The Bad, The Good, and The Odyssey

<p><span>Dear Classical Wisdom Reader,</span></p><p><span>Sometimes, the timing is just perfect.</span></p><p><span>I was travelling back to the United States to visit my mom and celebrate her birthday just as Christopher Nolan’s </span><em><span>The Odyssey</span></em><span> was released. What better way to spend the day than taking the very woman who first introduced me to the </span><em><span>Odyssey</span></em><span> and Greek mythology to the cinema on opening day?</span></p><p><em><span>Nostos</span></em><span>, indeed.</span></p><p><span>So, of course, I was excited. From the IMAX experience and the bucket of popcorn to simply spending time with my mom, the outing was bound to be special... even if the movie proved disappointing. Hollywood has a long history of letting us down when it comes to modern adaptations of ancient tales, and personally, I’m not a fan of most sword-and-sandal flicks… </span></p><p><span>So I went in with cautious optimism and low expectations.</span></p><p><span>And I’m glad I did, because what I found will (hopefully) surprise no one who reads these pages regularly. Rather than a banal binary of like or dislike, I found nuance. This was hardly a tepid response, however. Quite the opposite. I had lots of thoughts... so many, in fact, that I talked my dear mom’s ear off before finally sitting down to write the review below. </span></p><p><span>I hope you find it useful.</span></p><p><span>Now, I did worry that, by writing about the movie and reflecting on how it was rendered from the perspective of a Classics devotee, I might inadvertently include spoilers.</span></p><p><span>But then I remembered, it’s a story as old as Western civilization! You already know how it ends... and, for that matter, so did the ancients. They returned to the </span><em><span>Odyssey</span></em><span> not for surprises, but for suspense...and for memory. It was (and for many and still is), a poem so near and dear to the heart that simply engaging with it feels like returning home.</span></p><p><span>Nonetheless, I won’t reveal any major departures from the epic, as I certainly don’t want to spoil the experience for anyone else. So please feel free to read on, whether or not you’ve seen the movie... and, when you’re done, I’d love to hear your own thoughts in the comments!</span></p><p><span>Our goal here at </span><em><span>Classical Wisdom</span></em><span> has always been to bring ancient wisdom to modern minds, so I’m especially interested to hear how you think this movie captures (or fails to capture) the ancient tradition...and how its departures perhaps reveal something about our own age.</span></p><p><span>All the best,</span></p><p><span>Anya Leonard</span></p><p><span>Founder and Director</span></p><p><span>Classical Wisdom</span></p><div><div><div><p><strong>Bring the wisdom of the ancients into your life and into your inbox. Subscribe to access our full resources, including ebooks, podcast and more!</strong></p></div><div><div></div><div></div></div></div></div><p></p><h1><span>The Good, the Bad and the Odyssey: Review of Christopher Nolan’s Odyssey Movie</span></h1><p><em><span>By Anya Leonard</span></em></p><p><span>Christopher Nolan did his homework. It was clear from the outset that the ideas and themes of the fantastic epic were at the forefront of his interpretation, and for that I was immensely grateful.</span></p><p><span>It was also a great comfort to this Classics lover... because there were plenty of historical and literary inaccuracies. Indeed, I spent the first five minutes mentally cataloguing all the ways the words, settings, and characters deviated from either the poem or what we know of Late Bronze Age Greece. Frankly, it was exhausting... </span></p><div><figure><a href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/%24s_!JBU-!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Faf0abe38-d38b-42aa-ae34-07561d54dbdd_1500x1000.jpeg"></a><div><a href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/%24s_!JBU-!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Faf0abe38-d38b-42aa-ae34-07561d54dbdd_1500x1000.jpeg"></a><source type="image/webp"><a href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/%24s_!JBU-!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Faf0abe38-d38b-42aa-ae34-07561d54dbdd_1500x1000.jpeg"><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/%24s_!JBU-!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Faf0abe38-d38b-42aa-ae34-07561d54dbdd_1500x1000.jpeg" width="1456" height="971" alt=""></a></source><a href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/%24s_!JBU-!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Faf0abe38-d38b-42aa-ae34-07561d54dbdd_1500x1000.jpeg"></a><div><a href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/%24s_!JBU-!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Faf0abe38-d38b-42aa-ae34-07561d54dbdd_1500x1000.jpeg"></a><div><a href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/%24s_!JBU-!