Hey, call me Sybil!!! I'm a minor so don't be weird and we're good. All pronouns are okay as long as you're using them with respectful intent š
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DNI if you are:
ableist
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Youāre not cool. Itās not a joke. It genuinely hurts people.
if you donāt like something I say, then tough. It is not my job to keep the internet catered to your liking. You are perfectly within your rights to scroll away. The only exception is if I have genuinely fucked up, in which case kindly let me know so I can fix it.
Like the Christian Gospels, American shooting and crying stories are fundamentally about sin, redemption, and forgiveness. Stop-Loss does not condone Brandon killing a family in their own home (the sin), but it suggests that crying makes up for the shooting (the redemption). You are expected to forgive Brandon by the end of the film. Brandon doesnāt reach out of their surviving relatives and apologize, or do much of anything to support refugees in the Middle East, but he does suffer, and you are expected to agree that his suffering makes up for the murder, that his tears exonerate him.
Odysseus is repeatedly described as a āveteranā by both himself and others in Christopher Nolanās 2026 adaptation of The Odyssey. No such word exists in Attic Greek. There is a word for men who are absent or else too sick to fight (į¼ĻĻĪ¼Ī±ĻĪæĻ); there is a word for old men (Ī³ĪĻĻĪ½), who would not have been expected to fight anymore (see, for examples in the art of the time, Nestor in The Iliad). But there is no one-to-one translation for the English word āveteranā for the simple reason that the Ancient Greeks had no such concept. City-states went to war every couple of years, meaning no one could ever fully move beyond it. War was not something you sign up for, leave, go do Over There, and hopefully come back from. Virtually all men fought in wars, which meant soldiers were not a minority ā they were not special.
...The Odyssey (2026) brings the American tradition of shooting and crying to Troy. Odysseus the veteran cannot fully come back home from the war until he has made peace with the crime he committed overseas. Smuggling soldiers into enemy territory via wooden horse might not constitute a war crime by todayās standards, but Nolan frames this strategy as a violation of āZeusā lawā.
...Anne Carson calls the Odyssey a āpostwar epicā. Crying after shooting is simply what a postwar epic looks like in America. In that way, Nolan truly has adapted Homer; Nolan has imported his own cultural situation into the myth.
Just as The Aeneid used Homeric archetypes to express Roman national identity, The Odyssey (2026) shows Americans how we view ourselves: we love our home; we love our family; we come from multiple races, but most of us are white; we are world-weary; we did something wrong far away, but our memories are foggy, and itās best not to dwell too much on our victims; our hands are perpetually innocent, and stained with fresh blood.
Odysseus at the VA: How Christopher Nolan Americanized The Odyssey
Why is there a diarrhea parasite outbreak in America?
Because Donald Trump and his Republican allies cut funding to disease prevention and control.
Why is measles back in America?
Because Donald Trump and his Republican allies, including RFK Jr, cut vaccine and measles prevention funding and programs.
Why is the New World Screwworm infecting cattle in Texas, when it had previously been eliminated from the area?
Because Donald Trump and his Republican allies, including Elon Musk, cut USAID funding, which in part worked to monitor and prevent screwworm outbreaks.
Why was there a flu outbreak in our armed forces?
Because Donald Trump and his Republican allies, including Pete Hegseth, cut vaccination requirements for our armed forces, putting all of them at risk alongside our military readiness.
What contributed to the Covid outbreak?
Donald Trump and his Republican allies cut funding to a pandemic prevention program in his first term because Barack Obama had created it.
āAmerica firstā sends its regards. Trump voters, please learn your lesson. And if you donāt, itāll be taught to you again with yet another diarrhea outbreak.
one of my creative writing professors once said that to evaluate a work as good or not, first you ask what the work is attempting to do, and then you evaluate how well it does it. and this is how to judge everything from critical essays to romance novels to snack packaging to theory tracts.
So, hereās the thing: I wouldnāt expect someone who never studied ancient Greek language or culture to understand the concept of xenia (Ī¾ĪµĪ½Ī¹Ī±). But itās one of if not the biggest theme of the entire Odyssey. Fundamentally, itās an epic about what happens when this Greek law and value was broken, when was that expected or justified or necessary versus when that was an atrocity.
And I think the filmā¦oversimplified and understated the functions and importance of xenia. At best.
Please see below the cut for a very detailed explanation of what the film gets wrong about xenia, what the practice actually was, why it doesnāt work for Nolanās ultimate thesis to the film, and the role xenia played in the original Odyssey.
