Ithaca: Did you mean...?

In this gallery, we cross the ancient Mediterranean world four times to follow the adventures of four great heroes from Greek and Roman mythology. Here are visual representations of timeless tales of heroism, divine challenges, and fearsome...

Homer's epic poem, the Odyssey, is Greek mythology's greatest road trip, journey of redemption, and homecoming voyage all rolled into one. Our hero is Odysseus, veteran of the Trojan War, and he must make his way back home to Ithaca and his...

The key places, peoples, and commanders associated with Homer’s Iliad form a poetic geography of the Late Bronze Age Aegean and western Anatolia. Although the epic was probably composed in the 8th century BCE, it is set in the legendary final...

Roman statuette of the Greek hero Odysseus, 2nd century CE. He holds a cup of wine in offering to the Cyclops Polyphemus. By getting him drunk, the hero was able to blind Polyphemus and escape from the Cyclops' cave to continue his voyage...

From Ur, southern Iraq, about 2600-2400 BC This is one of an almost identical pair discovered by Leonard Woolley in the 'Great Death Pit', one of the graves in the Royal Cemetery at Ur. The other is now in the University of Pennsylvania...

During our last several episodes, Europe and the European-controlled world have been in crisis. Wars, disease, climate changes, and shifts in religious and political power threw the European world into turmoil. People were looking for a scapegoat...