Century 1 of 13 · c. 3000 - 1100 BC
Palaces on Crete, shaft graves at Mycenae, and a writing system nobody could read for fifty years.
1145 entries · 785 hours · 1030 with a written verdict
Palaces on Crete, shaft graves at Mycenae, and a script nobody could read for fifty years.
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War · 60 of 222
This miniseries dramatizes the 10-year siege of Troy and the love affair between Paris and Helen, an original take on the Greek myths that first aired on BBC One in February 2018 before Netflix streamed it internationally.
Michael Wood writes and presents this six-part BBC documentary series from 1985, examining how far historical and archeological evidence matches Homer's account of the Trojan War in the Iliad.
Christopher Nolan wrote and directed this 2026 adaptation of Homer's Odyssey, produced with Emma Thomas and starring Matt Damon as Odysseus, who journeys home to Ithaca after the Trojan War to reunite with Penelope.
Wolfgang Petersen directed this 2004 film starring Brad Pitt, Eric Bana and Orlando Bloom, loosely based on Homer's Iliad and condensing the decade-long Trojan War as Achilles and the Greek army besiege Hector's Troy.
Directed by Marino Girolami, this 1962 Italian historical drama, released in the UK as Achilles, is set in the ninth year of the Trojan War and is based primarily on Homer's Iliad, starring Gordon Mitchell as Achilles.
Part of Ascend - The Great Books Podcast
With Karl Schudt
Deacon Harrison Garlick welcomes Dr. Karl Schudt to discuss Book 3 of the Iliad, the story of Helen and Paris, Trojan politics, and the meaning of guest-friendship.
Directed by Giorgio Ferroni, this 1961 Italian peplum film set in the tenth and final year of the Trojan War focuses primarily on the Trojan hero Aeneas, with Steve Reeves as Aeneas and John Drew Barrymore as Odysseus.
With Grayson Quay
Deacon Harrison Garlick and Adam Minihan are joined by Grayson Quay to discuss Book 5 of the Iliad, where Athena tells Diomedes to fight the Trojans and to fight no immortal save Aphrodite.
Deacon Harrison Garlick and Adam Minihan close the Iliad with Priam kissing the hands of Achilles, the man who killed his son Hector, to beg for the body's return.
With David Niles
Deacon Harrison Garlick, Adam Minihan, Thomas Lackey, and David Niles discuss Book 12 of the Iliad, the gods' dispute over the wall of the Achaeans, and Hector disregarding a bird-sign.
Part of TROJAN WAR: THE PODCAST
This hundred-minute finale has Odysseus confront Priam and Menelaus confront Helen on the night Troy burns, closing a twenty-episode arc that began with the apple of discord.
Part of Ascend - The Great Books Podcast · The Great Books read in seasons; the Homer, tragedy and Plato seasons are indexed
With Alex Priou
Part of Professor Kozlowski Lectures
Professor Kozlowski follows Diomedes cutting through the Trojan lines before Hector visits Troy in one of the Iliad's most famous, heartbreaking passages.
Deacon Harrison Garlick and Adam Minihan discuss Hector returning to Troy in Book 6 of the Iliad, the duel between Glaucus and Diomedes, and Helen's lament to Prince Hector.
Professor Kozlowski works through what he calls the most boring part of the Iliad, arguing that its slow pace is intentional and deliberate.
Part of Professor Kozlowski Lectures · University lectures on philosophy and the humanities; only the Greek lectures are indexed
Professor Kozlowski returns to Achilles and Patroclus as Patroclus marches off to war wearing Achilles' armor in the Iliad.
Professor Kozlowski opens the Iliad with Books 1 and 2: conflict between Achilles and Agamemnon, marital squabbling between Zeus and Hera, and the long list of ships.
Deacon Harrison Garlick and Adam Minihan call Book 18 arguably the most philosophically dense book in the entire Iliad, discussing what the heart of Achilles teaches and how to interpret his shield.
Professor Kozlowski contextualizes Homer's Iliad through the Trojan War narrative in the Library of Apollodorus, tracing the major gods, goddesses and characters in that mythic tradition.
Deacon Harrison Garlick and Adam Minihan open the Iliad with the rage of Achilles, son of Peleus the King of Phthia, against Agamemnon, the king of Mycenae.
Professor Kozlowski follows Achilles as he cuts his way through the Trojan army, at least one god, and his own personal shortcomings in the Iliad.
Professor Kozlowski explores the hubris of Hector, the transformation of Achilles' rage, and the famous, ambiguous Shield of Achilles in this thematically rich part of the Iliad.
Sixty minutes of story carry Odysseus from decoding a prophecy to building the wooden horse, then twenty minutes of commentary weigh a hide-covered battering ram against an earthquake that felled Troy 6 around 1250 BCE.
Fifty-three minutes of story land Agamemnon's hundred-thousand-strong army on the Trojan beach, then thirty minutes of commentary contrast armored warlord heroes like Achilles with the poorly provisioned foot soldiers who made up most of that force.
Professor Kozlowski covers Diomedes and Odysseus in the Iliad, every Greek hero getting wounded, Sarpedon on Greek social structures, and Hera seducing Zeus for her own ends.
Professor Kozlowski walks through the preparations and duel of the Iliad's Books 3-4, stressing chaos in war and the Greek view of fate, justice and the gods.
Part of Ancient History Fangirl
With Maya Deane
Debut author Maya Deane strips away the lenses of the Victorian era and Classical Greece to reveal an Illiad about transgender Achilles and found family in a Bronze Age world.
Deacon Harrison Garlick and Adam Minihan discuss Patroclus begging Achilles to let him fight in his armor in Book 16, and whether Patroclus deserved the fate that follows.
Part of Greeced Lightning
In the series premiere, Sara Hales-Brittain teaches Luke and Sam the legend of the Trojan War, the epic cycle, and Paris's past, weighing the film Troy against the Iliad.
