I go by Aureus/Aurea/Aureum. I use any/all pronouns, except for it
This blog is primarily Hermitcraft, Life series, and Skyblock Kingdoms. I reblog a lot fanart and also do some liveblogging. Occasionally, I post my own art
Tags I use:
#aureum art: art that I've drawn, primarily digital art, but also some traditional
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My sideblog is @aureum-unorganized. That's where I reblog everything that isn't minecraft. I also have a bluesky, but I rarely go on it and you can already find everything I post here
Here is my post with Giggs D&D character descriptions. I'll be updating it as we learn more about the characters and what they look like
I ended up writing notes during the movie, 630 words worth of notes, so that's part of why this took a while. I ended up turning that into an entire essay. I'll also probably reblog this with the notes I took, since they're a bit funny. My essay on the movie is below the read more so that people can avoid spoilers, because, yes, somehow a movie based on a story thousands of years old can have spoilers. As a warning, the essay is over 4.6k words including the abstract.
Abstract:
The Odyssey movie by Christopher Nolan, while cinematically very good and entertaining, does not closely follow the source material. Several characters, such as Odysseus himself and Polyphemus, as mischaracterized. Entire islands and plot points are left out or combined with other events. Specifically, the roles of the Phaeacians, Lotus Eaters, and Calypso are all done by Calypso in the movie. The roles of the gods are greatly reduced and many of them, including Poseidon, are entirely left out. Several key facts are also wrong, such as the Trojan Horse being a gift for Athena rather than Poseidon, as it is in the epic. The movie is also very insistent on Zeus' Law and the Sea People, ideas which aren't nearly (if at all) present in the epic and feel very forced into the moive. I have only seen the movie once, so this is based on my notes taken during the movie and my memory from earlier today.
An Entertaining Movie:
I want to start off by saying it's a really good movie. Cinematically, it's fantastic. There are amazing shots and the composition looks great. The world is fleshed out so that human characters have backstories and motivations. The interpretation for how an arrow is shot through 12 axe heads is unique. The design for Agamemnon's armor is really cinematically cool. It is dark and ominous and makes him appear larger than everyone else. He's a menacing figure who you don't want to face on the battlefield, similar vibes to Darth Vader, and you don't see his face or his eyes until he's dead and in Hades. It's a really cool way to portray a character and takes advantage of the medium.
It's also incredibly inaccurate and very impractical. I can't speak much on the accuracy of the rest of the armor in the movie. That's not my specialty. The armor in general looks cool out of context, but it is very Hollywood. It's probably not at all historically accurate and is just intended to look cool and cinematic for the movie. I don't know how many Classicists and experts were consulted in general for the whole movie, but it doesn't feel like very many.
Before I go in depth about everything wrong, I want to say that it's a good movie, but it's not really the Odyssey. It's the Odyssey five feet to the left in an alternate universe. The overall problem (get Odysseus home and get rid of the suitors) is the same, and it shares a lot of key plot points and characters, but it seems more inspired by than based on The Odyssey. It also essentially removes the main antagonist of Odysseus' journey, which is impressive.
Characterization:
Odysseus
For a movie about him, Odysseus is not portrayed accurately at all. Odysseus is known for a few things: he's a good fighter, he prefers using his wit and trickery over straight brawn, and he loves Penelope. He's a lying liar who lies. That's what he's known for. The Greeks knew this, the Trojans knew this, Anienct Greeks who listened to Homer's Odyssey knew this, modern readers know this. At no point has he ever been an honorable fighter. If there's a way he can trick people or sneakily kill them, he will take it.
Near the beginning of the movie, we see a flashback of when Odysseus is hunting a boar with a bunch of other men and boys. He plucks his string very melodically to warn the boar, takes one of the arrows offered by the boys, and kills the boar, but not before it's able to impale him with one of its tusks. This leaves a noticable scar which Eurycleia recognizes later him by when he finally returns to Ithaca, because she's taken care of him for all of his life. This injury is supposed to happen when he's just reached adulthood, not a fullgrown adult with graying hair, but that's a really minor detail compared to everything else in the movie.
The more important note is that afterwards, Odysseus is asked why he keeps plucking his bow. Odysseus responds by explaining that it's so he can fight honorably, letting his enemy or prey know in advance that he there so that he isn't attacking them unaware. This is so incredibly far from the truth. It is, in fact, the exact opposite of what he is known for. He has no problem with sneaking, using tricks, or killing people who are asleep or otherwise unaware he's there.
There is an entire scene in the Iliad where Odysseus and Diomedes sneak into a Trojan camp and one by one kill every Trojan soldier in their sleep. They go out of their way to make sure the horses won't see the bodies and startle, waking the Trojans early. The whole point of the Trojan Horse, Odysseus' idea, was to sneak into Troy, catch the Trojans unaware, and kill them when they were most defenseless. There is nothing honorable about how Odysseus usually fights and he isn't bothered by that.
Odysseus keeps dry firing his bow (firing his bow without any arrow in it, aka, when he keeps plucking the string) consistently throughout the movie. Dry firing a bow can damage it and Odysseus, as the incredible archer that he is, should know that. He also probably wouldn't want to continually damage his main and prized weapon. There is only one instance in the epic that I can find where Odysseus plucks his bow string. It's at the end of book 21 during the challenge, when he's just succeeded in stringing the bow. It only serves as a reason for Penelope to recognize him during the challenge.
In the movie, when fleeing Polyphemus' cave, one of his men's chewed up helmets is spit or thrown at Odysseus' feet and in response, Odysseus takes a shot at Polyphemus out of revenge or to honor his fallen soldier. Either way, it is portrayed as a split second decision that's somewhat honorable if very stupid as they are still at the cave entrance and not yet safe. In contrast, Odysseus in the epic doesn't fire at Polyphemus, instead fleeing from the cave with the men he has left, and doesn't antagonize him until he is safely on his boat. There, he informs Polyphemus that he, Odysseus of Ithaca, not Nobody, stabbed his eye. He didn't do it out of honor or to avenge a fallen soldier, but for pride, so that he could claim credit for the deed.
