The Ancients

With Emily Hauser

With Eric Cline

With Emily Hauser

With Emily Hauser

Tristan Hughes and classicist Dr Emily Hauser open a new series on Homer's Odyssey, tracing Odysseus's journey from the ruins of Troy through Calypso's island, the Phaeacians, Circe and the Cyclops, and asking what kind of hero he is.

With Nico Momigliano

With Steve Kershaw

With Edith Hall

Featuring Achilles, Hector and Agamemnon, the Iliad captures the drama of the final days of the Trojan War; Tristan Hughes and Professor Edith Hall explore its portrayal of fate and prophecy, and the apocalyptic tone of its language.

With Jorrit Kelder

Overlooking the Argolid Plain, Mycenae rose to prominence in the late Bronze Age and is known as birthplace of mythical figures such as Agammemnon, King of the Greeks; Tristan Hughes and Dr Jorrit Kelder discuss its walls, tombs and masks.

With Daisy Dunn

The Iliad and the Odyssey are two of the world's most famous poems, preserved for almost 3 millennia; Tristan and Daisy Dunn dissect the works and legacy of their author, Homer, from the Trojan War to Ionic and Aeolic Greeks.

With Caroline Lawrence

Half man, half bull, the story goes that the Minotaur was trapped in a labyrinth beneath Knossos and fed on human flesh until slain by Theseus; Tristan Hughes and Caroline Lawrence explore what Ancient Greeks perceived it to be.

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 C. Brian Rose

When Heinrich Schliemann began excavating Troy in the late 19th century, understanding of the ancient world changed forever; Tristan and Professor C. Brian Rose ask what modern archaeology tells us about the people who lived there.

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.

With Natalie Haynes

To mark Women's History Month, Tristan and Natalie Haynes discuss the place of Helen of Troy in mythology and history, often viewed through the male gaze, and her conception, abductions and grief after the Trojan War.

With Nicoletta Momigliano

Tristan Hughes journeys into the origins and rise of the Minoans, Bronze Age titans on Crete around 7,000 BC; Professor Nicoletta Momigliano discusses their early settlements, their undeciphered writing system, and monumental palaces such as Knossos.

With Natalie Haynes

With Nicoletta Momigliano

Assassin's Creed Odyssey lets players walk in the footsteps of Theseus through the Labyrinth, commonly associated with the maze-like Knossos palace on Crete, to face the mythical Minotaur; Prof Nicoletta Momigliano guides Tristan Hughes through myth and reality.

With Alastair Blanshard

Perhaps best known from Homer's Iliad, Achilles was a demigod of extraordinary strength renowned for his passionate love for his companion Patroclus; Tristan Hughes and Professor Alastair Blanshard ask whether the sources describe their relationship as erotic.

With C. Brian Rose

The real King Midas ruled the Phrygian Kingdom in west central Turkey between 740 and 700 BCE; Professor Brian Rose discusses the historical and mythical sides of Midas, the Golden Touch myth's origins, and his excavations at Gordian.

With Roel Konijnendijk, Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones

In 486 BC Xerxes ascended the Persian throne and sought revenge on Greece; Tristan Hughes, Dr Roel Konijnendijk and Professor Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones explore his massive invasion through the battles of Thermopylae and Salamis in the accounts of Herodotus.

With Andrew Bayliss

In 480 BC a vastly outnumbered Greek force under Leonidas, king of Sparta, prepared to face Xerxes at Thermopylae; Tristan Hughes and Dr Andrew Bayliss trace Leonidas's rise through Sparta's Agiad dynasty to his final stand at the hot gates.

With Roel Konijnendijk, Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones

With Paul Cartledge

2,499 years ago King Xerxes launched history's largest amphibious invasion of Europe before D-Day; Paul Cartledge sorts the fact from the fiction about the doomed Thermopylae defence by Leonidas, his 300 (or so) Spartans and their Hellenic allies.

With Michael Scott

Themistocles rose from obscurity to help build one of the greatest naval powers in history and defeat Persia's navy, then his story ends in exile serving the empire he once defeated; Tristan Hughes and Michael Scott trace rise and fall.

With Owen Rees

With Chris Carey

Ever since it occurred in 480 BC, the Battle of Thermopylae has been legend; Professor Chris Carey explains how its shadow continues today, referenced by those fighting for freedom and in films and video games.

With Joshua Hall

480 BC is widely celebrated in Greek history for Thermopylae and Salamis, but 600 miles west of Salamis another famous battle was supposedly fought the same day: the Battle of Himera; Dr Joshua Hall explains its significance for ancient Sicily.

