In Search of Myths & Heroes . Ask Michael Wood | PBS Below Michael Wood answers questions submitted by PBS viewers after the November 2005 airing of In Search of Myths and Heroes. He is no longer answering questions, but if you would like to send feedback, please feel free to do so on the following page, . Q: Herodotus thought the Colchians were left behind as a military outpost from the expeditions of Pharoah Sesotris since they were black like the Ethiopians, and that the Golden Fleece recalled the god Amun. Are these valid points of view? In some early Greek legends the Colchians are thought to be black because they live in the place where the sun rises  but there is no truth in the ancient Egyptian connection. Q: Why did you choose the four myths used? What others did you consider? We looked at a variety of myths and legends including the Epic of Gilgamesh, El Dorado, The Ramayana and many others. In the end we chose a spread of stories from the Bible, The Celts, The Greeks and India: it gave us a geographical and thematic spread in our attempt to show myths influence culture.

And they were all Jungian archetypes as well! Q: Could all the myths be related to facts or events that have occurred in the past? For example, could the great flood myths told by nearly all cultures around the world be connected to the dramatic rise in sea level at the end of the last ice age between 17,000 and 7,000 years ago? Could the Vedic scriptures of India be describing the rapid meltdown of the glaciers and ice fields in the Himalayas in the space of several centuries, with catastrophic flooding events (e.g., ice dam bursts) taking place now and then? Flood myths occur in virtually all cultures around the world and it's quiet conceivable that they do reflect memories of real natural cataclysms! The Vedic myths though are relatively recent in historical time, the earliest (Rig veda) being maybe 15th century BCE, the later vedas down to maybe 800BCE; so it's unlikely they record much older geological and meteorological events. Q: Who were Jason's crew could you please name each person? That's a bit of a task!

There are lots of versions of the Jason myth and the crew increased in size with each telling, from the original fifty to more than a hundred. However the core group stayed the same; Orpheus (the greatest singer), Hercules(the strongest man), Atalanta (a woman, the best runner), Polydeuces, Castor, Theseus and like the Magnificent Seven they all had their own special talents. Q: Do you see a connection between the myth of Lot's wife looking back and losing her life by being turned into a pillar of salt and Orpheus looking back for Eurydice and he losing her as well? Perhaps the Jungian concept of archetypes connects them; they are both about trust and the fateful consequences of disobeying the law of the Underworld or the Lord of Death. Q: Was Sinbad real or a myth? The stories of Sinbad seem to come from Basra in Iraq, the greatest trading post in the world during the early Middle Ages. Although the character is fictional the tales depict real voyages and no doubt are the kind of stories that were told on such voyages. Q: Sorry, have to ask.

Are you married, you are such a sexy man and intelligent to boot, such a rare combo, I've found. I am very happily married! Q: For your movie, did you draw on any of the work presented in Nicholas Clapp's book Sheba published in 2001? No, I've never read it. Q: Is the DVD: In Search of Myths and Heroes available from other than PBS.org store ? The BBC DVD can be purchased from Amazon's web site: Q: I have read In Search of the Trojan War. Was there ever proof found of an actual wooden horse where soldiers lie in wait until inside the city gates like the Homeric stories? No, most scholars think that though Troy really existed, the horse is just a fable but in the book, you may remember, I suggested it could be a memory of the wooden "horses" filled with men which operated like battering rams in ancient siege warfare. Q: The myths of Jason and Helen of Troy are both set in the 13th century B.C. Is there any connection between the stories or characters? Would Jason or any of the Argonauts competed for Helen's hand in marriage?

The story of Jason is set in a time before the Trojan war. The heroes have to sail past Troy by night to avoid being stopped by their customs and security people! The connection though may be that the area of Volos, where Jason came from, seems to have been an early centre of Greek poetry and Achilles, the hero of the Trojan War, also came from that part of Greece, in Thessaly, so maybe both stories took their earliest forms in that area, using the traditions of its dynasties and their heroic deeds. Q: You suggested that Arthur was an elder son of a Scottish King that was killed in a battle at Camloden, did you not? What century was that battle relative to when Wales first claimed him as theirs? The battle site is actually called Camlann in the Annals of Wales, and I connect it with the battle fought somewhere in that region around 590 CE in which prince Arturius of Dalriada is killed. The first appearance of Arthur as a Welsh superhero is in Nennius in 829 CE. Q: After viewing the first two programs of the series, I'm curious which is your favourite?