Polyphemus
Polyphemus' characterization is one of the most aggregious changes in the whole movie. Polyphemus, put simply, is a person who has just had his house broken into by a bunch of armed men and had his food eaten. The same people who broke into his home, watched him go about his nightly routine in silence for probably hours, and then tried to claim guest rights. I cannot express enough that they stayed silent watching while he brought in his sheep and goats, milked all of them, curdled half the milk to make cheese, set the rest aside, and then made a fire. He is understandably upset, but he talks to them. They try to ask for gifts as guest friends as hospitality would normal demand. Polyphemus knows what hospitality is and makes a mockary of it. He jokes about it as he traps Odysseus and his men in the cave, because he doesn't fear Zeus or care about human social expectations.
In the movie, Polyphemus doesn't talk to them until they stab him in the eye. He's portrayed as an evil monster, barely if at all sentient. He doesn't ask who they are or what they're doing in his cave. Instead, he just roars and eats two of them before promptly going to sleep. He does end up eating six of Odysseus' men in the epic, but he speaks to them first and only when he's certain they've insulted him, does he attack. The most he talks in the movie is when he's crying quietly to Poseidon in the cave after being blinded. He is barely more than a plot device and a scary monster to threaten Odysseus. The movie reduces him down from a person who perhaps reacts rather quickly with violence to lumbering monster.
Things They Kept Insisting were Real:
Zeus' Law
Zeus' Law, at least how the movie treats it, is that you should treat guests kindly and give them food just in case they are a god in disguise who will seek vengence upon you if you mistreat them, but if you know they're not a god, then you don't need to worry about it. Odds are that they're not a god, so if you're really confident they aren't, you can ignore this and treat them as horribly as you want, which Antinous takes advantage of throughout the movie. This is trying to imiate guest rights and hospitality, which is a thing in Ancient Greek mythology and it is enforced by Zeus, but it isn't called Zeus' Law.
The Ancient Greek is ξενια (xenia) and normally it's translated as hospitality or guest friendship. It's also not just limited to avoiding the vengence of disguised gods, it's a whole social understanding. It's an understanding between the host and the guest that they'll take care of you now, give you food and a place to sleep, and you will recount stories or news. If they come to you later, you will welcome them in and do the same for them that they did for you. If you betray the xenia you were welcomed in on, then others aren't going to offer it later, they're not going to welcome in someone they know is going to betray their trust, whether that is by attacking them, stealing from them, or anything else. These guest friendships extend down to their descedants. It is understanding, trust, and social cerdibility.
I don't know why they kept calling it Zeus' Law and invoking it. Maybe it's to make it feel more substantial than just saying hospitality. Hospitality meant a lot more back then and saying it's a law might be to make it sound more important to the modern audience. It feels very forced in.
The Sea People
Throughout the movie, people kept saying things about the Sea People. They came from the sea and were raiding whatever villages they came across. It's the continual threat on the horizon. People keep insisting that the Sea People are real and attacking and everyone should be at least slightly worried about them. Odysseus ends up saying that all of the Greeks leaving Troy are the Sea People and it's a whole metaphor how they've changed over the war.
The term Sea People was made up by two French men named Emmanuel de Rougé and Gaston Maspero in the 19th century. They're a bunch of different groups of people wearing a wide variety of outfits attacking from the land and the sea. The Sea People, obviously, aren't ever mentioned in the Odyssey, because the idea of them as one whole didn't exist when Homer, or Ancient Greeks listening to the story, were alive. They attacked in waves around the 1200s BC, which is around when the Trojan War hypothetically took place, so at least them being shoved into the story fits the timeline. If you want to read more about the Sea People, I recommend 1177 BC: The Year Civilization Collapsed by Eric Cline.
Inconsistencies and Issues:
Iphigenia
When Odysseus is explaining to Penelope why he has to leave for Troy, he mentions that if he doesn't, Agamemnon will take Telemachus. This is true enough. When Odysseus gets called to fight in the Trojan War, he pretends to be deluded or insane and starts plowing his own fields so that when Menelaus sends someone to get him, they will see he's mentally gone and shouldn't be fighting. To force Odysseus to admit he's faking it, baby Telemachus is placed in front of his plow and he stops in order to not kill his own son, and thus has to go to war. That part of Odysseus' statement is fine.
However, Odysseus goes on and, to prove that Telemachus really would be in danger if he refused to go, he tells Peneople how Agamemnon sacrificed his daughter, Iphigenia, for good winds. This is something that Agamemnon does, but it hasn't happened yet. Agamemnon does this during the Trojan War which Odysseus hasn't even left for yet. Iphigenia should still be alive, because all of the Greeks haven't started raiding or attacking Troy. She gets sacrificed so the whole army can get good winds to continue sailing to Troy.
The Giants
Along Odysseus' journey, they land on an island of cannibal giants called the Laestrygonians. Odysseus sends scouts who meet the daughter of the Laestrygonian king. She brings them to the king, who immediately kills one of the scouts and tries to kill the other two. The Laestrygonians see them off the shore and start throwing large rocks at them. Odysseus and his men try to sail away. All but one of his ships (the one Odysseus is on) are destroyed by the boulders.
In the movie, they land on the Laestrygonian's shores and start making their way into the forest where they run into their first giant (a child) who then alerts the rest of the giants. These giants, for some reason, are wearing full suits of armor, almost like a midieval knight with vaguely Greek inspired armor. There is no reason for them to be in plate armor. Odysseus and his men then fight the giants- who never speak to them beyond wordless screaming-, start losing badly, and run back to their ships. Two of their three ships are ripped apart by the giants while Odysseus' manages to sail away. Also, the trees are all moving during the fight in the forest. I don't know why. It isn't addressed or explained. It isn't even acknowledged beyond the fact that the trees are very clearly moving around on the screen.
Similarly to Polyphemus, the giants- who I'm only presuming are Laestrygonians because they are giants and that is the next plot point I was expecting- are reduced to scary beings, mostly walking suits of armor, that are trying to kill Odysseus' crew. There is no sense that they have their own culture and social structure. The only face of theirs that you can really see is the child's. They're dehumanized.
