All language subtitles for Clash of the Gods - S01E06 - Odysseus Curse of the Sea

The Odyssey.

It is the ultimate adventure story.

A warrior king in a desperate
race to get home

before he loses the woman he loves

and the nation he rules.

In his way are savage beasts,

hurricane winds,
giant cannibals,

and he'll have to outsmart them all.

Modern research is revealing some
surprising truths behind this epic myth.

This the real story of Odysseus.

Ten terrified sailors are trapped

inside the lair of a one-eyed
man-eating cyclops.

Two of their companions have been
devoured before their eyes.

Each fears he will be the next to die.

The men need a miracle.

And they look desperately to
their leader to deliver one.

His name is Odysseus.

Odysseus never stops thinking,
he never lets go,

he refuses to believe that
anything can defeat him,

that's a fundamental
part of his character.

He's the sneaky guy who'll do
what it takes to beat you.

Odysseus is a thinking man's hero.

A leader who relies on his intellect
rather than his strength.

And he will need all of his uncommon wit
to escape the cyclops alive.

The cool thing about Odysseus
is that, unlike other heroes,

Odysseus is thoroughly mortal.

He is man.

We connect with him in a
special way because of that.

There was a popularity he had
among the ancients because of that.

The story of Odysseus,
called the Odyssey,

was written by a Greek poet
named Homer in the 8th century BC.

The story of the Odyssey,
I think, we can all embrace

because it's about a person faced
with a lot of frustrations and obstacles.

Odysseus' journey home from war
is a timeless tale of perseverance.

It is also a story that symbolises
the dawn of a new era in ancient Greece.

I think the Odyssey, in a way,
is a bit like a James Bond novel.

If you think about what
Ian Fleming wrote,

he always put his hero
into real-life places.

I think that's what Homer was doing.

In a time when Greek sailors

were exploring far-off lands
across the Mediterranean,

Odysseus represented
the modern adventurer.

There are a lot of stories that are
reflected in the Odyssey

of this expansion of the Greeks,

where the Greeks are beginning
to colonize and reports are coming back

about various monsters,
or various things... sailor tales.

The story of Odysseus begins on Ithaca,

the mythical Greek island he rules.

He was a happy and successful king.

He had a wife whom he was very fond of,
she was very fond of him,

they had a young son.

In the myth,
Ithaca is an oasis of peace

surrounded by a sea of enemies.

Sparta and Troy,
the regional superpowers,

have been bitter rivals for years.

Now a sexual affair involving
the most beautiful woman on Earth

will bring them to war.

Helen, the Queen of Sparta,
has run off with the Prince of Troy.

Sparta pressures Ithaca to join
the fight to bring her back home.

Bound by honour, Odysseus enlists.

He heads off to battle knowing
that this may be the last time

he ever sees his family
or his kingdom.

Odysseus leads a fleet
of twelve ships to Troy

where he soon finds himself
on the front lines of war.

The battle for Helen rages for a decade

until the Greek forces hit a wall...

literally.

The wall around Troy is so massive,
so impenetrable,

the Greeks believe it was built by gods.

In antiquity people
thought it had been built

by some kind of divine intervention
on behalf of the Trojans.

With a war on the line, Odysseus
devises an ingenious strategy

to get inside the wall.

He says, "We should build
a hollow wooden horse

"which we will leave on the beach.

"We will pretend that we've given up,

"that we've decided the Trojans are
too much for us and we've gone home. "

"Inside the horse is going
to be our best heroes,

"myself included," Odysseus of course,

"and the Trojans are gonna
drag this horse inside

"because they're gonna think it's
a parting gift for the gods. "

When dawn breaks,
the Trojans are stunned.

The Greeks are gone and there is
a gigantic horse outside their walls.

So goes the myth,

but what is the link to reality?

Scholars long believed
Troy was an imaginary city,

and the Trojan War only a legend.

But in the late 19th century,

a five-acre field in Western Turkey
yielded something startling.

An ancient city with a massive wall.

And the remains of a large palace.