With Barry Strauss

Around 22 September, 2,499 years ago, a small largely-Athenian fleet squared up against the mighty Persian armada of King Xerxes; Professor Barry Strauss talks through the Battle of Salamis and explains why it became so important to the Athenians.

With Roel Konijnendijk, Owen Rees

Fresh from its victory over Athens in 404, Sparta stood unrivalled, yet within decades its power was shattered; Tristan Hughes, Dr Roel Konijnendijk and Dr Owen Rees chronicle Sparta's catastrophic collapse in the fourth century BC against Thebes and Corinth.

With Polly Low

Tristan Hughes and Professor Polly Low explore the Delian League, the so-called ancient NATO, tracing tribute, revolt and contested sources as a defensive alliance from the Persian War origins slowly turns into Athens' hard-edged maritime empire.

With Alastair Blanshard

In 404 BC Athens faced total defeat, its navy shattered and its food supply cut off; Tristan Hughes and Professor Alastair Blanshard explore the final years of the Peloponnesian War, the roles of Lysander and Alcibiades, and Persian support.

With Owen Rees

With Owen Rees

Focusing on the Classical Greek Period, around 500 to 323 BC, Dr Owen Rees discusses whether ancient warfare produced psychological injury resembling PTSD, examining the cases of two specific individuals, Epizelus the Athenian and Clearchus the Spartan.

With Owen Rees

Recorded by Xenophon, the 10,000 were Greek mercenaries employed by Cyrus the Younger who travelled over 1,766 miles to the Battle of Cunaxa, where Cyrus perished and left them stranded; Owen Rees discusses their perilous journey home.

With Polly Low

With Alastair Blanshard

Plague in the ancient world was nothing unusual, but one of the most infamous outbreaks occurred in 430 BC, the Plague of Athens; Alastair Blanshard, Professor of Classics and Ancient History at Queensland, discusses this devastating episode in Athenian history.

With Judith Barringer

Among the Greek world's most important religious sites, the sanctuary at Olympia arguably entered its golden age in the 5th and 4th centuries BC; Professor Judy Barringer discusses surviving art from the Temple of Zeus to Nike of Paionios.

With James Romm

The Theban Sacred Band was an elite corps active for almost 50 years in the mid 4th century BC; James Romm tells Tristan many of the 150 pairs of male lovers in this 300-man corps were buried where they fell.

With Stephen Hodkinson

Sparta is ingrained in popular imagination as home to unmatched Greek super soldiers; Tristan and Professor Stephen Hodkinson ask what is actually known about Spartan society, especially during the city's 'golden age' in the 5th and early 4th centuries BC.

With Adrian Goldsworthy

In October 331 BC, on the plain of Gaugamela, a 25-year-old Alexander faced a large army gathered by the Persian king Darius III; Tristan gives a detailed run-down of the battle that would decide the fate of the Persian Empire.

With Steele Brand

With Adrian Goldsworthy

With Adrian Goldsworthy

Tristan Hughes and Dr Adrian Goldsworthy cover the sieges of Tyre and Gaza in 332 BC, Alexander's Egypt campaign, the Battle of Gaugamela, Persepolis's fall, and Darius III's demise as Alexander's army pushes further east into Bactria and Afghanistan.

With Edmund Richardson

With Adrian Goldsworthy

With Adrian Goldsworthy

With Dan Snow

With Adrian Goldsworthy

Taking place in 334 BC, the Battle of Granicus was Alexander the Great's first major victory against the Persian Empire; Tristan and Adrian Goldsworthy discuss his tactics at the beginning of the campaign, before he had built his formidable reputation.

With Gregory Aldrete

A Pompeii mosaic shows Alexander the Great in a breastplate of linen where bronze or iron might be expected; Gregory Aldrete spent 12 years studying this linothorax and explains how it protected one of the most powerful conquering armies of all history.

With Simon Elliott

Both described as the greatest military commander in the ancient world, Alexander the undefeated conqueror and Caesar, critical in creating what later became the Roman Empire, are compared by Tristan and Dr Simon Elliott, analysing leadership styles and victories.

Alexander the Great and the Queen of the Amazons reportedly had sex for 13 days solid, and the record on his male lovers stays an open question; Kate Lister interviews Tristan Hughes about it on Betwixt the Sheets.