Fifty-six minutes of story on Athena imbuing the Greek warlord Diomedes with godlike powers of combat, then seventeen minutes of commentary on whether war can be both terrible and glorious in Homer's Iliad.
Fifty-nine minutes of story follow Priam's scheme to have Achilles killed, then fifteen minutes of commentary cite Barry Strauss's 2006 book The Trojan War: A New History to argue a poisoned heel wound could really have been fatal.
Fifty minutes of story cover a dispute over honour that leads to a leadership shift in the Greek army, then twenty minutes of commentary retell how Paris's abandoned wife Oenone refuses to heal the wound that kills him.
Part of Ad Navseam
Neal Bierling's monograph follows Philistine history from the Judges through David, Solomon and Hezekiah to Nebuchadnezzar's invasion, while the exact relationship between Samson and Hercules gets testy.
Professor Kozlowski concludes the Iliad with the Patroclus Memorial Olympics and the restoration of Hector's body to his family.
With Adam Cooper
Deacon Harrison Garlick welcomes Dr. Adam Cooper to discuss Odysseus' revenge upon the suitors in Book 22, where an arrow through the neck of Antinous begins the slaughter in the hall.
Part of The Ancients · History Hit's interview show; only the Greek episodes are indexed
With Eric Cline
Deacon Harrison Garlick and Adam Minihan discuss Menelaus defending the body of Patroclus in Book 17, asking whether human agency can affect fate and what Homer means by Hector's dark heart.
Part of Young Heretics
Odysseus throws off his disguise and wages war on the suitors who tore up his house, going almost too far until his son pulls him back from the brink.
Part of New Books in Ancient History
With Emily Wilson
Emily Wilson's Odyssey (Norton, 2017) is the first English translation of The Odyssey by a woman, in iambic pentameter and matching the line count of the Greek original.
Deacon Harrison Garlick and Adam Minihan discuss the embassy to Achilles in Book 9 of the Iliad, the role of Phoenix, and the bond between Achilles and Patroclus.
Bierling's 1992 monograph links the Mycenaeans of Atreus and Agamemnon to the Philistines, with Egyptian steles, Apollo Smintheus and a startling similarity between Iliad I and I Samuel.
Sara and Sam revisit the Trojan War through the 2018 series Troy: Fall of a City, weighing its chariots, birth plans, retelling of Helen, and distracting bowl cuts.
Achilles' murderous rage in the Iliad only makes sense inside an honor culture that seeks justice in a universe offering no guarantees, beyond any modern read of toxic masculinity.
Deacon Harrison Garlick and Adam Minihan welcome Thomas Lackey to discuss Book 14 of the Iliad, where Love and Sleep conquer Zeus in what Adam calls one of the funniest books so far.
Part of WINNOW: A Couple’s Close Reading of the Iliad and Odyssey
Book 6 of the Iliad covers the brutality of war and argues over Hector: are his actions heroic or cowardly, and should he stay with Andromache or go down fighting.
Forty-three minutes of story send Palamedes to track down the vanished Odysseus, then seventeen minutes of commentary turn to Greek raiding ships and the Trojans who built no navy of their own.
Part of Ancient Warfare Podcast
The team discusses magazine issue X.3, Warfare in the Age of Homer, on how the Trojan War stood to Greeks and Romans as the beginning of all warfare and the standard for expected male behaviour.
Part of Mythunderstood : A Greek (& other) Mythology Podcast
With Kate Compton
Kate Compton joins the hosts in wrapping up the war that will never end, an episode featuring Memnon, Penthesilea and a big wooden horse the Trojans should have seen coming.
Part of Myths and Legends
The Greeks finally find their way into Troy, taking plenty of ridiculous side quests along the way, including a cameo from one of Greek myth's most famous heroes.
The best scene in the Iliad shows Hector and Andromache on the wall, mourning honestly with those who suffer defeat and revealing what the poem says about polytheism among the Trojans.
Ten years into the Trojan War below the walls of Troy, Achilles' feud with Agamemnon over a woman called Briseis rose to a fever pitch in a toxic wasteland.
Deacon Harrison Garlick and Adam Minihan discuss Achilles driving half the Trojan army back toward Troy over the plains and the other half into the Xanthus river and his fight with the river god in Book 21.
From Book 16 to Book 24, the Iliad closes with a study of Achilles, his companion Patroclus, and the rage, war and grief that leave the stage set for the Odyssey.
With Helen abducted and the Achaean forces gathering for Troy, the episode sifts the myths, including the tale of the Achilles heel, from what Homer's Iliad actually contains about Achilles.
With Tony Gonzalez, Sam Johnides
Guests Tony Gonzalez and Sam Johnides bookend the episode with a preview of their musical about Orpheus and Eurydice, Happily Ever Under, while tales of Achilles, Odysseus, Helen and Patroclus fill out the main discussion.
With Ashlee Cowles, Danielle Stinsen
AD Rhine, pen name of authors Ashlee Cowles and Danielle Stinsen, tells the Trojan War saga through women who lived through it on both sides, and this conversation covers the martial women of the Bronze Age.
Part of HistoryExtra podcast
With Paul Cartledge
Professor Paul Cartledge tells Ellie Cawthorne whether the Trojan War of Achilles, Helen and the wooden horse really happened, discussing archaeological remains believed to be Troy and why Homer's Iliad may not be the most reliable historical source.
More on War, across every age →
Religion · 60 of 132
Dr. Frank Grabowski and Thomas Lackey join Dcn. Garlick to discuss Book 11 of the Odyssey, where Odysseus fills a trench with blood to summon the prophet Tiresias in the underworld.
With Gregory McBrayer
Deacon Harrison Garlick and Dr. Gregory McBrayer discuss Books 9 and 10 of the Odyssey, the first half of Odysseus' own story, covering the lotus eaters, the cyclops, and Circe.
With Luke Heintschel
Deacon Harrison Garlick, Dr. Frank Grabowski, and Luke Heintschel, the Academic Headmaster of Coeur du Christ Academy, discuss Books 11 and 12 of the Odyssey, following Odysseus' katabasis into the underworld.