Of the four films, it has to be Shangri-la as it was such an amazing journey and a wonderful personal experience. Q: I would like to ask you if you have ever done anything on the BOG BODIES? No, I haven't done anything on the bog bodies. Q: Does the fact that a whole living culture (lineage of Ethiopian Kings and ancient historical documentation) lend more credence that the Queen of Sheba was Ethiopian as opposed to Yemenite? There is little doubt that the biblical name of Sheba refers to the historical kingdom of Saba, now Marib, in the Yemen. However as we showed in the film, the Kingdom of Saba ruled Ethiopia for a period just as in the Roman period the kingdom of Axum in Ethiopia ruled in the Yemen. Exactly how the Ethiopian tradition developed no one yet knows-but for all we know it may draw on a common fund of stories. Q: What is going to happen to the village from 3000 years ago where Queen Sheba ruled in Yeoman? When the last people go it will be demolished and the hill excavated unfortunately. Q: Did the son of Sheba and Solomon father any children?

All the Ethiopian emperors right down to Haile Selassie claim descent from Menelik. Q: How can I reach you by postal mail? Please see the Maya Vision web site: . I will be away a lot of the time travelling for my next series on the history of India but if you have any queries one of my colleagues will try and help you. Q: Do you feel that the accounts in the Kibre Negast are closely aligned with the references pertaining to the Queen of Sheba as reflected in the Bible? The Kebra Negast was written in the 13th century CE and it obviously builds on the Bible story and other traditions including earlier Ethiopian traditions, oral and written. Q: I am curious, do you have any projects directly involving Persia, or Persian culture? I worked extensively on Persia, travelling around Iran, in In the Footsteps of Alexander the Great and I loved it. I have proposed other projects there as I would love to return. Q: In the movie the Shadow (Alec Baldwin) who is he? LLahsa I know that is in Tibet, but what mythical character are they talking about? I'm very sorry but I've not seen the movie.

Q: How did you get into films and history? I got into history as a young boy and studied it at university. When I left I was lucky enough to get a job working in TV as a journalist and it was another stroke of luck that let me bring my love of history to television and make In Search of the Dark Ages for the BBC. Q: Why don't you do a myth special on the Pueblo cultures of the Southwest United States? I also think that you should direct an animation special on the rise and the fall of the Roman Empire. I filmed at Casas Grandes in the series, Conquistadors, and I agree it is a fascinating area. I have wanted to do something on the fall of the Roman Empire for a while now. Q: Is there anything to substantiate the fact that there might have been actual people whose traits and experiences influenced the creation of these specific characters and places? There is no doubt that the stories and myths use real places and landscapes so why not real people?

The name Jason appears in Bronze Age, Greek (Linear B) tablets and the name Arthur, as Arturius, appears in a 7th century North British source (Adomnan's Life of St Columba) regarding a battle fought c590CE. Q: Is it possible to buy tapes or dvds of your show my dad and I would like to watch them but we can't stay up that late to watch them? You can buy VHS or DVDs of the series from PBS online shop, Q: What is the original name of King Arthur, and, or, what reason is given for the possible place for Camelot not excavated yet? The name Arthur is derived from a real Late Roman/Dark Age name Arturius and the battle site where 'Arthur' fought and died is sited in the Welsh Annals as Camlann-apparently a fort on Hadrian's Wall in the region where the historical Arturius died in the 6th century. Camelot, however, is a fictional place. Q: Would you be willing to do one more, In Search of Myths and Heroes!? This one would deal with Hero Pharaoh Necho II and Bible Prophets Jeremiah and Ezekiel.

Yes, I would love to make another series, although I am not sure who should feature in it. Thank you for your suggestions. Q: Where did James Hilton find the myth to put into Lost Horizon? Traveller's accounts of western Tibet and Tibetan Buddhist myths were in print and available in the 1930s: Tucci's photos of Tsaparang came out the year before Hilton published Lost Horizon. Q: Do you think there is some truth in these myths? Or do you think these myths are more like faith? I don't think literal historical truth matters in these myths. They last for thousands of years because they are universal and not specific, though they may often have a historical kernel of some kind. Q: Is this the same programme which I saw on PBS a couple of years ago where they searched and finally came to a valley where an ancient fore-bearer religion of Bhuddism still exists? No, it's not. Q: I would like to find out more about the origins of the habesha people, their kings (Ezana, Yohannes, Menelik and Haile Selasie). Is there a good place to start? What books did you use?

A very good guide to the origins of Ethiopia (with good photos) is Ancient Ethiopia by David Phillipson (1998). Q: I very much want a copy of the programme on VHS tape, can you advise how? I wonder why they didn't simply sail to the shore nearest to Sheba's city, rather than take a very much longer/more arduous desert trek? Wasn't that also an ancient alternative? You can buy VHS or DVDs of the series from PBS online shop, . The route from Marib was a caravan route from Arabia to the near east. Q: What is your next project after In Search of Myths and Heroes? A six-part history of India. Q: I wanted to know if, in your journeys, you have uncovered other sources (non-Ethiopian) pointing to the nature of the relationship between Queen Sheba and King Solomon and most importantly, the birth of Menelik and the nature of his relationship with Solomon? No, as far as I am aware it is an Ethiopian story. Q: What do you think is really in the temple at Axum, if not the Ark of the Covenant?

