Misha Glenny and guests discuss the origins and evolution of an alliance which transformed the geopolitics of the classical world: the Delian League. Since the start of the 5th Century BCE, city states across Greece had been fighting a series of armed conflicts in the Greco-Persi ...Show more
Machado de Assis
Misha Glenny and guests discuss one of the towering figures of Brazilian and world literature, Machado de Assis (1839 - 1908). He was the descendant of slaves and built his career while slavery was still in place in Brazil (abolished 1888) and many of his characters were from the ...Show more
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the great epic poem attributed to Homer, telling the story of an intense episode in the Trojan War. It is framed by the wrath of the Greek hero Achilles, insulted by his leader Agamemnon and withdrawing from the battle that continued to rage, only ...Show more
THE STORY: (46 minutes) Ten years into the siege of Troy a priest of Apollo arrives at the command tent of Agamemnon, Commander in Chief of the Greeks. The priest makes a simple request of Agamemnon. Agamemnon refuses, and Greek soldiers die in the thousands. And then things turn ...Show more
THE STORY (50 minutes) This episode traces the personal griefs of two bitter enemies: Achilles, who has lost his best friend and soul mate, Patroclus; and King Priam, who has lost his son and his heir, Hector. Both Achilles and Priam are inconsolable, until Zeus and Deadly Destin ...Show more
The Trojan War was a time of heroes. From the swift-footed Achilles, and the hot-headed Prince Paris, to the beautiful Queen Helen, and the all-powerful gods, Zeus, Athena, and Aphrodite. In these early days of what we now call Ancient Greece, the story of Troy was already a saga ...Show more