Edith Hall
Professor of Classics at Durham University
19 episodes
Appears in multiple episodes with: Nick Lowe, Angie Hobbs, Oliver Taplin, Paul Cartledge, Paul Cartledge, Simon Goldhill, Nick Lowe, Simon Goldhill
Covers topics in categories such as:
Oedipus Rex
Melvyn Bragg and guests on Sophocles' tragedy, sometimes called the best play ever written. With Edith Hall, Nick Lowe and Fiona Macintosh.
08 June 2023
Also featuring: Nick Lowe, Fiona Macintosh
Plato's Atlantis
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the legend of the lost island of Atlantis, first told by Plato and taken literally by Renaissance Europeans as they began to explore the oceans.
22 September 2022
Also featuring: Christopher Gill, Angie Hobbs
Antigone
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Sophocles' tragedy of dilemmas, where King Creon threatens death to anyone who buries a traitor and that traitor's sister, Antigone, defies him.
24 March 2022
Also featuring: Oliver Taplin, Lyndsay Coo
The Bacchae
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the great tragedy by Euripides, where Dionysus takes revenge on Thebans who denied his divinity, their king torn to shreds by his mother.
18 March 2021
Also featuring: Emily Wilson, Rosie Wyles
Pericles
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the life and influence of the most powerful statesman in the new democracy of Athens, flourishing between the Persian and Peloponnesian wars.
17 September 2020
Also featuring: Paul Cartledge, Peter Liddel
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
Also featuring: Barbara Graziosi, Paul Cartledge
Thebes
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the myths of the ancient Greek city of Thebes, as told by Athenian dramatists, and the times when Thebes dominated Greek history.
23 November 2017
Also featuring: Samuel Gartland, Paul Cartledge
Sappho
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Greek poet Sappho, one of antiquity's greatest exponents of lyric poetry.
9 April 2015
Also featuring: Margaret Reynolds, Dirk Obbink
Queen Zenobia
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss Queen Zenobia, Empress of the Palmyrene Empire and leader of a rebellion against Ancient Rome.
30 May 2013
Also featuring: Kate Cooper, Richard Stoneman
The Trojan War
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Trojan War, one of the central events of Ancient Greek mythology.
31 May 2012
Also featuring: Ellen Adams, Susan Sherratt
Xenophon
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the life and work of the ancient Greek historian and soldier Xenophon.
26 May 2011
Also featuring: Paul Cartledge, Simon Goldhill
The Delphic Oracle
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Delphic Oracle, the most important and best documented source of prophecies in the ancient world.
30 September 2010
Also featuring: Paul Cartledge, Nick Lowe
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
Also featuring: Paul Cartledge, Angie Hobbs
Greek and Roman Love Poetry
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Greek and Roman love poetry, from the Greek poet Sappho and her erotic descriptions of romance to the love-hate poems of the Roman writer Catullus.
26 April 2007
Also featuring: Nick Lowe, Maria Wyke
Comedy in Ancient Greek Theatre
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss theatre comedy in Ancient Greece including Aristophanes and Menander and their lasting legacy.
13 July 2006
Also featuring: Paul Cartledge, Nick Lowe
The Oresteia
Melvyn Bragg discusses the ‘Oresteia’, the first of the Classical tragedies that come out of fifth century Athens. It is a tale of homecoming, murder, bloody vengeance and the establishment of Law.
29 December 2005
Also featuring: Simon Goldhill, Tom Healy
The Aeneid
Melvyn Bragg discusses ‘The Aeneid’, Virgil’s great epic poem that formed a founding narrative of Rome.
21 April 2005
Also featuring: Philip Hardie, Catharine Edwards
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
Also featuring: Simon Goldhill, Oliver Taplin
Thermopylae
Melvyn Bragg discusses the Battle of Thermopylae, a defining clash between East and West, when King Leonidas and his defeated Spartans passed into legend.
5 February 2004
Also featuring: Tom Holland, Simon Goldhill