Circe
The representation of Circe is interesting in the movie. Her motives seem fairly similar, however, her methods are much more hands on that they are in the epic. Originally, she just needs to hit them with a magic wand after they eat her food to transform them, not mold their bodies like clay. She also doesn't transform all of them. Eurylochus stays outside and runs back to tell Odysseus and the other half of the crew (none of whom had considered mutiny as they do in the movie).
On the way to confronting Circe, Odysseus runs into Hermes, who gives him an antidote to Circe's potions. He takes it, drinks what Circe offers, and then threatens her with a sword when she tries to turn him into a pig. He then agrees to sleep with her after making her promise not to harm him in order to turn his crew back into men. In the movie, however, there is no Hermes and Eurylochus is turned into a pig, so there's no one to warn Odysseus. Instead, he discovers that Circe can turn people into animals when the deer he killed turns into a man and walks into Circe's home with only his wits and a dagger. He instead threatens to kill Circe's pet crow which is actually her transfigured sister (another movie invention) in order to free his men.
The Trojan Horse
The Trojan Horse is probably one of the most well known elements from the Iliad and the Trojan War cycle. It's a clever plot by Odysseus to get past Troy's impenetrable walls. The Trojans are so much suspicious of it in the movie than they are in the epic. They immediately impale Sinon when they see him, rather than hearing him out first or asking him what the horse is.
The conditions inside the Trojan Horse are rarely talking about in any of the ancient epics. However, it likely would have been mentioned if a third of the men drowned in the horse before the Trojans even found it. Aeneas, when recounting his tale to Dido in the Aeneid, mentions that the horse rattled every time it got stuck passing through the gates in a way that a wooden statue shouldn't rattle, but by that point, no one was questioning the horse much. After Laocoon was killed by snakes sent by the gods (Athena specifically, but the Trojans believe Poseidon sent them) for nearly throwing a spear at horse, no one is particularly eager to be the one to test if the horse has people in it. While there is some debate of whether they should stab the horse or throw it off a cliff, no one acts on it. In the movie, however, the Trojans stab the horse several times after it is brought into the city, managing to hit one of the Greeks, but they're quick to cover it up.
Much more confusingly, in the movie, for some reason, the Trojan horse is a gift for specifically Athena instead of Poseidon, you know, the guy who controls the seas they're sailing on and who created horses. The cover story for it is supposed to be a gift to the Trojans and a sacrifice to Poseidon so that they can safely sail home. It's not a sacrifice to Athena, because why would it be? She cannot guard their journey home over the seas. She wouldn't be helping them win the war, since the Greeks are pretending to admit defeat and thus would have no more battles for her to influence. And if it were a sacrifice to Athena, perhaps because she has been supporting Odysseus and the Greeks in general (although the Trojans also believe she is supporting them), why is it a horse and not an owl, a symbol of Athena?
Athena
Athena is one of the few gods in the movie that we see and yet she does virtually nothing throughout the entire movie. She shows up randomly to talk to Odysseus and stare judgingly at him, but for the most part, she can be removed from the movie without impacting what happens. The only time she influences how things happen is at the very beginning when she shows up disguised as a beggar and tells Telemachus to go speak to Menelaus. Even then, I wouldn't be surprised if people who haven't read The Odyssey didn't know that first beggar was Athena. Telemachus greets the beggar and says he has "wise eyes, Athena's eyes", but he then says that to quite a few people later in the movie. The first time he said it, I thought it was the movie's way of letting the audience know that this is actually Athena, not a random beggar, but then he keeps saying it and it loses all that initial meaning.
In the epic, she first appears to Telemachus not as a beggar, but as Mentes, leader of Tephos and guest friend of Odysseus. She isn't bullied by the suitors and Telemachus greets her at the door before anyone else. They eat food, speak a bit about Odysseus and the suitors, Athena tells Telemachus to visit Nestor and Menelaus, and then leaves. She never speaks to Penelope and makes of point of saying she won't speak to her. She is constantly defending Odysseus to the other gods and argueing on his behalf. She is not simply there as she is in the movie, but a key part of the action.
Fighting the Suitors
In the movie, Odysseus tells Telemachus to stay back and not fight, because if he does, he'll be exiled, and Telemachus listens. He only fight one person, the one retrieving weapons and dropping them into the fight through the ceiling, and then drops one sword down for Odysseus when he's surrounded. He spends the rest of the fight watching Odysseus kill the suitors.
In the epic, he is fighting side by side with his father. Odysseus is also completely naked during the fight because he ripped off his clothes after successfully firing his hunting bow, but it makes sense logistically that they wouldn't have him naked in the movie, so I'm ignoring that. Telemachus does leave the fight, but it's to retrieve more weapons, shields, and armor for himself, Odysseus, and the two herdsmen fighting alongside them. He accidentally leaves the door unlocked, which allows Melanthius to retrieve arms for the remaining suitors. It's much less dramatic than in the movie. Instead of breaking through the ceiling with an axe and dropping things through the hole, he just sneaks up, steals them, and then somehow carrries twelve shields, spears, and helmets down the stairs all at once.
Missing Pieces
There are a few things entirely missing from the movie. Some of these are entirely omitted, some are only vaguely referenced, and others are mixed with or replaced by other elements. They entirely left out Nestor, Odysseys and Penelope's wedding bed, most of the gods, and several islands worth of people.
Polyphemus and Nobody
I've already touched upon this scene briefly in previous sections, but I wanted to elaborate on it and explicitly state that the Nobody part of the scene is completely missing from the movie. There are quite a few differences between the two scenes. There's a lot more sitting, waiting, and plotting in the epic. Polyphemus questions why they're in his cave and Odysseus lies to him. While they're waiting, they carve and sharpen the log they would use to stab Polyphemus, rather than finding a conviently pointy log.
