Caucasian Roots

Historian Bettany Hughes travels to the Caucasus - the land that sits on the border of Asia and Europe between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea - to unravel its mythologised and pivotal place in western history.For the ancient Greeks, the region was home to the Golden Fleece, the Amazons and Prometheus. In the Christian tradition, it was thought to be the resting place of Noah's Ark after the flood. In Russian literature, it was mythologised by Pushkin, Lermontov and Tolstoy, while in the Europe of the Enlightenment, it crucially became known as the home of the purest members of the white race - hence today's descriptions of white criminal suspects as ‘caucasian’.Bettany travels to the region to find the roots of these stories and test how far the myths are backed up by reality. She follows the trail of the Caucasus in antiquity from the Black Sea coast of Ancient Colchis to the shadow of Mount Ararat in Armenia.Presenter/Bettany Hughes, Producer/Russell Finch for Somethin' ElseEpisode 1 airsSunday 22 March6.45pm-7.30pmBBC RADIO 3