Well, Ethiopians describe what is in the chapel in Axum as the "tabot" or the "Ark of the Covenant", so presumably it is a container with tablets in it. However as no one from the outside has ever seen it we cannot know what date it is, or what it is for certain. Q: If you go back to Ethiopia, try to find out how the church was chosen to be Saint Mary's name. Who decided the name? Did it come from Jerusalem or was the church in existence before Sheba brought the Ark of the Covenant? The Ethiopian Orthodox Church was founded by Greek speaking monks from Egypt and Syria in the 4th century CE and the original building of the church was probably from that time. But as you can see from the ruins and fragments around it, it is a much older sacred site going back at least to the 1st century CE. The Sheba story in the bible though may come from 8th century BCE. This is all discussed in the book of the series. Q: Do you know if any organisations sponsor a tour of Arthur-related sites in Britain? Do you have a published list available of the sites featured in the programme, and are those sites accessible to the public?

Sites featured in the programme are mentioned in the accompanying book, In Search of Myths and Heroes, published by University of California Press, but in the UK, the Cornish Tourist Board publishes a little booklet of Arthurian sites in the south west of England. There are of course many other books on Arthurian themes. Q: Joseph Campbell expressed a belief that myths come from our deepest self and that they contain clues for our potential evolution. What are your thoughts on this? As archetypes they do reflect on our deeper selves, that's why they have resonance and the power, even across thousands of years, to move us. I am not sure about the clues to our future evolution, except that they do tell us about some of the essential characteristics of humanity. Q: In what ways has Legacy informed your subsequent work especially Myths & Heroes? Do you ever give lectures here in the States? The catch phrase we had in Legacy was, "searching in the present for clues to the past and in the past for clues to the present" and I suppose all the films we have made since have attempted to do that, especially in looking for the living connections between past worlds and our own.

In In Search of Myths and Heroes I was trying to show that the stories we tell about ourselves and our past can give just as interesting historical insights as the more usual "stones and bones" approach! Q: Was the Queen of Sheba Jewish and did she help the Templars move the arc of the covenant to Ethiopia? No. In the Biblical tradition she's from Saba  Marib in the Yemen; in the Ethiopian tradition she's from Axum. Q: Would you mind removing the comparison of the great, noble King Arthur to the sadistic tyrant and executioner, Che Guevara? You have to remember that we are talking about the construction of myths. There is a modern myth of Che as the heroic freedom fighter (about which many have differing opinions!), and there was a 9th century CE Welsh myth about Arthur as a freedom fighter leading the British in a resistance against the Anglo-Saxon invaders, a story for which there is no historical evidence whatsoever. Q: Any thoughts as to why Shakespeare did not write a play (that we know of) about King Arthur? A very interesting question, I wish he had lived long enough to get around to doing it!

He had read Geoffrey of Monmouth but interestingly he was more attracted to Lear and Cymbeline, two other early British mythic stories. Q: Will you do an interview(s) on PBS after the In Search series to give additional information that you didn't have time to include in the series and/or was asked by viewers that you think the PBS audience also would like to hear? I would be happy to do so! Q: Did you get a detail description of the covenenant? Why wouldn't they allow pictures of the covenenant? No, I didn't. Sometimes sacred things are not for the eyes of non-believers. They only carry a replica around the streets at festival time. No one gets to see the real thing except the guardian and he must stay inside the shrine until he dies! Q: I very much enjoyed the King Arthur episode. What was the name of the Irish Gaelic storyteller that you interviewed? His name is Sean O'Duinin Q: What is the connection with Dumbarton Scotland and Arthur? There is no connection in the early texts but Dumbarton was the main fortress of the Strathclyde Welsh in the Dark Ages. Q: How can I get a copy of the booklet Fr.

Edmund Campion, the Jesuit, brought to England and read by John Shakespeare, father of William? I suggest that you look it up in the library in Samuel Schoenbaum's, Shakespeare: A Documentary Life, where there is a full facsimile: though of course the idea that it came with Campion is only a conjecture. Q: After about the 6th century, childen with names based on Arthur (Arctorius, Arthos, etc.) began to appear. Do you think this was a case of people naming children after Arthurian stories, or after a real historical figure? In other words, is there a historical fire that led to the mythic smoke? Well in The Dalriada region north of Hadrian's Wall, it's possible that after the tragic death of Artorius  son of King Aidan  in around 590AD, the story became the subject of poems and songs. Maybe that's how that name found its way into heroic stories and lists of battles. Q: In your show you gave mention to the "picts". Have you done or do you know of any investigative/docu-history programme done on the picts?

