Welcome back to the home of the oxymoron. Evil genius. He asked the newspaper to print his obituary early so he'd enjoy it. That's like hiding at your own funeral. Yeah, a big, great gig. I'm Russell Kane. Join me to weigh in on whether the biggest players in history are more evil or genius. Becoming that rich, I'd say that is some level of genius. It also helps

it. It's a long time ago, right? It's like the podcast version of telling your kids the ice cream

van plays music when it's out of ice cream. Listen to evil genius on BBC Sounds.

BBC Sounds, music, radio, podcasts. Hello, I'm Ron Amitter.

And in this episode of the Arts and Ideas podcast, a pair of discussions which range across the oceans,

as my guests and I look at the sea in Greek myth, and then I'll hand over to Ian McMillan

for a discussion of belief and faith in Russian literature.

The conversations were originally recorded

with audiences at past seasons of the BBC proms.

Hello, for some of us, the idea of sea journeys brings up memories, along with our lunch,

when we recall school trips to Calais on the Sealing Ferry making its way through the choppy waters of the North Sea.

But we're taking a rather nobler voyage on the waves today with guests who are going to

mull over marine matters. Edith Hall is Professor of Classics at King's College London

and will illuminate the sea for us as seen in Greek myths and legends.

And Barry Cunliff is author of a new book On the Ocean, which explores how the sea shaped the history of the pre-modern world.

Before we get to the history, though, Barry, Edith, I want to ask, when you close your eyes and visualize the sea, which sea is it? What does it look like?

Edith, as a classicist, does it have to be the Mediterranean for you? No, not at all. I remember when I was

lecturing on a cruise liner as we went past Istanbul on the left and the right and we got up to the

actual gateway of the Black Sea, which is the one that was most feared by the ancient Greeks and the waters really do churn and it's incredible effort you can feel the ship juddering and you get into the black Sea, which is the land of terrible monsters and terrible

barbarians and it starts to get misty and I was actually followed by a rainbow after a thunderstorm.

Barry, something more northerly in the sea direction for you perhaps.

Well, a bit westerly I think. For me, the Atlantic is the sea or the ocean.

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