Summary
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss The Odyssey by Homer, often claimed as the great founding work of Western Literature. It's an epic that has entertained its audience for nearly three thousand years: It has shipwrecks, Cyclops, brave heroes and seductive sex goddesses. But it’s also got revenge, true love and existential angst. The story follows on from Homer's Iliad, and tells of the Greek hero Odysseus and his long attempt to get home to Ithaca after the Trojan War. Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss what has given the Odyssey such a fundamental position in the history of western ideas, what are the meanings behind the trials and tribulations that befall Odysseus and how the Odyssey was composed and by whom. With Simon Goldhill, Professor of Greek at King's College, Cambridge; Edith Hall, Leverhulme Professor of Greek Cultural History at Durham University; Oliver Taplin, Classics Scholar and Translator at Oxford University.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Just before this BBC podcast gets underway, here's something you may not know. |
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| 0:46.2 | you enjoy the program. Hello the Odyssey by Homer is often claimed as one of the two great |
| 0:51.3 | founding works of Western literature. |
| 0:53.2 | It's an epic that has entertained its audiences for nearly 3,000 years. |
| 0:57.4 | It's got shipwrecks, it's got monsters, brave heroes, very seductive sex goddesses, there's revenge and of course there's love the story |
| 1:05.3 | follows on from home as Iliad and essentially it's a tale of the Greek hero Odysseus |
| 1:09.7 | and his long attempt to get home to Ithaca after the Trojan Wars. But what has given it such a fundamental |
| 1:15.7 | position in the history of Western ideas? What are the meanings behind the trials that befall the |
| 1:20.4 | Odysseus on his way? And who really wrote the odyssey? |
| 1:24.0 | With me to discuss the odyssey is Edith Hall, Professor of Classics at Durham University, |
| 1:28.7 | Oliver Taplin, Classic Scholar and Translator at Oxford University and Simon Goldhill, Professor of |
| 1:34.5 | Greek at Cambridge University. Simon Goldhill, it took 10 years for this year to get |
| 1:39.2 | home from Troy after fighting against the Trojans for 10 years. |
| 1:43.3 | So can you briefly take us through that 10-year journey of his, the highlights of as it were, |
| 1:48.3 | as it was, as he went from Troy to back to his home kingdom at Ithaca? |
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