Odysseus Returns on SBS – Is King Odysseus, the Trojan-horse-building genius in Homer’s epic poem The Iliad, merely a figure of ancient fiction? Or was he a flesh-and-blood man? One discovery could change it all.
Episode One:
In Homer’s Odyssey, King Odysseus wanders the earth for decades before returning to his beloved homeland of Ithaca. But archaeologists have searched Ithaca in vain for his city for almost 200 years. So, when Makis Metaxas claims that clues in the Odyssey led him right to the door of a 3000-year-old Mycenaean king’s tomb, archaeologists were dumbfounded.
Episode Two:
When Makis Metaxas and his wife Hettie Metaxas-Putman Cramer begin to talk about the discovery of what they believe to be the tomb of King Odysseus, a storm of controversy is triggered. The people of Ithaca, who passionately believe their island to be Odysseus’s homeland, become angry at the prospect of losing their ancient claim … and their major draw for tourism.
Political rivalries lead to the discovery being swept aside, languishing in the dusty museum storeroom, unpublished. Now, after three decades of suppression, the story is at last ready to be shared with the word. Archaeologist Lazaros Kolonas finally returns to the site to go on the record about what he found.
Odysseus Returns on SBS and SBS on Demand – New Series Premiere / Sunday 10 March at 8.20pm (2 parts)
TV Central SBS content HERE
