Unraveling Homer's Odyssey: The Greatest Myth In Human History?

[00:00:13]Troy, the classic tale of a wooden horse that fooled a city and won a war. That's the familiar story written down by a poet called Homer. But what happened next?

[00:00:31]The Trojan horse was the brainchild of an arched trickster, Odysius.

[00:00:36]After fighting Troy, Adysius, the conquering king, is sailing back to Ithaca.

[00:00:43]This journey is the subject of Homer's great epic adventure, the Odyssey. It begins with the hero, Adysius, thinking not of his victory, but of home.

[00:00:56]10 years earlier, he left his beautiful wife, Penelope, and his newborn son, Tmicus.

[00:01:03]>> Look after yourself, Adysius.

[00:01:07]>> Now, Tmacus is 10. Is Penelopey still faithful? Is she still waiting? Adysius is desperate to get home and find out.

[00:01:19]But the trip home from Troy to Ithaca will be more difficult and more dangerous than he can possibly imagine.

[00:01:29]It's a journey that will change his life forever.

[00:01:34]He'll be tested by ghosts and monsters.

[00:01:44]>> He'll be tempted by fame and glory.

[00:01:51]ADIUS, THE MAN WHO CONQUERED TROY, >> and by a sex goddess.

[00:01:59]>> I could make you live forever.

[00:02:01]>> This is every man's dream.

[00:02:05]>> Meanwhile, his wife is surrounded by men who want to seduce her and take Adysius place. Will he get back in time?

[00:02:14]>> So, choose a husband now.

[00:02:17]>> It won't be enough just to get home.

[00:02:19]He's got to get home and find home the way it was when he left it.

[00:02:25]>> The Odyssey really is one of the great stories of Greek mythology, but like all myths, there's much more to it than that.

[00:02:37]>> Drop the >> We'll be joining Adysius on his adventure to try and unravel the mystery.

[00:03:06]We still use the word odyssey today to describe a long journey full of adventures.

[00:03:14]But it also suggests an inner journey too. And indeed the twists and turns, trials and tribulations of the original Odyssey were used by the ancient Greeks to teach them about themselves.

[00:03:32]On one level, the Odyssey was a great story. You might say it marks the beginning of Western literature.

[00:03:43]But that alone hasn't kept it alive for 3,000 years. The Odyssey is a story that tackles the question we all have to answer. What is life all about?

[00:03:56]The ancient Greeks had a rather bleak view of life. Here today, gone tomorrow.

[00:04:03]They envied the gods they worshiped because the gods were immortal. They lived forever.

[00:04:10]Homer tackles this view of life head on through the story of a hero coming home from war.

[00:04:26]After his victorious campaign in Troy, Adysius is finally heading back to Ithaca. His thoughts are very much of Penelope and Tmicus, the wife and son he left behind 10 years earlier.

[00:04:54]>> I know you must go.

[00:04:56]>> My men need me.

[00:04:58]If needs me, I have no choice. You are a king, Odicius.

[00:05:04]You are a king and a husband and a father.

[00:05:10]>> My son will be proud of me.

[00:05:11]>> Yes, >> you will. And you will see if you come back.

[00:05:17]>> Not here.

[00:05:19]>> When?

[00:05:19]>> When will that be?

[00:05:26]I promise not to be old and tired when you come home.

[00:05:31]Adysius should be rejoicing, but he's haunted by his last words to Penelope.

[00:05:42]I want you to promise me something else.

[00:05:47]If I don't come back from Troy, >> you will.

[00:05:49]>> If I don't, you can't stay on your own. The boy needs a father.

[00:05:56]>> He has a father. Just promise me if I'm not back by the time he's a man, you'll take another husband.

[00:06:05]>> I don't want another.

[00:06:06]>> Will you promise?

[00:06:10]>> I won't give up waiting for you.

[00:06:14]>> When he's a man, you marry again. Promise me.

[00:06:23]if you wish, but I know it will never happen.

[00:06:32]Look after yourself, Adysius.

[00:06:36]I'm good at that.

