As you walk across the Macedonian plain, among the ruins of an ancient city, imagine that what you would once have heard here, thousands of years ago, was the sound of waves breaking on the shore. How could a city that now lies 25 kilometres from the coast once have had a harbour, a sea breeze and streets leading to every corner of the known world?

In this episode, we follow the traces of ancient Pella – a city that became the capital of the Macedonian kingdom, where Philip II of Macedon ruled and Alexander the Great was born. Built with geometric precision and a grandeur, it was worthy of an empire that stretched deep into the East.

This episode was created by Marketing Greece for Hellenic Heritage.

Imagine witnessing a sacred ritual of antiquity, at a sanctuary near the mouth of the Erasinos River in eastern Attica. Before you, a group of young girls dressed in yellow robes move rhythmically around an altar, holding burning torches. You hear people whisper that they are the arktoi – the “little bears” of the goddess Artemis, the deity worshipped here.

In this episode, we journey to the Sanctuary of Artemis at Brauron. We uncover the secrets of this initiation rite and follow the footsteps of Iphigenia – from her near-sacrifice at Aulis to her mythical cenotaph at Brauron. It is a journey to a place where womanhood and motherhood were honoured as nowhere else in the ancient world.

This episode was created by Marketing Greece for Hellenic Heritage.

In this episode, we explore the mystical island of Samothrace and step into the inner sanctum of one of the most enigmatic sanctuaries of the ancient world – the Sanctuary of the Great Gods – to uncover the sacred rites performed there. To be initiated, your origin, gender, and social status meant nothing.

What mattered was your faith in the gods and the oath of silence you would keep forever. From the initiation of Philip II and Olympias, parents of Alexander the Great, to the celebrated statue of the Winged Victory of Samothrace, we unravel the thread of a cult that promised a more pious and just life, protection at sea and, of course, a privileged place in the Underworld.

This episode was created by Marketing Greece for Hellenic Heritage.