Odysseus get Polyphemus incredibly drunk on wine before they stab his eye in his sleep. When, in his mockary of hospitality, Polyphemus asks, Odysseus says his name is Nobody, a joke which is much funnier in Ancient Greek since Οὐδείς (oudeis) is only a few syllables off from Οδυσσέας (Odysseus). Polyphemus calls out to the other cyclopses that Nobody is killing him Their response is that if no one is hurting him, clearly Zeus made him sick if he's in so much pain, and they can't do anything about that, so they leave Polyphemus alone. It's a clever trick on Odysseus' part, because it means they don't have to worry about Polyphemus getting backup or being outnumbered. Escaping with the sheep is also a bit more clever in the epic than in the movie. Rather than just having a little bit of hay tied to their backs, they hang underneath the sheep, holding onto their wool, and are able to get out of the cave without being discovered.
As mentioned before, they're safely sailing away before Odysseus reveals their location to Polyphemus, despite his crew pleading for him to not antagonize the cyclops. It is only then that Polyphemus calls upon Poseidon, not in the cave as happens in the movie, and prays to Poseidon that Odysseus never makes it home, or suffers greatly with no honor if he manages to return home. Poseidon, in the epic, takes this request to heart and ensures Odysseus suffers for the next decade at every given opportunity.
Aeolus and the Wind Bag
After leaving cyclops island behind, they reach the island of Aeolus where they receive the wind bag with the warning to never open it. This wind bag let out just enough of a wind to carry them homeward and brings them almost all of the way to Ithaca before Odysseus' crew, suspecting that there might be treasure in the bag, open it and blast them essentially all the way back to Aeolus, who is rightly upset at them and orders them to leave his island. Aeolus, much like many of the gods
Lotus Eaters and Calypso
Odysseus and his men run into the Lotus Eaters fairly early on in their journey home and, compared to everything else on their journey, are barely a threat. The lotus flowers they fed to the scouts Odysseus sent made the men forget about home and want only to stay on the island eating lotus flowers. Odysseus had to drag them back to the ships, but everyone ultimately lived. In the movie, however, there are no Lotus Eaters.
Instead, Calypso has apparently been feeding lotus flowers to Odysseus the entire time, making him forget he has a home and family and lose the will to return to them. Calypso is so much more willing to let Odysseus leave. She says that he's finally ready to return home and lets him build a raft and leave.
The Phaeacians
After leaving Calypso's shores, his raft gets destroyed by Poseidon and he washes up on Phaeacian shores. There, he's rescued by the princess (with Athena's influence), brought to the palace, and given food. The Phaeacians ask him who he is and to recount his tale. It is here that Odysseus tells the audience his journey from Troy, and not to Calypso, as he does in the movie. After he tells his story, the Phaeacians send him off with a ship and gifts. This ship safely sailed him to Ithaca, where he's left on the shore. The entire island is missing from the movie, instead their role replaced by Calypso. Even then, Odysseus' recounting is less so for Calypso's sake (she seems to already know what happened), but rather to help him regain his memory.
The Gods
The gods in general are barely present in the movie. The only gods that appear are Athena, Calypso, and Circe, and even then, the goddesses that appear are not specifcally called goddesses and have minimal impact on Odysseus' journey. Zeus is mentioned and there's conviently timed thunder which is attributed to him, but he doesn't actually appear. There is no debate among the gods on whether or not Odysseus should be freed from Calypso's island. Poseidon, despite being the main antagonist for Odysseus' journey home, is only ever mentioned. He is present in that there are storms and his name is said at least twice in the entire movie.
Our Storyteller is a Liar:
The majority of the events of the Odyssey, both the movie by Christopher Nolan and the original epic by Homer, are told by Odysseus himself. The only events which aren't told by him are Telemachus' journey, Odysseus' final stretch home, and the events in Ithaca with the suitors. The rest is Odysseus recount his life since the Trojan War to someone. In the epic, he is recounting it to the Phaeacians in exchange for hospitality. In the movie, he is recounting it to Calypso.
The most notable thing about Odysseus which you must remember is that he is a lying liar who lies. He is known for making things up and manipulating stories to his own gain. Some of his stories are cooborated by others, but most of the details are only from Odysseus himself. For this reason, there's a good chance some of his stories are exaggerated or made up. He's probably not being entirely truthful, because he rarely is and he has no specific reason to be. In the epic, he is recounting a story about himself as entertainment. In the movie, his memory is fuzzy from eating lotus flowers for seven whole years. How he remembers things happening is undoubtably influenced by his perspective. This could explain some of the characterization choices for the movie. It might be why Polyphemus and the Laestroygonians are portrayed as monstrous and why there are almost no gods.
The Trojan horse is a gift for Athena instead of Poseidon, you know, the guy who controls the seas they're sailing on
Athena shows up as a beggar and speaks to Penelope
Interesting interpretation of shoot through the heads of 12 axes
Penelope is convinced Odysseus is dead
Odysseus dry fires his bow to warn his prey in order to"fight honorably". Since when???
The Sea People
Ipeginia sacrificed for good winds before they leave for Troy??? Odysseus tells Penelope before he leaves
He keeps dry firing his bow
Telemachus considers whether or not to leave
Athena talks to Odysseus on Calypso's island regularly
Odysseus doesn't remember??? He's eating lotus at Calypso's island???
Menelaus's armor is … interesting. Very ominous and Hollywood, but not at all accurate or practical
Agamemnon sailing west on the "known provisions route"
Weird way to raise a sail
Ship front lacking decorations
I'm trying to figure out how there's 600 men on those boats
The Sea People??? Why is this so important???
"I don't know if he knows of Zeus's law." "Everyone knows of Zeus's law"
They don't talk to Polyphemus. He doesn't question why they're in his home. He eats two people then just goes to sleep??? They don't have to drug him with wine???
Polyphemus portrayed as evil monster and not a sentient being whose house was invaded
Removed the whole Nobody scene and Odysseus doesn't dox himself
Odysseus shoots Polyphemus as they're escaping??? It was done before he did that
Helen seems to hate Menelaus and is also scarred
Menelaus misses Odysseus the most???
