PBS - In Search of Myths and Heroes Collection (2005) Part 1 The Queen of Sheba

Historian and author Michael Wood brings his unique mix of history, travel and adventure back to PBS in his series, “In Search of Myths & Heroes.” In this series, Wood embarks on a set of “on the ground” adventures in search of the world's most famous myths The Biblical story of Queen of Sheba, Celtic tale of King Arthur and Indian Shangri-La myth. “In Search of Myths & Heroes” sets Wood off in pursuit of these enduring myths and their roots in historical fact. Wood retraces the steps of these stories and their mythic heroes, crossing the deserts of Yemen and trekking the Himalayas. As with Wood's past PBS series – including “Conquistadors” and “In The Footsteps of Alexander the Great” – the voyage of exploration and the battle to get to the story's source is half the fun and half the excitement. Beyond the travel, history and adventure, these journeys have a deeper purpose to uncover the truth about some of history's greatest stories; stories with enduring appeal, romantic legends that are told and re-told around the world. In Wood's unique style, this is also a series about how myths take on a life and meaning of their own, inspiring, influencing (and sometimes even changing) people and cultures centuries later and geographically distant from their origins. These gripping adventures take the viewer to some of the most extraordinary places on earth, exploring stories that have captivated the world for thousands of years. Each journey opens up universal themes as Michael goes in search not only of the historical past and literal truth, but also of the mythic past and archetypal stories that reflect and have sustained human existence since the beginning of time.

Part 1 The Queen of Sheba

Michael Wood begins his quest with an exotic and mysterious woman of power — the Queen of Sheba. Immortalized in the Hebrew Bible, the Muslim Koran and in many Christian traditions, the tale of the Queen's journey to Jerusalem to meet (and sleep with) King Solomon has been told and retold for nearly 3,000 years. Wood's journey starts on Easter night in Jerusalem and takes him round the Red Sea to Egypt, Eritrea and Ethiopia, and the lost world of Axum, the little-known first civilization of Black Africa. In the Yemen, he explores the stunning monuments of Marib, the earliest civilization of Arabia. But Wood is also looking for a living story, and on the journey he discovers the legend of the Queen of Sheba alive in Arabia and Ethiopia, where she is still viewed as the mother of the nation, whose son brought the mythical Lost Ark of the Covenant back to Axum — where it still resides today! “Hollywood made Sheba the lover of Solomon and they made her white,” says Wood. “In Africa she's black — and a woman of power. In Arabia she's half woman, half demon. But the tale of her transformations — from exotic and mysterious alien to eternal female, from fantasy mother and lover, to cloven footed demon — is a parable of so many women of power throughout history!”

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