Podcast/The Secret Artifact
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[edit] Eli Hunt - Thelostgames.com - Podcasts
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[edit] The Secret Artifact
- Watch the podcast at thelostgames.com
- Watch the podcast at dotSUB
- Downloadable slides are included in the transcript below
- This is the most difficult story I've ever had to tell. I've waited 30 years to tell it. And I hope, when it's over, you'll understand why I've kept it secret until now. [onscreen] The Story of The Secret Artifact With Historian Eli Hunt
- I'm Eli Hunt and this is my own story. The story of the secret artifact.
- You already know how this story starts. When I was 10 years old, my parents took me to the ruins at ancient Olympia. Most of the tourists were paying attention to the best preserved parts - the Temple of Zeus, the palaestra colonnade, the entrance to the stadium. I was more interested in the piles of rubble, the places no one was looking. My parents didn't even notice I had left their side. It was 2 hours before they found me digging through the dirt a few meters behind
- Pheidias' Workshop, the site where supposedly one of the seven great wonders of the ancient world had been made - the great gold and ivory statue of Zeus.
- They were quite mad at me for running off, until I showed them what I'd found - mall bronze statue of a snake goddess. And as you know from my biography, I turned that statue in to the museum, although of course I really wanted to take it home with me.
- Later, their researchers authenticated it as a lost work of Pheidias. They were thrilled, my parents were as proud as could be, and the media dubbed me a young hero of history. I've been an avid fan and researcher of the ancient Olympic games ever since.
- As fantastic as it sounds, all of that really is true.
- But it's not the whole truth.
- Yes, I discovered an ancient bronze artifact, and yes I gave it to the museum.
- But I found something else that day.
- And I didn't tell a soul.
- I kept it, and I've studied it, for decades. I still don't know if I completely understand it. That’s why I'm sharing it with you now. Time is running out. You may understand what I have failed to.
- Here is the truth.
- The sculpture was hollow, and when I ran my finger along the inside, I felt something rough - a piece of old, weathered paper. A tiny scroll, written on both sides, in English - not ancient Greek.
- I had no idea what it was. Was it some kind of riddle or poem or prayer? I couldn’t tell. But somehow, the fact that it was written in English - that made it okay to keep the scroll. It wasn’t ancient. It didn’t belong to the museum. It belonged to me.
- I've long since memorized the words I first puzzled over that day in ancient Olympia. The cryptic directions begin with
- "When the time comes, there will be no more time... When travelers appear, they will be washed clean by Lethe... As you wait for the six, you can build a House of Solomon..." And so on.
- At the end, a simple line, "Instructions for preparing the Lost Ring."
- You can read all of it for yourself. But what I want you to know is this: I have been building that house for decades.
- Now, it's time to share what I have built with you.
- I realize at this point, you may not trust me completely. Surely, some of you will feel as though I have been cheating you by withholding what little I do know about the lost ring. So let me share one more story with you.
- Do you know how the agonothetai and the hellanodikai punished athletes who were caught cheating at the ancient Olympics? They created a giant statue of the cheater and put it on a pedestal right in the center of Olympia. It was the ultimate public shaming.
- Now if this were 160 BC, maybe you would want to make a statue of me, for cheating you of the knowledge I've had. I wouldn't blame you. But the Greeks had another tradition – extending the olive branch when it was time to make peace. That time is now. I know that I can trust Ariadne, and that I can trust you. No more secrets. I’ve opened the portal to you. From now on, what I see, you see. We are in this together.
- www.TheLostGames.com
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[edit] Prophecy
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