Our Fake History

To weigh whether the Trojan War was a real historical event, this final part scours the Iliad for clues, peruses ancient Hittite clay tablets and checks archaeological evidence Heinrich Schliemann did not destroy.

For the Ancient Greeks the Trojan War marked the bloody end of the so-called Age of Heroes, when superhuman demi-gods stopped walking the earth; was any of it a real conflict?

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?

Amateur archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann believed he had found proof that Troy existed, and his celebrated finds earned him the moniker father of archaeology, though he was also a prolific liar who misrepresented his findings.

Legend credits three hundred Spartans with holding off over two million Persians for four days at Thermopylae, but thousands of other Greeks who fought there have been edited out of the story.

Three main culprits are blamed for burning the Great Library of Alexandria, yet they lived roughly 300 years apart, an anomaly that leaves open whether the dramatic destruction is an elaborate myth.

Archimedes, one of the ancient world's most important mathematicians, is best remembered for the inventions that saved Syracuse during its siege, above all the mysterious Death Ray said to torch ships from afar.

Celebrated for the Pythagorean Theorem, the ancient Greek thinker Pythagoras was also worshipped by some as a nearly divine figure said to communicate with animals, recall past lives and possess a golden thigh.

Remembered as unbeatable super-soldiers whose whole society was geared towards war, the Peloponnesian city-state has inspired groups across the political spectrum, though from the 1930s historians started to question the received wisdom, some arguing for a so-called Spartan Mirage.

Some ancient sources claim the Spartans were incorruptible, never took bribes and equally divided land among the elite Spartiates, while the city's most famous poet may not even have been from Sparta.

The so-called Olympic Spirit of fair play is said to descend from the ancient Greeks, yet ancient Olympia ran on a conquer-or-die mentality that celebrated athletes who sacrificed their lives for victory.

The original members of the International Olympic Committee believed the ancient Greek games at Olympia were noble expressions of sporting virtue, but the real ancient Olympics were rough, unhygienic, often corrupt and frequently violent.

Attacked by female warriors in South America, conquistador Francisco Orellana thought of the Amazons of Greek mythology, ferocious female warriors at the edge of the known world, and the encounter inspired the name of the Amazon river.

Socrates is celebrated as the father of western philosophy, yet almost nothing about him is known for sure, and what counts as Socratic philosophy is what his students reported.

By carefully considering the details in Plato's dialogues, some researchers believe the ruins of the fabled sunken city of Atlantis can be accurately located, among many theories about its real location.

Some researchers place Atlantis as a real Bronze Age city near the rock of Gibraltar, while others believe the true lost civilization is far more ancient, perhaps a maritime society from the last ice age.

With Mark Adams

New York Times bestselling author Mark Adams, who wrote Meet Me in Atlantis, joins the show to explore Atlantis research theories and the professional hazards of chasing historical mysteries.