Epic Greek History

Clues from the Homeric epics, excavations at Troy and ancient Hittite documents on whether the Trojan War saga had its basis in historical fact, after the 19th-century discoveries of Troy and Mycenaean Greece.

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.

The episode credits Heinrich Schliemann, an eccentric German businessman turned archaeologist, with discovering Bronze Age Troy and Mycenae at a time when most scholars doubted the Homeric epics held any truth.

The episode traces the beginnings of the Greek polis and the military developments that shaped it, describing the environment where Greek drama, architecture and philosophy reached their peak.

The 8th century BCE, justly called the Greek Renaissance: an increase in population, an upswing in economic activity, monumental temples, the start of the Olympic Games and the Greeks adapting a Phoenician alphabet into a writing system.

The episode covers the Early Iron Age in Greece, traditionally labeled a dark age for the economic decline after the Mycenaean palaces fell and for its scarcer archaeological record.

The episode covers Pisistratus seizing power twice and losing it before establishing an autocratic regime in Athens that lasted more than thirty-five years and improved city infrastructure.

The episode defines the Greek term tyrannos as an autocrat who seized power by overthrowing an existing regime, tracing the rise of such rulers across the seventh and sixth centuries BCE.

The episode covers the contest for power after the tyrant Hippias was expelled, between Isagoras, a conservative aristocrat who favored a narrow oligarchy, and Cleisthenes of the Alcmaeonid clan, who drew support from the people by proposing radical democratic reforms.

Athens at the start of the 6th century BCE, where Draco's law code did nothing for the crushing debt of the poor, and the Athenians gave Solon full powers to solve the economic crisis and reorganize the state.

The episode dates Greek colonization to the eighth century BCE, when settlements in southern Italy and Sicily grew numerous enough for the region to be called Magna Graecia.

The episode traces Sparta extending influence in the Peloponnese from an attempted conquest of Arcadian Tegea into a policy of alliances, while Athens transformed under Solon and Pisistratus.

Fragments of early Greek poets as real-time commentary on the social and political upheaval of the 7th and 6th centuries BCE, when no one was writing history, through Theognis of Megara and Alcaeus of Mytilene.

Cleomenes I of Sparta, whom others have called the most powerful Greek of the sixth century BCE: the victory over Argos, the repeated attempts to meddle in Athenian politics, the feud with his co-king Demaratus. Herodotus heads the suggested reading.

The episode credits the Milesians Thales, Anaximander and Anaximenes with searching for rational principles to explain the natural world while Athens set up a new constitution under Solon.

The episode opens a two-part account of the Persian Empire's rise, arguing no historical event loomed larger for ancient Greeks than their defense against Persian military power.

The episode follows Cambyses the Second subduing Egypt after the death of Cyrus in 530 BCE, then covers Darius the First reorganizing the empire and introducing Persian coinage.

The episode dates the Ionian revolt to 499 BCE, when Aristagoras of Miletus led Ionian Greek cities against the Persian Empire while Athens sent twenty ships in support.

The Battle of Marathon quickly turned from history into legend, and this episode traces how retellings grew taller over time, pointing to Tom Holland's Persian Fire and Owen Rees's question about Pheidippides for further reading.

The episode covers the mythical origins of the Delphic oracle, the mystery of the Pythia's inspiration, and Delphi's role in power struggles between rival Greek states.

The episode weighs Cicero's title father of history against nineteenth-century critics who called Herodotus a father of lies, tracing the debate over his methods, reliability and sincerity as a source.

The episode credits the Athenian tyrant Pisistratus with centralizing Attic worship of Dionysus into the Great Dionysia, the festival where Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides later competed for top honors.

The episode covers the Greeks who fought alongside hoplites: those who could not afford hoplite armor served as light infantry, those wealthy enough to keep horses could serve in the cavalry, plus the role of mercenaries.

The episode traces how scholars reconstruct the sound of classical Greek before offering pointers on pronouncing difficult Greek words and names encountered by students of Greek history.

The episode argues Homer held a status in Greek literature comparable to a nation's foundational book, tracing his enormous and long-lasting influence on both Greek and Roman culture.

A nine-minute bonus: another podcaster sharing his thoughts about the new Odyssey film, with opinions solely those of a philhellenic film buff.