an omen from the gods.
1:13:28 > 1:13:31Overlooking the cove is the hill of Monte Vico,
1:13:31 > 1:13:34just the place for a Greek Acropolis.
1:13:34 > 1:13:38On it, hot springs serve as a bathing spa.
1:13:41 > 1:13:45For the Greeks too, they steamed up from the ground.
1:13:45 > 1:13:48As on Etna, the cause seemed obvious.
1:13:48 > 1:13:52Why, the Euboeans reasoned, it was Typhon imprisoned below.
1:13:58 > 1:14:03The monster, they imagined, was so large that he lay stretched
1:14:03 > 1:14:07all the way from Ischia to volcanic Sicily,
1:14:07 > 1:14:09far across the sea.
1:14:12 > 1:14:16In his Iliad, Homer compares the sound of the Greek army's
1:14:16 > 1:14:21first advance on Troy to the crushing sound when Zeus lashes Typhon.
1:14:21 > 1:14:27"In Arima," Homer says, "where they say is Typhon's bed."
1:14:27 > 1:14:33Homer was composing, I believe, around 750 BC.
1:14:33 > 1:14:37By Arima, he meant exactly Ischia.
1:14:37 > 1:14:40Word of it had derived ultimately from Euboeans.
1:14:45 > 1:14:50The archaeological finds made on the island are now housed in the Pithecusae Museum.
1:14:55 > 1:14:58Among the objects here are small seal stones
1:14:58 > 1:15:02whose style and type of stone has been traced exactly to Cilicia
1:15:02 > 1:15:06in modern Turkey, the very place of Typhon's lair.
1:15:10 > 1:15:14The seals were buried in the graves of young children.
1:15:14 > 1:15:19This is a near-Eastern practice and the mothers, I think, may often
1:15:19 > 1:15:22have come with Euboean partners from the near East.
1:15:25 > 1:15:29The director of the museum is Professori Giovanni Castagna,
1:15:29 > 1:15:32and his most important treasure is this drinking cup.
1:15:33 > 1:15:36It too was made in the eastern Mediterranean,
1:15:36 > 1:15:39brought out here and later buried
1:15:39 > 1:15:42in a small boy's grave around 725 BC.
1:16:12 > 1:16:18This Greek inscription for me, Professori, is so suggestive
1:16:18 > 1:16:23because it is written in the characteristic script of the Euboeans,
1:16:23 > 1:16:27and there are the three lines in verse, and at least I think
1:16:27 > 1:16:31that this is the world's first literary allusion
1:16:31 > 1:16:36- because the inscription says... - HE SPEAKS IN GREEK
1:16:38 > 1:16:42"I am the cup of Nestor, good to drink with,
1:16:42 > 1:16:46"and whoever drinks from this cup will be seized
1:16:46 > 1:16:51"by the love desire of Aphrodite the goddess of love."
1:16:51 > 1:16:57Now in Homer's poems we know of the old hero Nestor, whenever he picks up his big cup
1:16:57 > 1:17:01as an old man, he talks for line after line giving advice,
1:17:01 > 1:17:04he's rather boring, and this is a witty allusion
1:17:04 > 1:17:08on a person's cup saying, "I am Nestor's cup,
1:17:08 > 1:17:12"but unlike the one in Homer,
1:17:12 > 1:17:15"if you drink from me, you will fall in love."
1:17:15 > 1:17:19Amazing, it makes us realise that the Homeric poems
1:17:19 > 1:17:25about the nobles and the heroes were not confined only to the aristocratic classes.
1:17:25 > 1:17:30This is not a very grand grave and yet the owner of the cup
1:17:30 > 1:17:34believes that everyone has Homer on the brain, like you and me.
1:17:34 > 1:17:37- It's wonderful. - HE SPEAKS IN GREEK
1:17:40 > 1:17:43- Don't mention it. - Oh, thank you so much!
1:17:51 > 1:17:55Emboldened by their settlement on Ischia, a group of Euboeans
1:17:55 > 1:17:59then set out to settle across the Bay of Naples.
1:18:03 > 1:18:07Here with Ischia visible on the horizon, they founded the first
1:18:07 > 1:18:12Greek settlement on the mainland of modern Italy, Cumae.
1:18:18 > 1:18:21Cumae has a magnificent stretch of farmland
1:18:21 > 1:18:26and was to remain a centre of Greek influence for more than 1,000 years,
1:18:26 > 1:18:30but the better farming and the greater space were not,
1:18:30 > 1:18:34I think, their only reasons for settling here.
1:18:49 > 1:18:56On rocky islands, as Homer remarks in the Odyssey, there is no scope for using fine horses.