āZeusās Lawā
Firstly, xenia is called āZeusās lawā throughout the movie, which isā¦perhaps not entirely wrong, but certainly an oversimplification. Itās true that hospitality and how you treated foreigners and the obligation to welcome them was technically under Zeusās purview, since as King of the Gods everything was.
Propriety and courtesy and kindness is not what Zeus was known for, however ā frankly, if Nolan wanted to credit xenia to an individual divinity in concept, either Hestia (as goddess of hearth and home) or Hermes (as god of travelers and journeys) would be more fitting.
And really, it wasnāt just about one god; just as hubris is about mortals overstepping or thinking themselves equal to anything divine, xenia is at least in part about mortals being courteous to any fellow man in the name of any god that might have put that person on their path. The only reason to call it Zeusās law is when thinking about divine retribution, which the Odyssey movie intentionally muddies the waters on by erasing the godsā consistent direct involvement.
Zeusās role is in setting the standard kings and leaders must follow, yes. But his connection to xenia is more about punishing those who misunderstand it, andā¦Odysseus doesnāt actually suffer from that. Or rather, he never suffers undeservedly, and he does benefit from it in the end. He underwent his struggles in getting home due to other people violating xenia, but when he does get home? Odysseus benefits from the fact that those who break xenia are punished.
Xenia among Greeks
Now, letās get into the actual meaning and consequences of xenia. Because it wasnāt actually about threat of divine retribution ā it was about cultural mediation and exchange. Something that gets lost in the filmās treatment of Greek culture as a monolith (it very much wasnāt at the time), and oversimplification of wartime vs. peacetime negotiations.
Ī¾ĪµĪ½Ī¹Ī± was a social code relating to how hosts should welcome any visitors to their home, and how guests should act when welcomed. The expectation is that the host provides good food and drink (to the absolute best of their ability ā you donāt just feed them, you give them delicious food and your purest wine and nicest clothes and linens and bed). The guest, after enjoying the hostās hospitality, will reveal their name and identity and lifeās story and purpose for their journey. And thatās where it got political.
Crucial to xenia was mutual peacefulness ā if someone comes to you as a peaceful traveler, it doesnāt matter that theyāre foreign. You have to treat them courteously. The movie made it seem like the entire reason you had to welcome travelers was in case they were gods in disguise, but thatās just not true. Implicit threat of offending a god did mean it was considered smart to treat everyone who hadnāt outright wronged you courteously, but the real point was peace between peoples from different lands, especially different Greek city-states. Because once you or anyone in your family line offered or received xenia to/from anyone in that personās family line? You could not hurt each other. It was forbidden.
Thereās a whole scene in the Iliad where a Trojan and Greek soldier both exchange lineages before they fight, to make sure theyāre not breaking xenia, and discover one of their dads played host to another. They then go āok, we canāt fight, letās trade armor as a friendly peaceful gesture, good luck going to war!ā Because xenia established outside war had a different standard.
Ī¾ĪµĪ½ĪæĻ means foreigner or stranger. It also means friend and guest. Xenophobia is literally the Greek words for foreigner and fear mashed together, and it wasnāt a good term in their eyes. Because at least among those who would understand and respect your customs, you had to treat the foreigner/stranger as a guest/friend. Thatās xenophilia, love of strangers, or the act of being a good host.
The point of xenia is that it forges a peace compact. Critically, it only did so among different Greek civilizations ā one polis going to war against another was what xenia sought to combat. Enough people traveling would ensure two city-states didnāt and couldnāt raise arms against each other.
The Exception
I do think this is the part people donāt get, because the movie clearly didnāt understand it either ā xenia does not apply between people at war.
Yes, the Iliad has a bit with Glaukos and the armor and the peaceful exchange between people who had ancestral xenia. But the reason they canāt fight is because their families had contact during a time of peace.
If your first time meeting someone is while you try to kill them and pillage their land ā or rather, if youāre the āhostā and theyāre trying to kill you and pillage your land and rape your women ā you do not owe them xenia, because there is no peaceful compact to be made. Preexisting relationships must be respectedā¦
ā¦but crucially, the entire Trojan War started because Paris, a Trojan Prince, broke xenia after Sparta welcomed him as a guest.
Nolanās Odyssey makes it seem like perhaps the whole saga is punishing the Greek heroes and Odysseus especially for violating Zeusās Law/xenia through the Trojan Horse trick. But likeā¦they didnāt? The Greeks didnāt come to Troy in good faith as guests, they came as armed conquers determined to see Ilion burn. And the concept of soldiers disguising themselves as civilians (or hiding inside a horse) being likeā¦a war crime or violation of ethics? Was not a thing by Greek standards.