With Glenn Arbery
Deacon Harrison Garlick, Dr. Glenn Arbery, and Dr. Frank Grabowski discuss Book 5 of the Odyssey and why Odysseus rejects Calypso's offer to make him a god.
Part of Literature and History
The violent and spellbinding middle books of Homer's Iliad, Books 9 through 16, leave the listener with questions about Homer's theology, in this episode of Literature and History.
With Evan Amato
Deacon Harrison Garlick and Adam Minihan welcome Evan Amato to discuss Book 5 of the Odyssey, where Zeus, at Athena's pleading, agrees that Calypso must let Odysseus leave her island.
Deacon Harrison Garlick, Dr. Frank Grabowski, and Thomas Lackey open the Odyssey with Book One, discussing the invocation to the Muses, Zeus' comment on fate, and what happened to Agamemnon.
Sixty-five minutes of story open on Homer's invocation of the Muse before Achilles learns of Patroclus' death at Hector's hands, then twenty-five minutes of commentary follow the psyche's journey to the gates of Hades.
The episode explores the mythology of a genderqueer Achilles and the man who loved him, Patroclus, among the queer myths that break the binary as the ancient Greeks saw it.
Sara, Luke, and Sam trace Homer's Odyssey through the loose adaptation O Brother, Where Art Thou?, covering tricksy heroes, the Underworld, and Emily Wilson's translation of The Odyssey and Edith Hamilton's Mythology.
A queen's terrifying nightmare, priests who discern what it means and a king faced with a soul-wrenching dilemma, then sixteen minutes of commentary on the role of Fate in the Trojan War epic.
Part of TROJAN WAR: THE PODCAST · The Trojan War told in order, with commentary after each story
Deacon Harrison Garlick and Adam Minihan discuss Book 12 of the Odyssey, where Odysseus survives the Sirens and Scylla only to lose his last ship after his men eat the sun god's cattle.
Odysseus meets the shadows of the dead in Book 11 of the Odyssey, forcing him and Homer to confront the possibility that life ends in nothing but worm food.
Part of The Rest Is History
Tom and Dominic reach the conclusion of Homer's Odyssey, tracing the second half of Odysseus' journey home to Ithaca and asking what the epic's account of the Olympian gods indicates about Ancient Greek religion.
Forty-six minutes of story cover a priest of Apollo whose request Agamemnon refuses, then sixteen minutes of commentary set out the unitarian and separatist arguments over whether one Homer composed the Iliad around 700 BCE.
Deacon Harrison Garlick explores Book 10 of the Odyssey alone, where King Aeolus gives Odysseus a bag of winds and the goddess Circe turns his men into pigs.
Three women, Calypso, Nausicaa and Athena, walk beside Odysseus on his way back to Ithaca, each loving him without holding on as he recovers who he is after war and wandering.
Forty-five minutes of story confront Agamemnon with the sacrifice of his daughter at Aulis, then sixteen minutes of commentary compare how Aeschylus in 458 BCE and Euripides in 405 BCE reshaped the same sacrifice into their own plays.
In the underworld Odysseus meets Epicaste, Antiope and Alcmene, then hears Agamemnon's grim homecoming tale, finds a silent Ajax Telamon, and sees Sisyphus, the original rock-n-roller, eternally doomed.
With Jennifer Frey
Deacon Harrison Garlick welcomes Dr. Jennifer Frey to discuss Book 20 of the Odyssey, where Odysseus prays to Zeus for an omen and the prophet Theoclymenus sees the house drenched in blood.
If the listener thought Circe and Odysseus got steamy, Calypso raises the bar further, and the hosts also investigate what has been happening with Odysseus's family, Penelope and Telemachus.
On the island of Aeaea, Odysseus must share the bed of the witch Circe, a trial that helps him find his way back into civilization after losing comrades to war.
The final Odyssey episode covers Book 24, asking why Athena intervenes so much and what the Odyssey is trying to say about justice, closing out the series.
The Judgment of Paris, the story that started it all in the Homeric universe, is revisited to ask whether Paris could have navigated the situation any better than he did.
Thirty-eight minutes of story on a miraculous child who survives an angry demi-god, an icy immersion in a magic river and a deadly snake, then sixteen minutes of commentary on the popularity of Achilles stories.
Part of Mythunderstood : A Greek (& other) Mythology Podcast · Paul Bianchi teaches Sarah Oliver Greek mythology; only the Greek episodes are indexed
With Noelle Ann Mabry
The fifty-three-minute opener has an uninvited guest crash a wedding hosted by Zeus and hand over an unwelcome gift, setting the whole Trojan War epic in motion.
Part of Ancient History Fangirl · Two Millennial women on emperors, assassins and mythological mayhem; only the Greek episodes are indexed
With Jennifer Saint
Part of Lesche: Ancient Greece, New Ideas
With Christopher Metcalf
Christopher Metcalf, Associate Professor in Classical Literature at the University of Oxford, compares myths of kingship in early Greece and the ancient Near East, from Gilgamesh and Sargon to Iliad Book 1.
Part of The Ancients
With Andrew Shapland
The legend of the Minotaur and its labyrinth has captivated people for centuries; Tristan visits the Ashmolean museum to interview Dr Andrew Shapland about the Bronze Age settlement of Knossos on Crete, home of the mythical King Minos.
With Nathaniel "Natty" Wicks
Nathaniel "Natty" Wicks joins the hosts for the next installment of Odysseus's famous journey, as the hosts go to hell and back and talk to the dead along the way.
Part of Spirits: Mythology, Legends, & Folklore
Back to nymphs, this time all about water nymphs of rivers, the sea, the springs and lakes: Oceanids, Nereids and Naiads, with a warning that the talk runs from cannibalism and castration to drowning.
Part of Dan Snow's History Hit
With Tristan Hughes, Andrew Shapland
Dr Andrew Shapland, curator of a new exhibition at the Ashmolean, joins Tristan on the Bronze Age settlement of Knossos in Crete, where artefacts hint at human sacrifices being carried out.