[00:06:51]And now, a decade later, Adysius is finally homewood bound.

[00:07:12]You'll take a drink, Adysius.

[00:07:15]>> Not to me.

[00:07:16]>> That's not like you.

[00:07:19]>> I'm thinking of home.

[00:07:21]>> 3 to 4 days if the gods are good to us.

[00:07:23]Not soon.

[00:07:25]>> I better sober these boys up.

[00:07:26]>> They're drinking half from joy and half in fear.

[00:07:29]>> Brave as lions in battle.

[00:07:32]Yes.

[00:07:34]>> Are their wives still waiting?

[00:07:36]>> It's been a long time.

[00:07:38]>> My son must be as tall as me by now. He was at the breast when I left him.

[00:07:44]>> Lucky lad.

[00:07:48]>> Let's hope there's a welcome for us all.

[00:07:50]>> Yes.

[00:07:52]Let's hope the gods and our wives are good to us.

[00:07:56]>> I'll drink to that.

[00:08:17]It's 10 years since Adysius left his kingdom, and Penelope is still waiting faithfully for her husband.

[00:08:25]But for the first time, Penelopey's patience and love are about to be tested.

[00:08:31]A group of local nobles with half an eye on Adysius throne have come to pay Penelopey a visit.

[00:08:39]Will Odysius get back in time to reclaim his wife and his kingdom?

[00:08:51]The journey from Troy on the western coast of Turkey to Ithaca on the western coast of Greece should take Adysius less than a week.

[00:09:03]In fact, it's going to take him longer, much longer. Homer will use the journey home to explore a fundamental question.

[00:09:11]The Greeks knew they couldn't be like their gods. They couldn't live forever.

[00:09:15]But what about finding meaning in another kind of immortality? An earthly immortality where your name lives forever.

[00:09:27]Fame, for example, especially the kind that comes from victory in battle. But Homer believed the immortality of fame and glory was hollow and unsatisfying.

[00:09:37]He shows us why in the Odyssey. He gets the gods to play havoc with Adysius journey home.

[00:09:50]I don't like this. I can't see the rocks. We're sailing blind. We've lost the fleet. I think we're on our own.

[00:09:56]>> Where are we?

[00:09:56]>> I can't tell.

[00:09:58]>> Drop the sail. WE'LL ROW UNTIL IT lifts and light some more torches.

[00:10:06]>> Why? Why now?

[00:10:09]We're so close.

[00:10:18]Unable to follow the stars or see land, his ship drifts far away from Ithaca.

[00:10:25]The gods drive Adysius hundreds of miles away, beyond the known world.

[00:10:33]His ship runs a ground on an island of mythical creatures.

[00:10:44]Homer uses this strange island to put his hero to the test. Adysius exploits at Troy have guaranteed him immortality.

[00:10:53]He says he just wants to get home. But does he really mean it?

[00:11:00]Time is against him. Is Penelopey waiting? He should be heading home. This could be a dangerous place. And yet, he's drawn into the heart of this mysterious island. He seems unable to resist the temptation of the unknown.

[00:11:20]It's as if Adysius is looking for an opportunity for more adventures, more triumphs. It's as if he wants even more fame.

[00:11:29]>> We'll spend the night here.

[00:11:31]It's too late to carry on.

[00:11:35]>> Stop that, you idiot. Relax.

[00:11:38]>> Whoever lives here, they won't turn away half drowned visitors.

[00:11:57]>> What on earth is that? Adysius has landed on an island of cyclops, terrifying oneeyed giants.

[00:12:06]This cyclops is called Polyphimmas.

[00:12:09]>> We've come for shelter. We mean no harm.

[00:12:23]The journey home is suddenly in jeopardy. But for Adysius, it's a chance to notch up another victory.

[00:12:32]>> We should kill him now.

[00:12:35]>> Then we'd be trapped.

[00:12:37]If he kills the Cyclops, they'll be trapped in the cave, unable to move the massive stone blocking the entrance. If he doesn't, they'll be eaten one by one.

[00:12:49]But Adysius, the famous trickster, is not easily defeated.

