The Greek Myths

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Greek myths from Achilles to Zeus. Are you a touch narcissistic? Do you have the body of an Adonis? Are you willing to undertake Herculean tasks or Promethean ventures? Perhaps you have an Oedipus complex? If you answer to any or perhaps all of these you owe something to the Greek myths, a collection of weird and wonderful stories that, like Penelope’s shroud or the needlework of Arachne, were constantly woven and unpicked across centuries of Greek and Roman civilisation. The myths have a cast of thousands including mighty Zeus, Jason and the Argonauts, wily Odysseus, beautiful Aphrodite and Cerberus, the three-headed dog. They are funny, shocking, quirky and epic and have retained their power and their wisdom from the ancient world to the modern.

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Guests

• Nick Lowe 6 episodes
  Senior Lecturer in Classics at Royal Holloway, University of London
• Richard Buxton No other episodes
  Professor of Greek Language and Literature at the University of Bristol
• Mary Beard 11 episodes
  Professor of Classics at Cambridge University

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Programme ID: b0093z1k

Episode page: bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0093z1k

Auto-category: 292 (Greek and Roman religion)

Hello (First sentence from this episode)

Hello. Are you a touch narcissistic?