Book 8 of the Iliad turns to the Greek gods' seemingly random actions, as Zeus finally intervenes with his golden scales and lightning bolts.
Circe, also called Kirke, is on the docket as the host continues to take his co-host on the fantastic voyage of the Odyssey, a story the episode frames as one of female power and animal transformation.
Odysseus travels to the land of the dead, where the ghost of Elpenor appears fresh from Circe's island, Tiresias delivers his prophecy, and his mother Anticleia's shade cannot be embraced.
With Emily Hauser
Cursed by Apollo to always speak the truth but never be believed, Cassandra's story is explored by Tristan Hughes and Dr Emily Hauser through her treatment at the hands of gods and men, and her role in the Iliad.
Book 11 of the Odyssey sends Odysseus into the Underworld for advice from Tiresias, where he meets Agamemnon and Achilles among the dead.
Part of Our Fake History
Is the myth of Theseus and the Minotaur just a bedtime story, or does it hold real clues about a conflict between ancient Bronze Age civilizations?
Thirty minutes of story on Hermes locating a judge for a beauty contest between three vain and vindictive goddesses, then fourteen minutes of commentary on timeline inconsistencies and Rubens' The Judgment of Paris.
Book 8 of the Odyssey brings out the bard for songs and games while Odysseus weeps again, and unpacks the story of Ares, Aphrodite and Hephaestus.
Part of Ithaca Bound
With Joel P. Christensen
Professor Joel Christensen of Brandeis University discusses Paris, the Trojan prince whose choice of Aphrodite as the most beautiful goddess set the stage for the Trojan War.
Part of Expanding Eyes: A Visionary Education · Lectures on literature and mythology; only the Greek lectures are indexed
Part of Expanding Eyes: A Visionary Education
A brief recap of the first six episodes of the wanderings in Homer's Odyssey, including the Kikones, the Lotus Eaters, the Cyclops, Aeolus, the Lestrygonians and Circe, before the descent to Hades and meetings with Tiresias and Agamemnon.
Athena puts Odysseus on a level of equality with herself as storyteller, liar and trickster; Eumaios the swineherd proves a genuinely good man of lower-class origins, and Telemachus returns to Ithaca.
Part of Combat and Classics Podcast
In the last book of the Iliad, Apollo intervenes after Achilles tries to disfigure Hector's body, and the gods help Priam retrieve his son from Achilles' tent; the hosts weigh whether the ending is decline or tragic insight.
Achilles gets new armor from his mother and rejoins the battle, facing Aeneas and Hector as Zeus tells the gods to take sides; the hosts ask why the combat with Aeneas is the centerpiece of the book.
Part of Spirits: Mythology, Legends, & Folklore · A boozy dive into world mythology; only the Greek episodes are indexed
Part of Live from Mount Olympus
With Ato Blankson-Wood
A forest encounter grants the satyr Marsyas divine musical powers and dangerous hubris, while Midas, King of Phrygia, learns his lust for gold can destroy what he loves.
Pursued by the dragon Python, Zeus's twins' mother Leto searches for a safe place to give birth, and four days later Apollo hunts down Python to avenge her, enraging the Furies.
Helenus tells Hector to send the women to sacrifice to Athena after the Trojans are beaten badly, and Hector visits his wife and newborn son; Diomedes and Glaucus exchange armor and agree a personal truce.
Part of Spartan History Podcast
The episode describes the predominant Bronze Age Greek civilisation behind Agamemnon, a Mycenaean or Homeric Achaean, covering architecture, religious and burial practices before his doomed return from Troy.
Eris crashes the wedding of mortal Peleus and sea goddess Thetis, tossing in a golden apple inscribed for the fairest, sparking a rivalry between Athena, Hera and Aphrodite that transforms the world.
Achilles kills so many Trojans that the river Scamander protests, so Achilles fights the river and nearly dies while the gods war among themselves; the hosts ask whether Zeus enjoys the suffering of the gods.
Achilles is crushed by the death of Patroclus, and Thetis helps him revenge himself on Hector by asking Hephaestus for new armor; the hosts ask whether the famous shield conceals the world of the dead.
Patroclus is dead, and the Greeks and Trojans fight over his body across a whole book; the hosts explore the image of the stretched bullhide and ask whether Patroclus is his body or something different.
Sailing with the tributes toward Athens, Ariadne and Theseus dream of their future together, until a stop on the island of Naxos reveals how fast the Fates can alter fate for humans and gods alike.
With Christina Liberus, Ato Blankson-Wood
Skeptical at first, Artemis welcomes the giant Orion as a hunting companion and delightful friend, until a jealous Apollo plays a terrible trick that threatens their bond forever.
More on Religion, across every age →
Daily life · 59
With Justin Jackson, Benedict Whalen
Deacon Harrison Garlick, Dr. Justin Jackson, and Dr. Benedict Whalen of Hillsdale College end the twelve-week study of the Odyssey with Books 23 and 24, unearthing more of Homer's truth.
Deacon Harrison Garlick, Adam Minihan, David Niles, Thomas Lackey, and Frank Grabowski close the Odyssey with Hermes leading the suitors' souls to Hades and Athena brokering peace in Ithaca.
Deacon Harrison Garlick and Dr. Frank Grabowski discuss Books 6 through 8 of the Odyssey, covering Odysseus' time among the Phaeacians and the nature of the Phaeacians.
With Pavlos Papadopoulos
Deacon Harrison Garlick, Dr. Pavlos Papadopoulos, and Dr. Frank Grabowski open a new twelve-week study of the Odyssey with Book One, calling it one of the greatest texts in the Western canon.
With Eli Stone
Deacon Harrison Garlick and Eli Stone discuss Book 8 of the Odyssey, where a bard's song of Troy makes Odysseus weep and the bard returns to sing of Aphrodite's adultery against Hephaestus.
