Christopher Nolan’s The Odysseytransforms Homer’s nearly 3,000-year-old epic poem into a modern cinematic blockbuster that many are already calling a “masterpiece.” What’s even more impressive is that Nolan did not take the expected route of grounding the mythical story in the framework of a swords-and-sandals epic; to the contrary, he brought almost every supernatural and fantastical element Homer imagined to the screen.
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The Odysseypoem is so iconic that many of the creatures featured in it have become iconic in their own right. However, others that appear in the story are far more obscure, and Nolan doesn’t hold anybody’s hand with extensive explanations. If you haven’t studied your history or literature, The Odysseywill make you know it. But we can get you in the knowure the movie references
11. The Cyclops (Polyphemus)
The cyclops that Odysseus and his men encounter isn’t just any one-eyed giant. The original Odysseyepic poem gave a much more detailed account of the creature’s backstory: his name is Polyphemus, and he is the son of the sea god Poseidon and Thoosa, a water nymph who is the daughter of the primordial sea god, Phorcys. Polyphemus lived on an island populated by giant cyclopses, and like in the film, Odysseus and his crew end up stuck in Polyphemus’s cave for days, eventually poking out his eye and sneaking out the door disguised as his flock of sheep.
Nolan didn’t outright declare it, but when Odysseus is sailing away and Polyphemus tosses a rock at his ship, the cyclops also reaches out in prayer to his father Poseidon to curse Odysseus, which is why the voyage becomes cursed by storms and low provisions thereafter.
10. The Witch (Circe)
Another offspring of a god (the sun god Helios) and a mystical creature (the ancient nymph Perse), Circe is a witch who lives on the island of Aeaea. The epic poem depicts her very differently, more of a goddess-type who lures men in and transforms them using potions slipped into their food. Obviously, Nolan takes a much more Cronenberg approach to the character, with her body-horror sculpting of flesh to ‘reveal the true nature’ of the men at her table (swine).
The poem also has a very distinct difference in that Circe tries to bed Odysseus as a means of springing her trap; the messenger of the gods, Hermes, appears to Odysseus on the way to Circe’s hut (on behalf of Athena), and advises him on how to outwit the witch. Actress Samantha Morton gives a much more tortured and complex portrait of Circe, with Nolan putting a new stamp on one of the most iconic characters in fiction.
9. The Nymph (Calypso)
In Greek mythology, nymphs are nature spirits and mystical beings usually attached to specific regions (the forests, mountains, oceans, etc.). Calypso is often said to be the daughter of the Titan Atlas and an ocean nymph; she resides on the island of Ogygia, but the poem and movie have very different depictions of her. Homer’s epic relates her to the Sirens, in that Calypso seduces Odysseus with her singing and the music played on her loom.
In both versions of the Odyssey, Calypso seeks to keep Odysseus as her immortal husband, but the poem is much more explicit about the depth of their affair, and that eventually Calypso is forcing Odysseus to sleep with her and forget his wife, against his will. In the end, Athena has to petition Zeus to command Calypso to release Odysseus, which she does, bitterly, after seven years.
8. The Sirens
The Sirens were first introduced by Homer in the original Odysseyepic, but the poet didn’t actually describe what the creatures looked like; instead, they were defined by their song, which lured ships and sailors to their doom. Over the centuries, depictions of sirens have changed, with Medieval artwork of the creatures as fish-tailed mermaids being the most popular, even today (see image above).
Faraway shots imply that the Sirens of Nolan’s The Odysseyare indeed mermaids; however, the exact sight of them, and the sound of their song, are left to mystery as Homer intended.
7. The Devouring Whirlpool (Charybdis)
Christopher Nolan created an actual whirlpool in the sea to portray “Charybdis,” the mythic sea monster that lived under a rock in the Strait of Messina; three times a day, the monster would swallow water, creating a huge whirlpool to draw in its victims, before consuming the prey, and belching the water back out again.
In Nolan’s The Odyssey(and Homer’s poem), Odysseus is given a prophetic warning that he will have to make a dire choice while sailing the strait: face Charybdis and lose his own life, his whole crew, and ship, or sacrifice fewer lives by facing the monster on the other side of the strait…
6. The Six-Headed Serpentine (Scylla)
One cliffside half of the Strait of Messina houses the monster “Scylla,” also referred to as the “Six-Headed Serpentine.” Its exact look and nature aren’t firmly defined, but the description of the monster states it has six limbs capable of snatching and devouring sailors who drift close enough to its grasp. Together, Scylla and Charybdis represent one of the earliest literary metaphors for “being stuck between a rock and a hard place.”