Two key features of Homer's Troy.

The structures had been burned
just like the mythical city.

The site is close to the coast

in the region where experts believe
Troy would have been.

And its terrain is similar to
the landscape Homer describes.

But there's more.

Among the ruins archaeologists
found evidence of war.

We have found a number of
arrowheads and spearheads at Troy.

We've also found an unburied
skeleton inside the city of Troy.

That's a dead giveaway usually
of a war because ancient people

had a horror of leaving bodies
unburied within the city walls.

They wouldn't do so unless they were

in very extreme circumstances.

Did the Trojan War really happen?

Is there also some truth behind
the story of Odysseus?

Our search for clues
leads back to the myth.

Odysseus and his men are huddled
inside the wooden horse

as it rolls through the gates
and into Troy.

The Trojans have mistaken
it for a peace offering.

The horse was a symbol of Troy.

The Trojans are known
as great horse breeders.

The countryside outside Troy
was to ancient horse breeding

what Kentucky is to
modern horse breeding.

So by leaving a Trojan horse

it seemed as if this was
an homage to the Trojans,

a symbol of what Troy
was all about.

The Trojans fall for the stratagem,

they celebrate because the war's over,

at the end of a long party much
wine and much eating has been done,

everybody is basically
passed out in the city of Troy.

As the Trojans sleep,

Odysseus and his elite forces
emerge from the horse.

There's a wonderful
description in our sources

of the Trojans lying innocently,

sleeping, dreaming, relaxing,

and the Greeks going
through the city like a mist,

creeping through the dark alleyways.

In the dead of night,
the Greeks strike.

The Trojans are caught off guard

and the city of Troy burns.

Odysseus' unusual strategy
has succeeded.

His Trojan horse has won the war

and he emerges as the hero of the day.

Many of the heroes from that period
in Greek history and mythology

were celebrated because
they were great warriors,

they were very strong,
good with the bow...

Odysseus was different.

He was a hero who was celebrated

because he was crafty,
he was intelligent.

Odysseus is at his best
when he's under pressure.

He, any number of times,
gets into places

where no human being
should be able to escape.

He faces certain death at all
kinds of different turns,

and he always seems
to find a way through.

He's like an ancient MacGyver.

Odysseus has survived 10 years

on the front lines of a brutal conflict.

He is anxious to get home to Ithaca.

But the Trojan War was nothing
compared with what still lies ahead.

A menagerie of monsters,

and mayhem.

The Odyssey is just beginning.

In Homer's Odyssey,
the Trojan was has ended.

Now the journey home begins.

Odysseus' island of Ithaca is
565 nautical miles from Troy.

In ancient times, that was
a journey of a few weeks.

When Odysseus left Troy
he wanted to get home

but I don't think in
any way he's expecting

that it's gonna take
him 10 years to get home.

I think he thought that
he might stop along the way

to go on some raids,
maybe to show off some of his success.

In a matter of a month or two

he had every reason to think
he would be home in Ithaca.

Odysseus sets out for Ithaca
with a fleet of 12 ships

and a crew of 600 war-weary sailors.

It is an impressive fleet
by ancient standards,

but could it have been real?

1988,

two scuba divers stumble
upon an unusual shipwreck

off the coast of Southern Sicily.

The ship stretches nearly 60 feet long,
and 22 feet wide,

making it the biggest ancient vessel
of its kind ever discovered.

But exactly how old is it?

To find out, scientists analyse

the tree rings in wooden
planks recovered by the divers.

The results are stunning.

The ship dates back to
approximately 500 BC,

within two centuries of the Odyssey.

It's an exciting revelation.

This could be exactly the type of ship

Homer imagined for Odysseus.

2008, the entire ship is finally
pulled from the Mediterranean Sea

and dried up in Portsmouth, England,

to be studied piece by piece.

Here experts are able to compare
the remains with Homer's description

of how Odysseus' ships were built.

The result...

it's a perfect match.

The interesting thing about this ship,
as opposed to North European ships,

is that it was made
with mortise-and-tenon

and it was held together with rope.