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Faf0abe38-d38b-42aa-ae34-07561d54dbdd_1500x1000.jpeg"></a></div><a href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/%24s_!JBU-!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Faf0abe38-d38b-42aa-ae34-07561d54dbdd_1500x1000.jpeg"></a></div><a href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/%24s_!JBU-!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Faf0abe38-d38b-42aa-ae34-07561d54dbdd_1500x1000.jpeg"></a></div><a href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/%24s_!JBU-!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Faf0abe38-d38b-42aa-ae34-07561d54dbdd_1500x1000.jpeg"></a><figcaption>Just remember, not even Homer got all the Bronze age armor right… </figcaption></figure></div><p><span>Eventually, however, I reminded myself that I was watching a movie, not a documentary, and made my peace with it. Once I did, once I allowed myself to be swept up in the story Nolan wanted to tell, I found myself enjoying it much more.</span></p><p><span>Not to say there weren’t serious issues...</span></p><p><strong><span>The Bad (according to me)</span></strong></p><p><span>The most obvious issue was the casting. Yes, there was plenty of hoopla and controversy surrounding it in advance, and honestly, it wasn’t nearly as bad as some critics made it out to be... Nonetheless, I couldn’t shake the feeling that, in several instances, Hollywood had deferred to star power and popularity over artistic integrity. There were a handful of roles that seemed to have been cast because they were big names rather than because they were the very best fit for the character.</span></p><p><span>And I’m just going to come out and say it: there really should have been some Greek actors in the cast. I’m not suggesting every role needed to go to a Greek actor...I know this is still Hollywood, and studios want their marquee names, but a few carefully chosen characters would, I think, have been richer and more authentic for it. More importantly, it would have felt like a fitting tribute to the culture whose stories have captivated the world for nearly three thousand years.</span></p><p><span>I felt strongly about the treatment of a few characters, but perhaps none more than the swineherd, Eumaeus. His is a treasured role in the </span><em><span>Odyssey</span></em><span>, and not only because he is fiercely loyal or because he is Odysseus’ first point of contact upon his return to Ithaka. Eumaeus is the embodiment of hospitality, of the ever-present </span><em><span>xenia</span></em><span>. He is the guardian of Odysseus’ household, the bridge between father and son, a trusted tactical ally, and, more than all of that, he occupies a uniquely important place in the poem...</span></p><p><span>He is the only character in the entire epic whom the narrator directly addresses in the second person. And that is, frankly, a big deal. He is the ancient Greek everyman... the audience itself.</span></p><p><a href="https://classicalwisdom.substack.com/p/the-bad-the-good-and-the-odyssey?utm_source=substack&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_content=share&amp;action=share"><span>Share</span></a></p><p></p><p><span>Through Eumaeus, Homer quietly asks his listeners to see themselves in the faithful swineherd rather than in the great king. That is why I found the casting so jarring. Eumaeus isn’t meant to command attention by force of personality or celebrity... His greatness lies precisely in his ordinariness. I couldn’t help but feel that a lesser-known Greek actor might have captured that spirit more faithfully.</span></p><p><span>As for Odysseus and Penelope, I certainly thought the former should have been trickier and the latter gentler. One of the greatest joys of the poem is how remarkably alike husband and wife are... and yet, in this rendition, Odysseus is more thoughtful and regretful, but lacks much of his wily nature, while Penelope is portrayed as angry and bitter, far removed from the clever, composed woman Homer gives us.</span></p><p><span>Much has been made of Odysseus lacking the glory Homer intended. Perhaps this is so. There are certainly many moments in the poem when he weeps and mourns the deaths of his companions, so the film was faithful in that respect. However, he felt... muted. He lacked that indefinable quality, that </span><em><span>je ne sais quoi</span></em><span>...or, perhaps more fittingly, his </span><em><span>thumos</span></em><span>, that spirited vitality which makes Homeric heroes so compelling.</span></p><div><figure><a href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/%24s_!vvBj!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fd9da008d-1117-4ab4-b4cc-6196523c2368_1423x801.jpeg"></a><div><a href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/%24s_!vvBj!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fd9da008d-1117-4ab4-b4cc-6196523c2368_1423x801.jpeg"></a><source type="image/webp"><a href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/%24s_!vvBj!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fd9da008d-1117-4ab4-b4cc-6196523c2368_1423x801.jpeg"><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/%24s_!vvBj!