Transcript[]
Text reads: The Mysteries of Life with Tim and Moby.
Tim stands on a temple. He is dressed in an ancient Greek toga and wears a laurel wreath on his head as he plays an stringed instrument called a lyre. He recites lines from the Odyssey as he strums the lyre.
TIM: Sing to me, muse, about the man of twists and turns. Driven time and again off course, once he had died in the hallowed heights of Troy, Many cities of men he saw had learned their minds. Many pains he suffered, Seasick on the open sea, fighting to save his life.
Tim looks upward.
TIM: Hey, muse. I could use a little help here.
Moby descends on a rope from above while wearing wings. There is the sound of a squeaking pulley. Then the rope goes slack, and Moby falls to the stage floor.
MOBY: Beep.
Moby hands an envelope to Tim.
TIM: Gee, thanks.
Tim reads from a typed letter.
TIM: Dear Tim and Moby, who was Homer? From, Zin. According to legend, Homer was a Greek poet who lived around 800 BCE.
An image shows Homer wearing a toga.
TIM: He is credited with writing the Iliad and the Odyssey, two epic poems.
MOBY: Beep.
An image shows hardcover copies of the Iliad and the Odyssey.
TIM: An epic poem is a long poem that tells a story of a heroic achievement. In ancient Greece, that meant warfare, feuds between royal houses, and lots of interference by the gods and goddesses.
An animation shows ancient soldiers with spears and armor. Some soldiers march while one threatens another with his spear. An armor-wearing goddess descends on a cloud.
MOBY: Beep.
TIM: Well, there's no record that a guy named Homer really existed. Back then, poetry was an oral tradition, not a written one.
An image shows one ancient Greek reciting poetry to another.
TIM: Poems were passed from generation to generation, and they'd change a little based on who was telling them.
Images depict poetry being passed orally from person to person through generations. In the final image, a man writes down the poetry he is hearing on a clay tablet.
TIM: So really, no one knows who wrote Homer's poems.
An image of Homer fades into a silhouette with a question mark on it.
TIM: They may indeed have been written by one person. Or they could have been assembled gradually over the years, through thousands of tellings. But whether or not he was a real guy, the Ancient Greeks regarded Homer as the greatest poet of all time. Traditionally, he's represented as an old blind man with a gray beard.
A silhouette with a question mark on it brightens and becomes an image of Homer.
MOBY: Beep.
TIM: Well, the Iliad tells the story of the Trojan War.
An image shows a hardcover copy of the Iliad.
TIM: It begins with hundreds of Greek ships sailing across the Aegean Sea to fight against Troy, an ancient city-state in modern-day Turkey.
An animation of a map shows the sailing of the Greek navy from Sparta to Troy.
TIM: The Greeks are angry because the Trojans have kidnapped Helen, the beautiful wife of the king of Sparta. She was stolen away by Paris, a Trojan prince.
An image shows Paris carrying a frowning Helen over his shoulder as he boards a ship.
TIM: Homer introduces us to the characters on each side. Achilles, the Greeks' greatest warrior. Hector, the hotheaded Trojan prince and commander. Agamemnon, the emotional, stubborn leader of the Greek forces. And Priam, the wise, old king of Troy.
Images show Homer's characters as Tim describes them.
TIM: These guys don't just fight with their enemies. They bicker a lot with each other, too. They win glory on the battlefield and also wrestle with concepts like friendship, loyalty, and mourning.
An image shows Achilles, Hector, Agamemnon, and Priam standing together.
MOBY: Beep.
TIM: Well, that one's pretty violent.
An image shows a hardcover copy of Homer's Odyssey.
TIM: The Odyssey tells the story of Odysseus, a Greek fighter in the Trojan War.
An animation shows Odysseus standing on a ship's deck, holding a sword.
TIM: After fighting in Troy for ten years, it takes him another ten to get back to his home island of Ithaca.
An animation represents Odysseus traveling from Troy, Greece, to the island of Ithaca. His route is not direct.
MOBY: Beep.
TIM: Why'd it take so long? Well, Odysseus angered Poseidon, the god of the sea, so Poseidon wouldn't let him go home.
An image shows Poseidon shaking his fist at Odysseus and his crew.
TIM: Instead, Odysseus and his men embark on a series of wild adventures.
An animation shows Odysseus and his men on the deck of their ship.
TIM: They get captured by a one-eyed giant Cyclops, get turned into pigs by a witch called Circe, avoid the Sirens, whose beautiful song leads men to their deaths, and deal with shipwrecks, sea monsters, and other problems.
Images show Odysseus and his men undergoing the ordeals that Tim describes.
TIM: Meanwhile, back in Ithaca, everyone thinks he's dead, except for his son, Telemachus, and his wife, Penelope.
An image shows Telemachus and Penelope in their home. Both look angry.
TIM: Telemachus tries to protect Penelope from all these other men who want to marry her and take over Odysseus's home.
An image shows Penelope's suitors in her home. They are drinking and partying. A fierce-looking shadow aims a dagger at them.
MOBY: Beep.
TIM: Someone eventually wrote down the stories of the Iliad and the Odyssey. The version of the Odyssey that we know today has been around since the seventh or eighth century BCE.
An image shows a poet speaking to a man with a tablet. The man with the tablet is writing down the poems.
TIM: And it's been studied, referenced, and discussed pretty much ever since then.
Images show a student reading the Iliad and another student reading the Odyssey.
TIM: It's inspired works by artists, poets, authors, and playwrights for thousands of years. More recently, Homer's works have served as the basis of films, cartoons, and even video games.
Images represent painting, poetry, writing, drama, and other media.
TIM: The poetry can be tough to understand, but you get used to it.
MOBY: Beep.Beep.