WEBVTT
00:00:04.160 --> 00:00:09.420
Return from Troy: The Story of Odysseus
00:00:09.420 --> 00:00:16.860
Told by Daniel Morden and Hugh Lupton.
00:00:16.860 --> 00:00:22.040
Episode 1: A Stranger from Troy
00:00:22.040 --> 00:00:33.500
[Sounds of the sea]
00:00:33.500 --> 00:00:39.280
Prince Paris, the youngest son of the king of Troy,
00:00:39.280 --> 00:00:46.730
was out hunting on the foothills of the great mountain that stretches up behind the city walls.
00:00:46.730 --> 00:00:51.420
And as he was hunting with his bow and his quiver full of arrows,
00:00:51.420 --> 00:00:54.960
suddenly Hermes, the messenger of the gods,
00:00:54.960 --> 00:00:56.510
appeared in front of him.
00:00:56.510 --> 00:00:57.470
And Hermes said
00:00:57.470 --> 00:01:00.090
“Paris, I’ve been sent by great father Zeus,
00:01:00.090 --> 00:01:09.400
and he has told me to tell you that you must decide which of these three goddesses is the most beautiful.”
00:01:09.400 --> 00:01:12.140
And Hermes clicked his fingers,
00:01:12.140 --> 00:01:17.850
and out of the light three goddesses appeared in front of Paris.
00:01:17.850 --> 00:01:24.170
There was Hera, the wife of Zeus, the queen of heaven, magnificent.
00:01:24.170 --> 00:01:29.880
There was owleyed Athene, the goddess of war and wisdom.
00:01:29.880 --> 00:01:35.240
And there was beautiful, beautiful Aphrodite, the goddess of love.
00:01:35.240 --> 00:01:36.060
And Hermes said,
00:01:36.060 --> 00:01:43.050
“Paris you must decide which of these three is the most beautiful and you must give her this golden apple”.
00:01:43.050 --> 00:01:49.290
And Hermes dropped into the palm of Paris’ hand a golden apple and he vanished.
00:01:49.290 --> 00:01:56.060
And Paris was left standing with the golden apple cold against the palm of his hand.
00:01:56.060 --> 00:01:59.890
And he looked from one goddess to the other to the next,
00:01:59.890 --> 00:02:05.060
but his eyes kept wandering towards Aphrodite, the goddess of love.
00:02:05.060 --> 00:02:06.740
And so Hera stamped her foot.
00:02:06.740 --> 00:02:07.890
She said, “It’s not fair.
00:02:07.890 --> 00:02:11.470
Aphrodite is wearing her belt of love and desire.
00:02:11.470 --> 00:02:15.120
Paris must decide when he has seen us naked”.
00:02:15.120 --> 00:02:17.020
And Athene agreed.
00:02:17.020 --> 00:02:21.810
And so it was the three goddesses took off their clothes,
00:02:21.810 --> 00:02:25.950
until they were standing stark naked in front of Paris.
00:02:25.950 --> 00:02:34.030
And Paris was looking from one to the other and now he could not decide who was the most beautiful.
00:02:34.030 --> 00:02:35.670
And so Hera,
00:02:35.670 --> 00:02:38.650
the queen of heaven, the wife of Zeus,
00:02:38.650 --> 00:02:40.890
came forwards and she said, “Paris,
00:02:40.890 --> 00:02:45.000
choose me and I will give you power.
00:02:45.000 --> 00:02:51.390
Choose me and I will make you a great king over the whole of Europe and the whole of Asia –
00:02:51.390 --> 00:02:54.300
half the world will be yours.”
00:02:54.300 --> 00:02:56.190
And she stepped back.
00:02:56.190 --> 00:02:58.440
And then Athene came forwards,
00:02:58.440 --> 00:03:00.220
the goddess of war and wisdom.
00:03:00.220 --> 00:03:01.210
And she said, “Paris,
00:03:01.210 --> 00:03:03.770
choose me and you’ll never lose a battle.
00:03:03.770 --> 00:03:09.930
Choose me and you’ll be famous the length and breadth of the world for your cleverness, for your wisdom.”
00:03:09.930 --> 00:03:11.930
And she stepped back.
00:03:11.930 --> 00:03:16.550
And then Aphrodite the goddess of love came forwards.
00:03:16.550 --> 00:03:17.940
And she said, “Paris,
00:03:17.940 --> 00:03:25.100
choose me and I will give you the most beautiful woman in the world.”
00:03:25.100 --> 00:03:25.900
And Paris said,
00:03:25.900 --> 00:03:26.910
“Who is she?”
00:03:26.910 --> 00:03:29.430
“Her name is Helen.
00:03:29.430 --> 00:03:32.220
She’s the wife of Menelaus, the king of Sparta.
00:03:32.220 --> 00:03:34.580
I will blind her with love for you.