[00:12:54]Adysius decides to humor the Cyclops and trick him with a little word game.

[00:13:00]>> What's your name?

[00:13:04]>> He tries to convince him that his name is no one.

[00:13:08]>> Would you share some wine with no one?

[00:13:28]The wine does its job. Polyphimmas falls asleep.

[00:14:00]Dissus is a great trickster. He doesn't shrink away from a lot of dangerous things, but he is out for a different kind of fame. He is out for the fame of having a great story to tell.

[00:14:13]So he's not going to throw away his life. He wants to live a long time.

[00:14:42]Polyphimas cries out to his fellow Cyclops that he's been blinded. HELP ME BLIND.

[00:14:48]>> When they ask by whom, Polyphimas, of course, replies, by no one.

[00:14:55]It worked a treat, but it's not over yet. Adysius and his men have still got to get past the Cyclops guarding the entrance. He's coming back.

[00:15:05]>> Get down with the sheep. Get down with the sheep.

[00:15:14]>> Free at last from the monster. You might think that Adysius would make a beline for his ship.

[00:15:22]OH, BY THE WAY, IF ANYONE ASKS YOU WHO MADE SUCH A FOOL OF YOU, TELL THEM ADYSIUS DID IT. ADIUS, THE MAN WHO conquered Tri.

[00:15:38]He's outwitted the Cyclops. He's cheated death. But that's not enough for Adysius. He had to stop and taunt the giant. And here we get an important insight into the real message of Homer's Odyssey.

[00:15:54]>> Homer is saying that the ancient Greeks were wrong if they thought they could find meaning and happiness through fame.

[00:16:00]It always left you hungry for more. And that's something he reflects in the Odyssey.

[00:16:07]>> Adysius is torn between the craving for more adventure and glory and his stated desire to get home. It's attention that could cost him dear.

[00:16:24]>> Depressed.

[00:16:29]>> Back in Ithaca, his family continues to wait.

[00:16:33]>> But with every passing day, the risk grows that Penelope will give up hope and remarry.

[00:16:40]>> The party of local nobles have come to woo Penelope and win Adysius's throne.

[00:16:46]I would like to invite you all to come to a banquet.

[00:16:49]>> That would be an honor.

[00:17:01]>> After all this time, these single noblemen assume that Adysius is dead and they've got their eyes on his widow.

[00:17:09]>> Queen you on earth. They're feasting daily in the royal palace, abusing Penelopey's hospitality and harassing her to choose one of them as her new husband.

[00:17:22]Grandfather.

[00:17:35]>> The queen. I know the queen. I don't know. How lucky your DCS is, huh?

[00:17:39]Hallelujah.

[00:17:56]>> Come on. Don't go shy of me.

[00:17:58]>> You're a bad man and you'll get me into trouble.

[00:18:00]>> Chance would be a fine thing.

[00:18:02]>> That's enough.

[00:18:03]>> Come on. Give a little.

[00:18:04]>> I said GET OFF.

[00:18:05]>> NO. NO. NO.

[00:18:09]PUT HIM DOWN.

[00:18:14]>> Don't waste your beauty, Penelope.

[00:18:26]>> You are a brave boy, Tmacus.

[00:18:29]Your father will be so proud of you.

[00:18:33]He is a great warrior and he loves us.

[00:18:38]Nothing will stop him coming home.

[00:18:41]You'll see.

[00:18:51]>> Where are you?

[00:18:54]>> Any more delays in getting back to Ithaca and Adysius could lose his wife and son. He needs to get back home fast.

[00:19:05]But Homer knew how strong the pull of immortality was. For the ancient Greeks, there was yet another possibility for fulfillment, for eternal life, the reward that comes from dying in glory.

[00:19:19]So in the story, the gods send Adysius on a little trip into the afterlife.

[00:19:25]In Greek mythology, the next world was literally underground.

[00:19:31]And the Greeks imagined there were real places on Earth which were doorways into the afterlife.

