Why would you move from the UK to Brisbane to study Ancient Greece? It’s a fair question to ask history podcaster Tristan Hughes.
He is the creator and presenter of History Hit’s popular podcast The Ancients, which now runs to more than 700 episodes. It’s a global sensation and at the age of 30 he is just getting started and has now decided to take The Ancients on tour Down Under.
The Ancients: An Evening with Tristan Hughes will unfold in the QPAC Concert Hall on August 4. He will also be playing – if that is the right word – Canberra, Sydney, Perth, Melbourne and Auckland.
“I’m a presenter and a producer at History Hit, specialising in ancient history,” Hughes explains. “Over the past couple of years, I’ve been fortunate enough to travel to incredible sites across the world and present ancient history documentaries, including in Pompeii, Orkney and in Egypt.”
He has been hosting The Ancients podcast (in which he calls on the experts in each field he explores) since June 2020 and he can’t wait to present it live. He’s likely to pack out the Concert Hall, considering the current wave of interest in ancient history. In the past couple of years, we have seen events featuring historians Bettany Hughes, Mary Beard and William Dalrymple pack theatres and there’s no reason Hughes won’t do the same.
‘You have some brilliant professors at UQ and that year abroad spent in Brisbane was great for me’
He’s especially looking forward to his Brisbane gig. Hughes studied ancient history at the University of Edinburgh. His four years of study included a year at the University of Queensland, St Lucia, in Brisbane.
“You have some brilliant professors at UQ and that year abroad spent in Brisbane was great for me,” Hughes says. “It really helped me develop. I had never been that far from the UK before, and I can’t wait to get back.”
He’s keen to catch up with old friends, in particular Professor Alastair Blanshard and Paul Eliadis, chair of classics and ancient history at UQ and director of the RD Milns Antiquities Museum.
His Brisbane show will see Hughes with a special guest. And while who that guest might be isn’t locked in when we chat, he hints that he hopes to have a local academic with him on stage to discuss the ancient world.
“Coming to Australia and New Zealand offers a chance to share stories from the ancient world with live audiences,” he says. “Whether through the podcast or on stage, it’s about bringing these moments from the past into the room and exploring them together. There’s always more to uncover and new perspectives that change how we see these histories.”
The list of subjects he has covered in his podcast is staggering and date back to Earth’s early history with The Cambrian Explosion: Where Life Began? There’s The Pharisees (a new one and quite fascinating), The Rosetta Stone, Iron Age Britain, Neanderthal Art, The Last days of Pompeii, Leonidas: King of Sparta, Hero of Thermopylae and many others.
‘these larger-than-life heroes like Hercules are fascinating and I like exploring what could be the kernels of truth behind them’
In Brisbane he has two subjects in mind, but we probably won’t know which one he chooses until he’s here. The possibilities are: A discussion about Romulus and Remus, mythical founders of Rome; or Hercules, the bronze age Greek hero, another mythical figure who may have some historical basis in fact.
“I like to explore the reality behind the myths,” Hughes says. “The stories of these larger-than-life heroes like Hercules are fascinating and I like exploring what could be the kernels of truth behind them. We always have to be careful, and you do need archaeological evidence.”
There is, mythologically speaking, a story about Hercules fighting a lion and Hughes points out that some Mycenean imagery shows people hunting lions and it seems likely there were lions in this part of the world at that time.
He cites the ancient archaeological site of Mycenae in Greece (with lions flanking its gate) as his favourite archaeological location, which he has visited several times. This was said to be the realm of Agamemnon, who led the Greeks in the Trojan war.
With the blockbuster film of The Odyssey out soon, Hughes says he is getting ready to deal with that and questions that may arise … such as, did Odysseus exist? Was Agamemnon really king of Mycenae? This is the sort of stuff he likes to investigate, and he wants to inspire people to follow him down various Ancient History rabbit holes.
His podcast started out as audio, but he now films them too. There’s a fun one about the ancient Picts of Scotland, which features Hughes wearing Pictish clothing and learning to do a bit of ancient blacksmithing, all in the name of work.
He also makes documentaries for the History Hit network and admits he is living the dream – the ancient history dream. It’s a dream he wants to share. His enthusiasm for his trip Down Under is palpable and that local connection makes it a bit special.
“I’m very much hoping to be joined on stage by an old friend of mine from Brisbane,” he says. We shall see.
The Ancients: An Evening with Tristan Hughes, Concert Hall, QPAC, August 4.
