Eighteenth-century caricaturists knew what modern film-makers understand: ancient myths can be endlessly adapted for new audiences.
Articles on The Odyssey
Displaying 1 - 20 of 28 articles
Some critics have bemoaned the flattening of a complex character. But Nolan’s film echoes a literary tradition of reimagining Circe as a survivor, a truth-teller and a figure of female empowerment.
The women of Homer’s Odyssey were cunning, desiring and powerful. Nolan’s adaptation turns them into figures of suffering, sacrifice and regret.
Christopher Nolan’s Odyssey has been criticised for simplifying its complex characters – particularly women. We asked an expert to fill some of the film’s gaps.
Christopher Nolan turns Homer’s legendary warrior into a case study of moral injury, a condition that often appears in war veterans who struggle to forgive themselves.
Judging this version against an apparent ‘original’ misunderstands both the ancient poem and how myth actually works.
When AI renders antiquity, it’s not reaching back into history, it’s reaching for the average of every image ever made about it.
The bonds between humans and animals are richly represented in both literature and visual arts throughout ancient Greek culture.
When the Odyssey first began to circulate in ancient Greece, no one knew its author. So how did ‘Homer’ become the name on the book’s cover?
The magic flower is used by the nymph Calypso to purge Odysseus’ trauma.
When Odysseus finally reaches Ithaca he doesn’t walk through the door and say who he is. Here’s why.
Hollywood has a habit of rendering complex literary heroes into one-dimensional figures. Nolan’s The Odyssey dodges this trap.
The Sea Peoples are widely blamed for the collapse of the interconnected world of the Bronze Age. But what’s the evidence say?
Is Christopher Nolan’s adaptation a definitive film version of Homer’s Odyssey? No, it isn’t. In fact, it can’t be.
The Greeks didn’t locate their deep past in far-off fantasy lands. These stories happened in places all around them.
Attempts to transpose the locations of The Odyssey accurately to modern maps have proved difficult.
Accurate adaptations of canonical texts are few and far between – but these films and miniseries stand out for their fidelity to the source material.
The Odyssey hits cinemas in July 2026. But will it celebrate Odysseus as the clever hero – or finally confront the wreckage he leaves in his wake?
Odysseus is one of ancient literature’s most complex figures.
Odysseus has returned home but his biggest challenge is still ahead of him, winning back the woman he loves.
Top contributors
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Professor of Classical Studies, Brandeis University
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Research Associate, Institute for Prehistory and Early History and Medieval Archaeology, University of Tübingen
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Research Associate, Curation and Communication, University of Tübingen
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Associate Professor, Physics, Universidade Estadual de Ponta Grossa (UEPG)
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Lecturer in Comparative Literature, Queen Mary University of London
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Casual Academic, School of Humanities and Communication Arts, Western Sydney University
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Visiting Professor of Social Inequities and Injustice, Loughborough University
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Professor of Classics, Humanities and Italian Studies, University of New Hampshire
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Associate Professor and ARC Future Fellow in Ancient History, Macquarie University
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Professor of Creative Writing, University of Technology Sydney
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Post-doctoral researcher, Classics and Ancient History, University of Sydney
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Associate Professor in English Literatures, University of Wollongong
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Senior Lecturer in Creative Practice and Public Humanities, The University of Melbourne
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Lecturer in Greek Culture and Classical Receptions, University of Liverpool
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Professor, Department of Classics and Ancient History, University of Sydney