Very notably, one of the (cut) scenes with Helen in the Telemachy sees her recount how she helped Odysseus when he snuck into Troy before the horse trick ā she helped him disguise himself as a local/refugee and gather intel before sneaking back to the Greek ships. And thatās never treated as morally questionable ā helping Odysseus sneak around and deceive the Trojans is unambiguously a good thing that Helen did, in fact.
TL:DR, the point is ā people trying to burn your city do not count as guests, conquerers do not think of the people they plan to rob rape and kill as hosts. Xenia does not apply to people at war, and the idea Odysseus should feel guilt for his trick with the horse because it was a violation of āZeusās lawā is laughable. The Greeks wouldnāt have cared! Thatās not ever a source of angst or guilt in the source text, despite xenia being such a central theme.
Utility of xenia in the Odyssey
The biggest purpose of xenia was that observing it ensured peace. Neither guest nor host poisons or hurts anyone else, not directly or by proxy through hurting their family and friends. When the guest leaves, in exchange for their story, the host also should them off with valuables, ideally gold. Xenia was a way to encourage non-violent contact between different people, and stimulate exchange of information and valuables between different settlements.
Notably, where xenia is practiced, the standard for violating it is high. There are many myths about people who did things that were weird or unpleasant but not an outright violation, and therefore had to still be treated with courtesy and respect as guests.
The reason Penelope and Telemachus canāt kick the suitors out isnāt because sheās a helpless woman and heās a helpless child ā their political positions are shaky, yes, but thatās not the core issue. Rather, itās because while the suitors have been rude, and wildly overstayed their welcome, they havenāt actually broken xenia. Eating and drinking their food and wine for years instead of days, being mean to the slaves, having the bard tell stories that hurt Penelopeās feelings, all of that is bad but not transgressions worthy of breaking xenia over. Legally, Telemachcus and Penelope have to let these assholes stay and treat them courteously, because the suitors are abusing the spirit of the law but not violating the letter of it.
The suitors donāt actually break xenia until their attempt to kill Telemachus, and then when they try to refuse to welcome a poor traveller who should be entitled to all the same luxuries theyāve taken.
Thatās a huge part of the motive for Odysseusās disguise. He shows up as a beggar dressed in disgusting rags because he knows these immature assholes will abuse him over it, and he knows that once they do he can legally kill them and get away with it in the eyes of the gods. Thatās the point of the first feasts and the challenge and almost everything Odysseus does upon arrival to Ithaca.
Fully half of the Odyssey is Odysseus already having returned home, but acting like a guest, so he can see who respects xenia (and is therefore loyal to him) vs. who breaks xenia (and is therefore deserving of death). And Odysseus actively works to slot the suitors and many of his own slaves into the latter category, so he can kill them and know that heās not breaking custom, that he isnāt incurring further divine wrath. And Athena helps him do it, so he can get his glorious revenge. Thatāsā¦pointed.
Conclusion
Odysseusā attempts to exploit xenia for his own gain ā implicitly in Books 5-12 and more explicitly and maliciously in Books 13-22 ā are missing in the film adaptation. I think thatās in part because Christopher Nolanā¦isnāt interested in that side of Odysseus. He wanted the story of a tough tortured war hero finally returning home and repenting for his wrongs at war. He didnāt like or focus on Odysseus the witty schemer, the master of tricks and lies. And Nolan certainly didnāt want Odysseusā return home to center on a blatantly bitter and violent, arguably unnecessary revenge ploy, as it did in the epic poem.
But the fact of the matter is that the last half of the original poem is Odysseus struggling to find an excuse to break xenia. He doesnāt want to send the suitors peacefully home ā which he at least nominally could. Thereās a threat that they physically overpower him, but that requires the suitors to openly break xenia. Which thus far those who did by conspiring to kill Telemachus have done only in discreet ways, and many have not done at all.
