The Stories You Thought You Knew
Greek mythology told from primary sources — not the popular retelling. Every claim traced to Homer, Hesiod, and the ancient tradition.
They were just history — the local kind. Theseus sailed through these islands. The marble that built the Parthenon came out of the ground here. The Parian Chronicle — one of the only surviving Greek chronologies — was found on this island.
— Stavros Krios, Paros, Cyclades
Watch S1 Episodes ↗Paros. Delos. Naxos. Mykonos. These weren't just beautiful islands — they were the stage for every myth Stavros investigates.
Every episode will change something you thought you knew. Primary sources only. Oldest cited, not most famous.
01
War & Strategy
Homer opens the Iliad with menis — not ordinary anger. Achilles didn't sulk. He was orchestrating a precise, calculated revenge.
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02
Heroes & Tragedy
Books 9–12 are narrated by Odysseus himself, at a dinner party, to an audience whose ships he needs. Every character calls him a liar.
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03
War & Strategy
There were 7,000 men at Thermopylae, not 300. The 700 Thespians fought to the last — nobody makes films about them.
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04
Heroes & Tragedy
Before the twelve labours, Hera drove Heracles temporarily insane and he murdered his own family. The labours were penance.
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05
Heroes & Tragedy
Medusa was a priestess of Athena. Poseidon assaulted her in Athena's own temple. Athena punished Medusa — not Poseidon.
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06
Place & History
There are nine cities buried at Hisarlik. Schliemann dug straight through the one that matched Homer's timeline.
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07
Place & History
The palace at Knossos had hundreds of rooms and no straight corridors. Theseus was a political myth built on an archaeological reality.
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08
Place & History
Before Delos became Apollo's sacred island, it was the centre of the Cycladic civilisation. The marble idols were originally painted.
Coming soon
09
Place & History
The Parian Chronicle — a marble stele found on Paros — is one of the only surviving Greek chronologies. It dates the Trojan War.
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10
Place & History
The Acropolis was a Mycenaean palace before it was a temple. Its marble came from the same quarries as the Parian Chronicle — Paros.
Coming soonA Greek soldier refused to surrender to the Ottomans at the bridge of Alamana in 1821. He was 24. What he said before they killed him changed the revolution. Primary sources only.
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These stories weren't mythology to my family. They were just history — the local kind. Theseus sailed through these islands. The marble that built the Parthenon came out of the ground here.
Primary sources. Cross-cultural evidence. Five exhibits. One verdict. No login required. The companion case to EP006 — Troy.
Homer's Iliad — written 400 years after the events it describes.
Hittite Tablets — Wilusa Treaty (Alaksandu), c. 1280 BCE.
Schliemann's excavation notes, 1871-1873. He dug the wrong layer.
Linear B tablets from Mycenae — bronze weapons inventory.
Korfmann excavations 1988-2005 — Troy VIIa matches Homer.
No secondary sources used without a primary source to back them. Oldest source cited, not most famous. If we cannot trace a claim to a primary source, we do not make the claim.
Paros Island — home of the Parian Chronicle, 264 BCE
What the primary sources actually say — sent after every episode. Direct quotes, contradictions between sources, the detail that didn't make the cut.
One email per episode. No schedule. No other content. Unsubscribe instantly.
The word Homer
used. And why.
Every episode has a Greek word at its centre. Not the translation — the original. Because the translation is always a decision someone else made for you.
Primary sources only. Oldest source cited, not most famous. If we cannot trace a claim to a primary source, we do not make the claim. That is the Stavros Commentary rule — applied to every episode, every claim.
Not ordinary anger. Divinely-sanctioned, cosmically consequential wrath. No other mortal in Homer gets menis — only gods and Achilles alone. That tells you everything about what Homer thought of him.
Cunning intelligence. Practical wisdom. The Odyssey is not a story about a man trying to get home — it is a story about the most dangerous kind of intelligence.
Divine madness. The god-sent frenzy that made Heracles murder his own family. In the ancient understanding — a force that entered the body from outside.