Ancient Greece Declassified

Explore democracy and demagogues in ancient Athens with historian Josiah Ober. Learn about the unique political developments, economic prosperity, and citizen participation in the Athenian system. Discover the challenges in controlling demagogues like Cleon and the fragility of democracy. Reflect on the lessons from ancient Greece for modern democratic societies.

Sappho is one of the first song-writers we know of in history, partly because she was one of the first singers to write down her songs, in around 600BC. We still know about her because she was considered the best song-writer for about a thousand years after her death. While best known as a singer of female desire, her lyrics were so powerfully felt by men and women across the centuries that she became known as the tenth muse, joining the ranks of the 9 divine muses – the goddesses of art and inspiration. But after a millennium of celebrity status, Sappho's works were almost completely lost. Of the nine volumes of her songs that once graced the shelves of libraries at Alexandria and elsewhere, only a few pages survive today – most of it scattered bits and fragments of different songs. Andromache Karanika, professor of classics at the University of California Irvine has written extensively on Sappho and early Greek poetry. She joins us to talk about the tenth muse, her life, and works, and why they were lost.

Andrew Ford of Princeton University joins us for a conversation about the Iliad. What makes it so...epic? And what kind of vision of the world does Homer provide his audiences?

Archaeologist Eric Cline discusses the mysterious collapse of major civilizations at the end of the second millennium BC, exploring the role of the Sea Peoples and comparing it to the fall of the Roman Empire. The perfectly preserved Uluburun Shipwreck provides insights into late Bronze Age trade. The collapse of the Mycenaean civilization is analyzed, considering the impact of the Santorini volcano eruption and possible causes such as the Sea Peoples, earthquakes, drought, and famine. Parallels are drawn between the late Bronze Age crises and present-day events like ISIS and the refugee crisis.

Four astonishing archaeological discoveries that extended our knowledge of history back into the mythical past: Champollion and the Rosetta Stone, Grotefend's cuneiform breakthrough, Schliemann digging for Troy, and Michael Ventris' deciphering of Linear B.