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 Shahid Abari.

Thanks for downloading this edition of the Arts and Ideas podcast, which is recorded with an audience before one of the concerts in this year's BBC proms.

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Ah, young love, that magical thing.

You remember what it's like, racing hearts, clasped hands,

and eyes meeting over a herd of stinking goats.

Well, at least that's what it means for lovers, Daphneus, and Chloe.

They're the hapless goat herd and the naive shepherdess, fall in love in the story written by Greek writer Longus in the second

century AD. Their pastoral romance comes complete with marauding pirates, enthusiastic dolphins,

drowning cows and divine interventions by Greek gods. No wonder Ravel thought it would make a good ballet.

He set the story to music in 1912,

after a commission by impresario Sergei Diagloff at the ballet ruse.

You'll be hearing it shortly, the music, not the drowning cows.

But here to tell you more about the story and the ballet are classicist Tim Whitmarsh

and dance writer Judith McCrell.

Tim, let's get our story straight first of all.

Daphnis and Chloe was written by a Greek writer called Longus.

What do we know about him and the text?

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