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fd9da008d-1117-4ab4-b4cc-6196523c2368_1423x801.jpeg" width="1423" height="801" alt=""></a></source><a href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/%24s_!vvBj!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fd9da008d-1117-4ab4-b4cc-6196523c2368_1423x801.jpeg"></a><div><a href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/%24s_!vvBj!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fd9da008d-1117-4ab4-b4cc-6196523c2368_1423x801.jpeg"></a><div><a href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/%24s_!vvBj!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fd9da008d-1117-4ab4-b4cc-6196523c2368_1423x801.jpeg"></a></div><a href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/%24s_!vvBj!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fd9da008d-1117-4ab4-b4cc-6196523c2368_1423x801.jpeg"></a></div><a href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/%24s_!vvBj!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fd9da008d-1117-4ab4-b4cc-6196523c2368_1423x801.jpeg"></a></div><a href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/%24s_!vvBj!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fd9da008d-1117-4ab4-b4cc-6196523c2368_1423x801.jpeg"></a><figcaption>Matt Damon as Odysseus</figcaption></figure></div><p><span>There were also plenty of missed opportunities, particularly when it came to the visual world of the film. While the cinematography was often stunning, it nevertheless perpetuated the familiar </span><a href="https://classicalwisdom.substack.com/p/the-brightly-colored-past"><span>misconception of an all-white ancient world</span></a><span>. Color had been drained from the fabrics, the walls were left bare, and the temples and palaces looked more like the weathered ruins we visit today than the vibrant Mycenaean spaces they once were.</span></p><p><span>The world the ancients inhabited was alive with color. Painted walls, richly patterned textiles, vibrant frescoes, and brightly decorated architecture would have surrounded them everywhere they looked. We have lost so much of that brilliance in favour of a modern preference for clean stone and muted palettes. It is a loss, frankly, that I mourn... and I couldn’t help wishing this had been the moment to bring some of that ancient vibrancy back to life.</span></p><p><strong><span>The Medium of the Movie</span></strong></p><p><span>Overall, it was a remarkably impressive achievement considering the task at hand, to render not only one of the world’s greatest epics into a modern medium, but also to weave together much of the Trojan Cycle and many of its most important mythological traditions... all in just three hours.</span></p><p><span>Indeed, this is often one of the greatest surprises for readers coming to Homer for the first time... that the Wooden Horse appears in neither the </span><em><span>Iliad</span></em><span> nor the </span><em><span>Odyssey</span></em><span>. In fact, the most detailed surviving account of the famous gift that brought about Troy’s destruction comes from Virgil’s </span><em><span>Aeneid</span></em><span>, written some seven hundred years after Homer composed his epics. That doesn’t make Virgil’s version any less valuable, however. He was drawing upon a rich body of mythological traditions, many of which have sadly been lost to time.</span></p><div><div><div><p><strong>Help us preserve the lessons of the past! Subscribe to Classical Wisdom and keep the ancients alive:</strong></p></div><div><div></div><div></div></div></div></div><p></p><p><span>So I was pleased that Nolan’s </span><em><span>Odyssey</span></em><span> drew on a much broader mythological and literary tradition, rather than focusing solely on the </span><em><span>Odyssey</span></em><span> itself. He incorporated later authors, such as Virgil, alongside the ancient tragedians, most notably Aeschylus’ </span><em><span>Oresteia</span></em><span>. This was an important choice. Ancient audiences didn’t experience these stories as isolated works. They might hear a passage from the </span><em><span>Odyssey</span></em><span>, yet immediately understand where it belonged within the larger tapestry of Greek myth, much as those steeped in the Bible can hear of Jesus turning water into wine or carrying the cross and instinctively place those moments within the greater story of his life.</span></p><p><span>Naturally, trying to capture so much meant that certain elements had to be condensed. The land of the Phaeacians, the Lotus-Eaters, and Calypso’s island, for instance, were collapsed into one. It worked, though, and given the scope of the task, it made a great deal of sense.</span></p><p><strong><span>What Nolan Got Right</span></strong></p><p><span>I can’t imagine how daunting the task of bringing all the fantastical elements of the </span><em><span>Odyssey</span></em><span> to the screen must have been. Whether it was the Cyclops, the Laestrygonians, Scylla and Charybdis, or Circe, the expectations were enormous. Personally, though, I thought they nailed it. Even as a seasoned Homer enthusiast, I found myself on the edge of my seat, completely swept up in the suspense and wonder.