Sinon didn't know the plan? Also the men really suffer and die in the horse for several days
They check the horse for enemies
No party in the streets :(
The Greeks are missing their armor
Helen not trying to drug everyone with pharmaceutica from Egypt
Giant fully armored knights?
Why are the trees moving???
Athena shows up to judge him?
Mutiny is early
Lion, I guess? And tiger and panther
Circe is here.
The transformation is terrifying and much more hands on than they eat her food and she hits them with a stick
Why is it called Zeus"s law instead of guest rights?
Odysseus threatens a crow who is actually Circe's sister? They don't get along apparently
Circe tells him to got see Tiresias
She tells Odysseus only he will get home. He says he'll defy the gods
Odysseus' wife is of no concern to Odysseus?
Sinon's lot is plot relevant
"I can still save them from the gods"
Odysseus' mother not there to greet him on the Underworld. Also the dead have a lot of agency
Odysseus is telling his story to Calypso instead of the Phaeacians
Antonius wants Telemachus' nose and ears as proof of his death
The Sea People again??? Why are they here?
Odysseus is happy here with Calypso and she wants him to remember and leave
Athena keeps showing up
Poseidon mention
Calypso has been feeding Odysseus lotus flowers to make him forget
Calypso let's him leave??? Helps him? Athena doesn't have to beseech Zeus and argue with the other gods. Hermes doesn't fly down to tell him and Calypso Zeus orders she let him go
Odysseus washes up on Ithaca's shores instead of the Phaeacians
Telemachus spends a lot of time with Menelaus and no time with Nestor
Here is our lying liar who lies. Only took 2 hours
I ended up writing notes during the movie, 630 words worth of notes, so that's part of why this took a while. I ended up turning that into an entire essay. I'll also probably reblog this with the notes I took, since they're a bit funny. My essay on the movie is below the read more so that people can avoid spoilers, because, yes, somehow a movie based on a story thousands of years old can have spoilers. As a warning, the essay is over 4.6k words including the abstract.
Abstract:
The Odyssey movie by Christopher Nolan, while cinematically very good and entertaining, does not closely follow the source material. Several characters, such as Odysseus himself and Polyphemus, as mischaracterized. Entire islands and plot points are left out or combined with other events. Specifically, the roles of the Phaeacians, Lotus Eaters, and Calypso are all done by Calypso in the movie. The roles of the gods are greatly reduced and many of them, including Poseidon, are entirely left out. Several key facts are also wrong, such as the Trojan Horse being a gift for Athena rather than Poseidon, as it is in the epic. The movie is also very insistent on Zeus' Law and the Sea People, ideas which aren't nearly (if at all) present in the epic and feel very forced into the moive. I have only seen the movie once, so this is based on my notes taken during the movie and my memory from earlier today.
An Entertaining Movie:
I want to start off by saying it's a really good movie. Cinematically, it's fantastic. There are amazing shots and the composition looks great. The world is fleshed out so that human characters have backstories and motivations. The interpretation for how an arrow is shot through 12 axe heads is unique. The design for Agamemnon's armor is really cinematically cool. It is dark and ominous and makes him appear larger than everyone else. He's a menacing figure who you don't want to face on the battlefield, similar vibes to Darth Vader, and you don't see his face or his eyes until he's dead and in Hades. It's a really cool way to portray a character and takes advantage of the medium.
It's also incredibly inaccurate and very impractical. I can't speak much on the accuracy of the rest of the armor in the movie. That's not my specialty. The armor in general looks cool out of context, but it is very Hollywood. It's probably not at all historically accurate and is just intended to look cool and cinematic for the movie. I don't know how many Classicists and experts were consulted in general for the whole movie, but it doesn't feel like very many.
Before I go in depth about everything wrong, I want to say that it's a good movie, but it's not really the Odyssey. It's the Odyssey five feet to the left in an alternate universe. The overall problem (get Odysseus home and get rid of the suitors) is the same, and it shares a lot of key plot points and characters, but it seems more inspired by than based on The Odyssey. It also essentially removes the main antagonist of Odysseus' journey, which is impressive.
Characterization:
Odysseus
For a movie about him, Odysseus is not portrayed accurately at all. Odysseus is known for a few things: he's a good fighter, he prefers using his wit and trickery over straight brawn, and he loves Penelope. He's a lying liar who lies. That's what he's known for. The Greeks knew this, the Trojans knew this, Anienct Greeks who listened to Homer's Odyssey knew this, modern readers know this. At no point has he ever been an honorable fighter. If there's a way he can trick people or sneakily kill them, he will take it.
Near the beginning of the movie, we see a flashback of when Odysseus is hunting a boar with a bunch of other men and boys. He plucks his string very melodically to warn the boar, takes one of the arrows offered by the boys, and kills the boar, but not before it's able to impale him with one of its tusks. This leaves a noticable scar which Eurycleia recognizes later him by when he finally returns to Ithaca, because she's taken care of him for all of his life. This injury is supposed to happen when he's just reached adulthood, not a fullgrown adult with graying hair, but that's a really minor detail compared to everything else in the movie.
The more important note is that afterwards, Odysseus is asked why he keeps plucking his bow. Odysseus responds by explaining that it's so he can fight honorably, letting his enemy or prey know in advance that he there so that he isn't attacking them unaware. This is so incredibly far from the truth. It is, in fact, the exact opposite of what he is known for. He has no problem with sneaking, using tricks, or killing people who are asleep or otherwise unaware he's there.
There is an entire scene in the Iliad where Odysseus and Diomedes sneak into a Trojan camp and one by one kill every Trojan soldier in their sleep. They go out of their way to make sure the horses won't see the bodies and startle, waking the Trojans early. The whole point of the Trojan Horse, Odysseus' idea, was to sneak into Troy, catch the Trojans unaware, and kill them when they were most defenseless. There is nothing honorable about how Odysseus usually fights and he isn't bothered by that.
Odysseus keeps dry firing his bow (firing his bow without any arrow in it, aka, when he keeps plucking the string) consistently throughout the movie. Dry firing a bow can damage it and Odysseus, as the incredible archer that he is, should know that. He also probably wouldn't want to continually damage his main and prized weapon. There is only one instance in the epic that I can find where Odysseus plucks his bow string. It's at the end of book 21 during the challenge, when he's just succeeded in stringing the bow. It only serves as a reason for Penelope to recognize him during the challenge.
