A special video podcast where Dan charts the course of Odysseus through the Mediterranean as he investigates the true places that could have inspired the Odyssey. Using his new Big Pad, Dan investigates the theories of ancient and modern scholars to see if he can build a plausible route that the Mycenaean king could have taken from Troy - modern day Hisarlik in Turkey- to Malta, Sicily and all the way to the Ionian island of Ithaca, where the ruins of the very real Palace of Odysseus stand...

Produced by Mariana Des Forges, McKenna Fernandez and Dan Snow, edited by Matthew Wilson.

You can enjoy more of Dan's Big Pad on our YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/@DSHHPodcast

You can also email the podcast directly at ds.hh@historyhit.com.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Is there any truth in the Odyssey, and what does it all mean? We know it's a story where a man convenes with monsters and gods, ghosts and mythological beings, but the Odyssey actually does tell us a lot about Ancient Greece - about traditions, anxieties, storytelling, geography, values and what it is to be human.

In this episode, Dan is joined by world-leading classicists Professor Dame Mary Beard and Professor Edith Hall to break down Homer's epic poem to make sense of its history, characters, the mythology, what is based in truth and what we do and don't know about its elusive author.

Produced by Mariana Des Forges and edited by Dougal Patmore

You can enjoy more history from Mary Beard in her podcast Instant Classics.

We need your help! Let us know what you want from Dan Snow's History Hit by filling in our anonymous survey here: https://forms.gle/PvgayWLkWGjYT4St6

Dan Snow's History Hit is now available on YouTube! Check it out at: https://www.youtube.com/@DSHHPodcast

Sign up to History Hit for hundreds of hours of original documentaries, with a new release every week and ad-free podcasts. Sign up at https://www.historyhit.com/subscribe.

You can also email the podcast directly at ds.hh@historyhit.com.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

He wasn't an English knight, but actually a Roman soldier, and the dragon didn't appear until centuries later in the medieval period. So what is the origin of the Saint George and the Dragon myth? And why do so many countries - from England to Ethiopia - adopt him as their patron?

To sort the fact from the fiction, Dan is joined by Jasmine Elmer, mythologist and author of 'Slay: Ancient legends of female slayers and the hidden mythology of dragons'. They explore the history of dragons from the chaos monsters of ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt to the serpents of Greek mythology, Christian saints' lives and East Asian folklore, as well as the stories of other little-known dragon slayers through history.

Produced by Mariana Des Forges and edited by Dougal Patmore

We need your help! Let us know what you want from Dan Snow's History Hit by filling in our anonymous survey here: https://forms.gle/PvgayWLkWGjYT4St6

Dan Snow's History Hit is now available on YouTube! Check it out at: https://www.youtube.com/@DSHHPodcast

Sign up to History Hit for hundreds of hours of original documentaries, with a new release every week and ad-free podcasts. Sign up at https://www.historyhit.com/subscribe.

You can also email the podcast directly at ds.hh@historyhit.com.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.