Greek Odyssey: Mount Olympus and Beyond (Thessaloniki) 2011

Playlist with all 4 episodes: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLCBCC97F406FD9415

Joanna Lumley’s Greek Odyssey
Episode: 4 of 4
Title: Mount Olympus and Beyond

In this episode Joanna meets the people and discovers places in the mountainous region of northern Greece. Here the hills are alive with ancient stories and legends. Some familiar, others long since gone untold.

Where better to start than a climb up Mount Olympus, the country’s highest peak. Here, the ancient Greeks believed that the gods had their dwelling place, where they meted out punishments and blessings upon the mere mortals, thousands of feet below. She meets the modern gods of today, sporting athletes who taking part in the brutal challenge of the Mount Olympus marathon.

Joanna travels east to discover more legends and traditions off the beaten track. She is quite unprepared for a women’s rude fortune telling festival, which has origins dating back to Homer. Poems are read out to large crowds, telling of someone’s future, but often these revelations are quite shocking and vulgar.

Joanna also explores a magnificent church that was built in just forty days and discovers the otherworldly landscape of Meteora, where Orthodox monks still inhabit the monasteries in the sky.