This is the same method of ship
building described in the Odyssey.

Now, after two and a half millennia,
at the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea,

this ship is giving scholars
an unprecedented glimpse

into the world of Odysseus.

This is not a primitive vessel.

This is quite a sophisticated
piece of technology.

Odysseus' journey could
well have taken place.

And what's exciting about
this is that we've got

a ship that could well have been

comparable to the ships
that he would have been on.

The myth continues.

Odysseus is headed for home at last.

His faithful wife Penelope,
and his now 10 year-old son Telemachus,

are eagerly awaiting his return.

But in his absence, his palace
has been overrun by lecherous men

who are out to steal
his wife and his throne.

Odysseus has been gone a while.

Penelope of course is faithful
but she's surrounded by suitors

and they want to marry Penelope.

And in marrying Penelope, of course,

they want to have
the power that goes with it

and take over Odysseus' dominion.

So it's not a good situation.

If Odysseus doesn't make it home soon

all that he fought for
will be lost.

Odysseus' first stop after leaving Troy

is the coastal city of Ismarus.

There he will seek vengeance
against an old enemy.

These were a group of people
who had been allied with the Trojans,

they'd helped the Trojans
against the Greeks,

and Odysseus wants to now
exact revenge on him.

Ismarus may have been one of
the settings in the Odyssey

that was based on a real location.

In ancient times it was said to be home

to the fiercest warriors
in the known world.

They're absolutely terrific fighters

and their particular specialty
was unconventional warfare.

Great guerrillas and insurgents
of the ancient world.

But that doesn't deter Odysseus.

In the myth, he and his men
come ashore braced for battle.

They clobber the city,
steal all the treasure,

and they're on their way home.

Of course, they make a mistake.

They drink a little too much,
they eat a little too much,

and they pass out on the beach.

Their victory party is premature.

Early the next morning

the natives ambush the men
while they sleep.

Within minutes, 72 sailors
are massacred.

The rest barely make it out alive.

It is a hard lesson about
underestimating the enemy.

And the first in a series of deadly
mistakes by Odysseus and his crew.

He does get away with the better
part of his force but he loses a lot

and learns a very painful lesson

about keeping everybody
on their toes at all times.

This is going to be a very
dangerous journey.

There is a theme in Homer
that we might simply describe

as "always be prepared,
never let your guard down. "

Again and again we see people
who have a little taste of victory

and they immediately party.

And their enemy is leaner and meaner

and hunger for victory,
takes advantage of it.

It is a cycle we see again and again
in the history of ancient,

and we might say in the history
of modern, warfare as well.

Odysseus and his men are shell-shocked.

They stay at sea for the next two weeks.

But not by choice.

The fleet encounters another
devastating obstacle.

A hurricane.

The storm blows them
off the map and from here

until the very end of his adventures

Odysseus is kind of in Never-Neverland.

The hurricane carries the fleet
all the way to North Africa.

There, on an exotic island
just off the coast,

Odysseus and his men unwittingly
step into a mythological drug den.

The natives here warmly welcome
them with an offering of lotus,

a sweet-tasting flower with
mind-altering properties.

Odysseus is suspicious and he's
right to be weary in the situation

because what happens when
his men eat the lotus is that

is a kind of drug and they
become very happy and forgetful

of what they're trying to do,
which is to get home.

They want to stay in the land
of the lotus eaters forever.

Some experts think the lotus-eaters
were meant to symbolise

a real scourge of ancient Greece:
drug abuse.

Greeks knew the poppy.

There are many Mycenaean
seals and objects

in which you clearly see the poppy,
so they knew about opium,

and therefore hashish.

The point being, human
beings like intoxication.

Within the Odyssey,
its function is to show

how people can get lost
on their way home.

And that's very human.

Once again, the crew has been
sidetracked by self-indulgence.

It will become a running theme
throughout the Odyssey.

But their leader, Odysseus,
stays sober.

He has just one goal -

to return home to Ithaca where
his wife and son are waiting.