With Anthony Delaney, Madeline Pelling

After ascending the throne aged 20 in 336 BCE, Alexander the Great's rule started with mass executions and political assassinations; in this crossover with After Dark, Tristan chats to Dr Anthony Delaney and Dr Madeline Pelling about his bloodthirsty reign.

In this second part Alexander begins a full-blooded assault on the Persian Gates, and Tristan finds out how this battle for the Persian heartlands, dubbed the Persian Thermopylae, ended.

In January 330 BC a small Persian force blockaded Alexander's route through the Zagros Mountains at the Persian, or Susian, Gates; Tristan covers the events following Alexander's victory at Gaugamela that led to this clash, dubbed the Persian Thermopylae.

With Ben Raynor

In 334BC, as Alexander the Great advanced east to conquer the Persian Empire, his uncle Alexander I of Molossia was travelling west to southern Italy; Ben Raynor explores his formative years in Philip's court and his omission from popular history.

With Ali Ansari

With Louis Rawlings

In 279 BC, on a plain near Asculum in southern Italy, the Greek warlord Pyrrhus of Epirus faced the legions of the Roman Republic; Tristan Hughes and Dr Louis Rawlings tell how he won the first ever 'Pyrrhic Victory'.

With Eduardo Garcia-Molina

At its height the Seleucid Empire stretched from Thrace to the Indus River Valley before a devastating defeat by Rome at the Battle of Magnesia; Eduardo Garcia-Molina argues the Seleucids still resurged under Antiochus IV after that defeat.

With Graham Wrightson

Focussing on 323 to 320 BC, Tristan's book tells the story of Thibron, a Spartan mercenary captain who set out from Crete with around 6,000 battle-hardened mercenaries to forge his own Greco-Libyan empire in North Africa after Alexander's death.

With Joyce Tyldesley, Chris Naunton, Glenn Godenho

Born in 69BCE into the Ptolemaic dynasty, Cleopatra VII emerged victorious from a brutal civil war within two turbulent decades of taking Egypt's throne; Professor Joyce Tyldesley, Dr Chris Naunton and Dr Glenn Godenho discuss her rise and golden age.

With Silvannen Gerrard

Dr Silvannen Gerrard discusses the use of chariots with blades mounted on either side during the Hellenistic period, particularly by the Seleucid Empire, and how they fit alongside other unusual troop transport such as war elephants and camel archers.

With Chris Naunton

After Alexander's death, aged 32, his corpse became a talismanic symbol of legitimacy, and his tomb in Alexandria drew pilgrims until, by the end of the 4th century, all mention of it vanished; Tristan and Dr Chris Naunton discuss theories.

With Nick Rauh

In the aftermath of Alexander the Great's death, monumental Hellenistic super fortresses were built in ancient Rough Cilicia, modern-day southeast Turkey; Nick Rauh takes Tristan through them and this area's importance to preceding superpowers such as the Assyrians and Persians.

With Silvannen Gerrard

Existing for almost 250 years, the Seleucid Empire relied on Indian elephants in almost all its major battles, from Ipsus to Magnesia; Dr Silvannen Gerrard explains how these elephants were trained, and their prestige value away from the battlefield.

With Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones

With Toby Wilkinson

In the chaos after Alexander the Great's death his former general Ptolemy claimed Egypt as his prize; Tristan Hughes and Dr Toby Wilkinson discuss how he laid the foundations for the last ancient dynasty of Egypt.

With Michael Higgins

The last monument added to the Seven Wonders, the Lighthouse of Alexandria was one of the tallest man-made structures in ancient history and the only guiding beacon along 900km of Mediterranean coast; Michael Higgins traces its collapse 1500 years later.

With Islam Issa

The Library of Alexandria was one of the most important and celebrated buildings of the ancient Mediterranean; Tristan Hughes and Dr Islam Issa explore the Ptolemies' obsession with acquiring knowledge and whether it really burned down in a great fire.

With Franck Goddio

Founded by Alexander the Great in 323BC and nurtured by the Ptolemies, Alexandria flourished through the Late Hellenistic and Roman Imperial periods before much of it sank beneath the harbour; underwater archaeologist Franck Goddio shares his team's excavation findings.

With Jane Draycott

Cleopatra Selene, daughter of Cleopatra VII and final ruler of the Ptolemaic dynasty, grew up during Ancient Egypt's last days and in Rome during its new empire's first years before ruling Mauretania; Dr Jane Draycott tells her story.

