WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:15.190 [Sounds of the sea] 00:00:15.190 --> 00:00:20.430 Episode 2: Odysseus Starts his Story 00:00:20.430 --> 00:00:28.910 [Sounds of the sea] 00:00:28.910 --> 00:00:41.530 I have used several names across my life but the name by which you would know me is Odysseus. 00:00:36.570 --> 00:00:41.530 And to hear this story it fills me with strange emotions. 00:00:41.530 --> 00:00:43.420 To hear the name of my friend, 00:00:43.420 --> 00:00:46.060 whose bones now lie under Trojan sand, 00:00:46.060 --> 00:00:48.510 it fills my eyes with tears. 00:00:48.510 --> 00:00:50.760 And if I were to hear myself, 00:00:50.760 --> 00:00:55.320 described as a hero, a man of honour, 00:00:55.320 --> 00:00:57.770 it would make me want to laugh. 00:00:57.770 --> 00:01:04.060 It would make me remember the day when I first heard that red-haired Menelaus was mustering an army. 00:01:04.060 --> 00:01:10.230 It was the very day my wife Penelope gave birth to our son Telemachus. 00:01:10.230 --> 00:01:13.280 And to hold that child in my arms, 00:01:13.280 --> 00:01:15.260 it changed everything. 00:01:15.260 --> 00:01:24.500 It made me wonder why I wanted to sail across the sea and risk my life for the sake of another man’s wounded pride. 00:01:24.500 --> 00:01:31.130 So when Menelaus’ lieutenant arrived on the shore of my island I was not there to meet him. 00:01:31.130 --> 00:01:33.570 He was met instead by my wife, 00:01:33.570 --> 00:01:35.580 the baby in her arms. 00:01:35.580 --> 00:01:38.360 She told the lieutenant that I had gone mad. 00:01:38.360 --> 00:01:41.260 She led him to a beach where he found me, 00:01:41.260 --> 00:01:43.100 my face streaked with dirt, 00:01:43.100 --> 00:01:44.480 my hair in greasy ringlets, 00:01:44.480 --> 00:01:47.230 my clothes no more than filthy rags. 00:01:47.230 --> 00:01:50.140 I had harnessed a donkey and an ox to a plough. 00:01:50.140 --> 00:01:51.460 I was ploughing the shingle, 00:01:51.460 --> 00:01:56.250 sowing handfuls of salt over my shoulder into the furrows that I had made, 00:01:56.250 --> 00:01:59.070 raving all the while. 00:01:59.070 --> 00:02:01.850 This lieutenant was suspicious. 00:02:01.850 --> 00:02:04.630 Already I was famous for my cunning. 00:02:04.630 --> 00:02:06.540 Before I understood what he was doing, 00:02:06.540 --> 00:02:07.440 he had run forward, 00:02:07.440 --> 00:02:11.630 grabbed the baby and put it down in front of the plough. 00:02:11.630 --> 00:02:15.020 When I saw that I knew he had outwitted me. 00:02:15.020 --> 00:02:18.220 If I was to continue my pretence of madness, 00:02:18.220 --> 00:02:21.130 I would have to plough through my own son, 00:02:21.130 --> 00:02:26.310 I would have to cut the baby in half with the blade of the plough. 00:02:26.310 --> 00:02:29.420 And so I had to admit that I was sane. 00:02:29.420 --> 00:02:32.380 I mustered an army from among my subjects, 00:02:32.380 --> 00:02:37.280 I joined the great host that laid siege to the walls of Troy. 00:02:37.280 --> 00:02:40.360 All of us went a little mad during the war, 00:02:40.360 --> 00:02:42.410 what with the betrayals and the intrigues, 00:02:42.410 --> 00:02:44.870 the interventions of the immortals, 00:02:44.870 --> 00:02:49.050 the stupid petty arguments amongst ourselves. 00:02:49.050 --> 00:02:50.590 In the end, 00:02:50.590 --> 00:02:53.100 I was the one who finished it, 00:02:53.100 --> 00:02:55.760 with a great wooden horse. 