Somehow they almost always get left out of the "history" of Britain, always the Romans but never the picts. I wonder why this aspect is so dark and untold? Yes you are absolutely right and it is a very interesting subject. There are very few books about it  The Problem of the Picts by F. Wainwright is one, but I've never seen a TV programme on it. Q: Was there any evidence of a northern resistance group in your investigation of the Arthurian cycle? I think those northern battles we talked about were internecine struggles, although King Aidan did fight battles against the Saxons in the late 6th century and the beginning of the 7th century. Q: My question is about the water from the shrine at Ethiopia, which, supposedly, houses the Arc of the Covenant. Why is the water in the kettle holy? Where does the water come from? Is it a symbolic attachment to the relic? It is indeed a symbolic attachment to the relic. Q: What do you have to say about that historical figure of the "Arthurian" period, Ambrosius Aurelianus?

He was a very interesting REAL person in the late 5th century who really did fight against the Anglo Saxons and is recorded in a key near-contemporary source, Gildas. I've looked at some of the evidence for him in a recent book, In Search of England, published by University California Press. Q: Where in Yemen is the great dam you showed briefly, and how old do you believe it is? Was the great dam built up over a very long period of time? The dam is in Marib and was built in the 8th century BC by the rulers of that state  Saba. It was restored a number of times before it was finally destroyed around 575AD, an event which some scholars believe is alluded to in the Holy Koran. Q: My attention was drawn to something which I had hoped would to have been given further time in the episode, that being the "cup" that was recovered from a stone eagle. The eagle had supposedly toppled over and broke into pieces. The break in the statue exposed a small vessel from the 1st century. The character you were speaking with at the time mentioned the vessel was in exhibition at a museum in England.

Please, if you can remember the name of that museum and/or a further course of action in pursuing a greater knowledge of that vessel, I would be entirely grateful. The vessel is in the private possession of Graham Phillips. He has a web site with details tracing the cup back to the 1st Century. See: . It may be of Roman origin, but I think it was planted there in the 19th Century. Q: Even though it was a myth, in what text was it written that the Queen of Sheba lifted her skirt while walking across King Solomon's highly polished floors and revealed her hairy leg and a hoofed foot? This appears in several texts of different religious traditions  Christian, Jewish and Islamic. It is an amalgam of myths from various sources and probably goes back to a pre Islamic folk tale. Try St John Simpson's book The Queen of Sheba Q: Where to find more info regarding the church that Thomas Wright(?) left hints in the design as to the location of the Holy Grail. Also, what is the correct spelling of Thomas W's name? See Graham Phillip's web site: for more info. But be warned  Wright (spelt correctly!) was probably setting up an elaborate hoax.

Our point in the film is that from the medieval poems to the da Vinci Code, we are all seduced by the myth of the Holy Grail. Q: Are there any differences between fairy tales and myths, besides the age of the listeners, since both transmit "learning tools" from one generation to the next? There is an obvious overlap; and they do traverse one generation to the next. But fairy tales are usually smaller stories, which either end optimistically, as perhaps they should for kids or are overtly didactic. Don't play with matches! Myths tend to be bigger and embedded in national cultures and (perhaps more fittingly for grown ups?) they rarely have happy endings! Sponor Links 'In Search of Myths & Heroes' Transcript 'In Search of Myths & Heroes' The Greek origins of the myth of Jason and the Golden Fleece touch on the island of Samothrace, the Greek sanctuary of the Great Gods.

(Maya Vision International, Courtesy of PBS) TOOLBOX Historian and Author Thursday, November 17, 2005; 12:00 PM In the four-part PBS series " In Search of Myths & Heroes ," historian and author Michael Wood embarks on a set of "on the ground" adventures in search of the world's most famous myths: the Queen of Sheba, King Arthur, Shangri-La, and Jason and the Golden Fleece. The series examines not only why legends were created but how they have been used -- both politically and culturally -- over the years, and why we still need them today. It airs on PBS on Wednesdays, November 16-23, at 9 p.m. ET. (Check TV Schedule .) The series' host Wood was online Thursday, Nov. 17, at noon ET to answer your questions about these famous myths and to discuss the series "In Search of Myths & Heroes." As writer and presenter, Wood's television series include "Art of the Western World," "Legacy," "In the Footsteps of Alexander the Great" (1998) and "Conquistadors" (2000).

He is author of several best-selling books and of more than 70 TV films, which have been shown worldwide. Woods was educated at Manchester Grammar School and Oriel College, Oxford, where he did postgraduate research in Anglo-Saxon history. Since then he has worked as a journalist, broadcaster, historian and filmmaker. His films include "Great Railway Journeys of the World" (1982), the BAFTA-winning "Great River Journeys" (1984), "The Sacred Way" (1990), "Saddam's Killing Fields" (1991), "Hitler's Search for the Holy Grail" (1999) and "Conquistadors" (2000), which followed four epic journeys during the Spanish Conquest of the New World. The transcript follows. ____________________ Michael Wood: Hi everybody, it's a great pleasure to be back in the States with a new series on PBS. Pursuing our old track, of what I like to call travel adventure history. And if you've got any questions about last night's shows or any of our other shows on PBS, I'd be delighted to answer them as best I can.