He just says, "Come on! Come on,
you knuckleheads.

"Let's get back in the boat. "
And off they go.

It's this incredibly short episode and
yet it's been written about so much,

and I think the reason is because
everybody knows that experience.

Everybody is tired.
Everybody's been through too much.

What could be more attractive
that to eat, drink, smoke,

ingest something that
will just let you forget.

The journey home has begun again

but the crew's curiosity
may yet be its death.

When the fleet comes across
another island teeming with wild game

it seems like a dream come true.

But it's about to become hell on earth.

Odysseus and his men have
stumbled upon the land

of a giant man-eating cyclops,

and it's almost dinner time.

The mythical hero Odysseus is trying
to get back to his wife and son

after a decade at war.

But this is not the
trip home he envisioned.

After several weeks at sea

he has lost 72 of his men in an ambush

and confronted hurricane winds
that pushed him far off-course.

Now, an unknown island offers a chance

to replenish both supplies and morale...

or so it seems.

There are a number of reasons why
Odysseus would have to put to shore,

one they'd been out at sea for a while

and you need to put ashore
for supplies and provisions.

But the other thing that you
have to remember about Odysseus

is he is just fundamentally curious.

Sometimes too curious
for his own good.

He wants to know,
he is intrigued by knowledge

and so sometimes he pushes it
a little bit too far.

And there's such an insight into
the Greek character here.

This is a period of vast Greek
expansion and colonization.

The Greeks themselves, in Homer's day,
wanted to go out into the world

for many solid, economic reasons but
also because they were simply curious.

Odysseus selects his 12 best men
to explore the island with him.

Just before he sets off,
he grabs one last item,

a goat skin full of wine.

It will prove to be a life-saver.

Priority number one for the explorers
is to find something to eat.

Just offshore, the men hit the jackpot.

They come across
a cave filled with food.

Only one thing is missing,
the cave's owner.

When they get into the cave,
Odysseus' see wonderful stores of food

and they're ready to steal it
and take off and get out of danger.

Odysseus though is very curious.

He wants to stick around.

He thinks that the person that
lives there should owe him a gift.

And this is traditional
in ancient Greek society.

That a person who arrives as
a stranger on someone else's shores

is owed a gift.

When a stranger shows up
in your town you take him in,

you give him a place to rest,
you give him food,

you treat him kindly.

Inside the cave, Odysseus and his men
help themselves to a long awaited feast.

As the Sun sets, the man of
the house finally returns,

but he is not what the
sailors were expecting.

He is a giant cyclops.

A ravenous beast with
the strength of 20 men

and one massive eye
in the middle of his face.

The sight of him sends Odysseus and
his men cowering into a dark corner.

The cyclops lights his nightly fire
and the men are exposed.

When the cyclops arrives home

he sees that these men have
come in to steal his food.

He is angry. And then Odysseus
steps up and kind of beats his chest

and says, "Hello, we've just arrived
from faraway lands. Where's our gift?"

And he's being a little bit rude too.

So you can kind of see how
the cyclops is a little bit miffed.

This has all just gone
terribly wrong.

In the blink of an eye
the cyclops lunges forward,

grabs two of the sailors
and devours them.

He leaves not a morsel behind.

Not even the bones.

When the Greeks see the cyclops
eat two of their fellow Greeks

they're shocked, they're frightened.

Cannibalism in ancient Greece was
an incredibly barbarous act.

For them a mark of a civilised person

was actually the way they ate and drank.

The men are terrified, they're also
frustrated with Odysseus

for leading them
into this ungodly mess

and they decide, "Well. While
he's asleep, let's kill him. "

But Odysseus, fortunately,
is the smartest guy in the bunch,

and he says, "We can't kill him. "

Odysseus has a problem,

if the sailors, if Odysseus,
kill the cyclops now

they'll be trapped within the cave

because they're not strong enough
to move the stone on their own.

On the other hand, if the men
don't kill the cyclops

they will surely die.

It is a hopeless situation.

But Odysseus has overcome
too much to give up now.

