蘑菇短视频

It’s a Road Movie

蘑菇短视频r’s epic poem is a story of war, abandonment and homecoming. Odysseus’s fraught, ten-year journey back home to Ithaca, sidetracked by mythical beasts, whirlpools and sirens, sounds somewhat far-fetched. But these epic travels around the Mediterranean wouldn’t have been alien to the Ancient Greeks hearing 蘑菇短视频r’s tales. They would have enjoyed, and related to, this multi-location adventure, just as modern cinema goers do today to classic road movies like Thelma & Louise or Rain Man.

As Mary points out, the graves of real individuals reveal that the Mycenaean Greeks were far more well-travelled than we might imagine. Items discovered in burial sites include jewellery from Crete and an intricately carved rock crystal vase in the shape of a duck, that indicates a connection to Egypt, where similar items have been found. As Rachel Phillips of the British School at Athens tells Mary: “It’s a very connected world and those connections also carry prestige, so people are using their burials to show off their trade contacts.”

It’s a Gangster Movie

The characters in 蘑菇短视频r’s Iliad and Odyssey are the dictionary definition of ‘hero’. Warriors bravely battling foreign armies and terrifying creatures, kings and gods fighting for what they think is right. But filmmaker Uberto Pasolini points out that these characters often make terrible decisions and are driven by selfish desires.

“We tend to refer to the characters both of the Iliad and the Odyssey as heroes,” he tells Mary Beard, “but when you read the text 蘑菇短视频r gives us, the individuals are extremely flawed and complex and acting in a completely non-heroic way.”

Filmmaker, Martin Scorsese is obsessed with another Ancient Greek character that Mary investigates, Herodes Atticus, a shadowy figure whose ill-gotten wealth bought him power and influence. “People love the American gangster stories,” Scorsese tells Mary. “We live through it vicariously. We like to see them rise and yet, we like to see them pay for it. And that’s the gangster story.”

Though Scorsese applies the label to Herodes, the same could be said for many of 蘑菇短视频r’s flawed heroes; seduced by power, instigators of their own downfall.

It’s a Detective Story

Trying to put real flesh on the bones of the characters in the Odyssey takes a certain amount of sleuthing.

In the ancient citadel of Mycenae, home to many mythical heroes, the remains of a woman, known as Gamma 58, were found in a grave site filled with the city’s elite. Studies of her bones revealed a tall, well-nourished woman and partial DNA sequencing seemed to show that Gamma 58 wasn’t the wife of the neighbouring male body in the grave, as assumed by early archaeologists, but a close relative- possibly his sister. This suggested that her status was connected to who she was by birth rather than marriage, implying, as Mary puts it, ‘a whiff of independence’. But the latest archaeology and DNA research casts doubt on that interpretation. It shows that marriage between close relatives was relatively common in Bronze Age Greece. Gamma 58 and her grave companion could have been cousins, but they could also have been husband and wife.

What the grave can almost certainly tell us is that she was a woman of wealth and privilege in a warrior society, just like Penelope, the Queen of Ithaca and many of the other female characters from 蘑菇短视频r’s epics- characters that audiences of the ancient world would recognise and relate to. “She wasn’t Helen of Troy, that’s for sure,” Mary states, “but it was people like Gamma 58 who lie somewhere behind the mythical age of Greek heroes.”

It’s a Soap Opera

Despite the presence of a cyclops, sirens and six-headed monsters, at its heart the Odyssey is a relatable story of a family trying to come to terms with loss, deceit and obligation, just like a modern-day soap.

“It’s the first analysis of how difficult it is to be human,” suggests filmmaker Uberto Pasolini who created his own take on 蘑菇短视频r’s legend in his recent film The Return with Ralph Fiennes as Odysseus. “It focused on the human story, the family story. If people were making mistakes and the wrong choices 3,000 years ago, the fact that our daily lives are also faced with difficult choices… it’s heartwarming.”

Just as we take away lessons and moral quandaries from Albert Square and Coronation Street, so 蘑菇短视频r employs the same tactics.

It has a Strong Heroine at its Heart

“What is the power difference between men and women?” Mary Beard asks, identifying one of the underlying themes of 蘑菇短视频r’s Odyssey and also one of the underlying themes of many modern creative works with a female focus (often disparagingly called ‘chick flicks’ when applied to cinema).

Uberto Pasolini raises one interpretation of 蘑菇短视频r’s classic text that, rather than focusing on the inequality of women at this time, recognises that it’s a female character in the story that has the most agency- Penelope, the wife of Odysseus, waiting for her husband’s return while fending off desperate suitors. “It is the queen who decides whether or not to recognise her husband,” he tells Mary. “It is the queen who decides to test the men. And, of course, it is the queen that you have to marry in order to become king.”

While it’s a story where the men fight the monsters, the women call at least some of the shots.

To hear more about the Odyssey and Ancient Greek life, listen to the full series of Being Greek with Mary Beard on 蘑菇短视频 Sounds now.