_______________________ Arlington, Va.: Mr. Wood, how did you start learning and getting interested in all these myths? Would you say it's your true passion? And what's the greatest myth and legend that you know of to date? Thank you for your time. Michael Wood: Fantastic question! I guess like everybody, I've been fascinated since I was a kid. But I trained as an academic historian in my early days. It's only more recently that I started to think about the life of these stories over time. And how that was just as important in history as historical fact. So it's a lifetime interest. As for the greatest myth, that's a very difficult question. My favorites, I suppose, are the Greek myths, especially maybe the Odyssey. But I guess, if I had to say which was the greatest, I'd have to say the earliest, the epic Gilgamesh, composed in ancient Iraq between four and five thousand years ago. And I would have included that in this series had the situation in Iraq not made it impossible. _______________________ Philadelphia, Pa.: Fascinating series! So far I've seen the Queen of Sheba and King Arthur hours, and am looking forward to the rest.

I've always enjoyed Arthurian stories, but not Arthur-Guinevere-Lancelot love triangle - which has limited my reading somewhat. I'd really be interested in reading more of the earlier stories and sources (I've already read Monmouth). Can you recommend any particular texts and/or translators? Also, who would you suggest I read for general pre-1066 British history (I guess from about a century before the Roman withdrawal until then)? Michael Wood: There are a lot of very good books on pre-1066 British history. But that period was my own academic area, and this is going to sound terrible plugging my own book, but I've written several books on this area, one of which is called In Search of the Dark Ages. But the latest, which is on the University of California press, is called In Search of England. And it's a series of stories about some of these myths, legends, and history, including King Arthur. As for the question about books on King Arthur, if you go down to your book shop you'll find good translations of a lot of these early stories.

The key story in the development of the legend was written by Geoffrey of Monmouth in the 12th century, and you can pick that up in Penguin paperback. But the most fabulous Arthur stories I think come in the French romances, about Lancelot, the Holy Grail and so on. Especially Chretien de Troyes. _______________________ Anonymous: I'm not familiar with the epic Gilgamesh myth. Would you mind providing some insight into that one? Thanks. Michael Wood: The epic of Gilgamesh is often called the first great work of world literature. There are several recensions of it. It's a hero's quest story. Of the young man who has to grow up, face death, overcome impossible odds, fight demons. But what makes it really great is the sense of human destiny which unfolds in the poem, leading up to the hero's search for everlasting life -- of course, a fruitless search.

The poem was composed four or five thousand years ago, but its tales spread in different languages in the ancient near east, and find their way into Homer, into the Tales of the Arabian Nights in the middle ages, and according to Iraqi friends of mine, have even survived into out times in oral tradition in south Iraq. And you can get paperback versions of this epic in any good book shop. _______________________ Harrisburg, Pa.: Michael, I have been a huge fan of your work, starting with your book and PBS series on the Trojan War, in the late 80's (btw- what did you think of the recent "Troy" movie? I thought it was a bit of a letdown compared to the real story that you covered). How are you able to do your travels? And what leads you to the different subjects that you cover? Keep up the great work! Michael Wood: Thank you very much for your kind words, which are much appreciated. I agree with you about the Troy movie. I thought they missed a trick by trying to make the heroes too much like modern people and not enough like the the ruthless, cruel universe of Homer.

After our journeys it's always a difficult business juggling family life and work in this kind of job. And in recent years with the kids growing up, I've tried to make the journies as short as possible. And we did no reconnaissance trips this time. As for the subject matter, I always tend to follow, if I'm lucky, the things I'm interested in. I'm a great believer that curiosity in life and can take you a long way, and you should never lose the passions that you started off with. _______________________ Ravena, N.Y.: What are some of the current myths that people have today? How do they compare to the ancient myths? Michael Wood: We all create myths. Every society creates myths. And those myths can be about nations. Even the myth of the wild west that was the subject of so many cowboy movies when we were growing up. Myths can be about the force of nature. You've only got to look at the reaction to the Tsunami in the Indian Ocean or hurricane Katrina here in the States, how we still sometimes struggle to explain these phenomenon. Myths can also be about essential human qualities - love, hate, bravery, cowardice, loyalty, betrayal.

And in those cases what I think happens is that we simply recycle the old stories, because they still work. If you look at Hollywood, Star Wars for example, or the Lord of the Rings, you see how modern versions of the ancient myths still carry fanstastic power because they speak about basic human aspirations. In fact George Lucas has often said he deliberately went back to the ancient myths in writing Star Wars. _______________________ Philadelphia, Pa.: This may be too hot a topic, but have you ever explored the myths or realities of the stories of Appolonia? I am not too familiar with them, but I have read that some of these stories, with much debate, are close to or may have served as background to Biblical events. I am wondering what serious scholarship has found on these stories. Michael Wood: That's not an area that I've really looked into. But what scholars have shown is that some of the ancient Babylonian myths, like the Epic of Gilgamesh which I mentioned earlier, lie behind some of the Bible stories. The tale of the great flood for example is in the Gilgamesh epic. The tale of the Garden of Eden clearly goes back to Babylonian myth. The Tower of Babel obviously is the same.