If he can't use his strength
to beat this monster,

he'll use his intelligence.

He never gives up hope, even though
his men in the cyclops' cave

feel it's over, Odysseus is always
scheming, planning, thinking.

The giant cyclops is one of mythology's
most memorable monsters.

But could it be more than just
a figment of Homer's imagination?

Today some experts think it was
inspired by a real life beast,

and this may be the proof.

The mythical hero Odysseus and his men
are facing all but certain death

inside the cave of a monstrous cyclops.

Two have already been eaten

and the beast is hungry for more.

At sunrise the cyclops
devours two more men.

Then he heads out to graze his sheep
sealing the cave behind him.

Time is running out for Odysseus.

The mastermind of the Trojan horse

desperately needs
a new stroke of genius...

and fast.

Odysseus is someone who
survives on his wits,

but what makes Odysseus different
than all of the other mythic characters

is that he thinks before he acts.

He's likely to come up with a cunning
solution rather than a direct one.

So goes the myth, but what
is the link to reality?

The giant cyclops seems like the work
of a disturbed imagination

but it may be based on actual science.

There are three very
different facts of ancient life

that could have inspired
Homer's monster.

The first is a rare disease that causes
foetuses to develop only one large eye.

It's a condition called cyclopia.

And it may have been widely known
to the ancient Greeks.

Exposure to certain sorts of alkaloid
toxins that are found in some herbs

can cause pregnant women
to deliver children that have cyclopia.

This is very interesting because some
of those herbs that happen to

have these dangerous compounds
happen to be ones

that ancient Greek medical men
prescribed to their patients.

Cyclopia results when these toxins

prevent the brain from
developing properly.

As a result, instead of
having two separate eye sockets

you get one big one.

You have a cyclops birth.

And this could have served as
a kind of inspiration for legends

about these one-eyed creatures
that roamed the earth.

But it's also possible
that Homer's cyclops

was inspired by something
much bigger...

a volcano.

In the myth, Odysseus describes
the cyclops as a man-mountain

rearing head and shoulders
over the world.

It's very possible
that the ancient Greeks,

looking at erupting volcanoes
like Mount Etna,

might have looked at that huge
angry red eye of the volcano

as it erupted hot rocks and lava,

and they might have pictured
a sort of monstrous man-mountain

with a single eye that was
angrily raging at mankind.

But there is one more potential
real world inspiration for the cyclops,

fossils dug up by ancient
archaeologists.

The ancient Greeks were all extremely
interested in the natural world

and they collected lots
of specimens of everything.

And of course they did find samples
of fossils out in the wild as well.

Now, if you look at
the skull of an elephant,

it's a pretty impressive thing
because there is a huge opening

right in the middle of the forehead.

The actual eye openings look
relatively small in comparison

and are shunted off to the side.

So if you didn't know what it was,
you might very easily imagine

that this was the skull of some
sort of gigantic one-eyed creature.

The Odyssey continues.

Odysseus and his men are hostages
in the cave of the cyclops.

Unless something changes fast
they will all be eaten.

But Odysseus remains focused.

There's a Greek fear that
surrounds the entire episode,

and the men around him tend
to fall apart under this fear,

Odysseus never does.

He realises, in a very cold,
calculating, rational way,

that these emotions
will only get in the way,

and will only get in the way of his
escape and his solution to the problem.

He focuses always on the problem
and only on the problem.

While the cyclops is
out tending his sheep,

Odysseus spots the massive
wooden club he left behind,

and gets an idea.

With the help of his men he shaves
the narrow end to a fine point,

hardens it over a flame,
and waits.

As night falls, the cyclops returns.

He snatches two more sailors
and eats them alive.

As the dust settles,

Odysseus steps forward with
the wine he brought from his ship.

He offers it to the cyclops.

The beast downs one bowl,

then another,

and a third.

Instantly, he begins to teeter.

Some people might think, when
they hear that the cyclops has

a couple of glasses of wine and
then passes out on the floor,

that he must have been
a real light weight,

he didn't have any
tolerance for alcohol.