Professor Kozlowski continues the Odyssey as Odysseus' crew and the gods betray him, he finally reaches his homeland of Ithaca, and he tests his wife Penelope.
With Alex Petkas
Deacon Harrison Garlick, Dr. Frank Grabowski, and Dr. Alex Petkas of the Cost of Glory discuss Books 13 and 14 of the Odyssey, where Odysseus reaches Ithaca sleeping through the Phaeacian voyage.
Deacon Harrison Garlick and Dr. Frank Grabowski discuss Books 17 through 19 of Homer's Odyssey, where the disguised king returns to Ithaca as a beggar and has a heartbreaking reunion with his loyal dog Argos.
Deacon Harrison Garlick and Adam Minihan welcome Dr. Pavlos Papadopoulos to discuss Book 13 of the Odyssey, where the Phaeacians bring Odysseus home to Ithaca and Poseidon punishes them for it.
Deacon Harrison Garlick, Dr. Frank Grabowski, and Thomas Lackey discuss Books 20 and 21 of Homer's Odyssey, where the stage is set for the suitors' long-awaited slaughter.
Deacon Harrison Garlick welcomes Thomas Lackey to discuss Book 16 of the Odyssey, where Athena transforms the beggar back into Odysseus and father and son embrace and weep together.
Deacon Harrison Garlick, Adam Minihan, and Eli Stone discuss Book 6 of the Odyssey, where Nausicaa washes clothes by the river and a naked Odysseus emerges to ask for her mercy.
With Jack Drury
Deacon Harrison Garlick, Dr. Frank Grabowski, and Latin teacher Jack Drury discuss Books 15 and 16 of the Odyssey, covering Telemachus' journey home and the father-son reunion in the swineherd's hut.
Professor Kozlowski follows Odysseus' narrated adventures through cannibal cyclopes, good and bad hosts and guests, and the dead he encounters along the way.
Deacon Harrison Garlick and Eli Stone discuss Book 7 of the Odyssey, where Queen Arete is the first to question Odysseus about his name and homeland and King Alcinous offers his daughter Nausicaa in marriage.
Deacon Harrison Garlick and Adam Minihan discuss Book 9 of the Odyssey, where Odysseus finally names himself and tells of the Lotus-eaters and the cyclops who devours his men.
With Kyle Washut
Deacon Harrison Garlick welcomes Kyle Washut, President of Wyoming Catholic College, to discuss the Odyssey as a guide for rebuilding culture and the influence of John Senior on education.
Part of The Delicious Legacy
With Jerolyn Morrison
Food archaeologist Jerolyn Morrison has excavated Minoan sites on Crete for almost three decades, in a rerun with bonus ancient recipes and the myths of Labyrinth, Minotaur and Talos.
With Adam Conque
Deacon Harrison Garlick welcomes fellow Catholic deacon Adam Conque to discuss Penelope's test of the bow in Book 21, which Telemachus, Leodes and Eurymachus each fail before Odysseus the beggar strings it with ease.
With Alec Bianco
Deacon Harrison Garlick and Adam Minihan welcome Alec Bianco to discuss Book 14 of the Odyssey, where the disguised Odysseus tests the hospitality of his loyal swineherd, Eumaeus.
Part of The Partially Examined Life Philosophy Podcast
Homer's Odyssey continues with translator Emily Wilson, examining the oikos or estate built on violence, its link to xenia or hospitality that forges military alliances, plus status distinctions and the role of the gods.
Deacon Harrison Garlick, Dr. Frank Grabowski, and Thomas Lackey discuss Book 3 of the Odyssey, where old King Nestor from the Iliad helps Telemachus and recalls the Achaeans' wrath from Athena.
With Jared Zimmerer
Deacon Harrison Garlick welcomes Dr. Jared Zimmerer to discuss Book 17 of the Odyssey, where the dog Argo recognizes his master and then dies, and Antinous hurls a stool at the beggar.
Odysseus reaches Ithaca but still has one journey left, learning with the help of his nursemaid Eurycleia that war shaped him without erasing who he was before he left home.
The Odyssey opens with an empty space where Odysseus should be, and the story sets out to answer who he is, beginning with the moment Odysseus reveals his true identity to his hosts the Phaeacians.
The Odyssey picks up where the Iliad ends, tracing soldiers returning to society, and begins Odysseus' long journey home with his son Telemachus growing to manhood without his father around.
With Rachel Greb
Deacon Harrison Garlick welcomes Rachel Greb to discuss Book 23 of the Odyssey, where Penelope tests her husband with the secret of their marriage bed rooted in an olive tree.
Part of Ancient Greece Declassified
Homeric scholar Olga Levaniouk on the intelligence and agency of Penelope in Homer's Odyssey, which is seldom appreciated, and the old debate over whether she realizes who the disguised beggar is.
Athena, disguised as Mentor, wants the punishment of the suitors and disloyal staff, raising hard questions about the deaths of Leodes and the executed maids.
With Mary Pat Donoghue
Deacon Harrison Garlick welcomes Mary Pat Donoghue to discuss Book 19 of the Odyssey, where the beggar tells Penelope her husband is returning and the maid Eurycleia recognizes his scar.
Penelope wins her battle of wits over their bed as the suitors are sent to Hades, where Agamemnon jeers, while Odysseus tests his old father with one more false identity.
Odysseus gets re-acquainted with his furry friend and his long-lost son in a moving series of reunion scenes, learning that he also left much of himself at home and that his worst failures are not the last word.
Deacon Harrison Garlick and Adam Minihan discuss Book 15 of the Odyssey, where Athena sends Telemachus home from Sparta and the swineherd reveals he was once a kidnapped prince.
Book 19 of the Odyssey brings Odysseus and Penelope's first conversation, short of a reunion, asking whether she already recognizes him and why she stays silent if so.
Odysseus survives Scylla and Charybdis, the Sirens and his men's fatal hankering for a decent steak on the island of Helios, before Athena sends him to Eumaeus's hut on Ithaca.