_______________________ Baltimore, Md.: How did you decide which myths to include? Also, you visited some fairly dangerous places in your travels for this series. Did you ever feel unsafe? Michael Wood: I drew up a list of about ten great myths from across the world to start off with. And in the end we chose one from the Bible, one from the ancient Greeks, one from India and one from the Celtic/British world, which I guess you could say were the four greatest myth making traditions in the world. The tales had a nice geographical spread, and also a nice spread in terms of their themes. But it's a series idea that could run and run! Obviously, I'm not a war correspondent, and I have great admiration for reporters who put themselves in the front lines to inform us about what's going on in the world. I suppose you could say that some of the places we went to are kind of dangerous, and they're certainly not the kind of destinations you'd choose in your holiday brochure. But I find in our line of business you very rarely encounter any hostility, and if you go in with an open mind, an open heart and a smile on your face, things rarely go wrong.

But of course, making these films, it would be foolish to do anything life threatening. _______________________ Baltimore, Md.: In what way have these legends impacted the creation of comic book heroes, in particular, Superman? Michael Wood: I think, just like Hollywood movies, many of the great comic book heroes feel like projections of old Greek heroes. Perseus, who can fly through the air like Superman, he can make himself invisible, he fights terrible demons, monsters that can turn you into stone. Or take Bellerophon, who rides a magic horse, kills the monster and rescues the beautiful girl. You can take any number of these tales and with only a little adjustment see them as comic book heroes. They all deal in the same fantasies, the same projections, the same fears, and the same desires. _______________________ Baltimore, Md.: I am a fan of Joseph Campbell and his writings. How has his work influenced your work? Michael Wood: Yeah, I'm a fan too.

I much enjoyed the series that Joseph Campbell did with Bill Moyers on PBS a few years back, and actually when I was thinking about the story of Jason and the Golden Fleece, I rooted out from my bookshelf, Campbell's interview with Bill about the hero's quest. What's so interesting is how you find this kind of tale in almost every culture in the world. The young boy who has to grow up, become a man, face death, overcome impossible odds, and achieve his appointed task, which of course he usually only manages to do with the help of the divine female, whose lover he becomes. As Campbell points out, times may change but young boys even in the 21st century still have to grow up, become a man, face difficulties in life including death, and hopefully they find the divine female who will help him do it! _______________________ Oak Creek, Wis.: I really enjoyed your presentation of Alexander the Great. Do you think you might do something like that with Julius Caesar? Michael Wood: Thanks very much. We enjoyed doing that journey. It was a really incredible experience.

I find Julius Caeser a fascinating character too, but with this new epic TV series that's just out, ten hours on the Romans, starring Julius Caeser, I guess anybody who wants to do a documentary on him may have to wait a little bit until the dust has settled. _______________________ Philadelphia, Pa.: Dear Michael, I haven't missed one of your films yet. They have all been fascinating and this one certainly didn't disappoint. Can you fill us in on some anecdotes from your travels while making In Search of Myths and Heroes? Thank you for contributing to some of the finest that Television has to offer. Best wishes. Michael Wood: That's very kind of you. It's really great to get feedback from the viewers who of course are the only people that really count! In these last four journeys that we did, we had some wonderful experiences. I'll never forget the old Muslim scholar in Yemen in last night's show who invited us into his house, made us tea and then sang the verses of the Koran about the story of Solomon and Sheeba.

But I guess if I had to choose one journey in these films that was truly extraordinary as a personal experience, I'd have to choose the journey we made into Tibet searching for the ancient legend which lies behind the modern tale of Shangri-la. As you'll see next week, we got dropped off by a supply helicopter in an isolated valley in the far northwest of Nepal out of touch with any modern communications. And over the course of the next few days we walked into Tibet. We went to the sacred mountain Kailash which all Hindus believe is the center of the Earth. And we traveled 400 kilometers beyond on dirt track roads behind the Himalayas to reach the lost city which I think played a part in the creation of the legend. I had dreamed of going to Kailash and that part of Tibet for more than twenty years but the opportunity had never arisen. So for me it was a particularly moving experience to stand in sight of the holy mountain on a crystal clear late November day with a dazzling blue sky and this great ice pyramid which has been the focus of so much devotion over so many centuries. _______________________ Washington, D.C.: Mr. Wood, I enjoyed the first two episodes of your series last night on PBS.

