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Home Article Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey—A Historian’s Comparative Review

Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey—A Historian’s Comparative Review

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thehistorianshut
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In this narrated review video, an in-depth comparison is made between Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey, juxtaposed against the nearly three-millennia-old poetry of Homer. The review and video are divided into three parts: the First Thoughts (or introduction), then Commentary and Criticisms that chronologically follow along with the scenes of the movie and poem, and lastly a Conclusion about the movie and some final critiques. This video strives to answer the question—”How faithful is Nolan’s Odyssey to Homer’s Odyssey?” Scene by scene, and poetic episode by episode, this review and video discusses which scenes of the movie match the ancient poetry, and which parts of the film were modified, abridged, or fabricated completely by the filmmaker.  Discussion is also made of story arcs from the Odyssey that Christopher Nolan completely omitted from his film, and criticisms are made of the dialogue, thoughts, motivations and portrayals of certain characters. Plentiful examples of historical art and artifacts are used to illustrate the points made in the video. Enjoy the review!

Video Chapters
00:00 Intro / First Thoughts
03:00 Costume And Ships Critiques
03:50 Chronological Comments & Complaints
03:56 Agamemnon
05:29 Family Drama (Ithaca)
06:03 Menelaus & Helen
07:05 Cicones & Shame
08:03 Odysseus & Agamemnon
09:08 Sacking Temples
10:07 Trojan Horse
11:41 Godly Wrath
12:48 Lotus Eaters & Cyclopes
14:27 Aeolus & Laestrygonians
15:37 Circe
17:19 Shades of the Dead
18:24 Sirens
19:27 Charybdis & Scylla
19:46 Cattle of the Sun
20:25 Calypso
22:10 Leucothea
22: 23 Phaeacians
23:20 Telemachus Abroad
24:22 Ithaca
24:45 Bronze Age & Sea People
26:20 Penelope
27:05 Odysseus vs. Suitors
27:43 Sacrifice
28:24 Conclusion



[Review Text]
Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey is an entertaining and enjoyable experience. Good acting, impressive camerawork, and ambitious in scale, most moviegoers should leave the theater with a positive experience. Indeed, it is wonderful to see more classics from ancient history be brought to life in a serious, professional and competent way. Yet, at least from a historian’s perspective, there should be some disclaimers about the film.

Instead of Homer’s Odyssey, it is Christopher Nolan’s Odyssey. As opposed to the original ancient Greek epic, Nolan’s adaptation abridges, reinterprets, and changes the source material, taking great liberties not only with the structure of the ancient tale, but also with the dialogue, motivations and beliefs of the characters. Certain sections of Homer’s famous plot were heavily edited, compressed, and fused together in the film, notably the poem’s episodes on the Lotus Eaters, Calypso, and the Phaeacians. In the original poem, Odysseus escaped from the tempting sweet amnesia of the Lotus Eaters, then later was shipwrecked on the island of Calypso, and finally sailed to the hospitable kingdom of the Phaeacians, where he told them (and us, as the audience) of the wild and tragic adventures that he had survived since the Trojan War. Contrastingly, in Christopher Nolan’s Odyssey, there are no Lotus Eaters or Phaeacians, but only recurring scenes of Calypso—who feeds Odysseus lotus flowers and listens to him slowly remember his past. Odysseus’ encounter with the wind god, Aeolus, was also completely omitted from the film, as was almost every other scene in the ancient poem where the Greek gods arrived to help or hinder characters, or otherwise make themselves known.

There were also numerous out-of-place references to sea peoples and the fall of the Mycenaean Greek Civilization or the collapse of the Bronze Age in the film. Contrastingly, these so-called Sea Peoples (whose widespread Mediterranean raids coincided with the Bronze Age collapse) were not mentioned in Homer’s Odyssey. Similarly, Homer did not broach the topic of the end of the Bronze Age and the Mycenaean Civilization in his poetry. After all, Homer’s characters had just accomplished the greatest feat in Greek cultural history: winning the Trojan War. After that storied event, where most of the major Greek cities of the time coordinated their forces to besiege and destroy a kingdom across the sea, Odysseus and his fellow heroes were not thinking of decline or darkness. For them, it was a golden era, an age of heroes, and a time for invigorated expansion, colonization, and city building. Homer’s characters were hyped up and enthusiastic after the war. Yet, Christopher Nolan’s characters oppositely grumble of civilization decline, the Bronze Age collapse, and incoming centuries of darkness.