[00:19:39]After death, the Greeks believed a spirit left the body and took a ghostly form in the house of death. The Greeks believed in an afterlife, but it was nothing like a Christian afterlife. It was uh nothing like heaven as a place of reward and hell as a place of punishment. The afterlife at the time of Homer is a kind of limbo. Always reminds me of the sort of the shadow world in Superman comics where people are there and they can see you but you can't see them.

[00:20:14]The afterlife was a dreadful prospect for the ancient Greeks. But what if you died an heroic death in battle? Well, this is his chance to get a preview of the afterlife.

[00:20:28]Out of the darkness, Adysius hears a voice. Not just any voice, but Achilles, a great hero of the Trojan War.

[00:20:38]Achilles had died a famous and heroic death. Killed in combat by an arrow to his heel.

[00:20:47]Adysius expected him to be rewarded with an afterlife of peace and purpose.

[00:20:52]Achilles.

[00:20:54]Achilles, is that you?

[00:20:55]>> How wrong he was?

[00:20:58]>> Oh, great. Achilles.

[00:20:59]>> Yes, I was great.

[00:21:02]>> Was we still worship you?

[00:21:08]What's wrong?

[00:21:09]>> Can't you see?

[00:21:12]>> I see great Achilles, Lord of all the dead in power and glory.

[00:21:17]No, I'd rather be alive and slave to a slave than rule down here among the breathless dead.

[00:21:31]Achilles represents glory, fame, the whole macho world of a Greek warrior.

[00:21:38]And what Achilles basically says is that that is worth nothing. That it wasn't worth it. It wasn't worth dying nobly in battle because he lost all the preciousness of life, being at home, food, sex, fun, telling stories, and all the things that the Greeks love.

[00:21:56]Meeting Achilles is a big shock for Adysius, but he's about to learn the true price of leaving home in search of glory.

[00:22:07]Odysius.

[00:22:10]Brother, >> why are you here?

[00:22:15]>> I'm here because of you.

[00:22:18]>> How?

[00:22:19]>> My heart broke with waiting.

[00:22:22]>> But I conquered Troy. I'm alive.

[00:22:25]>> Too late. But >> I'm coming home now.

[00:22:30]>> But I cannot.

[00:22:47]It's a wonderful image of of loss and of sadness. He tries to embrace her. And Adishius is not a huggy kind of a guy.

[00:22:55]He's he's a very standoffish person.

[00:22:58]He's sexual. He's almost predatory in some ways, but he's not a friendly fellow really.

[00:23:08]>> Odysius, shocked to the core, has had enough of the underworld. But just as he turns to leave, another ghost turns up with a terrifying tale to tell.

[00:23:18]Agamemnon was a great king who led all the armies rallied against Troy. The last time Adysius had seen him, he too was on his way back home.

[00:23:29]Ar.

[00:23:34]>> Oh, great king. Great.

[00:23:37]No longer. Which Trojan sword sent you here?

[00:23:41]>> I didn't die in battle.

[00:23:46]>> Adysius learns that Agamemnon was murdered when he came home from Troy by his unfaithful wife, [ __ ] Neestra, and her lover.

[00:23:55]That is Adysius's nightmare that his wife Penelope will be like [ __ ] Nestra.

[00:24:04]And indeed, a great deal of the Odyssey deals with what is going on at Ithaca while Adysius is trying to get there and how Penelopey is trying to be faithful to him, which is not all that easy.

[00:24:14]She's being besieged by these other suitors.

[00:24:18]>> Agamemnon's story fuels Adysius worst fears. He vows to head straight home to Ithaca before it's too late.

[00:24:33]>> Stop that a while and come sit here.

[00:24:36]>> Now, don't get any ideas.

[00:24:39]>> I need more yarn.

[00:24:58]Get your hands off me.

[00:25:03]>> The boy's a disgrace.

[00:25:08]>> He needs a father. And you need a husband, Penelope.

[00:25:11]>> I have a husband.

[00:25:14]>> How old are you? How old do you think you'll be when he comes back?

[00:25:20]You're beautiful now, not forever.