You mentioned that you couldn't include Gilgamesh in your series due to the situation in Iraq. Just out of curiosity, are there other countries/regions with interesting legends that cannot be investigated due to political instability/restrictions? If you could travel anywhere in the world safely, what would you add to the series? Michael Wood: You could certainly make a series of 20 films on great myths of the world without any difficulty. And most of the places you'd want to film would be easy to manage. There are few more dangerous places than Iraq at the moment. Another story I was interested in was the legend of El Dorado which comes from Columbia. I actually spoke to the Columbian ambassador in London about this and it's possibly something we might try to do in the future. Obviously when we did our PBS series a few years ago on the Spanish conquest of the New World it was a tale that we touched on when we followed the root of the Spanish expedition from Quito in Equador over the Andes and down the Amazon. But it's certainly an area I'd like to return to -- in fact, only this Easter we took our kids to the Andes and to Cuzco. It's a part of the world I really love.

_______________________ Anonymous: Michael, are you presently working on another book or film? How long do you spend researching and filming the programs? What a wonderful life you must have, a sort of literary Indiana Jones! Michael Wood: That's a great description! Yes, I've been very lucky to be able to make a career out of pursuing my interests, and to show these things to a worldwide audience. It's a very great privilege to be able to spend time in another culture. Often these projects have lodged in the mind over a long period of time, sometimes many years. You think I'd like to do a film on this subject. I first wrote a script for a documentary about the Journey to Mount Kailash twenty years ago for example. So you gather ideas on subjects and sometimes you see a book and you get it thinking that maybe one day that would be an interesting area to look at. So it's all part of a long process. The next series that we're working on for PBS is another case in point. I think we first suggested to PBS doing a series on the history of India about 15 years ago.

And now, with the huge interest in India and China across the world, as they are both developing into economic and cultural giants, the time is suddenly right to do it. But obviously it's something I've been thinking about for nearly 20 years, traveling in India and writing various things, including the Indian episode of the series we did for PBS back in 1991 called LEGACY. _______________________ Michael Wood: Well, thank you very much for sending in your thoughtful comments. And I really appreciate your interest, and hope very much that we can continue our dialogue as filmmaker and audience, because I always feel that without that contact as filmmakers it's easy to lose our way. So thanks very much! _______________________ Editor's Note: Washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control over Live Online discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions. © 2005 The Washington Post Company In Search of Myths & Heroes . The Filmmakers | PBS is the writer and presenter of many critically acclaimed series on television, including Art of the Western World, Legacy, In the Footsteps of Alexander the Great (1998) and Conquistadors (2000).

He is author of over 70 TV films, which have been shown worldwide and of several best selling books. He was educated at Manchester Grammar School and Oriel College, Oxford where he did postgraduate research in Anglo-Saxon history. Since then he has worked as a journalist, broadcaster, historian and filmmaker. His films have centred on history, but have included travel (Great Railway Journeys of the World (1982); the BAFTA-winning Great River Journeys (1984); The Sacred Way (1990)); politics (Saddam's Killing Fields (1991): an award winning account of the destruction of the Marsh Arabs of South Iraq) and cultural history (the award winning Hitler's Search for the Holy Grail, (1999): a study of the abuse of history and archaeology under the Nazis). Conquistadors (2000) followed four epic journeys during the Spanish Conquest of the New World and came top in the Guardian's "Review of Reviews" for the year 2000-2001. Among Michael Wood's special interests, Greece has always figured prominently.

He has made 15 films in Greece and among his publications are the number one bestsellers, In Search of the Trojan War (on the archaeology of Homer and the Bronze Age) and In the Footsteps of Alexander the Great. These books have been translated into a number of European languages, including Greek. Indian civilization has also long been a special interest: Over the years Michael Wood has made a dozen visits to India, and in addition to his films Darshan and Legacy, he has written The Smile of Murugan (John Murray) about a small town in Tamil Nadu and its annual pilgrimage. He is also a contributor to Chidambarnm and Naturaja, a series of essays on the cult of Shiva in South India (Marg, Bombay, 2004). His academic background was in early medieval English history; among his publications in this area are In Search of the Dark Ages and Domesday. (both no 1 best sellers in the UK) He was also a contributor to Ideal and Reality in Frankish and Anglo-Saxon Society (Blackwell 1983).

He lectured recently at academic conferences on Anglo-Saxon history in London and Kalamazoo, and is a contributor to Lay Intellectuals in Early Medieval Europe (Cambridge UP 2005). Recently, he published a series of medieval essays concerned with English identity: In Search of England. (Viking and University of California Press). Of this book The Times Literary Supplement said: 'Better than any historian for decades, Wood brings home not just the ways in which buildings, landscapes and written texts may be read, but the sensual beauty of encounters with them'. Michael Wood has had a lifelong interest in Shakespeare. As a student he toured the US with Shakespeare, working with directors such as Richard Cotterell and Jonathan Miller. He made three films for the BBC about the history plays, and contributed to Shakespeare in Perspective (1985). His controversial series "In Search of Shakespeare" (BBC/PBS 2003) was the first TV documentary life of Shakespeare.