Complaints can also be made of the costumes and armor used in the film. First and foremost, Christopher Nolan’s characters wear pants. That is his choice to make, and the outfits admittedly look ok, but it should be noted that the ancient Greeks believed pants were the very definition of barbarism. It may be picky, petty, and a humorous issue, but pants are not faithful to Homer’s Odyssey. Similarly, the ships used in the film looked like (and probably are) Viking longships, as opposed to the penteconters and triaconters used by the Greeks in the Bronze Age. That aside, the sailing scenes were very enjoyable. It must also be said, the armor chosen for the Trojan warriors was not that impressive or faithful to historical examples, but the movie sets for Ithaca and Sparta did provide some nice atmosphere.



Comments and Complaints (in a somewhat chronological order)
In terms of faithfulness to Homer’s Odyssey, Nolan’s portrayal of Agamemnon was off. Within the film, he was portrayed like an emperor of the Greeks, a ruler who could conscript forces from other Greek kingdoms, and a figure that Odysseus had to kneel before on several occasions. This is not accurate to ancient Greek legend. In Greek lore and literature, Agamemnon was the king of Mycenae and the commander of the Greek coalition force. He and Menelaus called on their friends and partners to support their expedition and they sent out recruiters and diplomats (not conscriptors) to rally the Greeks to their cause. Some of these partners had familial ties to Helen, for instance Odysseus’ wife, Penelope, was her cousin. Others were honor bound by pledges (like the Oath of Tyndareus) to protect and defend the marriage between Helen and Menelaus. Agamemnon, therefore, pulled together the Greek coalition for the Trojan War by calling in favors and mobilizing his comrades, family, and allies. Simply put, he activated a defensive alliance. Rulers like Odysseus (who was the King of Ithaca) and Achilles (the prince and heir apparent of the Thessalian Myrmidons) were fellow kings to Agamemnon, not some vassal lords to a Mycenaean Empire. It should also be said that ancient Greeks had a prominent aversion to dramatic shows of bowing, kneeling, and prostrating before mortal men, except as an extreme act of supplication. Furthermore, commentary in the film about the Trojan War being over Agamemnon’s desire for control of trade routes is also not in the Iliad or Odyssey.

Family drama between the Ithaca royals is a bit overplayed in the Christopher Nolan movie. The film invents pre-Trojan War tensions between Odysseus and Penelope that did not exist in the book. Odysseus did, indeed, recommend that Penelope remarry if something happened to him, but there was no slapping or shouting or hysterics. Editing was also done to the relationship between Telemachus and Penelope. In the movie, it is Penelope who gets chippy at her son, whereas in the book it is Telemachus who became more assertive and dismissive with his mother. Similarly, the rocky relationship between Menelaus and his wife, Helen, is extremely exaggerated in the movie. Christopher Nolan’s film portrays Menelaus as an abusive husband, and Helen as a battered wife. Yet, Homer—in his Odyssey poem—contrastingly described Menelaus as one of the more forgiving and kind husbands in Greek mythology. There was some tension, as Menelaus was not certain if Helen’s decade with Paris of Troy was due to elopement or kidnapping, but he ultimately welcomed Helen back with open arms and they resumed their married life in Sparta. Juxtaposed to Menelaus’ forgiveness, other Greek heroes like Jason, Heracles, and Theseus abandoned the women in their lives for far less cause. In the poem, even Odysseus was arguably more suspicious of Penelope when he returned home to Ithaca than Menelaus had been toward Helen. Greek mythology was unforgiving to women, and even the perception of impropriety could be a death sentence, so Menelaus’ decision to re-embrace Helen should not be discounted or denigrated.

