As the episode opens, we witness the Jones family's path of travel from Odessa, Ukraine through Constantinople (now Istanbul), Turkey, Thessaloniki, Greece, ending in Athens.

The ruins seen at 45:18 on the DVD are the Sanctuary of Athena Pronaia at the Temple of Athena Pronaia at Delphi. Seconds later, the Athenian Treasury is also seen there.

At 45:24 on the DVD, the Jones' visit the Acropolis of Athens, seeing the Parthenon and the Propylaea.

While Indy and his father have an adventure together in Greece, Anna goes to visit her sister. Presumably, this unnamed aunt of Indy's lives in Greece or a nearby country. This is the only mention of this woman.

Indy's father takes him to the town of Kalambaka (also known as Kalabaka).

Indy's father tells him, "We will be spending a Spartan weekend translating Byzantine transcripts of Aristotle." His use of the word "Spartan" is probably an intentional pun of sorts, as the word originates from the name of the Ancient Greek city of Sparta and means "disciplined, simple, austere, and frugal." Aristotle was a brilliant student and then teacher of science, philosophy, and the arts in Ancient Greece. Starting in about the 6th Century AD, Christian scholars of the Byzantine Empire began copying all of Aristotle's Greek writings, helping to preserve them.

Before heading to Kalambaka, Indy's father takes him back to the Acropolis and the Odeon of Herodes Atticus located there, where the pair have a philosophical discussion.

At the Odeon, Indy remarks, much to his father's consternation, "I'll bet Alexander the Great cut off some poor fool's head right here!" Alexander the Great (356-323 BC) was a Macedonian king who ruled one of the largest empires of the ancient world and was never defeated in battle.

During his discussion with his son, Henry, Sr. mentions Socrates and Plato in addition to Aristotle. Socrates and Plato were Ancient Greek philosophers prior to Aristotle.

After getting dumped out of their cab, Indy and his father discuss Pyrrho and Diogenes. Pyrrho is considered the first skeptic philosopher. The Diogenes spoken of here is Diogenes of Sinope, one of the founders of cynic philosophy.

The man riding in the cart at 59:05 on the DVD is playing a pan flute. When Indy and his father get off the cart to continue their walking journey, it appears the man also gave Indy a pan flute (the man still has his as well).

Indy and his father are picked up by a Greek man named Aristotle driving a donkey-drawn cart. He jokes that his wife told him he better name his donkey Plato or he will have no one to talk to. Historically, Aristotle was a disciple of Plato.

The hanging monastery visited by Indy and his father is made up of shots of three different real world monasteries: the Holy Monastery of Great Meteoron, the Holy Monastery of Holy Trinity, and the Holy Monastery of Rousanou.

This episode reveals that Henry, Sr. has somewhat of a fear of heights.

When Indy gets bored at the monastery, his father assigns him to write a 3-page essay on Aristotelian logic from his books Prior Analytics and Posterior Analytics. These are two of six books compiling Aristotle's studies of formal logic.

In the monastery library, Indy meets Nikos Kazantzakis. Kazantzakis (1883-1957) was a Greek writer who would go on to most notably write Zorba the Greek (1946) and The Last Temptation of Christ (1955) and was nominated for the Nobel Prize in literature in nine different years.

Kazantzakis quotes from a poem he says a friend of his wrote when he first visited the monastery, "I said to the almond tree, 'Sister, speak to me of God.' And the almond tree blossomed." This quote is actually attributed to Kazantzakis himself in his posthumous 1963 book The Fratricides.

When Henry, Sr. is saying goodbye to the monks at the monastery, he says to the head monk, "Many thanks, Pater." Pater is Greek for "father".

At 1:19:27 on the DVD, a figure can be seen moving between pillars in the monastery on the far left edge of the shot even though all of the monks are supposed be sequestered in meditation at this time. The figure appears to be wearing a white shirt and is probably Indy walking through (from the earlier shot at 1:09:54) even though he is trapped in the elevator at this point.

Memorable Dialog

it ain't even finished yet.mp3

impossible.mp3

an adventure together.mp3

a wild savage.mp3

the very birthplace of philosophy.mp3

dead.mp3

Junior!.mp3

thinking about thinking.mp3

this is the home of democracy.mp3

if that rope broke.mp3

I don't know how much of this little adventure we should be telling your mother about.mp3

philosophically speaking.mp3