00:03:34.580 --> 00:03:37.570
She will give you everything!”
00:03:37.570 --> 00:03:38.460
And Paris said,
00:03:38.460 --> 00:03:40.000
“What does she look like?”
00:03:40.000 --> 00:03:43.380
“She’s as beautiful as I am.”
00:03:43.380 --> 00:03:46.090
And Aphrodite stepped back.
00:03:46.090 --> 00:03:54.030
And Paris lifted the golden apple above his shoulder and without a moment’s hesitation he gave it to Aphrodite,
00:03:54.030 --> 00:03:55.840
the goddess of love.
00:03:55.840 --> 00:03:59.000
And Hera and Athene were furious.
00:03:59.000 --> 00:04:01.950
They flashed into the sky and they were gone.
00:04:01.950 --> 00:04:03.850
And as for Aphrodite,
00:04:03.850 --> 00:04:07.840
she loosed an invisible arrow which struck Paris in the heart,
00:04:07.840 --> 00:04:09.330
and from that moment,
00:04:09.330 --> 00:04:10.990
even though he had never seen her,
00:04:10.990 --> 00:04:14.620
even though she was nothing more than a name, an idea,
00:04:14.620 --> 00:04:16.730
he was in love with Helen,
00:04:16.730 --> 00:04:20.660
the wife of Menelaus, the king of Sparta.
00:04:20.660 --> 00:04:26.830
And up in the heavens Hera and Athene were already pondering and planning in their hearts,
00:04:26.830 --> 00:04:29.580
how they could bring about the death of Paris,
00:04:29.580 --> 00:04:34.430
and the destruction of the whole city of Troy.
00:04:34.430 --> 00:04:41.020
And so it was only a matter of time then before Aphrodite, the goddess of love,
00:04:41.020 --> 00:04:44.600
caused Helen to fall in love with Paris.
00:04:44.600 --> 00:04:47.450
And Paris stole her from her husband.
00:04:47.450 --> 00:04:52.440
He took her across the blue Aegean Sea to the great city of Troy.
00:04:52.440 --> 00:04:54.970
And Helen’s husband Menelaus,
00:04:54.970 --> 00:04:59.080
when he discovered that his wife had been stolen, was furious.
00:04:59.080 --> 00:05:02.300
He sent messengers to all the other Greek kings.
00:05:02.300 --> 00:05:04.170
And an army was mustered –
00:05:04.170 --> 00:05:08.640
a huge army the like of which the world has never seen before.
00:05:08.640 --> 00:05:17.410
And the army set sail across the blue sea in a thousand ships and laid siege to the city of Troy.
00:05:17.410 --> 00:05:20.100
And Hera and Athene,
00:05:20.100 --> 00:05:23.670
furious that they hadn’t been given the golden apple,
00:05:23.670 --> 00:05:27.040
threw in their lot with the Greek army.
00:05:27.040 --> 00:05:34.760
And they didn’t rest until Troy’s walls were crumbling blood-soaked rubble,
00:05:34.760 --> 00:05:39.830
and Prince Paris was dead.
00:05:39.830 --> 00:05:42.210
The Trojan War.
00:05:42.210 --> 00:05:49.770
Ten years of the ebb and flow of defeat and victory with its flotsam of corpses.
00:05:49.770 --> 00:05:55.050
Ten years of the weeping of women over the bodies of their husbands,
00:05:55.050 --> 00:05:59.190
their fathers, their brothers, their sons.
00:05:59.190 --> 00:06:06.380
Ten years of the sweet stench of rotting flesh and great black clouds of flies.
00:06:06.380 --> 00:06:12.820
Ten years of blood-crazed warriors cutting the armour from the backs of the dying.
00:06:12.820 --> 00:06:16.470
And when at last that awful war was over,
00:06:16.470 --> 00:06:18.760
the victorious Greek kings,
00:06:18.760 --> 00:06:23.020
Agamemnon, Menelaus, Odysseus,
00:06:23.020 --> 00:06:26.160
their hearts swollen with pride,
00:06:26.160 --> 00:06:29.260
their ships crammed with treasure,
00:06:29.260 --> 00:06:34.430
set sail for home.
00:06:34.430 --> 00:06:48.590
[Sounds of the sea]
00:06:48.590 --> 00:06:55.990
Our story begins nine years after that great and bloody victory.
00:06:55.990 --> 00:07:04.840
There was an island and staggering up the slope from the sea onto the sand there was a man,
00:07:04.840 --> 00:07:07.570
half-dead with exhaustion,
00:07:07.570 --> 00:07:11.910
his hair and beard tangled and matted with salt,
00:07:11.910 --> 00:07:15.090
his body caked in brine.
00:07:15.090 --> 00:07:20.800
He staggered across the sand and threw himself down onto a pile of dead leaves,
00:07:20.800 --> 00:07:26.280
and he fell instantly fast asleep.