</span></p><p><span>Likewise, Circe and Calypso were given the psychological depth that has fascinated modern readers and transformed what were once seen as relatively flat characters into richly nuanced figures. Someone on the creative team has almost certainly read </span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PN7h0dCKWAo"><span>Madeline Miller’s wonderful </span></a><em><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PN7h0dCKWAo"><span>Circe</span></a></em><span>!</span></p><div><figure><a href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/%24s_!yDUn!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F428b217e-b427-42e0-97a7-ba90ef655edf_1000x666.webp"></a><div><a href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/%24s_!yDUn!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F428b217e-b427-42e0-97a7-ba90ef655edf_1000x666.webp"></a><source type="image/webp"><a href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/%24s_!yDUn!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F428b217e-b427-42e0-97a7-ba90ef655edf_1000x666.webp"><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/%24s_!yDUn!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F428b217e-b427-42e0-97a7-ba90ef655edf_1000x666.webp" width="1000" height="666" alt=""></a></source><a href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/%24s_!yDUn!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F428b217e-b427-42e0-97a7-ba90ef655edf_1000x666.webp"></a><div><a href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/%24s_!yDUn!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F428b217e-b427-42e0-97a7-ba90ef655edf_1000x666.webp"></a><div><a href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/%24s_!yDUn!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F428b217e-b427-42e0-97a7-ba90ef655edf_1000x666.webp"></a></div><a href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/%24s_!yDUn!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F428b217e-b427-42e0-97a7-ba90ef655edf_1000x666.webp"></a></div><a href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/%24s_!yDUn!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F428b217e-b427-42e0-97a7-ba90ef655edf_1000x666.webp"></a></div><a href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/%24s_!yDUn!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F428b217e-b427-42e0-97a7-ba90ef655edf_1000x666.webp"></a><figcaption>Samantha Morton as Circe</figcaption></figure></div><p><span>Calypso, too, is not reduced to a possessive, villainous goddess from whom Odysseus simply longs to escape. Instead, her island becomes something far more interesting, a place of reflection and transformation. Indeed, as Odysseus comes to realizations on Calypso’s island, I recalled </span><a href="https://classicalwisdom.substack.com/p/odysseus-the-antihero"><span>my recent conversation with Joel Christensen about </span></a><em><a href="https://classicalwisdom.substack.com/p/odysseus-the-antihero"><span>nostos</span></a></em><span>. The </span><em><span>Odyssey</span></em><span>, he argued, is not simply about getting home, but about becoming the kind of person who can return home. In that light, Calypso’s island becomes more than a prison. It becomes the place where Odysseus begins to reckon with everything he has endured, preparing himself for the far more difficult journey that still lies ahead, not the voyage across the sea, but the journey back into his own life.</span></p><p><span>I also loved the way the film situated the epic within the wider Bronze Age, with the immense collapse of that civilization looming dramatically over the story. Bringing in this historicity broadened the narrative, and contextualized the Trojan War and Odysseus’ long journey home within a world that was itself falling apart. It lent the epic an added sense of loss, an end of an era... Indeed, they could have done even more with it! </span></p><p><span>But it was a thoughtful touch that history lovers will no doubt appreciate.</span></p><p><a href="https://classicalwisdom.substack.com/p/the-bad-the-good-and-the-odyssey?utm_source=substack&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_content=share&amp;action=share"><span>Share</span></a></p><p><span>Perhaps the film’s greatest success, however, is that it truly pays its respects to the deeper themes of the poem rather than merely being driven by the superficialities of the plot. Essential ideas such as </span><em><span>xenia</span></em><span>, the sacred duty of hospitality, are threaded throughout, revealing something of the beliefs and values that shaped the ancient Greek world. </span></p><p><span>Likewise, </span><em><span>nostos</span></em><span>, the idea of homecoming, is not reduced to simply arriving after years away. Instead, it is portrayed as a far more complex journey, one of becoming the person who can finally return home.