WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:13.520 [Sounds of the sea] 00:00:13.520 --> 00:00:20.250 Episode 6: The Land of the Dead 00:00:20.250 --> 00:00:26.860 [Sounds of the sea] 00:00:26.860 --> 00:00:32.480 Circe’s words put a chill into my very soul. 00:00:32.480 --> 00:00:34.040 She said, 00:00:34.040 --> 00:00:40.930 “If you want to find out how to soothe the anger of the sea god you must sail north, 00:00:40.930 --> 00:00:43.120 and north again, 00:00:43.120 --> 00:00:49.680 until you walk among the ghosts of the dead.” 00:00:49.680 --> 00:00:52.330 Home. 00:00:52.330 --> 00:00:56.660 “Home” is what a gull cries over rough waters. 00:00:56.660 --> 00:01:01.140 There is nothing worse for mortal man than wandering. 00:01:01.140 --> 00:01:07.010 How many more storms before my ship can shed its sail? 00:01:07.010 --> 00:01:11.400 The smell of Ithacan earth after rain. 00:01:11.400 --> 00:01:19.130 The long shadows of the afternoon stretching down the terraces and vineyards that ladder every slope. 00:01:19.130 --> 00:01:22.890 My dog licking my palm. 00:01:22.890 --> 00:01:26.000 A wife without a husband, 00:01:26.000 --> 00:01:28.530 a country without a king. 00:01:28.530 --> 00:01:43.380 These things compelled me to sail beyond the limits of human life and walk among the shades in the realm of many guests. 00:01:43.380 --> 00:01:46.460 Circe gave us provisions. 00:01:46.460 --> 00:01:49.070 She also gave us blankets. 00:01:49.070 --> 00:01:51.070 We soon discovered why. 00:01:51.070 --> 00:01:56.350 The further north you sail, the colder it becomes. 00:01:56.350 --> 00:01:58.370 One morning when we woke, 00:01:58.370 --> 00:02:03.310 we could see our breath rising from our lips and our nostrils in the mist. 00:02:03.310 --> 00:02:04.260 Then one morning, 00:02:04.260 --> 00:02:06.540 hanging from the mast and the rigging, 00:02:06.540 --> 00:02:11.290 we could see shards of ice like a dragon’s teeth. 00:02:11.290 --> 00:02:15.610 Then we found ourselves approaching a wall of fog. 00:02:15.610 --> 00:02:18.110 Once we passed inside that mist, 00:02:18.110 --> 00:02:20.670 for how long we sailed I couldn’t say. 00:02:20.670 --> 00:02:23.840 Suddenly day and night had no meaning. 00:02:23.840 --> 00:02:30.840 There was only an endless, clammy gloom. 00:02:30.840 --> 00:02:34.260 The prow of the ship hit a sandbank. 00:02:34.260 --> 00:02:39.540 I and two of my men fetched a pair of sheep ashore, and we walked. 00:02:39.540 --> 00:02:41.280 The further we went, 00:02:41.280 --> 00:02:43.290 the more uneasy we felt. 00:02:43.290 --> 00:02:46.450 Everything was infected with the greyness of the mist. 00:02:46.450 --> 00:02:49.750 All colour bled from our clothes, from our skin. 00:02:49.750 --> 00:02:54.280 My companions became shifting forms in the fog beside me. 00:02:54.280 --> 00:02:57.190 Every step took a little more effort. 00:02:57.190 --> 00:03:00.130 All my old wounds ached. 00:03:00.130 --> 00:03:06.700 It was as if we were wading against the current of an ocean we couldn’t see. 00:03:06.700 --> 00:03:12.720 Then we were at the banks of a dark, oily river, 00:03:12.720 --> 00:03:15.640 the river of forgetfulness. 00:03:15.640 --> 00:03:17.390 On the other side, 00:03:17.390 --> 00:03:20.160 hidden from view by the fog, 00:03:20.160 --> 00:03:25.650 was the land of the dead, Hades. 00:03:25.650 --> 00:03:29.450 We knelt, we scooped apart the sand at our feet, 00:03:29.450 --> 00:03:33.660 then we lifted the chins of the sheep we had brought and cut their throats. 00:03:33.660 --> 00:03:36.630 Their dark blood made a pool. 00:03:36.630 --> 00:03:39.420 Shapes formed in the fog. 00:03:39.420 --> 00:03:42.370 We heard a moaning, a hissing, 00:03:42.370 --> 00:03:46.700 like flies to carrion the ghosts of the dead were coming, 00:03:46.700 --> 00:03:49.340 summoned by our sacrifice. 