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 that 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.

Hello, I'm Philip Dodd, and welcome to the Arts and Ideas Discussion Program from BBC Radio 3,

which brings together leading artists, writers and thinkers.

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James Joyce's Dublin-bound novel Ulysses, Jean-Luc Goddard's tragic love story, Le Meprie,

and Derek Walcott's Seaborn Caribbean epic, omorous.

All of them bear witness to the continuing, compelling power

of the subject of this evening's free-thinking landmark.

I said, Omeros, and O was the conch-shell's invocation,

mayor was both mother and sea in our Antilion patois, os a grey bone, and the white surf as it crashes and spreads its

sibilant collar on a lace shore. Omaris was the crunch of dry leaves and the washes it echoed

from a cave mouth when the tide has ebbed.

What we hear reverberating in Derek Walcott's work and that of my guest tonight is Homer, and in particular the Odyssey, which is the subject of tonight's programme.

Homer's epic was probably composed, and probably is a word that is tied to this poem

in the 8th century BC about the aftermath of the Trojan War, which may be a historical event.

The Odyssey tells the story of the Greek warrior Odysseus and his journey home to Ithaca,

to his wife Penelope and his son Telemachus.

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