[00:25:30]>> Accept it. He's not coming back.

[00:25:33]>> You can't say that.

[00:25:39]>> How long will you wait?

[00:25:45]Look, the tapestry.

[00:25:51]If my husband is not back by the time I've completed it, well, then I will choose another Penelope continues to embroider a tapestry. Day after day, she adds new colors to it. All along giving her suitors the impression that she's striving to finish it.

[00:26:34]But what the suitors don't know is that every night, Penelopey unpicks her day's work.

[00:26:41]Night after night, she buys time for herself and Adysius.

[00:26:57]Both the island of Cyclops and his trip to the underworld should have convinced Adysius that getting home was his first priority.

[00:27:06]But the Odyssey is far from finished.

[00:27:08]Homer wants to explore one of the biggest questions for the ancient Greeks.

[00:27:14]What would happen if humans could be like the gods?

[00:27:20]Adysius is about to find out. His boat is caught in a storm and Adysius is driven even further from his destination.

[00:27:36]>> Drop the secure die.

[00:27:54]Keep going.

[00:27:56]Hold on. Hold on.

[00:28:08]No, no.

[00:28:16]The storm smashes the boat and drowns the crew.

[00:28:35]except for the hero of Troy. But his quest to get home is in ruins.

[00:28:46]Heat. Heat.

[00:29:20]after drifting for days. Odysius is washed up on a new island.

[00:29:34]This time it belongs to a goddess, Calypso, daughter of the god Atlas.

[00:29:47]For the ancient Greeks, this would be a dream come true.

[00:29:52]But is the life of the gods everything it's cracked up to be?

[00:30:15]You can stay as long as you like.

[00:30:18]Everything you wish for is here.

[00:30:21]>> Yes.

[00:30:24]>> Yes.

[00:30:32]And will you help me get back to Ithaca sometime?

[00:30:38]>> Ithther has nothing you cannot find here.

[00:30:42]>> No, but one day I will go back to Ithaca.

[00:30:47]Ithaca has my wife and son.

[00:30:50]>> Yes, but this island has Calypso.

[00:31:26]It doesn't take long for Calypso to fall in love with Adysius.

[00:31:30]She hasn't seen a man for an eternity.

[00:31:38]And as for Adysius, he can hardly resist the charms of a sex goddess.

[00:31:47]One of the reasons that the gods fall in love with mortals is because the Greeks seem to believe that what makes mortal life precious is precisely its precariousness.

[00:31:58]That it's not going to last forever.

[00:32:00]that there's a kind of intensity and vividness in human experience which the gods don't have.

[00:32:10]This is a key chapter in the Odyssey.

[00:32:13]Homer once again makes Adysius confront the meaning of life. He's looked for answers in the afterlife and found none.

[00:32:22]Perhaps he's found them with Calypso on this island paradise. He's obviously found something at least after dark because the Odyssey tells us he stays for seven whole years.

[00:32:36]Night after night, year after year, Adysius wallows in sensual pleasure.

[00:32:44]But every morning after the night before, he nurses the same old hangover.

[00:33:06]Heat. Heat.

[00:33:33]Why so sad?

[00:33:37]>> I have to leave you, Calypso.

[00:33:40]I need my son. I need my wife.

[00:33:46]What more can I do for you?

[00:33:48]>> She'll never treat you as well as I do.

[00:33:50]She'll be old and gray.

[00:33:51]>> I know. I know.

[00:33:54]But I must.

[00:33:57]>> She'll die one day, and so will you.

[00:34:04]>> There is one thing I haven't given you, but I could.

[00:34:10]>> What?

[00:34:12]I could make you live forever.

[00:34:26]This is a better offer than anything Adysius has heard before. Better than fame. Better even than eternal life in the house of death.

[00:34:37]Immortality. Who could refuse? But after 7 years sleeping with a sex goddess, paradise is starting to pale. The offer of everlasting pleasure makes Adysius take stock. Does he really want eternal youth? Does he really want to live as a god and indulge his passions forever?

[00:35:07]>> Don't hate me.

