The Odyssey Odyssey
Tom Lee retells the epic poem "The Odyssey" with diversions and excursions into the vast constellation of Greek myths surrounding the central story. The Odyssey describes a journey through time and against death, away from demons and towards home - if home is still there. Hear the story and the stories surrounding story while reflecting on how how humans have connected with this complicated hero for almost three thousand years.
Episodes
29 episodes
22: The Comfort of Strangers - Circe: Part 2
IN WHICH Odysseus receives help from Hermes to overcome Circe's potent drugs, and we learn that sailors and witches make epic bedfellows.
21: The Comfort of Strangers (Circe - Part 1)
IN WHICH: Our much-diminished band of heroes takes time to grieve their massive losses brought about by recent events. Odysseus finds another intriguing wisp of smoke in the wilderness. Maybe this time they'll find the warm w...
20: And Then There Was One . . .
IN WHICH our intrepid band, having escaped from one man-eating giant, retreat to a tranquil bay, only to find themselves surrounded by thousands of giants with similar appetites. Poseidon's curse moves ominously towards its fulfillment.<...
19: Oh, The Wayward Wind
IN WHICH: We consider the implications of windbags, pompous and otherwise, as our hero begins to feel the full effects of the parting curse of the Cyclops.
Episode 18: The Big Bad
IN WHICH: Our hero seeks hospitality in The Wrong Cave. We meet everyone's favorite mythological monster: Polyphemus the Cyclops, whose appetites are as shocking as his social skills.
BONUS: Anyone for Tennyson?
IN WHICH: We hear the complete poem "The Lotos-eaters" by Alfred, Lord Tennyson.
17: "It's Lotus, Dude..."
IN WHICH: Odysseus himself takes over the narrative and decides to begin at the beginning. He recounts the departure of his twelve ships with 600 men from the ruins of Troy to an audience that knows the ending: only one of them wil...
SUMMER SPECIAL: IRON MAN
IN WHICH: we delve into the life and stories of Hephaestus, the god of fire, bearer of culture, architect and blacksmith to the gods. The child of dysfunctional immortals, he struggles to find a home and a family.
16: Storytime
IN WHICH: Odysseus is entertained by the rhapsode Demodacus, who is inspired to tell our hero his own story. An athletic competition gives rise to tension, which another story dispels. The entertainment continues over roasted...
15: Consider Yourself at Home
IN WHICH: Odysseus casts an epic gaze over the palace of King Alcinous and Queen Arete, who demonstrate their hospitality and provide our hero with hope.VISUAL FOOTNOT...
EPISODE 14: We Have to Talk About the Giants...
IN WHICH: We explore the lineage of King Alcinous, Odysseus's host, tracing his family line back to the notorious and ill-fated race of Giants.
BONUS: Christmas With A Pope
IN WHICH: We return from an unexpected hiatus with a "party piece" - a performance of an excerpt from Alexander Pope's 1726 verse translation of The Odyssey, Book V.
EPISODE 13: Laundry Day
IN WHICH: Odysseus is rescued by a young princess engaged in pursuits of domestic management. Athena returns him to a state of manly elegance, and the princess promises him a speedy return to his homeland on a magical ship.
Summer Special - His Left Foot: Philoctetes
IN WHICH: Odysseus uses guile and deceit to attain The Bow of Heracles from Philoctetes, the man he betrayed and abandoned ten years before.Watch a video of "The Speckled Bull" - an Irish folktale descended from the myth of Herac...
Summer Special - Achilles' (High) Heel
IN WHICH: We recount the Roman story of the Achilleid, detailing how the immortal nymph Thetis tried to protect her all-too-mortal son Achilles from the perils of the Trojan War and how "wily Odysseus" contrived to foil her schemes.
12 - "Rosie, You're All Right"
IN WHICH we explore the most repeated poetic line in all of the Odyssey and learn the tragic story of Eos, goddess of the dawn, who kindled the wrath of Aphrodite and was cursed ever after to a life of unrequited lust. Ouch.
11 - "Here We Are, Living in Paradise"
IN WHICH we encounter our hero, Odysseus, as the coddled prisoner of the sea nymph Calypso in her island hermitage. Hermes, the reluctant ambassador of Zeus, liberates the captive, who flees directly into the path of a ...
10 - Sinon's Weeping (All about that horse...)
IN WHICH: We delve into what may be the least understood episode of the Trojan War: that horse. How could the Trojans be so foolish as to bring that horse into their city? Homer doesn't have much to say about it, but Vergil t...
09 - Who's Afraid of Helen of Troy?
IN WHICH we considered what married life is like when a husband and wife are reunited after a ten-year long war waged over the wife's infidelity. Menelaus and Helen both remember their encounters with Odysseus, and we learn how the...
08 - A Shudder
IN WHICH: We delve into the birth of Helen of Sparta, I mean Troy, one of the countless children of Zeus whose lives intersect in The Iliad and The Odyssey.Footnotes to the show are available
07 - War Stories and War Crimes
IN WHICH: Telemachus and Mentor/Athena visit Old King Nestor in search of news of Odysseus. Nestor relates the chaotic departure of the Greeks from Troy after "Lesser" Ajax angered Athena.Program notes available
06 - Night Flight
IN WHICH: We observe life on a small island. Telemachus obeys Athena's command to call an assembly on Ithaca - the first since his father departed nineteen years ago. Athena intervenes in a series of disguises.