A scene occurs in the film where Odysseus sacks a seaside village. This was inspired by Odysseus’ raiding of the lands of the Cicones in the poem. It was a region that had supported Troy in the Trojan War (hence the automatic aggression shown to them by the Greeks). The film then goes on to insinuate that Odysseus felt regret or shame over the sack of Troy and the raiding of the village. This is not faithful to Odysseus’ character in Homer’s poem. The Greeks in The Odyssey were proud of the Trojan War and had equal pride in the exploits and feats that contributed to their triumph over their foes. To them, the Trojan War was a high point of their lives and era—they had just accomplished the most famous military campaign in Greek popular culture, after all. Odysseus and other famous figures from the war bragged about their deeds with extreme hubris for the rest of their lives. Christopher Nolan’s portrayal of shame and regret over the Trojan War is not faithful or authentic to the spirit of Homer’s Odyssey.

Nolan’s characters of Odysseus and Agamemnon are depicted as having tension between them. Dialogue in the film included a line where Odysseus said something along the lines of “I’ve followed Agamemnon for long enough,” before breaking away from the Mycenaean king’s fleet. This is misleading about the real relationship between the Agamemnon and Odysseus. In Homer’s poem, Odysseus admittedly had some initial reservations about joining the war effort, but when he ultimately did answer the call, he joined the campaign with gusto, and he personally went on to recruit other heroes, notably Achilles. During the Trojan War, Agamemnon found Odysseus to be a key reliable ally, often using his skills of persuasion to solidify the resolve of the Greek warriors during the long siege, and Odysseus was a mediator on Agamemnon’s side when a feud erupted between the commander and Achilles. Even after the war, when the Greek coalition began to splinter and go separate ways, Odysseus stayed with Agamemnon longer than most. Christopher Nolan’s portrayal lacks the nuances of their dynamic relationship.

In the movie, there are curious scenes involving the Greeks desecrating a temple of Athena in the city of Troy. Nothing like this happened in The Iliad or The Odyssey. The Greeks were obsessively respectful when it came to the gods and their temples in Troy, especially since the Greeks and Trojans worshipped the same gods in the poem. The most sacrilegious acts that the Greeks took in Homer’s epics were their capture of Chryseis (a priest’s daughter) during the war—but she was released back to her family—and the enslavement of the princess/priestess, Cassandra, after the war. In Homer’s poem, Trojan women were captured, not executed, and no mention was made of the Greeks harming religious shrines or temples. Odysseus, in particular, was Athena’s greatest champion, and she was his steadfast patron and ally. Nolan’s depictions of Odysseus being involved in defacing, burning, destroying, or otherwise disrespecting Athena’s temples, shrines, or statues is extremely unfaithful to the ancient hero’s character.

On the topic of the sacking of Troy and the Trojan Horse, Christopher Nolan’s film draws from sources other than Homer’s poems. In particular, the Sinon character from the film does not appear in The Iliad or The Odyssey, but from Virgil’s Aeneid—a Roman poem written many centuries after Homer’s original epics. For the sacking of Troy, Nolan seemed to rely more on Virgil than on Homer. Virgil accused the Greeks of desecrating temples and shrines in Troy during the fall of the city, whereas Homer did not. Similarly, Virgil emphasized the role of fire in the destruction of Troy, whereas Homer was more vague about how the Greeks laid waste to the city and left destruction in their wake following the Trojan Horse scheme. In regard to that Trojan Horse, Christopher Nolan’s portrayal of it was certainly unique, showing it submerged in the seaside sand and depicting the Trojans dragging it on its side to the city. In ancient myth and legend, it is plausible that the Horse could have started to sink, as the Greeks had made their camp on the beach, but given that there were warriors within it and that it was vital for the horse to remain structurally sound, one would believe the Greeks (well-familiar with the sea and sands) would have kept the Horse out of the range of the tide. As for the horse being dragged on its side, Homer did not explicitly mention wheels on the Trojan Horse. Yet, it was commonly believed in the ancient Greek and Roman tradition that the horse was moved in an upright position with wheels or rollers. Certainly, the Greeks inside the Trojan Horse wanted the structure to be easily and safely transportable.