Odysseus clocks the mouthy Irus in a bum fight, then Penelope overshares with the stranger, Eurykleia shrieks at a telling scar, and a geesey dream puts his wife in the driver's seat.
Telemachus finally reunites with Odysseus at the hut of the swineherd Eumaeus, complete with bird omens and Odysseus dodging stool legs while disguised as a beggar.
Part of Lesche: Ancient Greece, New Ideas · Johanna Hanink talks with fellow Hellenists about their latest work
With Father Bonaventure
Adam Minihan and Father Bonaventure, OP discuss Book 4 of the Odyssey, where Telemachus reaches Sparta during a double wedding feast as Menelaus' daughter marries the son of Achilles.
With Kim Shelton
Dr Kim Shelton of the University of California, Berkley, explains what is known about Mycenaean settlements on mainland Greece and how they would have been used in the Bronze Age.
Deacon Harrison Garlick and Adam Minihan, with Dr. Jared Zimmerer, discuss Book 18 of the Odyssey, where Odysseus the beggar defeats the beggar Irus and Penelope lures gifts from the suitors.
Homer's Odyssey, an epic poem from around 750 BC, is discussed with translator Emily Wilson, whose eighty-page introduction frames hospitality as a political tool while the episode asks whether that story teaches anything about ethics.
The Odyssey opens with Penelope and Telemachus besieged on Ithaca by greedy suitors, and the poem's first word, andra, might be a guidestone for its deeper themes.
Homer's Odyssey supplies the frame for exploring feasting, cooking and xenia, the Greek custom of hospitality to strangers, alongside archaeological discoveries from the real Bronze Age Greece behind the epic.
Book 1 of the Odyssey opens on Ithaca, introducing Telemachus, Penelope and the suitors before Odysseus ever appears, and asks why the epic begins there.
Thirty minutes of story cover Paris settling into Troy and his road trip to Sparta, then fourteen minutes of commentary trace the cliff-throwing stories about Spartan infanticide back to Plutarch, writing five centuries after the events he describes.
With Jason Craig
Deacon Harrison Garlick and Adam Minihan welcome Jason Craig of Sword and Spade magazine to discuss fatherhood in the Odyssey, the problem of fatherlessness in Ithaca, and Telemachus' coming of age.
Book 4 of the Odyssey finds Telemachus in Sparta with Menelaus and Helen, who slips something into the wine as Menelaus recounts his own homecoming.
Book 17 of the Odyssey has Odysseus entering the palace to a hostile welcome, kicked and pelted with chairs, while one loyal dog, Argos, seems to remember the master of the house.
Telemachus searches for his own identity in relation to his unknown parent in book 1 of the Odyssey, a timeless human dilemma set within the poem's complex structure.
Book 14 of the Odyssey has Odysseus meeting the swineherd Eumaeus first in Ithaca, ahead of the suitors or Penelope, asking what he represents.
Father and son reunite in the hut of Eumaios in a moving, psychologically complex scene; strategies are devised to make up for being outnumbered, and Odysseus meets his old dog Argos.
Telemachus visits Menelaus and Helen in Lakedaimon and Nestor in Pylos, learning that becoming a man in the Odyssey takes more than being a warrior, including a lesson on the complexities of marriage.
Book 18 of the Odyssey has Odysseus beginning to make small moves in the palace while Penelope scams the suitors for more gifts.
Book 23 of the Odyssey reunites Odysseus and Penelope, though Odysseus must first pass the test.
Part one of a three part biography traces Helen from her conception on the banks of the Eurotas river through her marriage to Menelaus, framing her as the classical Spartans' most famous ancestor.
The suitors of the Odyssey humiliate themselves, unable to draw the bow that Odysseus shoots through twelve axe heads; after the battle and the hanging of the treacherous maids, Penelope tricks Odysseus before their reunion.
Part of Chronicles of Ancient Greece · A small amateur podcast on Greek myth and history
Theatre · 6
Michael Cacoyannis directed this 1977 film based on Euripides' Iphigenia in Aulis, the third in his Greek Tragedy trilogy, starring Tatiana Papamoschou as the daughter of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra with a score by Mikis Theodorakis.
Michael Cacoyannis directed this 1962 Greek film based on Euripides' Electra, the first in his Greek tragedy trilogy followed by The Trojan Women and Iphigenia, starring Irene Papas as Elektra and Giannis Fertis as Orestis.
Part of Ancient Greece: Myth, Art, War
With Heather Sebo
Dr Heather Sebo examines Sophocles' Ajax, one of the earliest surviving Greek plays, produced around 440 BC, and its tragic hero's struggle to cope with a changing world.
Dr Heather Sebo traces Euripides' Iphigenia in Aulis, performed late in the Peloponnesian War, following the mythical decisions that send the Greek fleet to Troy.
Part of Ancient Greece: Myth, Art, War · La Trobe University lectures on Homer, myth and the Greek wars
Part of Garner's Greek Mythology
Six cursed generations known as the House of Atreus span 800 miles from Troy to Athens in a classic Greek tragedy that begins with Zeus and unfolds into murder, deceit, incest, matricide and suicide.
Art and building · 6
With Louise Hitchcock
Dr Louise Hitchcock of the University of Melbourne discusses architecture on the Greek islands during the Bronze Age, including the islands of Crete and Santorini.
Professor Louise Hitchcock of the University of Melbourne, in a fourth appearance, discusses Minoan palaces, villas and other residential buildings, in settlements advanced for the time, with labyrinthine architecture in the palatial buildings.
With Carl Knappett
Professor Carl Knappett of the University of Toronto discusses Palaikastro, a Minoan urban centre on Crete that lasted more than two millennia and may never have had a palatial building.
Part of Chronicles of Ancient Greece
Episode two covers Cycladic culture across Santorini, Naxos and Mykonos in the Early Bronze Age, the marble figurines, a typical day around 3000 BC, and the downfall of Cycladic culture.
