The Greek Myths

In Our Time: Culture

BBC

History

4.6 • 978 Ratings

🗓️ 13 March 2008

⏱️ 43 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Greek myths from Achilles to Zeus. Are you a touch narcissistic? Do you have the body of an Adonis? Are you willing to undertake Herculean tasks or Promethean ventures? Perhaps you have an Oedipus complex? If you answer to any or perhaps all of these you owe something to the Greek myths, a collection of weird and wonderful stories that, like Penelope’s shroud or the needlework of Arachne, were constantly woven and unpicked across centuries of Greek and Roman civilisation. The myths have a cast of thousands including mighty Zeus, Jason and the Argonauts, wily Odysseus, beautiful Aphrodite and Cerberus, the three-headed dog. They are funny, shocking, quirky and epic and have retained their power and their wisdom from the ancient world to the modern. With Nick Lowe, Senior Lecturer in Classics at Royal Holloway, University of London; Richard Buxton, Professor of Greek Language and Literature at the University of Bristol; Mary Beard, Professor of Classics at Cambridge University

Transcript

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0:45.1	Hello are you a touch narcissistic do you have the body of an Adonis are you willing to undertake her
0:50.3	Kulean tasks or Prometheus ventures perhaps you have an edipus complex.
0:55.0	If you answer to any or perhaps all of these you owe something to the Greek myths, a collection of
0:59.0	powerful, resonant and wonderful stories that like Penelope's shroud or the needlework of Arachna
1:04.4	were constantly woven and unpicked across the centuries of Greek and Roman civilization from
1:08.7	before Homer to Ovid and after. The myths have a cast of thousands including mighty
1:13.4	use, Jason and the Argonauts, Wyludicious, beautiful Aphrodite and
1:16.8	Cerberus the three-headed dog, their funny, shocking, quirky and epic and have carried
1:22.0	over their power and their wisdom from the ancient world to the modern.
	...

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