[00:35:09]I don't hate you. I feel nothing for you.

[00:35:12]>> Don't be like this.

[00:35:15]>> I give you paradise, eternal life, and you throw it in my face.

[00:35:23]You're not the man I thought you were.

[00:35:25]>> I'm still Odicius.

[00:35:29]>> Who is Odicius?

[00:35:31]The hero, the great warrior.

[00:35:35]You are nothing.

[00:35:38]Calypso, >> get off this island.

[00:35:42]Go home and die with your tired old wife.

[00:35:49]Don't try to come back to me. You are dead from the moment you leave.

[00:35:57]Calypso is a goddess and as a goddess is amazingly beautiful. She's also immortal and she offers Adysius immortality.

[00:36:08]This is every man's dream. The audience of men must have been salivating at the possibility.

[00:36:16]And you know, you've got to ask why he doesn't take the deal. It seems a pretty good one, doesn't it? You're not offered that every day. And what we're told is that he is longing for his homeland and that he's longing for Penelope.

[00:36:33]It's not immortality he wants. He wants to be a fulfilled mortal.

[00:36:40]>> It's a mixed bargain this shacking up with a goddess. So he resists her and says he would really rather go home to Ithaca to his wife Penelope. It needs to be said that he doesn't make that decision for seven years. So he does rather have his cake and eat it.

[00:37:02]Calypso reluctantly gives Adysius the materials to make himself a raft in his heart. So the story goes, Adysius prefers the ups and downs of domestic life to anything else he's seen. From lording it in the underworld to heaven on earth.

[00:37:23]Adysius chooses to resume his journey home. But is he too late?

[00:37:34]Back in Ithaca, Penelope is still hard at work on her neverending tapestry.

[00:37:49]>> I've heard of taking pride in your work, but this is getting ridiculous.

[00:38:02]After his trials and tribulations, Adysius is at last within sight of Ithaca. Or so he thinks.

[00:38:11]>> What?

[00:38:12]>> So far in the Odyssey, Homer's really put his hero through the mill. Adysius has learned that it's futile to seek fulfillment in war, battling monsters, or living in the underworld. Even the life of the gods gets dull after a while.

[00:38:27]But there's still one more twist, one more Greek dream of immortality for the Odyssey to question.

[00:38:35]Just as Adysius is nearing Ithaca, the gods intervene again.

[00:38:40]He's blown off course and finds himself in another exotic location, the land of the Fishians.

[00:38:49]It's the final test for Adysius. Can he resist the immortality of sporting celebrity?

[00:38:58]The Fishians are holding something like the Olympics. For the ancient Greeks, athletic festivals were a very practical way of securing lasting recognition.

[00:39:11]One of the rewards that you got if you won at the Olympic Games was a very definite type of immortality. Your name was inscribed on a list or roll of of winners that people could read centuries afterwards. You got a statue put up in the sanctuary and you actually got a poem created about you and your victory.

[00:39:36]The games in the Odyssey are based on real games held in ancient Greece, the forerunners of the Olympics.

[00:39:44]The oldest event was the foot race. The runners assembled at a line drawn in the sand. The origin of the phrase starting from scratch.

[00:40:04]The games were religious festivals in honor of the god's use. But the events themselves arose out of military exercises like the armor race. Contestants decked out in battle dress from head to toe.

[00:40:24]The Fishian Games are a chance for Adysius to win a different kind of immortality, fame and glory through competition. The trouble for Adysius is that if he takes part, he'll delay his journey home yet again.

[00:40:37]>> Would you do us the honor of taking part?

[00:40:40]>> Please, I'm not here to compete.

[00:40:46]OF COURSE I CAN RUN.

[00:41:02]>> OF COURSE I CAN THROW.

[00:41:05]I'M THE MAN WHO CONQUERED TROY.

[00:41:09]But I must get back to Ithaca. I cannot.

[00:41:15]May God bless you.

[00:41:31]Bro, >> DOES ANYBODY FIRST ONE TO TAKE ON ADYSIUS.