The truth is that ancient wine
was a lot stronger and harsher

than wine is today.

In antiquity there
was very strong wine,

we might even call it
fortified wine,

that had a very high
alcohol content,

and typically what one
would do is measure it out

and then dilute it with water to be
an appropriate drink at a dinner.

The wine that Odysseus
gives to the cyclops

is an entirely undiluted form.

As the drunken giant stumbles
around the cave

he asks Odysseus his name
and gets a clever answer.

Odysseus says,
"Oh! Well, my name is Nobody. "

At that point there's no way
that any of us can quite realise

how this will fit into the plan,

but it's been part of
Odysseus' plan all along.

With that, the cyclops crashes
to the floor and passes out.

Odysseus springs into action.

With the help of his men,
he lifts the buried stake,

charges forward, and plunges
it into the eye of the beast.

Hearing the screams
of the cyclops inside of his cave,

the other cyclopses come around

and ask him, "What's
going on inside of there?

"We hear you scream. Something
horrible must be happening. "

The cyclops at that point then
answers, "Nobody is hurting me.

"Nobody is harming me. "

And the neighbour cyclopses then
scratch their heads and say,

"Well, I guess nobody's hurting him.
We might as well get back to bed. "

So this trick that Odysseus has
put in place earlier on in the story

by not giving his real name
but saying his name was "Nobody",

we now see
it comes to fruition.

The wounded cyclops opens
the doorway in a blind rage.

Odysseus sees his opening
and makes his move.

The cyclops is sitting
in front of the door

and Odysseus doesn't let
them try to creep out.

He knows the cyclops will get them,

and he doesn't let
them ride the sheep out,

'cos he knows he's gonna
be clever enough for that.

He ties them beneath the sheep.

As dawn breaks the sheep
head out to pasture

with Odysseus and his men
clinging to their underbellies.

The cyclops is not entirely a fool.

He knows that the Greeks might be
trying to escape from his cave,

but as the sheep pass by
he feels each one on top.

But the Greeks are underneath
and he doesn't feel them.

Odysseus' escape from the cyclops'
cave is the perfect example

of brain over brawl.

That's Jack and the Beans,
that's David and Goliath,

it is the sneaky little guy
defeating the big, dumb guy.

This much, much bigger
obstacles that we face,

this brain of ours can overcome them.

It's this fundamental story that
is absolutely core to humanity.

Odysseus is a master of deception.

But he hasn't yet mastered
his own pride.

As the ship sails away from the coast

he can't resist revealing
his own true identity.

It's a mistake that will haunt
him for years to come.

The cyclops is standing
there cursing him.

Suddenly Odysseus, almost
inexplicably, turns and says,

"You want to know who I am?
I am Odysseus, son of La�rtes. "

Now, to us that seems like
a really stupid move,

but the most important thing
for a Greek hero was

something called "kleos",
fame.

So it was your fame,
your reputation that really mattered.

So one thing that Odysseus
is doing at that moment

is making sure that he gets
credit for what happened.

The cyclops is blinded and beaten,

but he has one last hope
for revenge...

his powerful father.

It turns out that the cyclops is
a son of the sea-god Poseidon.

And he intends to make
Odysseus pay with his life.

Mythology's greatest mortal, Odysseus,

has been lost at sea
for more than two months.

He's desperate to get home
to his kingdom and his family,

but he's not even close.

All the other heroes
that are still alive

from the Greek force at Troy
have made it home.

Only one is not home yet,
and that's Odysseus.

He's literally
the last hero on the sea.

From the outset, Odysseus' return
voyage has not gone according to plan.

He has come face to face
with a lethal army,

and a blood-thirsty cyclops,

and been driven hundreds of miles
off-course by hurricane winds.

Threats like this would crush
the spirits of most men,

but Odysseus isn't most men.

One of the things that I think makes
Odysseus such an appealing character

is that every challenge that comes along

he treats as just an
obstacle to be overcome.