Of the book that accompanies the series, academic Jonathan Bate wrote in the Sunday Telegraph, "It is a great pleasure to report that, thanks to the author's gifts as story-teller, populariser and interpreter of the past, Shakespeare's world is brought alive more vividly than in any other biography of him that I have read." (Sunday Telegraph 12/6/03) Michael Wood was elected a fellow of the Royal Historical Society in 2001. He lives in North London with his wife and two daughters. Rebecca Dobbs is a founder director of Maya Vision and has produced or directed over 50 films for cinema and television. She worked as a research psychologist and academic before moving into television production in 1983.

Her documentary films include Ricochet with David Bowie (South East Asia 1984), Childhood (13 films about the experience of childhood throughout the world; 1985-1988), Simon Ngubane Still on Strike (South Africa: Best Documentary Leipzig 1986), Desire (Audience Prize Turin and Berlin Film Festivals; 1990/1991), Barcelona with Robert Hughes (Architecture and history in the Olympic City 1992), Comrades in Arms (1991 American Film and Video award). Since 1988, Rebecca has also worked closely as producer to historian Michael Wood on a number of projects including, The Sacred Way (1988), Darshan: An Indian Journey (1990), Saddam's Killing Fields (1991), In the Footsteps of Alexander the Great (1997), Conquistadors (2000), In Search of Shakespeare (2003) and In Search of Myths and Heroes (2005).

Her dramas for cinema and television include Nocturne (1990) starring Lisa Eichorn, Three Steps to Heaven (1995) starring Katrin Cartlidge, James Fleet and Frances Barber and A Bit of Scarlet (1996) narrated by Sir Ian McKellen. She is an occasional lecturer at the National Film and Television School and has been invited to speak at many international festivals. Sean Smith is a documentary maker who has worked on numerous history, science, travel and adventure documentaries, including King Solomon's Stone for BBC2's Horizon strand, and currently The Great Race, also for BBC2 which is a six-part recreation of the race to the South Pole between Captain Scott and Norwegian Roald Amundsen. Sean likes to shoot his own material, on anything from PD150 to Digi Beta and HD, and used to work as a stills photographer before getting into shooting news reports on mini DV when the VX1000 came along to transform small camera video shoots. From shooting and producing news reports for Channel 4 news and other outlets, Sean came to directing documentaries through Channel 4's Short Stories strand with The Bridge in 1997.

Since then he has been working continually on a variety of projects for both UK and American broadcasters. Sean has travelled extensively around the world both as a filmmaker and also in his previous incarnation as a Himalayan mountaineer and mountain guide, which has made him very familiar with the high mountains of Tibet, Nepal, India and Pakistan, as well as the wilds of Patagonia in South America. He currently lives in not-so-wild South London with his partner and five-year-old daughter. Jeremy Jeffs is a documentary filmmaker with a passion for travel and history programmes. Working on Myths and Heroes proved to be one of the most interesting and satisfying projects he has worked on. With the rest of the crew, he got to travel to some of most fascinating places in the world. Highlights include the ancient mud brick towers of the Yemeni city of Shibbam �� the Manhattan of the desert; and the hilltop monastery of Debra Damo, high on the border between Ethiopia and Eritrea, a spot so remote that the only way in is by climbing a 30-meter rock face aided solely by a cowhide rope.

The biggest challenge of the series was to make sure that beauty of the British landscape (in King Arthur) could match up to the more exotic vistas in the rest of the series. Jeremy trained at the BBC where he was a member of the award-winning Correspondent Team and since then has travelled and shot all over the world. He started the year by filming a documentary about modern slavery in Amazonian Brazil (for UK�s Channel 4 Television). Then he spent six months filming with notoriously secretive Opus Dei organisation, villains in the famous novel The Da Vinci Code. The exclusive filming took him from Rome and London, to Boston, Chicago and New York. Jeremy is currently working with Michael Wood, Rebecca Dobbs and the rest of the team at Maya Vision on a new major series about the Indian subcontinent. He lives in South London, with his wife and two children where in his spare time he enjoys making pizza. Howard Davidson is a prolific composer of music for film, television, radio and the theater and is in great demand for both drama and documentary scores with over 300 to his credit, including many orchestral scores performed by the BBC Concert Orchestra, and both the Royal Philharmonic and Philharmonia Orchestras.

Recent theatre productions include Vita and Virginia by Eileen Atkins, After Mrs. Rochester and Madame Bovary for Shared Experience. Radio credits include Iris Murdoch's Under the Net, Nabakov's Laughter in the Dark and Terre Haute by Edmund White. For television, recent productions include Titanic-Birth of a Legend and Michael Wood's In Search of Shakespeare. He is currently visiting Professor of Composition for the Screen at the Royal College of Music, London. Sponor Links

Question: Who wrote and narrated the TV series "In Search of Myths and Heroes"?
Answer: Michael Wood