In the movie, when fleeing Polyphemus' cave, one of his men's chewed up helmets is spit or thrown at Odysseus' feet and in response, Odysseus takes a shot at Polyphemus out of revenge or to honor his fallen soldier. Either way, it is portrayed as a split second decision that's somewhat honorable if very stupid as they are still at the cave entrance and not yet safe. In contrast, Odysseus in the epic doesn't fire at Polyphemus, instead fleeing from the cave with the men he has left, and doesn't antagonize him until he is safely on his boat. There, he informs Polyphemus that he, Odysseus of Ithaca, not Nobody, stabbed his eye. He didn't do it out of honor or to avenge a fallen soldier, but for pride, so that he could claim credit for the deed.
Polyphemus
Polyphemus' characterization is one of the most aggregious changes in the whole movie. Polyphemus, put simply, is a person who has just had his house broken into by a bunch of armed men and had his food eaten. The same people who broke into his home, watched him go about his nightly routine in silence for probably hours, and then tried to claim guest rights. I cannot express enough that they stayed silent watching while he brought in his sheep and goats, milked all of them, curdled half the milk to make cheese, set the rest aside, and then made a fire. He is understandably upset, but he talks to them. They try to ask for gifts as guest friends as hospitality would normal demand. Polyphemus knows what hospitality is and makes a mockary of it. He jokes about it as he traps Odysseus and his men in the cave, because he doesn't fear Zeus or care about human social expectations.
In the movie, Polyphemus doesn't talk to them until they stab him in the eye. He's portrayed as an evil monster, barely if at all sentient. He doesn't ask who they are or what they're doing in his cave. Instead, he just roars and eats two of them before promptly going to sleep. He does end up eating six of Odysseus' men in the epic, but he speaks to them first and only when he's certain they've insulted him, does he attack. The most he talks in the movie is when he's crying quietly to Poseidon in the cave after being blinded. He is barely more than a plot device and a scary monster to threaten Odysseus. The movie reduces him down from a person who perhaps reacts rather quickly with violence to lumbering monster.
Things They Kept Insisting were Real:
Zeus' Law
Zeus' Law, at least how the movie treats it, is that you should treat guests kindly and give them food just in case they are a god in disguise who will seek vengence upon you if you mistreat them, but if you know they're not a god, then you don't need to worry about it. Odds are that they're not a god, so if you're really confident they aren't, you can ignore this and treat them as horribly as you want, which Antinous takes advantage of throughout the movie. This is trying to imiate guest rights and hospitality, which is a thing in Ancient Greek mythology and it is enforced by Zeus, but it isn't called Zeus' Law.
The Ancient Greek is ξενια (xenia) and normally it's translated as hospitality or guest friendship. It's also not just limited to avoiding the vengence of disguised gods, it's a whole social understanding. It's an understanding between the host and the guest that they'll take care of you now, give you food and a place to sleep, and you will recount stories or news. If they come to you later, you will welcome them in and do the same for them that they did for you. If you betray the xenia you were welcomed in on, then others aren't going to offer it later, they're not going to welcome in someone they know is going to betray their trust, whether that is by attacking them, stealing from them, or anything else. These guest friendships extend down to their descedants. It is understanding, trust, and social cerdibility.
I don't know why they kept calling it Zeus' Law and invoking it. Maybe it's to make it feel more substantial than just saying hospitality. Hospitality meant a lot more back then and saying it's a law might be to make it sound more important to the modern audience. It feels very forced in.
The Sea People
Throughout the movie, people kept saying things about the Sea People. They came from the sea and were raiding whatever villages they came across. It's the continual threat on the horizon. People keep insisting that the Sea People are real and attacking and everyone should be at least slightly worried about them. Odysseus ends up saying that all of the Greeks leaving Troy are the Sea People and it's a whole metaphor how they've changed over the war.
The term Sea People was made up by two French men named Emmanuel de Rougé and Gaston Maspero in the 19th century. They're a bunch of different groups of people wearing a wide variety of outfits attacking from the land and the sea. The Sea People, obviously, aren't ever mentioned in the Odyssey, because the idea of them as one whole didn't exist when Homer, or Ancient Greeks listening to the story, were alive. They attacked in waves around the 1200s BC, which is around when the Trojan War hypothetically took place, so at least them being shoved into the story fits the timeline. If you want to read more about the Sea People, I recommend 1177 BC: The Year Civilization Collapsed by Eric Cline.
Inconsistencies and Issues:
Iphigenia
When Odysseus is explaining to Penelope why he has to leave for Troy, he mentions that if he doesn't, Agamemnon will take Telemachus. This is true enough. When Odysseus gets called to fight in the Trojan War, he pretends to be deluded or insane and starts plowing his own fields so that when Menelaus sends someone to get him, they will see he's mentally gone and shouldn't be fighting. To force Odysseus to admit he's faking it, baby Telemachus is placed in front of his plow and he stops in order to not kill his own son, and thus has to go to war. That part of Odysseus' statement is fine.
However, Odysseus goes on and, to prove that Telemachus really would be in danger if he refused to go, he tells Peneople how Agamemnon sacrificed his daughter, Iphigenia, for good winds. This is something that Agamemnon does, but it hasn't happened yet. Agamemnon does this during the Trojan War which Odysseus hasn't even left for yet. Iphigenia should still be alive, because all of the Greeks haven't started raiding or attacking Troy. She gets sacrificed so the whole army can get good winds to continue sailing to Troy.
The Giants
Along Odysseus' journey, they land on an island of cannibal giants called the Laestrygonians. Odysseus sends scouts who meet the daughter of the Laestrygonian king. She brings them to the king, who immediately kills one of the scouts and tries to kill the other two. The Laestrygonians see them off the shore and start throwing large rocks at them. Odysseus and his men try to sail away. All but one of his ships (the one Odysseus is on) are destroyed by the boulders.