The episode travels to Crete for the Minoan civilization, its palaces, frescoes, bull-leaping rituals and maritime trade, and the myth of the Minotaur and the labyrinth, asking what caused its downfall.
Part of Kings and Generals
The Minoans of Crete build palaces at Knossos and Phaistos, dominate Aegean sea trade, inspire the myth of King Minos and the Labyrinth, and leave behind the mysteries of Linear A.
The polis · 2
Deacon Harrison Garlick, Dr. Frank Grabowski, and Thomas Lackey discuss Book 2 of the Odyssey, where Telemachus, inspired by Athena, addresses the assembly of Ithaca and condemns the suitors.
Book 2 of the Odyssey follows Telemachus calling the elders and suitors together in Ithaca as Penelope's scheme comes out, asking why Athena favors him so.
Empire and colonies · 2
Part of Ithaca Bound · Andrew Schiestel on the Mediterranean, 2021 to 2022; only the Greek episodes are indexed
Part of Epic Greek History
The episode covers the Mycenaean civilization of warrior kings ruling from great palaces that dominated the surrounding territories, centuries before the Parthenon, Greek drama and the Olympic Games, tracing what it drew from Minoan Crete.
Philosophy · 2
Book 20 asks how the Theory of the Bicameral Mind might apply to the Iliad's characters, and whether it explains why these Greek warriors act without thinking and blame the gods for it.
The Trojans push the Greeks back to their ships, so Agamemnon and Menelaus send an embassy begging Achilles to rejoin the fight, and it fails; the hosts ask how Achilles wants to be remembered.
Other · 60 of 714
Directed by Franco Rossi assisted by Piero Schivazappa and Mario Bava, this eight-episode Italian miniseries broadcast on RAI in 1968 is based on Homer's Odyssey, with Bekim Fehmiu as Odysseus and Irene Papas as Penelope.
Directed by Manfred Noa, this 1924 German silent drama, based on the Iliad by Homer, was released in two parts, The Rape of Helen and The Fall of Troy, at a cost that seriously damaged the finances of Bavaria Film.
Andrei Konchalovsky directed this 1997 miniseries based on Homer's Odyssey, co-produced by Hallmark Entertainment and American Zoetrope, airing in two parts on NBC from May 18, 1997, starring Armand Assante and Irene Papas.
Part of Let's Talk About Myths, Baby! | Greek Mythology & the Ancient Mediterranean
With Charlotte Gregory
Charlotte Gregory discusses the reception of masculinity in Christopher Nolan's Odyssey and in the Hollywood epic tradition.
Author Emily Hauser discusses her book on the women of Homer's epics and, through them, the women of the Bronze Age.
As Homer's Odyssey, Books 17 through 24, reaches the violent climax of Odysseus' great adventures, the episode turns to consider Homer's worldview.
Robert Wise directed this 1956 film based on Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, shot in CinemaScope by Harry Stradling Sr with a score by Max Steiner, sometimes described as an overlooked Robert Wise epic.
Directed by Mario Camerini, this 1954 fantasy adventure film based on Homer's Odyssey stars Kirk Douglas as Ulysses, Silvana Mangano in a dual role as Penelope and Circe, and Anthony Quinn as Antinous.
Uberto Pasolini directed this 2024 drama starring Ralph Fiennes and Juliette Binoche, retelling the second half of Homer's Odyssey as Odysseus returns home to Ithaca after his long absence, adapted with Edward Bond and John Collee.
With Joshua Cannon
Classicist and veteran Joshua Cannon discusses the Iliad and warfare in the ancient Mediterranean, exploring how war is bad, actually.
Homer's Iliad, covering Books 1 to 8, is called the Tyrannosaurus Rex of ancient epics, with one glittering, shiny bronze metal at the core of its 24 books.
The most famous part of Homer's Odyssey, Books 9 through 16, follows Odysseus through perilous adventures and begins to reveal a sense of who he is.
Adventure, monsters, temptresses, and a whole lot of wine-dark Aegean: Homer's Odyssey, Books 1 through 8, and an introduction to the world of the poem, in this episode of Literature and History.
Michael Cacoyannis directed this 1971 film starring Katharine Hepburn, Vanessa Redgrave and Irene Papas, staying close to Edith Hamilton's translation of Euripides' play while omitting the deities, which Cacoyannis called hard to film and make realistic.
As Homer's Iliad, Books 17 through 24, reaches its spectacular climax, the episode asks a big question: who wrote it?
Part of Let's Talk About Myths, Baby! | Greek Mythology & the Ancient Mediterranean · Liv Albert on Greek myths and the wider ancient Mediterranean, told casually and with sarcasm; only the Greek episodes are indexed
Professor Kozlowski contextualizes Homer against the Cycladic, Minoan and Mycenaean cultures, tracing Greek history through the Bronze Age Collapse and Dark Age to the beginning of the Classical era.
With Christie Vogler, Joel P. Christensen, Joe Goodkin
Christie Vogler is joined by Homerist Joel Christensen and modern Homeric bard Joe Goodkin to discuss EPIC: The Musical and their favourite moments from it.
With Flint Dibble
Flint Dibble explains how animal bone evidence ties climate change and failing food production to the Late Bronze Age collapse.
With Cora Beth Fraser
Dr. Cora Beth Fraser joins Liv to examine the Minotaur, Asterion, within the Labyrinth and his relationship to autism and autistic people.
With Julia Perroni
Liv reads Books 8 and 9 of Homer's Odyssey in Ian Johnston's modern translation, where Odysseus's story finally begins as he starts narrating his adventures.
Eric Cline discusses what is known about the end of the Bronze Age and what did and did not contribute to its collapse.
With a new Christopher Nolan epic in preparation, the episode walks through The Odyssey's story, the plot beats to expect and the characters to look out for, and offers opinions on what an adaptation should be.
With Ruby Blondell
Conversations: author and scholar Ruby Blondell joins Liv to discuss Helen of Sparta, Troy, and the Silver Screen, tied to her new book Helen of Troy in Hollywood.