00:02:55.760 --> 00:02:57.160 And so, of course, 00:02:57.160 --> 00:03:02.000 my ship was crammed with precious things when I set sail for home. 00:03:02.000 --> 00:03:03.340 As we voyaged, 00:03:03.340 --> 00:03:11.890 in my mind’s eye I could see the hero’s welcome I would receive when at last I reached rocky Ithaca again. 00:03:11.890 --> 00:03:14.590 I could see the streets of my land, 00:03:14.590 --> 00:03:17.230 lined with my people cheering. 00:03:17.230 --> 00:03:20.790 I could see myself stepping over the threshold of my feasting hall, 00:03:20.790 --> 00:03:22.620 to find there my wife, 00:03:22.620 --> 00:03:25.000 my son, now a ten year old boy, 00:03:25.000 --> 00:03:28.360 I could almost see the pride in the eyes of my father. 00:03:28.360 --> 00:03:34.470 I could almost feel my mother’s warm embrace. 00:03:34.470 --> 00:03:42.530 For many days we sailed until we found ourselves approaching an island that seemed to us a paradise. 00:03:42.530 --> 00:03:46.380 We could see big fat sheep and goats grazing. 00:03:46.380 --> 00:03:50.240 We could see land level for the plough. 00:03:50.240 --> 00:03:51.910 We were on a voyage. 00:03:51.910 --> 00:03:57.200 We had no idea how long it would be before we would pass such a friendly-looking place again. 00:03:57.200 --> 00:04:03.230 And so it made sense to us to beach the ship and to search the island. 00:04:03.230 --> 00:04:05.740 I chose twelve of my crew. 00:04:05.740 --> 00:04:08.400 I told them each to take, from the treasures of Troy, 00:04:08.400 --> 00:04:13.130 some precious thing, some goblet, some bracelet, some brooch 00:04:13.130 --> 00:04:21.580 in the hope that on this island we would find people with whom we could swap these treasures for animals and directions to a source of fresh water. 00:04:21.580 --> 00:04:24.870 I took a goatskin of wine. 00:04:24.870 --> 00:04:31.090 That wine was so strong the smell of it rendered the senses muddled. 00:04:31.090 --> 00:04:38.640 One cupful of that wine poured into a whole barrel of clear water will still make a strong drink. 00:04:38.640 --> 00:04:42.320 We set off, up the beach, into a forest. 00:04:42.320 --> 00:04:44.140 We found a path, we followed it. 00:04:44.140 --> 00:04:45.800 It took us to a hill. 00:04:45.800 --> 00:04:47.440 In the hill there was a cave. 00:04:47.440 --> 00:04:53.540 Beside the cave a boulder that looked as though it had been placed there for some reason. 00:04:53.540 --> 00:04:56.560 So we entered the cave and sure enough it was a home. 00:04:56.560 --> 00:04:58.280 We found enclosures, 00:04:58.280 --> 00:05:02.270 fences and inside them lambs and little goats, kids. 00:05:02.270 --> 00:05:04.430 We found buckets of cheese and milk. 00:05:04.430 --> 00:05:06.640 We found a fire. 00:05:06.640 --> 00:05:10.380 My men wanted to steal what we needed and return to our ship. 00:05:10.380 --> 00:05:11.320 But I was curious, 00:05:11.320 --> 00:05:13.480 I wanted to see whose home this was. 00:05:13.480 --> 00:05:15.560 And so instead we squatted by the fire, 00:05:15.560 --> 00:05:17.310 we munched some cheese, 00:05:17.310 --> 00:05:20.640 we drank some milk and we waited. 00:05:20.640 --> 00:05:24.370 At last we heard bleating. 00:05:24.370 --> 00:05:27.860 Animals were approaching in a great flock. 00:05:27.860 --> 00:05:29.590 Something – 00:05:29.590 --> 00:05:31.610 perhaps a premonition, 00:05:31.610 --> 00:05:34.120 a whisper from a god or goddess – 00:05:34.120 --> 00:05:39.330 made me urge my men to come with me into the darkest part of the cave, 00:05:39.330 --> 00:05:41.190 the innermost part of the cave, 00:05:41.190 --> 00:05:44.780 where we hid behind some rocks and watched. 