Greece
27 episodes
Aesop
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Aesop, legendary author of the famous collection of fables.
20 November 2014
Featuring: Pavlos Avlamis, Lucy Grig, Simon Goldhill
Alexander the Great
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the life and legacy of Alexander the Great, king of Macedon and conqueror of the Persian Empire.
1 October 2015
Featuring: Paul Cartledge, Diana Spencer, Rachel Mairs
Archimedes
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Greek mathematician Archimedes, brilliant with numbers and unexpectedly good at defensive siege warfare.
25 January 2007
Featuring: Jackie Stedall, Serafina Cuomo, George Phillips
Aristotle's Politics
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss one of the most important works of political philosophy ever written - Aristotle’s ‘Politics.
6 November 2008
Featuring: Angie Hobbs, Paul Cartledge, Annabel Brett
Aristotle's biology
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Aristotle's method of biological investigation and the first systematic and thorough study of animals, which was unequalled for almost 2,000 years.
7 February 2019
Featuring: Armand Leroi, Myrto Hatzimichali, Sophia Connell
Automata
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the history of ideas about machines imitating living creatures, and the questions they raise about the differences between machinery and humanity.
20 September 2018
Featuring: Simon Schaffer, Elly Truitt, Franziska Kohlt
Cleopatra
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss Cleopatra, the Egyptian pharaoh whose charisma, intelligence and beauty made her one of the most celebrated rulers of the ancient world.
2 December 2010
Featuring: Catharine Edwards, Maria Wyke, Susan Walker
Galen
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Roman physician and medical theorist Galen.
10 October 2013
Featuring: Vivian Nutton, Helen King, Caroline Petit
Heraclitus
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the ancient Greek thinker Heraclitus, immortalised by later scholars as the Weeping Philosopher.
8 December 2011
Featuring: Angie Hobbs, Peter Adamson, James Warren
PhilosophyAncient Greek philosophers of mindAncient Greek physicists5th-century BC Greek philosophersPhilosophers of timeNatural philosophers6th-century BC Greek philosophersAncient Greek metaphysiciansAncient Greek political philosophersAncient Greeks from the Achaemenid EmpirePhilosophers of religionOntologistsAncient Greek epistemologists, Ancient Greek ethicists5th century BC6th century BCGreeceMedicinePersiaHerodotus
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Greek writer whose Histories aimed to 'preserve the great and marvellous deeds of Greeks and barbarians, especially why they fought each other'.
23 September 2021
Featuring: Tom Harrison, Esther Eidinow, Paul Cartledge
Plato's Gorgias
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss arguably the most personal of Plato's dialogues in which he examines the values that led to the execution of his mentor Socrates by drinking hemlock
25 November 2021
Featuring: Angie Hobbs, Frisbee Sheffield, Fiona Leigh
PhilosophyMoral realistsAncient Greek metaphysiciansAncient Greek political philosophersPhilosophers of loveAncient Greek epistemologists, Ancient Greek ethicistsClassical theismAncient Greek physicistsNatural philosophersAncient Greek slaves and freedmenEpigrammatists of the Greek AnthologyPhilosophers of educationAttic Greek writersPupils of SocratesAncient Greek philosophers of mindAncient Greek logiciansTheorists on Western civilizationRationalistsLogiciansIdealistsPlatonismPhilosophers of deathNatural law ethicistsAncient Athenian philosophersOntologistsGreeceMedicinePtolemy and Ancient Astronomy
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the last of the great Greek astronomers of antiquity, Ptolemy, and his influence on ancient and medieval astronomy.
17 November 2011
Featuring: Liba Taub, Jim Bennett, Charles Burnett
Pythagoras
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the ideas and influence of the Greek mathematician Pythagoras and his followers, the Pythagoreans.
10 December 2009
Featuring: Ian Stewart, Serafina Cuomo, John O'Connor
PhilosophyFounders of religionsAncient Greek philosophers of mindAncient Greek geometersAncient occultists5th-century BC Greek philosophers6th-century BC Greek philosophersAncient Greek political refugeesAncient Greek metaphysiciansAncient Greek music theorists5th-century BC religious leaders, 6th-century BC religious leadersAncient Samians5th century BC6th century BCGreeceMedicineSocrates
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the iconic Greek philosopher Socrates. He is the founder of Western philosophy, he was funny, irritating and rude but left not a single word in his own hand.
27 September 2007
Featuring: Angie Hobbs, David Sedley, Paul Millett
PhilosophyCritics of religionsClassical theismAncient Greek philosophers of mindPhilosophers of love5th-century BC Greek philosophersForced suicidesAncient Athenian philosophersSocratesAncient Greek political philosophers5th-century BC Athenians470s BC birthsExecuted philosophersIrony theoristsPhilosophers of educationAncient Greek epistemologists, Ancient Greek ethicists5th century BCGreeceSocrates in Prison
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Plato's accounts of the last days of Socrates in which he kept doing philosophy right up to the point of his execution by hemlock.
23 January 2025
Featuring: Angie Hobbs, Fiona Leigh, James Warren
Solon the Lawgiver
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the statesman and poet whose political and legal reforms transformed Athens in the 6th century BC.
23 March 2023
Featuring: Melissa Lane, Hans van Wees, William Allan
Sparta
Melvyn Bragg and guests Paul Cartledge, Edith Hall and Angie Hobbs discuss Sparta, the militaristic Ancient Greek city-state, and the political ideas it spawned.
19 November 2009
Featuring: Paul Cartledge, Edith Hall, Angie Hobbs
Strabo's Geographica
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss Strabo's Geographica, the only surviving work from the ancient world that describes the entire world known to the Greeks and Romans.
10 April 2014
Featuring: Paul Cartledge, Maria Pretzler, Benet Salway
The Antikythera Mechanism
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the 2,000-year-old Greek astronomical computer, one of the most important discoveries in marine archaeology.
14 November 2024
Featuring: Mike Edmunds, Jo Marchant, Liba Taub
The Four Humours
Melvyn Bragg discusses the four humours, a medical theory that saw the body as a concoction of four essential juices.
20 December 2007
Featuring: David Wootton, Vivian Nutton, Noga Arikha
The Hippocratic Oath
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Hippocratic Oath, the most celebrated text in Western medicine.
15 September 2011
Featuring: Vivian Nutton, Helen King, Peter Pormann
The Iliad
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the story of a crucial 40 days in the 10-year battle for Troy, framed by Achilles' anger first at his leader Agamenmon and then at his enemy Hector.
13 September 2018
Featuring: Edith Hall, Barbara Graziosi, Paul Cartledge
The Odyssey
Melvyn Bragg discusses Homer’s Odyssey, the epic story of the Greek hero Odysseus’ journey back from Troy, and its foundational position in the history of western literature and ideas.
9 September 2004
Featuring: Simon Goldhill, Edith Hall, Oliver Taplin
The School of Athens
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Italian Renaissance artist Raphael's depiction of Plato and Aristotle and what it tells us about both the subjects and the painter.
26 March 2009
Featuring: Angie Hobbs, Valery Rees, Jill Kraye
The Trojan War
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Trojan War, one of the central events of Ancient Greek mythology.
31 May 2012
Featuring: Edith Hall, Ellen Adams, Susan Sherratt
Thucydides
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the ancient Greek historian Thucydides and his work entitled The History of the Peloponnesian War.
29 January 2015
Featuring: Paul Cartledge, Katherine Harloe, Neville Morley
Xenophon
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the life and work of the ancient Greek historian and soldier Xenophon.
26 May 2011
Featuring: Paul Cartledge, Edith Hall, Simon Goldhill