With Dan Snow

Tristan Hughes joins Dan Snow to tell what happened after Alexander died: the struggle for control of his empire involved war, body snatching, extremely slow carriage chases and a thousand soldiers eaten alive by crocodiles in the Nile.

With Milinda Hoo

Ai Khanum, the City of Lady Moon in eastern Afghanistan, reached its height in the 3rd and 2nd centuries BC; Dr Milinda Hoo talks Tristan through its religious and burial structures and why it resists labeling as a Greek city.

With Chris Naunton

Cleopatra was victor of a civil war, mistress of Julius Caesar and Marc Antony, and the last ruler of Ptolemaic Egypt; Dr Chris Naunton discusses his research into the lost Baths of Cleopatra, said to lie somewhere under modern Alexandria.

With Andrew Erskine

Erected in celebration after the people of Rhodes defended the island against Alexander the Great's successors in 304 BC, the 108ft statue of Helios stood for only 50 years; Tristan and Professor Andrew Erskine delve into its legacy.

With Tiziana D'Angelo, Kathryn Lomas

Paestum in southern Italy is home to some of the greatest ancient Greek temples; Dr Tiziana D'Angelo and Dr Kathryn Lomas guide Tristan Hughes from its Greek beginnings around 600 BC to takeover by Rome more than 300 years later.

With Simon Elliott

Tristan is joined again by Simon Elliott to talk about some of the great clashes between Greeks and Romans, from Cynoscephalae to Magnesia to Pydna, and how the forces evolved in armour, weapons and strategy to compete against each other.

With Amelia Brown

Occupied since around 3000 BC, Corinth's transition from a pagan, Greco-Roman state to a Christian one is tracked through surviving evidence; Dr Amelia Brown outlines the city's administration and Pausanias's account, a Greek travel writer of the second century AD.

With David Braund

Tristan Hughes and Dr David Braund explore the Amazons in ancient Greek culture through myths involving Heracles, Achilles and Theseus, presenting these warrior women as city founders, astronomers and festival creators far beyond their popular image.

With Paul Cartledge

Was Athens truly the birthplace of democracy, and who gave a voice to the people? Tristan chats to Professor Paul Cartledge about the radical statesman Cleisthenes and ancient forms of political exclusion and ostracism.

With Roel Konijnendijk

Characterised as super soldiers who would rather perish than surrender, the Spartan warrior's reputation preceded it; Tristan and Dr Roel Konijnendijk ask how accurate that image is against their education, training and familial expectations.

With Mai Musié

More than 2,000 years old, the Parthenon has served as temple, treasury, residence, church, mosque, gunpowder store and tourist site; Tristan Hughes joins Matt Lewis on the Echoes of History podcast to trace its long and fascinating story.

With Paul Cartledge

From the Spartan king Menelaus and his wife Helen of Troy to adolescent same-sex relationships, Tristan and Professor Paul Cartledge look at sex and courtship in Sparta, and tackling infertility in the ancient world.

With Armand D’Angour

With Michael Scott

With James Romm

With Sarah Iles Johnston

Hades is king of the dead and the underworld in ancient Greek mythology; Tristan Hughes and Prof Sarah Iles Johnson unearth his origin, define the underworld, and delve into myths like Orpheus and Eurydice, Achilles, and the Labours of Heracles.

With Sarah Iles Johnston

Dionysus, known as the party god of ancient Greece associated with theatre and mysterious cults, is explored by Tristan Hughes and Dr Sarah Iles Johnston, starting with the horrific fate of King Pentheus after he banned the god's worship.

With Andrew Bayliss

Considered one of Athens' biggest rivals, Sparta has longstanding mythological origins, from rumoured descendants of Heracles to the mythical lawmaker Lycurgus; Tristan and Dr Andrew Bayliss ask what archaeological evidence exists for how, and by whom, Sparta was founded.

With Michael Scott

Zeus, king of gods and men, has a tale of overthrowing fathers and seducing women both mortal and divine; Tristan Hughes and Michael Scott trace his origins, his grandparents Uranus and Gaia, and the family tree of the Olympians.

With Owen Rees

Man's best friend was at people's sides in Ancient Greece too; Tristan and Dr Owen Rees discuss dog names, their function in Greek religion, and their possible deployment on the battlefield.

With Tom Holland

With Mary Beard, Charlotte Higgins

Professor Mary Beard and Charlotte Higgins join Tristan Hughes to ask how the Romans borrowed, adapted and sometimes rivalled Greek culture, and what they admired and rejected, from temples and theatre to politics and philosophy.

