It’s been described as the most legendary story ever told. But did the Trojan War actually happen? And was it really fought over a beautiful woman? Tom Holland and Dominic Sandbrook discuss an endurin…
- First Episode Appearance
- 6. Troy23 Nov 2020
- Year Range
- 500 BC – 2025
The Rest Is History episodes about Greek Mythology
Showing 7 of 7 episodes
The story of Helen of Troy, her remarkable birth and her infamous love affair with Paris, the Trojan prince, resounds across the centuries. A figure of condemnation, pity and tragedy, her beauty set i…
In 1870 the German archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann - a man of remarkable energy, desperately fascinated with Helen of Troy - discovered in Turkey the burnt remains of what he claimed to be the legen…
What are the mythic origins of Zeus, King of the Olympians, and the other Greek gods? From what period did the earliest of the Greek myths derive? Who was Hesiod - alongside Homer, the greatest of the…
What is the story behind the writing of Oedipus, the notorious king of Thebes who murdered his father and unwittingly married his mother? Was it based on a real historical event? What are Oedipus’ cur…
Who was Dionysus, the son of Zeus, and Greek god of ecstasy, revelry and madness? Why was he so central to the ancient Greeks? What is the story of the Bacchae, the play in which a young man is ripped…
What terrifying trials did Jason and the Argonauts have to overcome to win the famous Golden Fleece from a fire-breathing dragon, in one of the greatest greek myths of all time? When and where does th…