00:07:26.280 --> 00:07:29.120
And he was found there, sleeping,
00:07:29.120 --> 00:07:33.820
by the daughter of the king of that island, King Alcinous.
00:07:33.820 --> 00:07:36.890
She saw the stranger and she shook his shoulder.
00:07:36.890 --> 00:07:38.280
She woke him up.
00:07:38.280 --> 00:07:42.060
She gave him a piece of cloth to wrap around his waist.
00:07:42.060 --> 00:07:47.690
She gave him a cup of water and then she led him to her father’s palace.
00:07:47.690 --> 00:07:52.480
She showed him to a room where there were bowls of water and jugs of oil,
00:07:52.480 --> 00:07:55.000
and fresh clothes to wear.
00:07:55.000 --> 00:07:57.250
And the stranger washed himself.
00:07:57.250 --> 00:08:00.060
He rubbed the oil into his skin.
00:08:00.060 --> 00:08:02.240
He put on the clothes.
00:08:02.240 --> 00:08:09.840
And then the princess led the stranger to her father’s bronze-floored feasting hall.
00:08:09.840 --> 00:08:12.000
And King Alcinous said,
00:08:12.000 --> 00:08:15.310
“Sit down, eat, drink.”
00:08:15.310 --> 00:08:19.910
And meat and bread and wine and honey cakes and water were served.
00:08:19.910 --> 00:08:25.420
And the stranger ate and drank and drank and ate and ate and drank.
00:08:25.420 --> 00:08:29.930
And when at last his raging appetite had been satisfied,
00:08:29.930 --> 00:08:32.010
King Alcinous said,
00:08:32.010 --> 00:08:33.950
“There is food for the body,
00:08:33.950 --> 00:08:36.470
and there is food for the soul.
00:08:36.470 --> 00:08:40.480
Stranger, now that you have eaten, listen.
00:08:40.480 --> 00:08:44.380
And my storyteller will tell you a story.”
00:08:44.380 --> 00:08:53.030
And the doors of the hall opened and an old, blind storyteller called Demodocus was led into the hall.
00:08:53.030 --> 00:09:01.160
And Demodocus lifted his lyre to his shoulder and he began to tell the story of the siege of Troy.
00:09:01.160 --> 00:09:05.690
“The great bronze gates were thrown open,” he said.
00:09:05.690 --> 00:09:15.140
“And with a whirring of wheels and a creaking of chariots and a neighing of horses and a shouting of men and a thundering of hooves and feet,
00:09:15.140 --> 00:09:18.530
the Trojan army poured across the plain.
00:09:18.530 --> 00:09:24.480
And with a clash of bronze against bronze the Trojan army met the Greek army,
00:09:24.480 --> 00:09:27.220
wading ashore from their ships.
00:09:27.220 --> 00:09:31.390
And among the Greeks, mighty Achilles,
00:09:31.390 --> 00:09:34.820
severing heads with every stroke of his sword,
00:09:34.820 --> 00:09:37.990
thrusting his spear to the left and the right,
00:09:37.990 --> 00:09:42.140
leaving a wake of dead behind himself.”
00:09:42.140 --> 00:09:43.730
And King Alcinous said,
00:09:43.730 --> 00:09:46.940
“Stop! Stop!
00:09:46.940 --> 00:09:49.400
Our guest –
00:09:49.400 --> 00:09:51.430
he is weeping.
00:09:51.430 --> 00:09:53.370
His face is buried in his hands.
00:09:53.370 --> 00:09:54.960
His shoulders are shaking.
00:09:54.960 --> 00:09:57.080
Stranger, what is it?
00:09:57.080 --> 00:09:57.780
Who are you?
00:09:57.780 --> 00:09:59.230
Why are you crying?
00:09:59.230 --> 00:10:03.040
Nobody, whether of high or low degree goes nameless in this world.
00:10:03.040 --> 00:10:04.520
Tell us who you are,
00:10:04.520 --> 00:10:08.370
that we may listen to your story and learn,
00:10:08.370 --> 00:10:14.790
and that I may send one of my high-prowed ships to carry you to that place you are seeking.”
00:10:14.790 --> 00:10:17.240
And the stranger lifted his head,
00:10:17.240 --> 00:10:19.740
his cheeks wet with tears.
00:10:19.740 --> 00:10:21.390
And he looked at the king,
00:10:21.390 --> 00:10:23.920
and he looked at the old storyteller.
00:10:23.920 --> 00:10:29.450
And he drew breath and he began to speak.
00:10:29.450 --> 00:10:32.030
“I have used several names,
00:10:32.030 --> 00:10:37.410
but the name by which you would know me is Odysseus.”
00:10:37.410 --> 00:11:21.260
[Closing music]