1:19:00 > 1:19:01Unlike Ischia,
1:19:01 > 1:19:05Cumae had a flat beach, which was a horse lover's dream,
1:19:05 > 1:19:08and it still is.
1:19:11 > 1:19:13This beach is near the Agnano Hippodrome,
1:19:13 > 1:19:17a racecourse for Italian trotting horses.
1:19:17 > 1:19:23Every morning their trainers exercised them here, much as Euboeans did in the past.
1:19:24 > 1:19:29Horse harness and chariot fittings have been found in Euboean graves at Cumae.
1:19:32 > 1:19:37The top trainer here is Vincenzo Palumbo, he's agreed to let me have a go.
1:19:37 > 1:19:41Horses and riding are my lifelong loves back in Britain.
1:19:53 > 1:19:56The Euboean Greeks I am sure came here and they would have practised
1:19:56 > 1:20:01on the sand with their horses in chariots exactly as we do.
1:20:01 > 1:20:07The sand gives more strength to the horses' exercise, like Olympic runners, and then we could imagine
1:20:07 > 1:20:14them all lining the beach cheering on as the horses come either at the gallop or in the chariot, and of
1:20:14 > 1:20:19course they do that trick of jumping on and off that we saw with the Apobates on the pottery in Eretria.
1:20:20 > 1:20:25Horses were not just bred for the Apobates race so vividly painted
1:20:25 > 1:20:28on pottery I saw at Eretria's museum.
1:20:30 > 1:20:35For aristocrats, they were both a status symbol and a devastating weapon in war.
1:20:37 > 1:20:42In the 8th century BC, Euboeans were the finest of all Greek riders and horse breeders.
1:20:43 > 1:20:46They even named their children after horses.
1:20:48 > 1:20:53One of the two founders of Cumae was a Euboean named Hipocles,
1:20:53 > 1:20:56and "hippos" is Greek for horse.
1:21:03 > 1:21:07Once settled in Cumae, the Euboeans found yet
1:21:07 > 1:21:13more evidence of battles in heaven, which established the power of Zeus.
1:21:20 > 1:21:25The myths tell how after the defeat of Typhon there was a new challenge
1:21:25 > 1:21:30against the gods, a tribe of insolent, enormous giants.
1:21:30 > 1:21:36Just inland from Cumae, Euboeans actually located the field of the giants' battle.
1:21:37 > 1:21:42They call this place Flegra, which means flaming.
1:21:42 > 1:21:45We can still see what the ancients described, the wounds
1:21:45 > 1:21:49of the thunderbolted giants which pour out streams of fire and water.
1:21:49 > 1:21:54These sulphurous fumaroles are not the only peculiar element.
1:21:55 > 1:21:58The surface here at Flegra feels to me remarkably thin.
1:21:58 > 1:22:02In the late 18th century, the scholar and diplomat Sir William Hamilton
1:22:02 > 1:22:08came to much the same conclusion and he decided to test it by an experiment.
1:22:08 > 1:22:12He thought he'd try dropping a stone and listening to the sound it made.
1:22:12 > 1:22:15So I'm going to try dropping this one and if I don't
1:22:15 > 1:22:18drop it on my feet, we'll see what kind of a sound we get.
1:22:18 > 1:22:20THUD ECHOES
1:22:20 > 1:22:24Exactly what Hamilton heard, an echo which he thought was
1:22:24 > 1:22:27the echo of a subterranean vault,
1:22:27 > 1:22:30which was seething with fire and boiling with water.
1:22:30 > 1:22:36But what I think is what the Ancient Greeks and the Ancient Euboeans who visited here believed,
1:22:36 > 1:22:40it's the subterranean vault of a vast underground prison in which
1:22:40 > 1:22:47the Giants are lying scalded and wounded, fuming and furious at their final defeat by the Olympian gods.
1:22:51 > 1:22:58The Ancients also believed that the base camp of the battling giants could be found.
1:22:58 > 1:23:04They located it too in Flegra, but curiously the Flegra to which
1:23:04 > 1:23:08they refer is hundreds of miles from this unearthly landscape.
1:23:18 > 1:23:22North of their home island, the Euboeans found the three prongs
1:23:22 > 1:23:25of the Calcydic Peninsula,
1:23:25 > 1:23:29the westernmost prong they called the second Flegra.
1:23:32 > 1:23:37Beside this fine beach, the Euboeans founded the settlement of Mendi
1:23:37 > 1:23:40around 730 BC.
1:23:40 > 1:23:45The first settlers were aware of the Flegra near Cumae.
1:23:46 > 1:23:50The transfer of the name Flegra here is most odd,
1:23:50 > 1:23:53the peninsula is not at all volcanic.