00:05:44.780 --> 00:05:47.710 A flock of sheep and goats entered the cave. 00:05:47.710 --> 00:05:51.580 Behind them we saw a shape in the entrance, a silhouette. 00:05:51.580 --> 00:05:52.810 It was the shape of a man, 00:05:52.810 --> 00:05:55.550 but this was bigger than any man we’d ever seen. 00:05:55.550 --> 00:05:58.310 This was the size of a tall tree. 00:05:58.310 --> 00:06:02.120 It reached out and grabbed that boulder we had seen. 00:06:02.120 --> 00:06:05.180 Carefully it rolled the boulder behind it, 00:06:05.180 --> 00:06:09.860 sealing the cave mouth so that now the only light came from the fire. 00:06:09.860 --> 00:06:12.680 It fed the flames of the fire with wood. 00:06:12.680 --> 00:06:19.990 By the light of those flames we watched it milking the female sheep and goats with surprising tenderness, 00:06:19.990 --> 00:06:22.590 with obvious affection. 00:06:22.590 --> 00:06:26.800 By the light of that fire we studied its face, 00:06:26.800 --> 00:06:29.050 its tusk-like teeth, 00:06:29.050 --> 00:06:31.630 its snout of a nose, 00:06:31.630 --> 00:06:33.740 and its eye. 00:06:33.740 --> 00:06:35.760 In the middle of its forehead, 00:06:35.760 --> 00:06:40.790 it had one enormous eye. 00:06:40.790 --> 00:06:46.030 By the light of that fire it must have seen our shadows on the wall behind us. 00:06:46.030 --> 00:06:48.920 So it peered toward us and said, 00:06:48.920 --> 00:06:50.700 “What’s this? 00:06:50.700 --> 00:06:53.470 I have guests”. 00:06:53.470 --> 00:06:55.200 We stepped forward. 00:06:55.200 --> 00:06:57.200 “We are men. 00:06:57.200 --> 00:06:58.990 We have here precious things. 00:06:58.990 --> 00:07:03.400 We would swap them with you for some of your animals and directions to a source of fresh water. 00:07:03.400 --> 00:07:09.290 Remember father god Zeus rewards those who are kind to travellers.” 00:07:09.290 --> 00:07:11.950 “Zeus! 00:07:11.950 --> 00:07:14.120 Don’t you know what I am? 00:07:14.120 --> 00:07:16.340 I am a Cyclops. 00:07:16.340 --> 00:07:20.060 We Cyclopes are the sons of the sea god Poseidon. 00:07:20.060 --> 00:07:22.540 For him we feel respect. 00:07:22.540 --> 00:07:27.000 I’m afraid we have no fear of your stupid blustering Zeus!” 00:07:27.000 --> 00:07:28.470 And he grabbed one of my men then, 00:07:28.470 --> 00:07:29.360 lifted him up, 00:07:29.360 --> 00:07:31.760 smashed his head against the roof the cave, 00:07:31.760 --> 00:07:34.130 pushed the twitching corpse into his mouth, 00:07:34.130 --> 00:07:41.080 washed it down with a bucketful of milk and lay down and went to sleep. 00:07:41.080 --> 00:07:45.490 We were so stunned by what we’d seen, 00:07:45.490 --> 00:07:48.410 for a while none of us could do anything. 00:07:48.410 --> 00:07:52.140 We simply stood and stared. 00:07:52.140 --> 00:07:54.830 Then one of my men drew his sword. 00:07:54.830 --> 00:08:02.850 He stepped forward intending to plunge the blade through the skin of the Cyclops and pierce his heart as he slept. 00:08:02.850 --> 00:08:05.070 But it occurred to me: 00:08:05.070 --> 00:08:07.420 if we killed the Cyclops, 00:08:07.420 --> 00:08:10.960 this cave would be our tomb. 00:08:10.960 --> 00:08:15.310 All of us together were not strong enough to push that boulder. 00:08:15.310 --> 00:08:17.900 Only the Cyclops could free us – 00:08:17.900 --> 00:08:22.220 we were trapped in the cave. 00:08:22.220 --> 00:08:24.200 [Closing music]