00:03:49.340 --> 00:03:51.380 The sight of them, 00:03:51.380 --> 00:03:56.680 fresh brides, warriors with gaping gashes, 00:03:56.680 --> 00:04:00.900 laughing, shambling, stumbling children, 00:04:00.900 --> 00:04:06.170 the sight of them made my seasoned soldiers shake with horror. 00:04:06.170 --> 00:04:10.250 All but one of the spirits of the dead has lost all memory of their previous life. 00:04:10.250 --> 00:04:17.320 They are stupid, hungry wraiths until they can drink the blood of a mortal sacrifice. 00:04:17.320 --> 00:04:19.720 This is what they crave above all else: 00:04:19.720 --> 00:04:21.270 to remember their lives. 00:04:21.270 --> 00:04:25.920 Our offering, this blood, was for the only one who has kept his mind, 00:04:25.920 --> 00:04:28.760 the blind prophet Tiresias. 00:04:28.760 --> 00:04:36.370 I had instructed my companions to stand on either side of the pool and keep the other ghosts away until Tiresias had drunk his fill and spoken to us, 00:04:36.370 --> 00:04:43.480 but in the event my companions could do nothing but stand, and shake, and gape. 00:04:43.480 --> 00:04:47.610 It was as if they had fallen into some kind of trance. 00:04:47.610 --> 00:04:49.690 So it fell to me to draw my sword, 00:04:49.690 --> 00:04:51.660 to swipe it in the air. 00:04:51.660 --> 00:04:56.620 But then, I saw a face I knew. 00:04:56.620 --> 00:04:58.690 It was Achilles, 00:04:58.690 --> 00:05:01.420 the great hero Achilles. 00:05:01.420 --> 00:05:05.240 My companion, my ally through most of the Trojan War. 00:05:05.240 --> 00:05:08.750 He had fought alongside me in countless battles, 00:05:08.750 --> 00:05:11.310 severing heads with every stroke of his sword, 00:05:11.310 --> 00:05:14.270 he had died before the war’s end. 00:05:14.270 --> 00:05:19.410 This was my chance to tell him that his death had not been in vain. 00:05:19.410 --> 00:05:21.130 I guided him towards the pool. 00:05:21.130 --> 00:05:22.260 I let him drink. 00:05:22.260 --> 00:05:24.190 I saw the memory return to his face. 00:05:24.190 --> 00:05:25.880 I saw him recognise me. 00:05:25.880 --> 00:05:29.690 Joyfully, I began to tell him of our great and bloody victory. 00:05:29.690 --> 00:05:34.930 I began to tell him that Troy was nothing but smouldering, blood-soaked rubble now, 00:05:34.930 --> 00:05:37.150 but as I spoke he lifted his hand. 00:05:37.150 --> 00:05:37.840 He said, 00:05:37.840 --> 00:05:43.170 “Odysseus, down here it matters not who won the war. 00:05:43.170 --> 00:05:48.200 In life I chose to die young and win great glory. 00:05:48.200 --> 00:05:51.470 I chose to die young and become a story. 00:05:51.470 --> 00:05:53.430 But now … 00:05:53.430 --> 00:05:56.850 I would rather be a beggar. 00:05:56.850 --> 00:05:59.230 I would rather be a beggar, 00:05:59.230 --> 00:06:03.600 who is spat at and cursed upon by every passer-by. 00:06:03.600 --> 00:06:05.520 I would rather be a beggar, 00:06:05.520 --> 00:06:08.240 who can see his wife and child every day, 00:06:08.240 --> 00:06:11.850 who can feel the heat of the sun upon his skin. 00:06:11.850 --> 00:06:15.290 I would rather be a beggar among the living, 00:06:15.290 --> 00:06:18.810 than a prince among the dead!” 00:06:18.810 --> 00:06:23.200 And then he fled. 00:06:23.200 --> 00:06:27.300 Here was one who had a dignity, 00:06:27.300 --> 00:06:29.730 a purpose that all the others lacked – 00:06:29.730 --> 00:06:32.810 surely this was Tiresias, 00:06:32.810 --> 00:06:35.950 the ghost that we sought. 00:06:35.950 --> 00:06:39.280 I guided him with the sound of my voice towards the pool. 00:06:39.280 --> 00:06:41.500 He knelt, he cupped his hands, 00:06:41.500 --> 00:06:44.200 he dipped them into the blood and he drank. 00:06:44.200 --> 00:06:48.930 And his white eyes twitched in their sockets. 00:06:48.930 --> 00:06:50.820 He said, 00:06:50.820 --> 00:06:53.330 “You are Odysseus. 