In Nolan’s film, some dialogue appears where characters assert that the gods are angry about the Trojan War and the destruction of the city, as if sacking the city caused the Greeks to be subjected to divine punishment or curses. This was not the case in Homer’s Iliad or Odyssey. Certainly, the gods played favorites, with some supporting Troy, while others backed the Greeks. Yet, the sacking of Troy was not portrayed as sacrilege. In Homer’s poetry, the gods only became irate if their specific shrines, offerings, family, or temple staff were attacked—for instance, the gods smote Ajax the Lesser for his crime of assaulting the priestess, Cassandra, during the storming of the city. Besides temples, temple staff, and demigod offspring of the gods, the city of Troy and its common people were otherwise fair game to the Greek warriors. What really got the Greek heroes in trouble was not the sack of Troy, but their hubris and religious neglectfulness that followed the victory. Unfulfilled sacrifices and offerings were more of an offense to the Greek gods than the burning of a city.



Refocusing on Odysseus’ journey, Christopher Nolan skipped Odysseus’ encounter with the Lotus Eaters, the first major mythical encounter on his poetic Odyssey.  The film, instead, began with Odysseus’ encounter with the cyclops, Polyphemus. In Homer’s Odyssey, Polyphemus was part of a larger community of his kind, but Nolan decided to depict only one cyclops. In both the film and the poem, Odysseus and his crew became trapped in the cave of Polyphemus, but Nolan’s account leaves out key details from the original story. In the poem, Odysseus—thinking fast under duress—began chatting with the cyclops, got him drunk, and cleverly adopted the alias, “Nobody,” while he was talking with Polyphemus. After the cyclops passed out, the Greeks blinded him with a sharpened stick, and when he subsequently began shouting out that “Nobody” was assaulting him, the rest of the cyclopes ignored his shouts. Later, when Odysseus finally escaped the cave, his hubris got the better of him and he shouted that his name was Odysseus. This prideful utterance was the catalyst of further troubles, as Polyphemus turned out to be a beloved son of the sea god, Poseidon. Now in possession of the hero’s name, Polyphemus prayed to his godly father to thwart Odysseus’ journey home—a prayer Poseidon accepted. In Nolan’s movie, the Nobody scene was skipped, and Nolan’s Odysseus left the cave with a final shot with his bow and arrow to the cyclops’ eye instead of a proclamation of his name. The Poseidon connection was addressed with only a brief mention by the sailors that the cyclops may have said the name, Poseidon, while it writhed in pain from the blinding.

In Homer’s Odyssey, Odysseus next found himself at the island of the helpful wind-entity, Aeolus, who gave the Greeks a bag of air to fill their sails. When the crew then improperly released the winds, they were blown off course. Christopher Nolan’s movie omits this section. Instead, the movie skips straight from the cyclops to the Laestrygonians. Nolan’s depiction of these Laestrygonians as giants is true to Homer’s description, but the curious addition of shining suits of medieval-looking armor is purely Nolan’s doing. Homer’s account was longer, with the Greeks meeting the Laestrygonian chief and his wife in the nearby town before chaos ultimately broke out. The Laestrygonians turned out to be man-eating villains, and they pursued the Greeks back to their ships. Nolan also left out a key feature of the Laestrygonians—rock throwing. It was by launching boulders at the Greeks that the Laestrygonians were able to sink Odysseus’ fleet in Homer’s Odyssey. Christopher Nolan, contrastingly, chose to have his armor-suited Laestrygonians chop at and tip the Greek ships by hand and blade. Only Odysseus’ personal ship and crew survived.

Next on Odysseus’ journey was his encounter with the magical goddess, Circe. In the ancient poem, she was described as a charismatic, alluring practitioner of magic who lived in a polished stone palace or castle. The beautiful goddess easily coaxed Odysseus’ scouting party inside, and fed them a meal laced with magic. Her magic turned the men into pigs, and she locked them up in a pigsty. In Christopher Nolan’s film, however, Circe was depicted more like a medieval hedge-witch rather than an ancient Greek goddess. Instead of a palace of polished stone, her abode was depicted as a dilapidated hovel. Her magic was drastically altered in the film, too. Instead of simple potions or spells, Nolan’s Circe transformed the men into pigs through a grotesque sculpting method done by hand. Meanwhile, Odysseus soon realized there was danger on the island. In Homer’s poetry, the god Hermes appeared and gave Odysseus a countermeasure for Circe’s magic. Equipped with that, Odysseus survived the goddess’ spell, and after a brief amorous dalliance between the two, Circe agreed to transform the crew back into men. Alternatively, in Nolan’s film, the scene with Hermes was removed and Odysseus simply refused to eat the witch’s food, and then talked Circe into releasing his men. The movie’s transformation scene was an impressive piece of cinematography, but it was not Homer’s vision.

