Greek Island Odyssey with Bettany Hughes episode 6: Bettany travels through the Corinth Canal - a feat of engineering that required the removal of 12 million cubic metres of earth - before heading for her penultimate stop of Corfu, where Count Flamburiari reveals the island's close connections to Britain.     From there, Bettany sails to Ithaca, Odysseus's home island, finally completing her 1,700-mile voyage across the Greek Islands. However, there's a startling surprise in store when she is awoken…

Greek Island Odyssey with Bettany Hughes episode 5: Bettany arrives in the Peloponnese, a peninsula regarded as home to some of ancient Greece's most legendary kings and vicious warriors. To understand the violent world in which the myths and legends are set, Bettany visits the bones of a 19-year-old-warrior who died more than 3,500 years ago.     Healed sword marks and a large hole in his skull are a testament to his environment. In Sparta, the home town of…

Greek Island Odyssey with Bettany Hughes episode 4: Arriving in Crete just as a storm hits, the historian is lucky to reach `the big island" before the seas become impassable and the annual Christian Epiphany festivities are hampered.     She travels to the ruins of the ancient city of Knossos, synonymous with English archaeologist Arthur Evans who unearthed much of its palace over 100 years ago, beneath which the legendary King Minos is said to have kept a crazed…

Greek Island Odyssey with Bettany Hughes episode 2: Bettany visits the sacred isle of Delos, where it has been forbidden for anyone to permanently reside since ancient times.     Wandering the ruins, Bettany discovers a dark history to this incredible site as she explores how the Romans turned Delos into a marketplace for their slave trade. She then moves on to Ikaria, an island famous for its long-lived population, and gets a lesson in wine-making. As she moves on…