Like, crucially, the original epic poem does introduce suitors who were more decent in their conduct, even if they did still eat Odysseusā food and try to court his wife. Theyāre not all evil people who have to be killed for his own safety. Some would just fucking leave if they knew the king was in fact alive. Some would accept that since Odysseus is back to be King again, the Ithacan suitors should return to their houses and the foreign suitors return to their city-states. Some of them would respect xenia and make up for their wrongdoing. Thereās a dichotomy when the suitors die ā some, like Antinous, go down fighting and cursing Odysseus and Telemachus, but others try to apologize. They promise to repay the guest-gifts and food and charity they abused and respect xenia and go in peace. Odysseus tells them ānope, too late, die.ā
I get why instead of the brutal slaughter of many men who beg for mercy, Nolan frames the final battle against the suitors as a desperate, almost losing struggle for Odysseus. But in the epic poemā¦itās just him taking advantage of the fact he finally tricked them all into really breaking xenia, and taking revenge.
The entire epic poem was about xenia ā not in the context of war, either.
The Telemachy is the first four books of the Odyssey, focused on how Odysseusās son sees xenia exploited in his own home, but benefits from it immensely when welcomed as a guest in someone elseās.
The Apologoi or Wanderings are books 5-12 (Calypso, the Phaeacians, Aeolus, Polyphemus, the Lotus-Eaters, the Lasteygones, Circe, and the Underworld) and see Odysseus arrive at foreign islands where he tries to exert xenia over and over again. He meets good foreigners who do exactly as they should, dangerous foreigners who instead respond with sinister temptation or outright violence, and people who arenāt foreigners at all but divinities, and therefore arenāt bound to mortal customs like xenia.
The Mnesterophonia or Murder of the Suitors is Books 13-24 ā fully half of the Odyssey is Odysseus having already reached Ithaca, but now using xenia both to test peopleās loyalty and morals, and to contrive an excuse to kill them if they fail to uphold the custom.
Given all thatā¦I think Christopher Nolan owed it to the Odyssey to learn the true meaning of xenia, and to at least try to depict it with the nuance it deserves.
i thought the āthis is the face that launched a thousand ships, although now it would maybe be five-hundred.ā line was just an internet joke but apparently that's a line Menelaus actually says in Nolan's Odyssey??
Not only that the language itself sounds straight out of a marvel forcibly funny haha moment, but Menelaus? The Menelaus who all thoughout human history, from Homer, to Sappho, to Euripides, to Virgil, to Shakespeare, to Brooke, to Barth; from Classical vases to Medieval poetry to Reinessance art, has been known as the man whose sword fell from his hands at the sight of his wife after 10 years apart?
"What joy for me to hold my wife" Menelaus?
"He flung the sword away, and kissed her feet" Menelaus?
"I believe all. I understand nothing. I love you" Menelaus?
"I have no fault to find; my wife, he daughter of Zeus and Leda, is mine again, she whom her brothers on their snow-white steeds, whilst torches blazed, made my happy bride, but gods removed her from my home." Menelaus?
The Menelaus who was picked out of the suitors by Helen herself? The Menelaus who couldn't kill a begging Trojan so his brother had to do it for him? The Menelaus who rescued Odysseus and got out Patroclus' body? The Menelaus who volounteered to fight Paris one on one so everybody could go home? Who kept expressing his guilt about himself being the cause of war through every assembly he spoke at in the Iliad? Who after 10 years away at Troy, took his wife through a 7-year long journey at sea back home, where he reinstated her as the queen of Sparta? Who wept like a child in front of Telemachus recalling the war and his brother and all the friends he lost and the only consolation being his wife' gentle hand on his?
You want me to believe that man scarred Helen's face and called her only worth half the ships because of it?
I'm actually physically sick just thinking about it.
"Keith's unreasonable demands," Robin answers, writing restock candy shelf on a legal pad. "So I don't forget them."
"He told us to do three things before end of shift," Steve points out. "How are you going to forget three things?"
She's not.
It's for Steve.
Robin noticed - and was annoyed by - Steve's forgetfulness at Scoops Ahoy but it's gotten worse since the bunker and the Russians.
He's forgetting conversations mid-sentence. He's abandoning tasks halfway through. She knows him well enough to know that he will only get defensive if she points this out, and she knows that he would accept her help if offered so.
She's not offering any help.
She's making a list.
She is just writing down their responsibilities for the day because, "I get to mark them off the list after we do them."
Silence.
She looks up to see Steve looking down at the legal pad. He presses his lips together before saying, "I love marking off a to-do list."
"Do you want..."
"Let me mark the stuff off," He says. "Your lines are never straight anyways."
rhemann introducing adi to jeremy after his freshman year scandal when everybody was shaming him for his sexuality (also after noahās death)ā¦.cannot imagine how life-changing it must have been for jeremy to find out that his coach that he looks up to is a gay man & happily in a relationship with another man for over 20 years
