ABOUT THIS EPISODE
*** SUPPORT SEASON 2 OF PODYSSEY ON KO-FI.COM/PODYSSEY ***
The myths, tales, and concepts of ancient Greece echo and reach into every aspect of modern life. Often misunderstood, frequently romanticised, and sometimes deliberately twisted - to understand their origins and truth is to get a real glimpse into the universal themes that connect us to the past and each other.
Welcome to Podyssey with Alex Andreou. Each week we will take one myth, one concept, person, place, or theme from Ancient Greece, take it apart, figure out its inner workings, trace its influence, juice it for its wisdom, reimagine, update and put it back together - all shiny and new!
…
There is an elegant symmetry to Cassandra being misunderstood - still, millennia later - as a symbol for pessimism. A prophet of doom. But that wasn’t her curse at all. Her curse was to have true insight and yet be unable to get those around her to listen.
And is the reason we prioritise some voices over others not the central, existential question at a time when real knowledge struggles to make itself heard over a chorus of populism? What wooden horses have we let through our cities’ gates?
Written and presented by Alex Andreou
Expert contributions by Alexandra Angeletaki-Røe, Debbie Challis, Linda Marric, and Dr Ruth Smith
Exec. Producers Naomi Smith & Kenny Campbell
Music by Marianna Sangita
Artwork by Simona Kanellou
For Cooler Heads, in collaboration with Sandstone Global
NOTES
MUSIC
Oluf Dimitri Røe: “Fajum” ON YOUTUBE
Aldo Ciccolini: Erik Satie “Gnossiennes No.1 FROM ARCHIVE
Lulu Belle: “Never take ‘no’ for an answer” FROM ARCHIVE
ON ft Marianna Sangita: “Et Glimt” ON YOUTUBE
Risë Stevens: Bizet; Carmen “Card Scene” FROM ARCHIVE
Betty Lou Allen: J.S.C. Bach; Cassandra Cantata FROM ARCHIVE
Fedora Barbieri: Verdi; Un Ballo in Maschera “Re dell’abisso” FROM ARCHIVE
Marisa Ferrer & Charles Cambon: Berlioz; Les Troyens "Reviens a toi, vierge adorée” FROM ARCHIVE
Anna Maria Alberghetti: “They didn’t believe me” FROM ARCHIVE
FILM
Helen of Troy 1956 https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0049301/
Scream 2 1997 https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120082/
The Matrix 1999 https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0133093/
The Eyes of Laura Mars 1978 https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0077530/
Doctor Sleep 2019 https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5606664/
Nightmare Alley 2021 https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7740496/
Agamemnon 1983 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3UyouI7BUsI
Promising Young Woman 2020 https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9620292/
Kaos 2024 https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8550732/
Don't Look Up 2021 https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11286314/
ART
Attic Red cup with the taking of Cassandra
Terracotta amphora with the taking of Cassandra
Evelyn de Morgan's Cassandra
Pompeii mosaic of Ajax dragging Cassandra from Palladium.
Solomon J. Solomon's Ajax & Cassandra
Ronsard's "Avant le temps tes tempes fleuriront"
Louise Bogan's "Cassandra"
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