Now Odysseus must confront
his most terrifying obstacle yet,

the cyclops he just blinded
and escaped from

is the son of one of mythology's
most powerful gods.

The master of the seas,
Poseidon.

The cyclops asks his father,
the god Poseidon,

to take vengeance on Odysseus.

To kill him, or if not, to make
the rest of his trip a living hell.

By attacking the son of a god,

by attacking the cyclops
who's the son of Poseidon,

he makes a double mistake -
one is he angers a god,

but the second is he angers
the god of the sea.

He's sailing home!

Odysseus now faces
two daunting challenges -

survive the wrath of Poseidon,

and get home before
another man steals his wife.

As the days and weeks pass,
the suitors courting Penelope

grow more and more brazen.

The locals realise that here is

this wonderfully beautiful, capable
woman, Penelope, and she's all alone.

She also happens to be sitting
atop a store of great wealth

so there are many people who
would try to vie for her affections.

But Penelope still clings to the hope
that her husband is on his way home.

She still believes that
Odysseus is coming home,

and she is willing to do
everything in her power

to make sure that his throne is still
available for him when he returns.

A few days after surviving
the giant cyclops,

Odysseus encounters someone
who can help him get home.

On the island of Aeolia,

he meets a king name Aeolus.

King Aeolus has a special power.

He has control over the winds.

He's able to regulate and control
which way the winds blow.

King Aeolus secretly
gives Odysseus a present,

a bag containing all the winds
that could blow him off-course.

As long as that bag remains closed

he'll have smooth sailing
all the way back to Ithaca.

This is an enormously important
gift for ancient travellers.

It's the equivalent of him giving
Odysseus a fleet of jet planes.

The winds are the motive power
of ancient shipping,

so this is a very great gift
because the winds can bring you home.

For nine days and nights,
the Greeks sail straight for Ithaca

aided by favourable winds.

Finally Odysseus is on his way home.

He stays awake the whole way

working his ship round the clock.

On the tenth day Ithaca
appears on the horizon.

But in the last mile, fatigue
finally overcomes the hero.

As Odysseus dozes, his crew
seizes the chance to find out

what's in the mysterious bag.

His men immediately decide "there's gold,
there's silver, there's treasures,

"and Odysseus doesn't
want to share it with us. "

They want it for themselves,

so curiosity tinged with a bit
of greed leads to their undoing.

With the shores of Ithaca
in plain sight,

they open the bag

and the Poseidon curse is
unleashed with a vengeance.

In seconds, Odysseus' hopes
of getting home are destroyed.

The winds immediately drive
his fleet back to Aeolia.

But this time he won't
get any help from the King.

Odysseus says to Aeolus,
"Can you help us again?"

And Aeolus says, "No. You are
clearly cursed by the gods.

"It could not have been easier for you
to get home, given what I gave you.

"If you didn't get home,
some god has it out for you

"and I am not messing with that. "

"Go on your way. "

It's another painful
setback for Odysseus,

but he wastes no time worrying
about what might have been.

He may be knocked down just
as much as all the rest of us,

and even harder than
all the rest of us,

but he always can get back up,
he can always find a way.

Odysseus' ability to persevere
is put to the test again

just days after he leaves Aeolia.

His fleet pulls into
a mysterious harbour

and gets attacked out of nowhere
by a race of giant cannibals.

In a matter of minutes,
Odysseus loses hundreds of men

and all but one of his ships.

The waves run red with blood.

Once again, the Poseidon curse
is devastating in its cruelty.

When Odysseus left Troy

he did not think this was going
to be an epic journey home.

I don't think he could ever had
imagined the kind of journey

and the kind of troubles and adventures
that he'd find along the way.

For Odysseus the adventures
are just beginning.

The rest of his journey home
will present challenges more daunting

than any man has ever faced.

When the story of Odysseus continues

our mortal hero is a marked man.

Poseidon has put
a bounty on his head.

Each day his crew and
his chances will diminish

until Odysseus finds himself alone.

One man against all odds.

One goal: get home
before it's too late.