In the movie, they land on the Laestrygonian's shores and start making their way into the forest where they run into their first giant (a child) who then alerts the rest of the giants. These giants, for some reason, are wearing full suits of armor, almost like a midieval knight with vaguely Greek inspired armor. There is no reason for them to be in plate armor. Odysseus and his men then fight the giants- who never speak to them beyond wordless screaming-, start losing badly, and run back to their ships. Two of their three ships are ripped apart by the giants while Odysseus' manages to sail away. Also, the trees are all moving during the fight in the forest. I don't know why. It isn't addressed or explained. It isn't even acknowledged beyond the fact that the trees are very clearly moving around on the screen.
Similarly to Polyphemus, the giants- who I'm only presuming are Laestrygonians because they are giants and that is the next plot point I was expecting- are reduced to scary beings, mostly walking suits of armor, that are trying to kill Odysseus' crew. There is no sense that they have their own culture and social structure. The only face of theirs that you can really see is the child's. They're dehumanized.
Circe
The representation of Circe is interesting in the movie. Her motives seem fairly similar, however, her methods are much more hands on that they are in the epic. Originally, she just needs to hit them with a magic wand after they eat her food to transform them, not mold their bodies like clay. She also doesn't transform all of them. Eurylochus stays outside and runs back to tell Odysseus and the other half of the crew (none of whom had considered mutiny as they do in the movie).
On the way to confronting Circe, Odysseus runs into Hermes, who gives him an antidote to Circe's potions. He takes it, drinks what Circe offers, and then threatens her with a sword when she tries to turn him into a pig. He then agrees to sleep with her after making her promise not to harm him in order to turn his crew back into men. In the movie, however, there is no Hermes and Eurylochus is turned into a pig, so there's no one to warn Odysseus. Instead, he discovers that Circe can turn people into animals when the deer he killed turns into a man and walks into Circe's home with only his wits and a dagger. He instead threatens to kill Circe's pet crow which is actually her transfigured sister (another movie invention) in order to free his men.
The Trojan Horse
The Trojan Horse is probably one of the most well known elements from the Iliad and the Trojan War cycle. It's a clever plot by Odysseus to get past Troy's impenetrable walls. The Trojans are so much suspicious of it in the movie than they are in the epic. They immediately impale Sinon when they see him, rather than hearing him out first or asking him what the horse is.
The conditions inside the Trojan Horse are rarely talking about in any of the ancient epics. However, it likely would have been mentioned if a third of the men drowned in the horse before the Trojans even found it. Aeneas, when recounting his tale to Dido in the Aeneid, mentions that the horse rattled every time it got stuck passing through the gates in a way that a wooden statue shouldn't rattle, but by that point, no one was questioning the horse much. After Laocoon was killed by snakes sent by the gods (Athena specifically, but the Trojans believe Poseidon sent them) for nearly throwing a spear at horse, no one is particularly eager to be the one to test if the horse has people in it. While there is some debate of whether they should stab the horse or throw it off a cliff, no one acts on it. In the movie, however, the Trojans stab the horse several times after it is brought into the city, managing to hit one of the Greeks, but they're quick to cover it up.
Much more confusingly, in the movie, for some reason, the Trojan horse is a gift for specifically Athena instead of Poseidon, you know, the guy who controls the seas they're sailing on and who created horses. The cover story for it is supposed to be a gift to the Trojans and a sacrifice to Poseidon so that they can safely sail home. It's not a sacrifice to Athena, because why would it be? She cannot guard their journey home over the seas. She wouldn't be helping them win the war, since the Greeks are pretending to admit defeat and thus would have no more battles for her to influence. And if it were a sacrifice to Athena, perhaps because she has been supporting Odysseus and the Greeks in general (although the Trojans also believe she is supporting them), why is it a horse and not an owl, a symbol of Athena?
Athena
Athena is one of the few gods in the movie that we see and yet she does virtually nothing throughout the entire movie. She shows up randomly to talk to Odysseus and stare judgingly at him, but for the most part, she can be removed from the movie without impacting what happens. The only time she influences how things happen is at the very beginning when she shows up disguised as a beggar and tells Telemachus to go speak to Menelaus. Even then, I wouldn't be surprised if people who haven't read The Odyssey didn't know that first beggar was Athena. Telemachus greets the beggar and says he has "wise eyes, Athena's eyes", but he then says that to quite a few people later in the movie. The first time he said it, I thought it was the movie's way of letting the audience know that this is actually Athena, not a random beggar, but then he keeps saying it and it loses all that initial meaning.
In the epic, she first appears to Telemachus not as a beggar, but as Mentes, leader of Tephos and guest friend of Odysseus. She isn't bullied by the suitors and Telemachus greets her at the door before anyone else. They eat food, speak a bit about Odysseus and the suitors, Athena tells Telemachus to visit Nestor and Menelaus, and then leaves. She never speaks to Penelope and makes of point of saying she won't speak to her. She is constantly defending Odysseus to the other gods and argueing on his behalf. She is not simply there as she is in the movie, but a key part of the action.
Fighting the Suitors
In the movie, Odysseus tells Telemachus to stay back and not fight, because if he does, he'll be exiled, and Telemachus listens. He only fight one person, the one retrieving weapons and dropping them into the fight through the ceiling, and then drops one sword down for Odysseus when he's surrounded. He spends the rest of the fight watching Odysseus kill the suitors.
In the epic, he is fighting side by side with his father. Odysseus is also completely naked during the fight because he ripped off his clothes after successfully firing his hunting bow, but it makes sense logistically that they wouldn't have him naked in the movie, so I'm ignoring that. Telemachus does leave the fight, but it's to retrieve more weapons, shields, and armor for himself, Odysseus, and the two herdsmen fighting alongside them. He accidentally leaves the door unlocked, which allows Melanthius to retrieve arms for the remaining suitors. It's much less dramatic than in the movie. Instead of breaking through the ceiling with an axe and dropping things through the hole, he just sneaks up, steals them, and then somehow carrries twelve shields, spears, and helmets down the stairs all at once.
