Black Figure column Krater depicting Odysseus Escaping from the Cyclops's Cave Greek made in Athens 550-500 BCE terracotta (1)
(Image by mharrsch from flickr) Details DMCA
By now you've undoubtedly read several reviews of Nolan's "Odyssey." I've read countless ones, so that what I write below will be inevitably colored by them.
But here's my background: I wrote my master's thesis, as a major in classical philology, on the Odyssey. A version of this thesis for those who haven't studied ancient Greek, is here: Click Here. I was steeped in it, living and breathing it, for several years, expanding on it and at the same time refining it, feverishly researching all the while. Grueling work but at the same time most rewarding.
Odyssey is my all-time favorite piece of "writing," a product of the centuries-old oral epic tradition, which someone had the excellent sense to reproduce in writing, around the seventh century BC, they say.
To return to Nolan's production, I am delighted beyond belief that this amazing epic has become a household word throughout this country, even for those who dismiss it as "woke" and are waiting for Elon Musk's film version promised to appear later this year. I myself spent years trying to popularize my "esoteric" field to no avail because people have mental blocks toward a "Greek to me" pursuit. I even rewrote my master's thesis (link is above) to reach out to the public. Maybe a few OEN readers found it and, I hope, enjoyed it. I just checked and the total count is 833: I'm delighted. I should now retitle it with Odyssey instead of Homer, and perhaps more people will read it.
Back again to the film--for me it is what it is and I enjoyed it for what it is, a cinematic masterpiece. I especially appreciated the storms at sea and Odysseus's triumph in the archery competition toward the end. In the film this is the ultimate proof of the hero's identity (though not for Penelope in Homer's original).
Indeed, several great moments in literary history are left out: for example, when Odysseus identifies himself falsely to the Cyclops as "Nobody" so that when his brother Cyclopes ask him who blinded him and he answers "Nobody," they just return to their caves. Then our hero has the hubris of giving away his already-glorious name to the Cyclops once they're at a safe distance from his clutches. The belief was that giving away a real name allowed a curse to run its course, so that of course the colossal victim betrays this identity to his father, the formidable god of the sea Poseidon (Neptune to the Romans) and thus our hero and his crew are forced into all the subsequent travails, including the violent loss of all of these companions and a miserable, roundabout excursion home, the Adventures we feast upon.
This "name magic," as my Odyssey professor referred to the Cyclops debacle among other events, is but one of the great moments Nolan omits. Another is the entire Phaeacia foray, Odysseus's final stop before returning home, where our hero reassembles himself after weeks of being tossed about at sea, lacking comrades and any form of navigation other than his body. And in Phaeacia Odysseus recounts his entire itinerary, the "Adventures," to the spellbound Phaeacians, weeps as he hears the bard sing of his Trojan travails, but especially, also, has been initially discovered, washed ashore nearly naked, by the beautiful nubile princess Nausikaa, who falls for him, a very moving and sexy scene in itself.
Oh, there is so much else that isn't in the film: Nolan treats Antinöos, the most visible and domineeringly evil of the suitors, with far more sympathy--as in that other recent rendition of the Odyssey, Fiennes's The Return--than in Homer. The recognition between Odysseus and Penelope consumes several books and is replete with innuendos, and the actual reunion is far more dramatic in Homer. But I did tear up at what Nolan did include of this climactic episode.
I want to see this film again. Even three hours long, it's a riveting adventure flick, a good watch well worth the popcorn. The acting is good, though Nolan's Odysseus is modernized with his PTSD and guilt (as pointed out by another reviewer). The actual final voyage Odysseus must take after returning home (the final scene in the film) is for the purpose of appeasing Poseidon, not to honor his fallen comrades. In Homer, after returning home, Odysseus hardly mentions them at all.
Nolan was inspired to assemble this masterpiece by reading Emily Wilson's translation, which was published in 2017-- not my favorite though very accessible and, for students, conveniently translated with line-for-line equivalency. I just can't get around her translation of the pivotal first epithet Homer assigns to Odysseus, polytropos, which encompasses so many traits: wilyness, cleverness, adaptivity, versatility--literally "many turned," so difficult to squeeze into English in one metrically fitting word (Wilson's iambic pentameter, Mendelsohn's's dactylic hexameter, Fitzgerald's iambic pentameter+, etc.). Wilson's translation of the word is "complicated," far too prosaic for me. The newest, to my knowledge, English translation is Daniel Mendelsohn's. His is the most authentic to me, reproducing Homer's metrics and capturing the original poetry the best. Robert Fitzgerald's is my favorite poetically. He translates polytropos as "skilled in all ways of contending." Mendelsohn's rendition is "[having] roundabout ways." Alexander Pope expands into "The man for wisdom's various arts renown'd." I won't go any farther on this, though it's fascinating. I can write a separate article on it.
And how would I translate it? "resourceful, much traveled, versatile, clever"? All of these can be read into the word. To distill it as have all of these experts, and so many others? Bravo!
I can't end up without mentioning what many consider a pivotal and highly dramatic scene that Nolan omits, the final reunion scene, between Odysseus and his father Laertes. These critics structure the Odysseyaround the father-son thematics of the first four books, called the "Telemachy," and this final reunion. And that between Odysseus and his mom? She appears as a shade in Hades whom he can't embrace. And there is that hugely famous scene in the Underworld where Achilles exclaims that if he had it to do over again, he would rather have been a lowly serf working for an overlord than an immortal hero, the fate he chose when given the chance to decide between an ordinary existence and a glorious but short life.
But do go to see Nolan's take--as I keep reiterating, you'll enjoy it and perhaps be inspired to read a translation. There are many. And a few viewers may be inspired to study it in the original ancient (Homeric) Greek, as youngsters or even adults of any age. This inspiration is well worth Nolan's efforts.
And I was inspired to reread the Iliad in the original ancient Greek after viewing Brad Pitt's rendition of Achilles in the film from 2004, "Troy," directed by Wolfgang Petersen.