[00:42:16]It's a real wrench for Adysius because sport has never been just a game. Glory in all its shapes and forms is the kind of immortality that most people long for. And for all his achievements, Adysius is still torn. He wants to go out there and show everyone the talents of the mighty Adysius.

[00:42:37]But in the end, he turns his back on it and he chooses another kind of immortality, the kind we get from our children and our grandchildren.

[00:42:48]He chooses family.

[00:42:51]He was already famous enough. His story was already being told primarily the story of the Trojan horse. So he was finished with that kind of fame.

[00:43:04]Now he wanted the other kind. He wanted the family. And that's why Tmicus is such an important part of the Odyssey because not only must Adysius survive, but Tmicus must also survive so that his line will go on through the ages and his seed and so forth.

[00:43:27]But in taking so long to discover what he really wants, he risks losing it completely.

[00:43:39]She hasn't got the world's slowest fingers after all. The mate tells ME SHE'S BEEN UNPICKING THE TAPESTRY.

[00:43:45]YOU >> the game's on, girl. You can't be queen without a king. So, choose a husband now. WE'VE BEEN HERE LONG ENOUGH.

[00:44:02]TICUS, >> bring me your father's bow and arrow.

[00:44:18]Whoever can string his bow and fire an arrow, then I will marry.

[00:44:28]>> How hard can that be?

[00:44:36]>> Come on. Meanwhile, the king of Fishia has put Adysius on a swift ship back to Ithaca.

[00:44:44]After a journey that has taken him to the Trojan War, to a world of gods and monsters, even to hell and back, Adysius finally returns to his kingdom.

[00:44:56]It should be a moment of celebration.

[00:44:58]But as he lands on Ithaca, does Adysius still have a wife, a son, and a kingdom?

[00:45:05]it won't be enough just to get home.

[00:45:08]He's got to get home and find home the way it was when he left it. And he's worried that uh that that might not be the case. So, he's scheming not only to get there, but to make sure that when he gets there, he has what it takes to resume his position in society, his money. He wants to find out what's going on in Ithaca.

[00:45:34]Living up to his reputation as a trickster, Adysius decides to catch any rivals unawares by entering the city disguised as a beggar.

[00:45:47]>> Be my guest.

[00:45:48]>> Penelope, your lonely nights are over.

[00:45:53]>> He turns up just as the suitors are competing for his wife's hand in marriage. Here's a contest he must win.

[00:46:15]This is ridiculous. What kind of bow is this? This is another of her tricks.

[00:46:19]Time for these games to stop. You must choose a husband now.

[00:46:24]Wait.

[00:46:27]you.

[00:46:50]>> Stand back, lads. This could go anywhere.

[00:47:12]Oh, Jesus. Yes.

[00:47:19]>> I told you I could look after myself.

[00:47:29]Home at last, but what a journey. What should have been a two week sailing trip almost cost him his life, his sanity, and his marriage.

[00:47:40]>> So, what's the moral of Homer's story?

[00:47:43]It might be perfectly natural to wish for immortality, but in the end, it's a waste of time. The only real life is the one we've got.

[00:47:54]Homer's message is to value what's ours, >> to live in the here and now. The Greeks may have envied their gods, but the life of mortals was rich and wonderful, and the gods envied them for that. Without the fear of death, we cannot be heroes.

[00:48:12]Without the risk of loss, we cannot truly love.

[00:48:20]It's a celebration of the life we've got. And for Adysius, the most meaningful part of that is family.

[00:48:27]>> For all its ups and downs, most of us would go along with that.

[00:48:32]>> It tries to preserve and to present like a mirror back to the Greeks for whom he was writing what their world was like and why it was beautiful and why it was precious. And part of that argument is precisely that it's better than the life of the gods in many ways.

[00:48:53]>> But there's a real irony.

[00:48:56]The man who wrote down this traditional story 3,000 years ago, who warned of the perils of seeking immortality, has himself become immortal.

[00:49:09]His poetry is among the finest in world literature. And the message of the Odyssey still echoes down the centuries.

[00:49:23]And because of that, his name Homer will live forever.