Circe, in the poem and the movie, concluded that Odysseus had angered Poseidon and was blown off course to such an extent that he would need prophetic help in order to successfully return home. She advised him to summon spirits of the dead and speak to the blind prophet, Tiresias. Christopher Nolan’s scene of Odysseus carrying out his ritual to summon the spirits of the dead was an impressive and immersive piece of moviemaking, and it follows Homer with a decent amount of faithfulness. The film depicts Odysseus receiving advice from Tiresias and also his cautionary conversation with the spirit of Agamemnon. Yet, Nolan omitted important ghosts from his movie, such as Odysseus’ mother, Anticleia, as well as Ajax and Achilles, along with famous underworld-dwelling figures from Greek myth and legend. Instead, Christopher Nolan’s film features a long conversation between Odysseus and Sinon (who, again, was not in The Odyssey or The Iliad). One last discrepancy between the film and the poem was the behavior of the ghosts. In Nolan’s movie, the ghosts started attacking and threatening Odysseus, chasing the Greeks back to their ship. In contrast, Odysseus in the poem simply became frightened when too many spirits began congregating around him, and he left when he remembered that a monster, like a Gorgon, might also appear alongside the dead.

Christopher Nolan’s depiction of the Sirens—Odysseus’ next obstacle—follows popular culture and art, but they are not the Sirens of ancient Greek mythology and Homer. In ancient myth and legend, Sirens were depicted as creatures with the head (and sometimes the torso) of women, but the rest of their bodies were in the form of a bird. Christopher Nolan, however, went with the more modern popular culture depiction of Sirens as mermaid-like nymphs. Either way, their Siren song is their most important feature. In Homer’s Odyssey, the Siren song was described as sound that creates intense feelings of desire and longing and pleasure in a way that makes those who hear it feel compelled to rush thoughtlessly toward the Sirens’ location. Christopher Nolan’s film, on the other hand, took liberties describing the Siren song. Instead of just longing and desire, the movie dialogue also attributed the Siren song with extra emotional impact, such as fear, regret, and other bitter-sweet emotions not mentioned by Homer in regard to the Sirens.

Christopher Nolan’s depiction of Odysseus’ navigation between Charybdis (a whirlpool) and Scylla (a cliff-dwelling monster) was done well, but the dialogue of the crew confronting Odysseus about his prior knowledge of Scylla was an invention of Nolan, and not in Homer’s Odyssey. Odysseus did, however, in both the book and movie, warn his crew that the cattle they subsequently found on the island of Thrinacie belonged to the sun-god, Helios, and that harming the animals would bring about a fate of certain death. Nevertheless, the winds and waters prevented their escape and rations had run out. Facing starvation, Odysseus’ crew slaughtered and ate some of Helios’ cattle. Winds then became treacherously favorable, and the Greeks set out to sea. Their ship was immediately destroyed by Zeus’ storms and lightning, killing all but the hero, himself. Odysseus, clinging to flotsam, washed up alone on the island of the nymph Calypso.

Christopher Nolan, in his portrayal of Calypso, depicts her as a nymph living a minimalist lifestyle on a barren beach. She feeds Odysseus lotus flowers of forgetfulness as he struggles to cope with the loss of his crew. Nolan depicts her as a healer and a caretaker, hoping to slowly improve the hero’s mental health. In Homer’s Odyssey, however, Calypso was described as a clingy nymph and goddess who held Odysseus under house arrest on her island for years as she tried to tempt him into becoming her immortal husband. Rather than an empty shoreline, the Calypso of the poem lived in a lovely cave, and she kept a garden and tended to a sanctuary of birds. Odysseus gave way to her physical advances, but his mind and heart remained focused on his home of Ithaca and his wife, Penelope. For seven years, Calypso courted the hero that had washed up on her shore, but that final year (the twentieth since Odysseus had originally departed Ithaca), the gods intervened. Athena rallied the gods in Odysseus’ favor, and Zeus finally sent the messenger-god, Hermes, to force Calypso to release the hero. Christopher Nolan, in keeping with his secular portrayal of the story, omitted the role of Athena, Zeus, and Hermes in convincing Calypso to let Odysseus go. Instead, in the film, she simply told him it was time to make peace with his past and present, and that he should take a leap of faith by setting out to sea on a raft.

Christopher Nolan’s film depicts Odysseus traveling directly from Calypso’s island to his homeland in Ithaca. Yet, this cuts out a vital part of Homer’s Odyssey. In the original poem, still-angry Poseidon wrecked Odysseus’ raft. He would have drowned if not for the intervention of the sea-goddess, Leucothea. Through her influence and aid, Odysseus washed ashore on the Phaeacian land of Scherie. Odysseus’ patron goddess, Athena, then arranged for the hero to meet the Phaeacian princess, Nausicaa, who directed Odysseus to have an audience with her parents, King Alcinous and Queen Arete. It was there that Odysseus and the court bard, Demodocus, narrated the hero’s Odyssey, describing the Cicones, Lotus Eaters, Cyclopes, Aeolus, Laestrygonians, Circe, the shades of the dead, the Sirens, Charybdis and Scylla, the cattle of Helios, and the island of Calypso. After their merry and sometimes emotional storytelling sessions, the Phaeacians provided Odysseus with a ship and crew that would successfully transport him to Ithaca. Christopher Nolan, unfortunately, cut the entire Phaeacian section from his film, instead letting Calypso serve as Odysseus’ storytelling audience, and the raft from her island as his ferry home.

Christopher Nolan’s revisions continue when Odysseus reaches Ithaca. Telemachus, who had been gathering information about his father from Trojan War veterans in Sparta and Pylos, was under threat from hostile suitors who planned to bring about his demise in an ambush—that much is true in both the book and movie. Yet, Christopher Nolan asserted in his film that Odysseus learned of this threat and quickly sailed to support his son in Pylos against the ambushers. In the film, Odysseus confronted the lurking killers and slaughtered them all. He then set fire to the location for distraction and cover. It was a good action sequence, but it was a complete fabrication by Nolan. It in no way occurred in Homer’s Odyssey. What is worse, the setting of the massacre was at a temple of Athena. Therefore, Nolan’s scene involves Odysseus spilling blood in and burning yet another temple of his patron goddess (the first being the movie’s portrayal of the sack of Troy), which in no way fits Odysseus’ character. Contrastingly, in Homer’s actual Odyssey, Odysseus stayed on Ithaca when he got there, and Telemachus was safely steered around the ambushers, without any fight, through the influence and protection of Athena.

With Telemachus and Odysseus back on Ithaca, Nolan’s film and Homer’s poem begin to coincide once more. Yet, some revisions, reinterpretations, and artistic-liberty fabrications remain. Peculiar dialogue returns in these final scenes of the movie, with Odysseus gloomily and fatalistically lamenting that it is the end of the Mycenaean civilization and the Bronze Age. Once again, these lines of dialogue in the movie are absurd. For one, Odysseus didn’t know he was living in the Bronze Age and he didn’t know what would come after (like the centuries of darkness alluded to in the film). Quite the opposite, to him, he was just living in the present. And to him and his era, the present was looking quite great. The Greek characters in Homer’s poems would have thought it was a golden age for their civilization, an age of heroes, and all of the major Greek cities of the time had just banded together to triumph in the most storied military campaign in Greek cultural memory—the Trojan War. Odysseus and his comrades were not put off by the war or ashamed by it; instead, they bragged about their feats of strength and cunning, and the heroes of the age enthusiastically threw themselves into new projects, such as founding cities and colonies. Furthermore, unlike in Christopher Nolan’s movie, the characters of Homer’s Odyssey never made mention of any Sea Peoples. Consequently, as the Sea Peoples did not appear in Homer’s Iliad or Odyssey, Odysseus and Penelope in the poem did not fear or worry about them, and they certainly did not think the Sea Peoples would end their civilization. Instead of fear and gloom and despondency, the Trojan War era Greek heroes of Odysseus’ time were invigorated, making new kingdoms, colonizing new lands, and spreading stories of their heroics.

Penelope, in the final scenes of the movie, began to diverge from her character in Homer’s Odyssey. In Nolan’s film, she gets angry and frustrated with Telemachus, expressing great discontent with the harsh reality that her womanhood disqualified her from taking the throne of Ithaca for herself. Homer’s Penelope, in The Odyssey poem, contrastingly did not make a scene about her inability to seize the throne in her own right. Homer’s Penelope was a woman of her time, and she accepted the ancient Greek customs and traditions of succession. When Telemachus was a child, she did her best to protect his interests as the heir in Ithaca, and once he reached young adulthood, she continued to fend off the army of suitors until her son could find a way to clear out the dangerous interlopers from their royal hall. In regard to clearing out the unwanted guests, Christopher Nolan also made edits and changes to the slaughter of the suitors that occurred after Odysseus proved his identity by stringing his bow and loosing an arrow through the rings of axes. In the poem, Telemachus and other loyal household staff were more involved in the final clash with the suitors, aiding Odysseus in his carnage. Even the goddess Athena joined the fray. Additionally, the consequences for unfaithful maids who had aided the suitors were much more severe in the poem than in the movie. Nitpicking aside, it was a fine and enjoyable action sequence.

At the ending of Christopher Nolan’s Odyssey, Odysseus and Penelope are shown sailing off to sea, with the pretense being that Odysseus was sailing west into the setting sun to offer sacrifices and honor the dead. In Homer’s Odyssey, Odysseus was indeed instructed to offer sacrifice, namely to long-angered Poseidon, but he went alone. Also, instead of sailing west, the location of his sacrifice was to be determined by Odysseus carrying an oar inland into Greece and stopping at a spot where a person mistook the oar for a winnowing fan. After sacrificing at that exact spot, Homer’s Odysseus returned to Ithaca, where he remained until his death.



Conclusion
Christopher Nolan’s movie, The Odyssey, is a great and enjoyable adaptation inspired by Homeric stories, but it is not a faithful or definitive retelling of Homer’s The Odyssey. Pivotal passages of the famous poem are omitted, while strange new non-Homeric scenes were added to the movie. Characters in the movie, based on nearly three-millennia-old famous Greek figures, are fed out-of-character thoughts, dialogue and actions that can be immersion-breaking, at least to audience members familiar with Homer’s Odyssey and Greek mythology. Some of the omissions in the screenplay harmed the movie, in the sense that the absence of the Aeolus scene, the Phaeacian arc, and the episodes that showcased Odysseus’ clever wittiness (such as the Nobody scene) left the movie without the interspersed periods of calm, peace, and levity that can be found in the poem but not the movie. Nolan’s choice to banish the gods and godly forces from the film also removes a key element of Homeric storytelling, separating the classic text from iconic plot points and characters. These discrepancies could have been better addressed if there were more disclaimers that warned the movie was not Homer’s Odyssey—meaning a faithful re-creation of the classic—but instead Nolan’s Odyssey, an abridged and reinterpreted movie inspired by the classic. Lack of faithfulness aside, the movie is well worth watching. The acting is good, the cinematography is spectacular, the practical effects are something to behold, and it is an all-in-all fun experience.

Written by C. Keith Hansley

Sources:

Music in the Movie
✨Ancient Greece: 🏛️ Wisdom – Awakening – Harmony | 🧘‍♂️ Temple of Apollo Deep Meditation
by Meditative Melodies – MM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eT5J2GayHOw&list=RDeT5J2GayHOw&start_radio=1
Creative Commons Attribution license (reuse allowed)

Image Sources:
All of the artworks used in the video were labeled as Public Domain, Open Access, Free Use, Creative Commons or subject to Fair Use at the time of the video’s creation.

Images with special licensing and Fair Use considerations:

  • Reliefamphora aus Mykonos mit Darstellungen zur Ilias by Helbig, Konrad (Herstellung) (Fotograf) – Deutsche Fotothek, Germany – In Copyright – Educational Use Permitted. [Link]
  • The Odyssey (2026) film poster – Wikipedia [Link]
  • Matt Damon as Odysseus for The Odyssey (2026 film) – Wikipedia [Link]
  • ChrisNolanBFI150224 [CC by 2.0] – Wikipedia [Link]

Universal Pictures The Odyssey trailers used in the review:

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