Directed by Terry Ingram for the Sci Fi Channel, this 2008 film finds King Odysseus, away from Ithaca for twenty years, facing the Goddess of the Underworld in the missing book of the Odyssey, the Isle of the Mists.
Liv and Michaela talk with returning guest Joel Christensen about the Iliad as an anti-war epic, questioning who gets the choice to fight and who doesn't.
With Kacper Szymczak
Game director Kacper Szymczak discusses Minos, a game inspired by the myth of Theseus, and what counts as canon in Greek mythology.
Liv continues reading Homer's Odyssey, Books 16 and 17, as Telemachus returns to Ithaca and reunites with his father Odysseus.
Liv opens a new audiobook-style reading of Homer's Odyssey in Ian Johnston's modern translation, kicking off what she calls a never-ending Odyssey with Books 1 and 2.
Professor Kozlowski examines the archaeological excavations at Hisarlik, the site most likely to be Ancient Troy, to weigh how much of Homer's Iliad reflects reality and how much is myth.
Conversations: Maya Deane, author of Wrath Goddess Sing, joins Liv to discuss her retelling of the Iliad with a trans Achilles, set in a historically Bronze Age Trojan War.
Professor Kozlowski embarks on his abridged journey through the Odyssey, including Helen of Troy restored to Sparta and acting especially strangely.
Liv continues her audiobook-style reading of Homer's Odyssey in Ian Johnston's modern translation, moving into Book 4 as another reading of an ancient source.
With Helen Lovatt
Conversations: Helen Lovatt, professor of Classics and author of a book on the Argonauts, joins Liv to discuss the Argonautika and its many varied versions.
Professor Kozlowski examines translations, style and structure of the Iliad, covering eccentricities of the Greek language and Homeric features like dactylic hexameter, enjambment and epic simile.
With Emma Pauly
Classicist and dramaturg Emma Pauly joins Liv to examine a nonbinary reading of Dionysus in Euripides' Bacchae and its implications for Pentheus.
Directed by Alexander Korda, this 1927 American silent comedy adventure about Helen of Troy, based on the 1925 novel by John Erskine, stars María Corda as Helen, Lewis Stone as Menelaus and Ricardo Cortez as Paris.
Directed by Franco Piavoli, this 1989 Italian adventure drama, based on Homer's Odyssey, follows Odysseus' homeward journey across the Mediterranean Sea following the Trojan War, told with minimal dialogue in an imaginary Mediterranean language.
Part of Casting Through Ancient Greece
Prof. Eric Cline on archaeology and his book 1177 BC: the late Bronze Age world, the collapse that saw great civilisations disappear from the Aegean and Near East, and the evidence that helps explain it.
With Laura Jenkinson Brown
Liv and Laura Jenkinson Brown of Greek Myth Comix compare their separate projects retelling the Odyssey, each in distinct ways.
With Felicia Day
Author Felicia Day discusses her graphic novel imagining the untold story of a little-known daughter of Sparta.
Liv continues reading Homer's Odyssey, Books 12 and 13, as Odysseus escapes Scylla and Charybdis twice before finally reaching Ithaca.
With Rani Selvarajah
Conversations: Rani Selvarajah joins Liv to discuss her novel Savage Beasts, a retelling of Medea recast with Jason as a colonizer, set in colonial India.
Joel Christensen discusses Odysseus and what the long, wandering journey of the Odyssey should actually be understood to mean.
Part of Have Toga, Will Travel: Exploring Greece and Rome, Ancient and Modern
Before Christopher Nolan's film, Emily and Cam break down Homer's Odyssey, questioning Odysseus's reliability as a narrator and examining Penelope's own craftiness throughout the poem.
With Michael B. Cosmopoulos
Michael B. Cosmopoulos's The World of Homer (Cambridge UP, 2025) reconstructs the world behind the Iliad and the Odyssey using archaeology, philology, anthropology and oral tradition.
Liv speaks with Laura Jenkinson Brown of Greek Myth Comix about the heroes of epic, weighing the good and bad of Achilles, Odysseus and Aeneas.
With Emily Edwards
Liv speaks with Emily Edwards of F***bois of Literature to break down the horrors committed by Theseus in the most casual, ranty style, declaring him the absolute worst.
With Alexia Burrows Charalambidou
Conversations: Alexia Burrows Charalambidou discusses the kalon kakon, the beautiful evil ascribed to mythological women including Pandora, Helen, Medea, and Circe.
Fifty-seven minutes of story in which temptation plays the lead, as Agamemnon tempts Achilles, Hera tempts Zeus and Patroclus tempts Deadly Destiny, then twenty minutes of commentary on whether Achilles and Patroclus were lovers.
With Meagan Cleveland
Conversations: debut author Meagan Cleveland joins Liv to discuss Thebes and her YA novel Riddles of the Sphinx, about Oedipus' underrated daughter and sister, Ismene.
Christopher Nolan's screen adaptation gives a flattened, unimaginative Odysseus, a dull Calypso and a merely regal Penelope, and the movie would have been pretty much the same without the gods.
With Julie Levy
Independent scholar Julie Levy joins Liv to discuss asexuality in Greek myth through Atalanta and Hippolytus, with hints of Artemis, Athena and Hestia.
Part two of the New Year Q&A: Liv answers questions on studying the ancient Mediterranean, on Odysseus and Theseus, and on finding good translations of Greek texts.
With Ioanna Papadopoulou
Conversations: author Ioanna Papadopoulou joins Liv to discuss Greece in myth retellings, the feminism of Demeter's rage, and her novel Winter Harvest.
With CW Marshall
Conversations: CW Marshall, who has written the book on Euripides' Helen, joins Liv to discuss its background and context, and Euripides' fragmentary play Andromeda.
Sara and Sam revisit Homer's Odyssey through the film Ulysses, exploring its supporting characters, Polyphemus wooing Galatea, ancient fanfiction, and more Kirk Douglas on screen.
The other 654 are on the full list →