00:06:53.330 --> 00:06:57.210 You seek a way home but it will be hard for you. 00:06:57.210 --> 00:07:01.000 Poseidon longs to avenge the mutilation of his son. 00:07:01.000 --> 00:07:06.610 Odysseus, there is only one way that you will see the honey lights of home again. 00:07:06.610 --> 00:07:10.300 You must learn humility. 00:07:10.300 --> 00:07:14.970 You must rein in the desires you feel and the desires of your crew, 00:07:14.970 --> 00:07:18.670 or they will destroy you. 00:07:18.670 --> 00:07:20.390 During your voyage, 00:07:20.390 --> 00:07:23.240 you will approach an island where you’ll see cattle grazing, 00:07:23.240 --> 00:07:24.980 no sign of human life. 00:07:24.980 --> 00:07:27.000 You will want to stop and feast upon their flesh. 00:07:27.000 --> 00:07:28.320 But, Odysseus, 00:07:28.320 --> 00:07:33.480 this herd is the prized possession of the sun-god Hyperion. 00:07:33.480 --> 00:07:35.530 If he were to see you harm them 00:07:35.530 --> 00:07:36.910 (and he is the sun - 00:07:36.910 --> 00:07:38.670 he sees all), 00:07:38.670 --> 00:07:43.420 if he were to see you harm them he would go to Zeus and demand revenge, 00:07:43.420 --> 00:07:52.830 and Zeus would ensure that the Cyclops’ curse would chase you relentlessly across the world until if at last you reached your homeland, 00:07:52.830 --> 00:07:56.010 it would be alone, and unknown, 00:07:56.010 --> 00:08:04.750 and under a strange sail and you would find danger waiting where there should be a welcome. 00:08:04.750 --> 00:08:09.250 If you can overcome those who await you, Odysseus, 00:08:09.250 --> 00:08:12.450 there is another journey you must make. 00:08:12.450 --> 00:08:21.080 You must go to the mainland and put an oar on your shoulder and walk inland leaving behind everyone, 00:08:21.080 --> 00:08:22.940 everything you know, 00:08:22.940 --> 00:08:27.470 until at last you come to a crossroads where a man will stop you. 00:08:27.470 --> 00:08:30.420 He will point at the oar that you are carrying, 00:08:30.420 --> 00:08:33.060 he will ask you what it is. 00:08:33.060 --> 00:08:35.460 In that place, 00:08:35.460 --> 00:08:42.280 where they do not know what an oar is because they do not know what the sea is, 00:08:42.280 --> 00:08:45.840 in that place where, truly, 00:08:45.840 --> 00:08:49.650 you are nobody, 00:08:49.650 --> 00:08:59.140 you must plant the blade of the oar in the ground so that the shaft rises up towards the sky and sacrifice to the sea god a ram, 00:08:59.140 --> 00:09:01.840 a bull and a breeding boar. 00:09:01.840 --> 00:09:07.440 Then you will have made your peace with him. 00:09:07.440 --> 00:09:10.890 This vision I have seen, 00:09:10.890 --> 00:09:17.700 it has come to me through a gate of horn.” 00:09:17.710 --> 00:09:20.960 As the blind prophet spoke, 00:09:20.960 --> 00:09:25.330 more and more ghosts gathered round the pool. 00:09:25.330 --> 00:09:35.210 Then I saw a sight that struck me with such a shock of sorrow I dropped my sword, I stumbled back, 00:09:35.210 --> 00:09:36.830 I fell into the pool of blood. 00:09:36.830 --> 00:09:38.680 I turned and ran screaming, 00:09:38.680 --> 00:09:40.080 my two companions following, 00:09:40.080 --> 00:09:41.410 not knowing why they were running. 00:09:41.410 --> 00:09:46.820 We climbed aboard the ship and soon we were out on the open sea. 00:09:46.820 --> 00:09:51.680 They never asked me what I had seen. 00:09:51.680 --> 00:09:58.910 I never told them that I had seen among the stupid, hungry dead, 00:09:58.910 --> 00:10:03.820 the face of my mother. 00:10:03.820 --> 00:10:07.310 I had been gone too long. 00:10:07.310 --> 00:10:14.210 If I ever reached my homeland again she would not be there. 00:10:14.210 --> 00:10:22.340 I would never again feel her warm embrace. 00:10:22.340 --> 00:11:06.090 [Closing music]