With Michael Scott

Zeus, king of gods and men, has a tale of overthrowing fathers and seducing women; Tristan Hughes and Michael Scott trace his origins from Uranus and Gaia through the prophecy that overthrows Uranus, also fated for his father Cronus.

With Lyndsay Coo

With Natalie Haynes

Medea helped Jason win the Golden Fleece, betrayed her family and became one of the most feared figures in Greek myth; Tristan Hughes and Natalie Haynes trace her from Colchis to Euripides' tragedy and ask if she was a villain.

With Caroline Lawrence

With Alastair Blanshard

Tristan Hughes continues the Greek Gods and Goddesses series with the most popular mythical hero of them all, Heracles; Professor Alastair Blanshard joins him to discuss who Heracles was and what his twelve labours were.

With Natalie Haynes

Demeter, goddess of the harvest and agriculture and mother of Persephone, is often overlooked in myth despite her immense power; Tristan welcomes Natalie Haynes to explore her mythology and how Ancient Greeks feared devastating famines and a Mother's wrath.

With Liv Albert

Born from the foam of Uranus's castrated genitals, Aphrodite is unhappily married to Hephaestus yet carries on an affair with Ares; Tristan Hughes and Liv Albert discuss her origin and her role in starting the Trojan War.

With Amelia Brown

Dr Amelia Brown returns to talk marine mammals and merpeople, from Thetis, mother of Achilles, to the role Nereids played throughout Greek mythology, asking what these mythical creatures reveal about the ancient Mediterranean.

With Natalie Haynes

Medusa, one of the three Gorgons, is notoriously portrayed with serpentine hair and petrifying eyes and her life is ended by Perseus; Tristan Hughes and Natalie Haynes dissect her origins and her narrative marked by betrayals from Perseus and Athena.

With Seth Pevnick

With Tim Whitmarsh

The novel sits at the heart of a billion dollar industry; Professor Tim Whitmarsh takes Tristan back to the novels of Ancient Greece, some of the world's earliest fictional narratives, and their possible links with Persian, Jewish and Indian literature.

With Ellie Mackin Roberts

As both eldest and youngest child of the titan Kronos, Hestia, Greek goddess of hearth and home, was important in almost every sphere of Greek daily life yet is arguably one of the most overlooked deities; Ellie Mackin-Roberts asks why.

With Roel Konijnendijk

With Liv Albert

Apollo, favourite son of Zeus and twin of Artemis, was patron of poetry, prophecy, music and dance yet a vengeful figure who brought death through poisonous arrows; Tristan Hughes and Liv Albert peel back the layers of this complicated god.

With Jasmine Elmer

Artemis is more than the huntress of Greek mythology: patron of the wilderness, wild animals, childbirth and chastity; Tristan Hughes and Jasmine Elmer discuss her relationship with her twin brother Apollo and the importance of her virginity to her followers.

With Rachel Kousser

Athena, goddess of wisdom, tactical war and skilled craft, is the favourite daughter of Zeus and Metis, born from Zeus himself; Tristan Hughes and Rachel Kousser discuss her contest with Poseidon for the patronage of Athens.

With Alastair Blanshard

Frederick the Great, Marie Antoinette and Oscar Wilde have all been discussed in terms of Ancient Greek ideas of homosexual love; Alastair Blanshard, Paul Eliadis Chair of Classics at the University of Queensland, discusses the concept's ripples through history.

With James Lloyd

Without recordings, and with notation and instruments long forgotten, James Lloyd tells Tristan the reaction to music in Ancient Greece may sometimes have resembled the reaction to rock in the 20th-century United States, and to drill in the UK today.

With Christopher Bungard

Known for his winged sandals and snake-encircled sceptre, Hermes is the herald of the Greek gods and god of both thieves and shepherds; Tristan Hughes and Christopher Bungard discuss how he earned those titles, and how his sandals grew wings.

With Peter Toth

Legends of Alexander the Great were told almost immediately upon his death, often merging fact with fiction; Tristan interviews Dr Peter Toth, curator of the new British Library Exhibition on Alexander the Great, about the Alexander Romance culture.

With Emily Kneebone

With Maeve McHugh

Located on the Acropolis in Athens, the Parthenon is the unofficial 8th wonder of the ancient world; Tristan and Dr Maeve McHugh explore the mastermind behind its construction and the iconography of the building.

With Ellie Mackin Roberts

Hera, wife and sister of Zeus and goddess of marriage, royalty and women, is typically characterised as the jealous, vengeful wife despite archaeological evidence she was a pre-Greek deity pre-eminent to Zeus; Dr Ellie Mackin Roberts uncovers the truth.