Missing Pieces
There are a few things entirely missing from the movie. Some of these are entirely omitted, some are only vaguely referenced, and others are mixed with or replaced by other elements. They entirely left out Nestor, Odysseys and Penelope's wedding bed, most of the gods, and several islands worth of people.
Polyphemus and Nobody
I've already touched upon this scene briefly in previous sections, but I wanted to elaborate on it and explicitly state that the Nobody part of the scene is completely missing from the movie. There are quite a few differences between the two scenes. There's a lot more sitting, waiting, and plotting in the epic. Polyphemus questions why they're in his cave and Odysseus lies to him. While they're waiting, they carve and sharpen the log they would use to stab Polyphemus, rather than finding a conviently pointy log.
Odysseus get Polyphemus incredibly drunk on wine before they stab his eye in his sleep. When, in his mockary of hospitality, Polyphemus asks, Odysseus says his name is Nobody, a joke which is much funnier in Ancient Greek since Οὐδείς (oudeis) is only a few syllables off from Οδυσσέας (Odysseus). Polyphemus calls out to the other cyclopses that Nobody is killing him Their response is that if no one is hurting him, clearly Zeus made him sick if he's in so much pain, and they can't do anything about that, so they leave Polyphemus alone. It's a clever trick on Odysseus' part, because it means they don't have to worry about Polyphemus getting backup or being outnumbered. Escaping with the sheep is also a bit more clever in the epic than in the movie. Rather than just having a little bit of hay tied to their backs, they hang underneath the sheep, holding onto their wool, and are able to get out of the cave without being discovered.
As mentioned before, they're safely sailing away before Odysseus reveals their location to Polyphemus, despite his crew pleading for him to not antagonize the cyclops. It is only then that Polyphemus calls upon Poseidon, not in the cave as happens in the movie, and prays to Poseidon that Odysseus never makes it home, or suffers greatly with no honor if he manages to return home. Poseidon, in the epic, takes this request to heart and ensures Odysseus suffers for the next decade at every given opportunity.
Aeolus and the Wind Bag
After leaving cyclops island behind, they reach the island of Aeolus where they receive the wind bag with the warning to never open it. This wind bag let out just enough of a wind to carry them homeward and brings them almost all of the way to Ithaca before Odysseus' crew, suspecting that there might be treasure in the bag, open it and blast them essentially all the way back to Aeolus, who is rightly upset at them and orders them to leave his island. Aeolus, much like many of the gods
Lotus Eaters and Calypso
Odysseus and his men run into the Lotus Eaters fairly early on in their journey home and, compared to everything else on their journey, are barely a threat. The lotus flowers they fed to the scouts Odysseus sent made the men forget about home and want only to stay on the island eating lotus flowers. Odysseus had to drag them back to the ships, but everyone ultimately lived. In the movie, however, there are no Lotus Eaters.
Instead, Calypso has apparently been feeding lotus flowers to Odysseus the entire time, making him forget he has a home and family and lose the will to return to them. Calypso is so much more willing to let Odysseus leave. She says that he's finally ready to return home and lets him build a raft and leave.
The Phaeacians
After leaving Calypso's shores, his raft gets destroyed by Poseidon and he washes up on Phaeacian shores. There, he's rescued by the princess (with Athena's influence), brought to the palace, and given food. The Phaeacians ask him who he is and to recount his tale. It is here that Odysseus tells the audience his journey from Troy, and not to Calypso, as he does in the movie. After he tells his story, the Phaeacians send him off with a ship and gifts. This ship safely sailed him to Ithaca, where he's left on the shore. The entire island is missing from the movie, instead their role replaced by Calypso. Even then, Odysseus' recounting is less so for Calypso's sake (she seems to already know what happened), but rather to help him regain his memory.
The Gods
The gods in general are barely present in the movie. The only gods that appear are Athena, Calypso, and Circe, and even then, the goddesses that appear are not specifcally called goddesses and have minimal impact on Odysseus' journey. Zeus is mentioned and there's conviently timed thunder which is attributed to him, but he doesn't actually appear. There is no debate among the gods on whether or not Odysseus should be freed from Calypso's island. Poseidon, despite being the main antagonist for Odysseus' journey home, is only ever mentioned. He is present in that there are storms and his name is said at least twice in the entire movie.
Our Storyteller is a Liar:
The majority of the events of the Odyssey, both the movie by Christopher Nolan and the original epic by Homer, are told by Odysseus himself. The only events which aren't told by him are Telemachus' journey, Odysseus' final stretch home, and the events in Ithaca with the suitors. The rest is Odysseus recount his life since the Trojan War to someone. In the epic, he is recounting it to the Phaeacians in exchange for hospitality. In the movie, he is recounting it to Calypso.
The most notable thing about Odysseus which you must remember is that he is a lying liar who lies. He is known for making things up and manipulating stories to his own gain. Some of his stories are cooborated by others, but most of the details are only from Odysseus himself. For this reason, there's a good chance some of his stories are exaggerated or made up. He's probably not being entirely truthful, because he rarely is and he has no specific reason to be. In the epic, he is recounting a story about himself as entertainment. In the movie, his memory is fuzzy from eating lotus flowers for seven whole years. How he remembers things happening is undoubtably influenced by his perspective. This could explain some of the characterization choices for the movie. It might be why Polyphemus and the Laestroygonians are portrayed as monstrous and why there are almost no gods.
Last time I uploaded a Pearlo, @whereispearlescentmoon told me that my picture wasn't a location, so I present: an answer! Where is Pearlescent Moon, you ask? Why, she's out fighting fires, of course!
Vintage as an Aasimar Druid with some friendly Mourning Doves.
This is probably gonna be my last full illustration for the month. It's too hot to be on my computer and I'm gonna be moving in less than two weeks ;-;
I've been playing for a little bit over a year now and sky genuinely had allowed me to make so many new connections and friends. I absolutely love this game (despite it having some problems) and its community. Aaand for this year's sky anniversary, I've decided to showcase all of my main outfits to see how much my kid has grown 🥹🥹
