Summary
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Trojan War, one of the best known events of Greek mythology. According to the traditional version of the story, the war began when a Trojan prince, Paris, eloped with the Spartan queen Helen. A Greek army besieged Troy for ten years before the city was finally overrun and destroyed. Some of the most familiar names of Greek mythology are associated with the war, including Achilles and Hector, Odysseus and Helen of Troy - and it has also given us the story of the Trojan Horse.The war is the backdrop for Homer's epic poem The Iliad, and features in many other works from classical antiquity. For centuries it was assumed to be a mythical event. But in the nineteenth century a series of archaeological discoveries provided startling evidence that Troy might really have existed, leading some scholars to conclude that there could even be some truth behind the myth. So does the Trojan War story have any basis in fact? And why has it proved such an enduring legend?With:Edith HallProfessor of Classics at King's College LondonEllen AdamsLecturer in Classical Art and Archaeology at King's College LondonSusan SherrattLecturer in Archaeology at the University of SheffieldProducer: Thomas Morris.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Thanks for downloading the Inartime podcast. For more details about Inartime and for our terms of use |
| 0:05.4 | Please go to bbc.co.uk forward slash radio for I hope you enjoy the program |
| 0:12.2 | Hello, it began when a prince was asked to judge a beauty contest and ended with the great city of Troy |
| 0:16.8 | Burned to the ground the Trojan War a ten-year conflict between the Greeks the Trojans is one of the best known stories of ancient mythology |
| 0:24.2 | The names of its main characters include Achilles and Hector Cassandra Helen of Troy and King and King Agamendran |
| 0:30.8 | As still familiar today almost three hundred years later three hundred years after they were first written down and |
| 0:36.8 | The ploy that settled the conflict of the Trojan horse remains the most famous piece of the subterfuge in military history |
| 0:43.5 | Percenture the Trojan War was believed to be nothing more than an ancient myth a story made famous by Homer's epic poem |
| 0:49.1 | The Iliad but in the late 19th century archaeologists and historians began to discover surprising evidence suggesting |
| 0:54.9 | There might be some truths behind the stories after all |
| 0:57.6 | So where does the tale come from and should we be describing the Trojan War as myth or history? |
| 1:02.9 | We'd need to discuss the Trojan War at Edith Hall Professor of Classics at King's College London |
| 1:08.4 | Alan Adams lecturer in classical art and archaeology also at King's College London and Susan Sherrod |
| 1:14.1 | Lecturer in archaeology at the University of Sheffield Edith Hall |
| 1:17.7 | Can we talk first about the mythology of the Trojan War? How the whole thing began? |
| 1:22.5 | The myth of the Trojan War is is really the foundation myth for the ancient Greeks and the Roman world and they're for the West of the relationship between |
| 1:30.4 | Gods and men and between Eastern West |
| 1:33.9 | It |
| 1:34.9 | Begins really with the killies the mightiest of all the Greek heroes who is |
| 1:40.4 | Half God and half man and and the wedding of his parents Pilius. He was a mortal and thettis who is a goddess |
| 1:48.8 | But it was some decreed that she was going to bear a son mighty than herself |
| 1:52.5 | So Zeus decided she must be married to a mortal or else she would make a super god if you see what I mean |
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