1:23:57 > 1:24:04Greek authors are clear that it was the base camp for the Giants before their final battle in the West.
1:24:05 > 1:24:08In recent years, we have begun to understand why.
1:24:08 > 1:24:14This is the most unlikely site, how did you ever come to discover there were things to excavate here?
1:24:14 > 1:24:20It was an accidental finding of this site when a worker found
1:24:20 > 1:24:24a very interesting specimen of a hipparion.
1:24:24 > 1:24:29- That is an ancient horse, isn't it? - It is an ancient three-toed horse.
1:24:29 > 1:24:32'Evangelia Tsoukala is a palaeontologist.
1:24:32 > 1:24:37'With her team she's been excavating this hillside near Mendi...
1:24:38 > 1:24:42'..and has made some remarkable discoveries.'
1:24:42 > 1:24:46I can show you here a very extraordinary bone.
1:24:46 > 1:24:49It's the biggest thing I've ever seen!
1:24:49 > 1:24:53- It is a femur of a mastodon. - Oh, my goodness, what is it?
1:24:53 > 1:24:56- It is an ancestor of the mammoth. - Ah, right.
1:24:56 > 1:25:02And if I look at it knowing nothing, I might think this was the bone of some enormously heavyweight human.
1:25:02 > 1:25:06The imagination of the lay men is incredible
1:25:06 > 1:25:10and I have an example from my excavation in Grevena, with
1:25:10 > 1:25:15the huge mastodons there, and the people there
1:25:15 > 1:25:18thought that they come from an elephant from a circus.
1:25:18 > 1:25:22From a circus? They'd escaped, but you persuaded them.
1:25:22 > 1:25:25After 20 years, yes!
1:25:27 > 1:25:32'This hillside has already produced many other giant prehistoric bones.'
1:25:32 > 1:25:36They must have been a race of gigantic people, what I'm thinking is that the Greeks,
1:25:36 > 1:25:40the Euboeans who had been out in Naples and had seen the shattered
1:25:40 > 1:25:46remains of the battlefield where the gods had zapped the Giants with thunderbolts, I can now understand
1:25:46 > 1:25:52why they come up here and they think "This is the camp, this is where the Giants bred, where they lived."
1:25:52 > 1:25:55Once you see it, you can see what the Euboeans concluded.
1:25:55 > 1:26:00Those things are far bigger than me, they are proof the poets knew these are giants.
1:26:00 > 1:26:04And this is why the whole story is partly located here
1:26:04 > 1:26:07and partly located on the smouldering volcanoes in Italy.
1:26:21 > 1:26:26From one Flegra to the other, across a vast expanse of sea,
1:26:26 > 1:26:29Euboeans linked the evidence they saw
1:26:29 > 1:26:31and made sense of it through myth.
1:26:33 > 1:26:37In this same pattern of Euboean travel and enquiry,
1:26:37 > 1:26:42we can discern the origin of central Greek myths about the gods.
1:26:42 > 1:26:48In the near East below Mount Casius, Euboeans had heard the amazing tales
1:26:48 > 1:26:52of the battle for the kingship of heaven, of a castrating sickle,
1:26:52 > 1:26:54and the shower of a god's sperm.
1:26:56 > 1:27:00They heard stories of stone swallowed in error,
1:27:00 > 1:27:02and the ruling god of storms and weather...
1:27:05 > 1:27:10..and they traced that ruling god's great battle with the snaky monster across the world.
1:27:13 > 1:27:18In the near East, these stories were linked to religious rituals.
1:27:18 > 1:27:23Euboeans adopted them as stories, simply "muthoi".
1:27:24 > 1:27:31And as true travelling heroes, they found yet more evidence of these myths across the wine-dark sea.
1:27:31 > 1:27:35They found a goddess born from Heaven's sperm in Cyprus...
1:27:36 > 1:27:40..the mountain which was their ruling god's nursery,
1:27:40 > 1:27:44a swallowed stone in holy Delphi...
1:27:45 > 1:27:49..and the snaky monster steaming under volcanic Ischia and Etna...
1:27:52 > 1:27:56..and the defeated giants sweating under their western battlefields...
1:27:58 > 1:28:01..and leaving bones on their northern base camp.
1:28:03 > 1:28:07These myths were not the random fantasies of unconscious minds,
1:28:07 > 1:28:13they were rooted in Euboeans' experience of real places and real people.
1:28:13 > 1:28:17What they learned in the East, they found far away in the West,
1:28:17 > 1:28:21and through them these great myths about the gods
1:28:21 > 1:28:25became central to Greek religion, literature, and art,
1:28:25 > 1:28:29from where they live on still vivid in our world.
1:28:51 > 1:28:54Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd
1:28:54 > 1:28:58E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk