Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey has introduced a new generation to one of the greatest adventure stories ever told.
Written by the ancient Greek poet Homer, the original epic follows Odysseus, king of Ithaca, as he struggles to return home after the Trojan War.
The Cicones launch a revenge attack and six of Odysseus’s men are killed.
On his way out, though, Odysseus tells Polyphemus his real name, so that his exploits travel and he earns fame.
Circe transforms many of Odysseus’s men into pigs, but the god Hermes helps the hero escape this fate and also have his crew turned back into men.
Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey has introduced a new generation to one of the greatest adventure stories ever told. Written by the ancient Greek poet Homer, the original epic follows Odysseus, king of Ithaca, as he struggles to return home after the Trojan War. While the movie has generally received positive reviews, fans of the epic are wringing their hands at how much Nolan has cut out, and how he flattens Homer’s flamboyant, slick-talking, trickster of a hero into a nice-guy soldier suffering PTSD.
Fitting an epic into a movie would of course require merciless editing. If, after the movie, you are left with questions about what exactly was going on in the many episodes Nolan races over, or would generally like to know more about Homer’s hero, here’s a very brief guide.
Lotus-eaters and Cyclops
Soon after Odysseus and his men leave Troy, they decide to sack the city of Ismarus, home of the Cicones. They loot the city and kill its people, sparing only the priest Maron, who gifts them a barrel of wine. Instead of leaving, the Greeks then decide to chill for a bit. The Cicones launch a revenge attack and six of Odysseus’s men are killed.
They now depart hastily, but violent storms drive them off course. The men then encounter the Lotophagi, inhabitants of an island where trees bearing the mysterious lotos fruits grow. The fruits render people lethargic and apathetic. Odysseus has to drag his enchanted men back to the ships before they forget Ithaca forever.
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Next comes one of the poem’s most famous episodes. Odysseus and his companions are trapped inside the cave of the Cyclops Polyphemus, a one-eyed giant who devours several of the crew. Odysseus introduces himself to Polyphemus as “Nobody”.
After getting him drunk on the wine gifted by Maron, the Greeks blind Polyphemus with a sharpened wooden stake. When the Cyclops screams for help, the other giants hear him shouting that “Nobody” has blinded him and thus dismiss his cries. On his way out, though, Odysseus tells Polyphemus his real name, so that his exploits travel and he earns fame. However, this enables the Cyclops to tell his father, Poseidon (god of the sea), whom to punish, and the Greeks meet more misfortune.
The chrome-plated giants of Nolan
In an episode Nolan cuts out, the Greeks then go to Aeolus, who gives Odysseus the winds needed to reach Ithaca in a leather bag. However, his men open the bag, and are blown off-course again, just as they were about to reach Ithaca.
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The Laestrygonians, in a 1st-century BC wall painting in Rome, and Nolan’s Chrome-plated version. (Photos: Wikimedia/YouTube) The Laestrygonians, in a 1st-century BC wall painting in Rome, and Nolan’s Chrome-plated version. (Photos: Wikimedia/YouTube)
It is after this that they encounter the Laestrygonians, the cannibal giants who kill some men and destroy all but one of the Greek ships, as Nolan showed.
Circe, Calypso, and Nausicaa
The remaining ragtag band next end up on the island of Aeaea, the home of the enchantress Circe. In Homer, she is just a powerful witch, no trauma or fear of men is thought necessary to explain her witch-iness.
Circe transforms many of Odysseus’s men into pigs, but the god Hermes helps the hero escape this fate and also have his crew turned back into men. Odysseus and Circe then have a year-long affair.
Before the men leave, Circe tells Odysseus he must visit the Underworld to seek advice from the blind prophet Tiresias. There he learns what dangers still lie ahead. Odysseus also meets the spirit of his mother, who has died while waiting for him, and speaks with several heroes who fought at Troy, including Achilles and Agamemnon.
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Odysseus meets Teiresias. By the Danish artist Nicolai Abildgaard. (Photo: Wikimedia Commons) Odysseus meets Teiresias. By the Danish artist Nicolai Abildgaard. (Photo: Wikimedia Commons)
With the help of Circe’s advice, the crew resists the irresistible song of the Sirens before entering the narrow passage between two deadly threats: the whirlpool Charybdis and the six-headed monster Scylla. Odysseus steers away from the whirlpool, but Scylla seizes and devours six of his men.
The survivors then reach the island of Thrinacia, where the sacred cattle of the sun god Helios graze. Despite repeated warnings, Odysseus’s hungry companions slaughter the animals while he sleeps. Zeus then destroys their ship. Every member of the crew dies except Odysseus.
Alone, Odysseus drifts to the island of Ogygia, where the nymph Calypso keeps him as her lover for seven years. His captivity ends only when the Gods order Calypso to let him go. Calypso relents, but only after an angry speech about how the male immortals keep having affairs with humans but don’t let the women do the same.
Odysseus is shipwrecked once again, ending up unconscious on the land of the Phaeacians. He is discovered by the princess Nausicaa, who takes him to her father, King Alcinous, who welcomes the exhausted stranger. In fact, in Homer, much of the adventure’s recounting begins from here. At Alcinous’s court, a poet sings about the Trojan war and Odysseus bursts into tears. Pressed by his hosts, he starts telling them his story.
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Nausicaa and Odysseus by the German painter Johann Heinrich Wilhelm Tischbein. (Photo: Wikimedia Commons) Nausicaa and Odysseus by the German painter Johann Heinrich Wilhelm Tischbein. (Photo: Wikimedia Commons)
The Phaeacians then agree to help him. They secretly ferry the sleeping Odysseus back to Ithaca and leave him on its shore with gifts.
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Home at last after 20 years, Odysseus does not immediately reveal himself. He first seeks out the loyal swineherd Eumaeus. The first living being to recognise him is his dog Argus, who had been waiting only to glimpse his master, and dies after greeting Odysseus. The hero is then reunited with his son, Telemachus. Together they prepare to confront the many suitors who have overrun Odysseus’s palace and are trying to persuade his wife, Penelope, to marry one of them.
Before Penelope accepts Odysseus, she has a test of her own. She mentions the moving around of their marital bed, and Odysseus, who had carved the bed from an olive tree trunk, says it can’t be moved. Penelope is convinced, as only the real Odysseus could have known this.
The slaughter of the suitors is much gorier in Homer, with Telemachus playing a more active role. At one point, the women servants who had slept with the suitors are asked to clean up their blood and are collectively hanged. No complaint against Nolan for keeping this detail out.