With Garrett Ryan

The Oracle of Delphi, known as the Pythia, was high priestess of the Temple of Apollo and among antiquity's most revered women; Tristan and Dr Garrett Ryan ask whether she was high on fumes or that is a modern misconception.

With Armand D’Angour

It is often thought the ancient Greeks were devout in tradition and strict in their ways; Tristan and Dr Armand D'Angour explore Ancient Greek innovation and their perception of 'new' across the arts, philosophy and the model state.

With Robin Waterfield

Even in antiquity the Olympic Games were central to everybody's imagination of what a sporting event should be; Robin Waterfield, author of Olympia: The Story of the Ancient Olympic Games, joins Tristan Hughes to discuss the games' origins in Olympia.

With Helen Roche

With Susan Deacy

Ares, god of war and bloodlust, was often overshadowed by more famous siblings despite being a major figure in the Greek pantheon; Tristan and Professor Susan Deacy explore his role as the first kin-slayer and his reputation across history.

With Michael Scott

The Ancient Greek symposium extended beyond simple after-dinner drinking to wine, recline and philosophy among Hellenic men; Tristan and Michael Scott, Professor of Classics, explore this soiree of booze, babes and slaves, exclusively male aside from the occasional courtesan.

With Ellie Mackin Roberts

Persephone's journey to the underworld at the hands of Hades gives insight into how the Ancient Greeks saw death, the changing seasons and marriage; Tristan welcomes back Dr Ellie Mackin Roberts to dive into the depths of her mythology.

With Dustin Mackenzie

Dividing Sicily from Italy, the Strait of Messina is likely where the mythical sea monsters Scylla and Charybdis were supposed to have wreaked havoc on Odysseus' crew; Dustin Mackenzie discusses its importance in antiquity and Rhegium and Messana.

With Owen Rees

With Steve Kershaw

Hephaestus, son of Zeus and Hera and god of fire and foundry, is the only god with a disability, often treated disparagingly by Hera even as it feeds his wisdom; Dr Steve Kershaw discusses his origin and marriage to Aphrodite.

With Sarah Clegg

These mythical creatures, linked to the Queen of the Underworld Persephone, feature in Jason and the Argonauts and Homer's Odyssey; Sarah Clegg joins Tristan Hughes to discuss the Sirens and their legacy alongside nymphs, Lilith and mermaids.

With John W.I Lee

With Thomas Ntinas

Tristan is joined by Thomas Ntinas, host of The Delicious Legacy, to discuss how much Mediterranean food has changed over two millennia, with mouth-watering home-made recreations of what people would have eaten, and the importance of honey and wine.

With Carla Ionescu

The Ephesian Artemis, the great mother goddess, is characterised in statues by a vest of bee hives, or breasts, or bull scrotums, depending on interpretation; Tristan and Dr Carla Ionescu discuss her connections to other divine female figures.

With Edith Hall

With Natalie Haynes

According to Greek myth, Pandora was moulded from the earth by Hephaestus on the instruction of Zeus, and her box was in fact a jar whose contents are up for debate; Tristan and Natalie Haynes discover the truth behind her.

With Margaret Reynolds

Sappho was famous throughout antiquity yet retold only in fragments today; her poetry inspired generations from Catullus to Byron, and Tristan and Professor Margaret Reynolds piece together what is known from her fragmented history and her depictions in art.

With Milinda Hoo

A theatre, gymnasium and colonnaded courtyard houses are hallmarks of an Ancient Greek city, found in Ai Khanum in present-day Afghanistan; Milinda Hoo takes Tristan through the structures, and part two asks whether it can count as a Greek city.

With Judith Swaddling

Featuring mythological heroes like Heracles and the great sanctuary of Olympia, home to one of the Seven Wonders, Tristan Hughes and Dr Judith Swaddling delve into the origins of the Olympic Games and what the earliest Olympics looked like.

With Judith Barringer

Ancient Olympia's importance stretched far beyond being the birthplace of its namesake sporting festival; Professor Judy Barringer shines a light on Olympia's early history, known about thanks to both an extraordinary amount of surviving archaeology and vital ancient literary accounts.

With Stephen Hodkinson

A legendary city-state associated with fierce warriors in battle, Sparta also had an everyday life; this second episode with Professor Stephen Hodkinson discusses the eating habits, training and even kingship of Sparta.