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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! 

… 

There is an elegant symmetry to Cassandra being misunderstood - still, millennia later - as a symbol for pessimism. A prophet of doom. But that wasn’t her curse at all. Her curse was to have true insight and yet be unable to get those around her to listen.

And is the reason we prioritise some voices over others not the central, existential question at a time when real knowledge struggles to make itself heard over a chorus of populism? What wooden horses have we let through our cities’ gates?

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 

Oluf Dimitri Røe: “Fajum” ON YOUTUBE 

Aldo Ciccolini: Erik Satie “Gnossiennes No.1 FROM ARCHIVE

Lulu Belle: “Never take ‘no’ for an answer” FROM ARCHIVE 

ON ft Marianna Sangita: “Et Glimt” ON YOUTUBE    

Risë Stevens: Bizet; Carmen “Card Scene” FROM ARCHIVE 

Betty Lou Allen: J.S.C. Bach; Cassandra Cantata FROM ARCHIVE

Fedora Barbieri: Verdi; Un Ballo in Maschera “Re dell’abisso” FROM ARCHIVE 

Marisa Ferrer & Charles Cambon: Berlioz; Les Troyens "Reviens a toi, vierge adorée” FROM ARCHIVE 

Anna Maria Alberghetti: “They didn’t believe me” FROM ARCHIVE 

FILM

Helen of Troy 1956 https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0049301/

Scream 2 1997 https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120082/

The Matrix 1999 https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0133093/

The Eyes of Laura Mars 1978 https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0077530/

Doctor Sleep 2019 https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5606664/

Nightmare Alley 2021 https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7740496/

Agamemnon 1983 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3UyouI7BUsI

Promising Young Woman 2020 https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9620292/

Kaos 2024 https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8550732/

Don't Look Up 2021 https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11286314/

ART

Attic Red cup with the taking of Cassandra

Terracotta amphora with the taking of Cassandra

Evelyn de Morgan's Cassandra

Pompeii mosaic of Ajax dragging Cassandra from Palladium.

Solomon J. Solomon's Ajax & Cassandra

Ronsard's "Avant le temps tes tempes fleuriront"

Louise Bogan's "Cassandra"

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