</span></p><p><span>Nolan also explores what it truly means to come home, </span><a href="https://classicalwisdom.substack.com/p/the-greatest-journey-begins-after"><span>the very subject of my last article</span></a><span>, in which I discussed why so much of Odysseus’ journey begins only once he reaches Ithaka. The process of recognition, of recognizing and being recognized by Eumaeus, Argos, Telemachus, and finally Penelope, is essential to his homecoming. Home is not merely a place to which one returns, but a relationship that must be rediscovered... and a self that must be recovered.</span></p><p><span>I won’t say anything more about the ending for fear of spoilers... except to say that I found it disappointin</span>g. It was, by some distance, the film’s greatest departure from the ancient tradition.</p><div><figure><a href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/%24s_!BFQY!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F61226f7a-4c6f-4731-8d57-7c893579c7a3_1456x971.webp"></a><div><a href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/%24s_!BFQY!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F61226f7a-4c6f-4731-8d57-7c893579c7a3_1456x971.webp"></a><source type="image/webp"><a href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/%24s_!BFQY!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F61226f7a-4c6f-4731-8d57-7c893579c7a3_1456x971.webp"><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/%24s_!BFQY!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F61226f7a-4c6f-4731-8d57-7c893579c7a3_1456x971.webp" width="1456" height="971" alt=""></a></source><a href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/%24s_!BFQY!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F61226f7a-4c6f-4731-8d57-7c893579c7a3_1456x971.webp"></a><div><a href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/%24s_!BFQY!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F61226f7a-4c6f-4731-8d57-7c893579c7a3_1456x971.webp"></a><div><a href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/%24s_!BFQY!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F61226f7a-4c6f-4731-8d57-7c893579c7a3_1456x971.webp"></a></div><a href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/%24s_!BFQY!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F61226f7a-4c6f-4731-8d57-7c893579c7a3_1456x971.webp"></a></div><a href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/%24s_!BFQY!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F61226f7a-4c6f-4731-8d57-7c893579c7a3_1456x971.webp"></a></div><a href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/%24s_!BFQY!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F61226f7a-4c6f-4731-8d57-7c893579c7a3_1456x971.webp"></a><figcaption>Anne Hathaway as Penelope </figcaption></figure></div><p><strong><span>The Best Part: The Odyssey</span></strong></p><p><span>So yes, there were issues. Of course there always would be... It would be almost impossible to take such a beloved and foundational work of Western literature, one that has shaped our civilization for nearly three thousand years, and render it into a film that would satisfy everyone.</span></p><p><span>There are inaccuracies, departures from both the poem and the historical world it depicts... and certainly the process of making the film was influenced as much by popular culture as by artistic integrity. And yes, that’s a shame.</span></p><p><span>But overall, I thought it was remarkably well done. It was engaging, thoughtful, and, above all, it reminded me why I fell in love with the </span><em><span>Odyssey</span></em><span> in the first place. I walked out of the cinema loving Homer a little more than when I walked in.</span></p><p><span>To me, the very best part of all this was returning to the epic itself. Over the past few months, I’ve re-read it, written about it, discussed it, and reflected on it in anticipation of this blockbuster event. I found myself reconsidering its meaning, seeing it anew from a different perspective and at a different stage of my life than the last time I made the journey.</span></p><p><span>And I didn’t find it wanting. Quite the opposite. It deepened my appreciation in ways I hadn’t expected.</span></p><p><span>And isn’t that one of the greatest signs of a true classic? That it grows alongside us. </span></p><p><span>The words remain the same, but we do not. Every return reveals something we had overlooked before...not because Homer has changed, but because we have.</span></p><p><span>So if this film encourages even a handful of people to pick up Homer for the first time, or to return to him after many years, then it will already have accomplished something rather wonderful.</span></p><p><span>And for that, I am truly grateful...</span></p> <p><a href="https://classicalwisdom.substack.com/p/the-bad-the-good-and-the-odyssey" target="_blank">- Enlace a artículo -</a></p> <p>Más info en https://ift.tt/KYLo1J6 / Tfno. & WA 607725547 Centro MENADEL (Frasco Martín) Psicología Clínica y Tradicional en Mijas. #Menadel #Psicología #Clínica #Tradicional #MijasPueblo</p> <p>*No suscribimos necesariamente las opiniones o artículos aquí compartidos. No todo es lo que parece.</p>