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The myths, tales, and concepts of ancient Greece echo and reach into every aspect of modern life. Often misunderstood, frequently romanticised, and sometimes deliberately twisted - to understand their origins and truth is to get a real glimpse into the universal themes that connect us to the past and each other.

Welcome to Podyssey with Alex Andreou. Each week we will take one myth, one concept, person, place, or theme from Ancient Greece, take it apart, figure out its inner workings, trace its influence, juice it for its wisdom, reimagine, update and put it back together - all shiny and new! 

… 

Before Medusa was monstrous, she was beautiful. And before she was beautiful, she was powerful. Everything I thought I knew was wrong. She is a riddle that defies solution, because she comes from a time before the shape of things was settled. She laughs.

TW - rape, sexual assault, male violence

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Written and presented by Alex Andreou

Expert contributions by Alexandra Angeletaki-Røe, Debbie Challis, Linda Marric, and Dr Ruth Smith

Exec. Producers Naomi Smith & Kenny Campbell

Music by Marianna Sangita

Artwork by Simona Kanellou

For Cooler Heads, in collaboration with Sandstone Global

NOTES

MUSIC

Podyssey Theme: “⁠To Margoudi ki o Alexandris⁠”, Marianna Sangita, 2018 (with permission)

Sergei Rachmaninov: “The Isle of The Dead, Op.29”, Dimitri Mitropoulos, 1949

Béla Bartók: Music for Strings, Percussion & Celesta, Harold Byrns, 1949

Dinah Washington: “You go to my head”, live 1954 

Betty Hutton: “Why do you wanna make those eyes at me for?”, 1945

Giacomo Puccini: Tosca, Act II Finale, Adriana Guerrini & Paolo Silveri, 1952 

Frances Faye: “Dummy Song”, 1953

The Mort Lindsey Trio: “Jeepers Creepers”, 1953 

The Toppers: “Don’t be angry”, 1955 

WA Mozart: Don Giovanni, Vengeance Duet, Maria Curtis Verna & Cesare Valletti, 1956 

Gaetano Donizetti, Anna Bolena “Coppia iniqua”, Maria Callas, 1959 

Leslie Hutchinson, “Close your eyes”, 1932

FILM 

Clash of The Titans (1981)

Marnie (1964)

I Spit on Your Grave (1978)

Revenge (2017)

Serial Mom (1984)

Carrie (1976)

Gilda (1946)

Gone Girl (2014)

Les Diaboliques (1955)

The First Wives Club (1996)

Ex Machina (2014) 

The Omen (1976) 

Hereditary (2018)

Midsommar (2019)

Raiders of The Lost Ark (1981)

Mars Attacks (1996)

Alien (1979)

The Thing (1982)

ART 

Prehistoric figures believed to be early “gorgoneia”, Thessaly, c.6000 BCE

“Danaë” by Antonio de Correggio, c.1531 

“Danaë” by Gustav Klimt, 1907 

Gigantomachy pediment, Old Athena Temple, Acropolis, Athens 525-520 BCE

Gilgamesh and Enkidu slaying Humbaba at the Cedar Forest, Sumerian, 19-17C BCE 

Perseus beheading the sleeping Medusa, red figure terracotta pelike, by Polygnotos (attr.) c.450–440 BCE 

Medusa Victorious, Archaic marble sculpture, Paros, mid-6C BCE  

Archaic Gorgon, temple of Artemis, Corfu, c.580 BCE 

Medusa and Centaurs, early black figure vase, by Nessos, c.620 BCE 

Examples of "Gorgoneion" masks and ornaments, from 6th Century BCE 

“Medusa”, painted shield by Caravaggio, 1597 

“Perseus with the Head of Medusa”, Benvenuto Cellini, c.1550

“Dreadlocks”, Times cartoon, 2015 

“Trump & Triumph” after Cellini, meme and merchandise, 2016

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