Nolan’s film has its own interpretation of Scylla, but the point is the same as Homer’s epic: forcing Odysseus to choose which sacrifice to make, without telling his men he’s weighing their lives. And it leads to much the same outcome of division, conflict, and tragedy.
5. The Giant Cannibals (Laestrygonians)
One of the more confusing references in Nolan’s The Odysseyis when Odysseus’ crew lands on a shore looking for provisions, and finds a strange child feeding, who screams upon seeing the men. That scream brings a battalion of armored giants down on Odysseus and his men, who must flee back to the boats, losing almost two-thirds of their surviving crew and boats in the attack.
In Homer’s epic, Odysseus lands at Lamos and sends a scouting party ahead. Two of his men encounter a young girl, who supposedly points them toward the king’s home. When the men arrive, they find it is a trap, and the city of giant Laestrygonian cannibals ambushes Odysseus’ fleet to kill and eat them, destroying eleven out of his twelve ships and killing all his men except the crew of his boat. Odysseus escapes the bombardment of rocks thrown from cliffs, having anchored his own boat away from the main harbor. The Laestrygonians in Nolan’s film clearly came ready for that butcherwork.
4. The Prophet (Tiresias)
Tiresias was a famous blind prophet and clairvoyant who served the god Apollo in the Greek city of Thebes. He was the son of a shepherd and a nymph, and first served the founder of Thebes, Cadmus. He served Thebes and its rulers for generations and is mentioned in many Greek tragedies that deal with the city and prophecies surrounding its heroes. Tiresias eventually dies after drinking from the tainted spring of Tilphussa (impaled by Apollo’s arrow), but death was not the end for him that it is for most. In Hades (the Greek underworld), Persephone, Queen of the Underworld, allowed Tiresias to retain his powers and status as a prophet.
Actor James Remar (It: Welcome to Derry, Oppenheimer) had a secret role in The Odyssey,playing a terrifying soot-covered version of Tiresias. As in Homer’s epic, Odysseus gets instructions from Circe to sail beyond the end of the world to Hades and speak with the dead to learn how he may appease the gods and go home. Tiresias rises from the dirt first to drink from Odysseus’s offering of blood sacrifice; at the end of the meeting, the oracle has a private conversation with Odysseus, giving the King of Ithaca a dark prophecy about the death of his men and the trials still to face before going home.
3. The Goddess (Athena)
The goddess Athena is Zeus’ daughter and oversees wisdom, warfare, and handicraft – all things Odysseus is blessed with throughout his life. However, in using the Trojan Horse to violate Zeus’ Law of hospitality, Odysseus causes the city of Troy to fall in a bloody, lawless massacre, culminating with the ransacking of Athena’s sacred temple and the murder of one of her priestesses. Athena (Zendaya) takes the form of that priestess when she appears to Odysseus, forcing him to reconcile and eventually confess the wrong he has done by setting humanity on the path of defying the gods and their laws.
In Homer’s Odyssey, Athena is a much more active character with her own arc, as the ‘patron of heroic endeavors.’ She watches over Odysseus during his trials and actively petitions other gods to help or show mercy to him, and ultimately to help him finally get back to Ithaca. The poem’s finale is also very different, with Athena directly intervening after the families of the suitors Odysseus killed rise against him. Athena declares an end to the civil conflict, and all obey her decree, leaving Odysseus and Penelope to rule Ithaca in peace.
2. The Sea God (Poseidon)
Never seen directly, Poseidon, the god of the seas, is definitely felt in The Odyssey movie, especially after Odysseus maims his son, the Cyclops. In the epic poem, Poseidon is, like other gods, an active player in deciding Odysseus’s fate. Rumor has it that Robert Downey Jr. would’ve played Nolan’s Poseidon if he wasn’t playing Marvel’s Doctor Doom…
1. The God of Hospitality (Zeus)
The king of the gods is, of course, ever-present in the events of the Odyssey poem and film (although the former does feature him directly as a character).
Nolan’s film takes a deeper look at Zeus’ lesser-known role as the god of hospitality and his golden rule of “Zeus’ Law.” That rule was set in place by Zeus to compel human civilization toward a core code of civility and conduct toward one another, whether it was an old friend or a poor beggar at your door. Nolan reframes the Trojan War and its end as the final breaking of Zeus’ Law that ended the Greco-Roman civilization and plunged the world into the godless era of the Dark Ages.
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