Christopher Nolan's Odyssey 1: What you need to know before you go
7/9/202648 min
Christopher Nolan’s adaptation of The Odyssey - the most eagerly anticipated event since Odysseus spied the shores of Ithaca - is almost with us at last. Mary and Charlotte have been exploring Homer’s epic over the last year in the Instant Classics Book Club, but if you’re time poor or just want a little refresher, then you’ll find the basics in this pre-screening primer.
In the first half, they run through what actually happens in The Odyssey, as Odysseus, a twisty-turny man, makes his twisty-turny way back home. In the second, they pull out some of the big themes from the book - the problems of homecoming, post-traumatic disorder, the cost of war, growing up, fidelity, colonisation, and the thin line between so-called civilisation and so-called barbarism. This poem really does have everything, yet manages to be poetic and hugely entertaining while about it. In theory, it’s the perfect material for Christopher Nolan, who has long been fascinated with non-linear story-telling, the effects of war, and journeys. But whether he succeeds will be the subject of next week’s episode…
Further reading
Charlotte and Mary usually quote from Emily Wilson’s translation of the poem (W. W. Norton, 2018), but another good recent translation is by Daniel Mendelsohn (Chicago UP and Penguin Classics, 2025). But there are many translations on offer which will not mislead – so do not get too anxious about getting the “right” one.
Approachable introductions to the poem include:
Barbara Graziosi, Homer: a very short introduction (Oxford UP, 2019)
Edith Hall, The Return of Ulysses (I. B. Tauris, 2012)
Elton Barker and Joel Christensen, Homer: a beginner’s guide (Oneworld, 2013)
Moses Finley, The World of Odysseus is an old favourite (reissued by New York Review of Books, 2002)
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Clips
Transcript preview
First 90 secondsCharlotte Higgins· Host0:00
Well, it's a very big month for ancient Greek epic, Mary Beard, and therefore also for us It sure is.
Mary Beard· Host0:08
And, uh, the reason for that is obvious. It's July that sees the release of Christopher Nolan's adaptation of Homer's epic poem, The Odyssey, one of the earliest and the most celebrated works in the whole of world literature.
Charlotte Higgins· Host0:27
It's a huge deal when a director with, uh, Christopher Nolan's form, I mean, this is the man behind films like Oppenheimer, Inception, and Dunkirk, takes on one of the giants of the literary canon. [laughs] And there's been months and months of speculation about the casting, the scripting, the locations, basically everything about the movie.
Mary Beard· Host0:48
We are really looking forward to it, um, but not without a bit of trepidation. See what he's done with it. But it, it also seems fair to speculate that more people are going to go and see The Odyssey movie than have read the actual Odyssey poem, and reading the Odyssey poem can, you know, let's be honest, seem quite a forbidding prospect.
Charlotte Higgins· Host1:17
But it really definitely needn't be that way. The Odyssey is a truly rewarding poem to read, and we're here to give you a helping hand because we have our book