The Odyssey Hullabaloo

American Greatness ^ | 16 Jul, 2026 | Victor Davis Hanson

[MtnClimber]

Lupita Nyong’o calls Homer’s 'The Odyssey' sexist, but the ancient epic’s women tell a far different story.

Acclaimed British filmmaker Christopher Nolan’s (The Dark Knight, Oppenheimer) newest film, The Odyssey, opens this week in the United States.

But controversy has already surrounded Nolan’s adaptation of Homer’s 2,700-year-old epic poem about Odysseus’s 10-year struggle to return home after the Achaian victory in the decade-long Trojan War.

Some of the film’s actresses have suggested that Nolan is offering a more feminist—and long-overdue—take on the ancient poem. Actress Lupita Nyong’o, in particular, has criticized Homer’s purported sexism.

Perhaps her misreading of Homer stems from her admission that, despite receiving degrees from elite Hampshire College and Yale, the 42-year-old actress had never even read the Odyssey until she was cast in the minor dual roles of Helen and her sister Clytemnestra.

The Odyssey was composed orally sometime around 750–700 B.C., contemporaneously with the rise of the Greek city-state. Along with Homer’s other epic, The Iliad, The Odyssey marks the inauguration of Western literature. Over the next three millennia, it came to be recognized as not only the earliest but also one of the most profound works of Western civilization.

Far from being sexist, Homer’s Odyssey offers a timeless and diverse panorama of powerful, independent, and savvy women.

Take Penelope, the wife of Odysseus and queen of Ithaca. Unquestionably loyal to her missing husband, she outsmarts the bloodthirsty suitors who seek to force her into marriage and seize the kingdom through her steadfast courage and cunning.

She confounds them through a series of brilliant ruses, ultimately enabling her husband’s revenge.

Far different, but equally independent and crafty, are the immortal sorceress Circe and the divine nymph Calypso, who both shelter, seduce, and eventually bond with Odysseus. Both ultimately release him to continue his tragic journey

[stanne]

Did you read the article by VDH that you’re actually commenting on?

Do you know that Nolan is highly educated in literature? And that he has read many interpretations of the odyssey? Do you know anything about what you’re commenting on? They’re all opinions of a movie you have not seen

I’ve had enough of your opinions

I never sought them out

[fr_freak]

No. You can’t. It’s a 3 hour movie. And until you see the bits put together the trailers don’t tell you very much.

Yes, you can. Perhaps you're the kind of person who watches a movie for an hour and thinks "Well the first hour sucked, but how will I know if this is a good movie unless I watch the second hour?" But most other people are more intuitive. I also find it telling that you are outraged that people would attack the film without having seen it, but you can defend it without having seen it.

See the idiot brigade decided Page, with ZERO evidence at all, was playing Achilles. But that’s not the role Page is playing. Sinon, a spy. Thus proving my point, you CANNOT critique a movie you haven’t seen. You can’t even get the cast right.

I didn't say a thing about Page playing Achilles. If you can't even get that minimal reading comprehension right, then I can't take anything you say seriously.

Look, I get it. You are horrified by all the resistance to cultural subversion and "wokeness". You are enraged by the refusal of potential viewers to open their mouths and say "aaah" when the big Hollywood slop spoon comes at them making airplane noises. You like to touch your naughty places when you see diversity. But your love for all things hollow and degenerate is your business, and your business alone. No one else has to worship your false god.

[MinorityRepublican]

And Supergirl suffered from superhero fatigue, people are largely sick of superhero movies.

They did Wonder Woman right and that was because of Gal Gadot.

[Verginius Rufus]

Just wait until one of these characters read's Homer's Iliad and discovers that he condones treating captured women as sex slaves. The horror!

[stanne]

“ They did Wonder Woman right and that was because of Gal Gadot.”

Wonder Woman was something that girls wanted. Girls loved The TV series and many of younger generations do who have followed it

She was a girl who could follow order and be a successful girl with cheerfulness, charm and power.

The sparkling red boots, the gold rope, the spin, the non man-hating island of women. The cheerfulness and American-loving joy. They were all missing in the film. The sequel was a bomb. It was total TDS

Wonder Woman was definitely not done right. Gal Gadot could have gotten it right with a good script

It was terrible. The girls went right back to their 1980s boxed sets to put Lynda Carter back on

[Dr. Sivana]

I’ve had enough of your opinions

I never sought them out

Yes you did. In post #63.

I am sure that Nolan is highly educated in literature. The fact that he chose a bad, inaccurate translation as the basis of his work despite being highly educated in literature is a reflection on him. If he is disingenuous, and lets his education override the bad translation, that does not reflect well on him either. For now, I will take him at his word.

First you say I won't answer your questions, and then you say you never sought out my answers. You can have enough of my opinions. This is "Free Republic", and posts can be responded to.

[stanne]

“I’ve had enough of your opinions
I never sought them out”

Yes you did. In post #63.

Post #63:

Dr. Sivana-“This Homer revisionism”

Stanne- ‘You saw the movie? You know Homer?’

You don’t know the difference between a yes/no question and an opinion seeking question?

Yes you do. Everyone does

Get away from me

[Dr. Sivana]

I read both the Iliad and the Odyssey in college, which I detailed in another post. I do not have to submit to your framing, when the “yes/no” question implies that one who hasn’t seen the movie has no standing to make a judgment regardless of outside evidence.

Again, this is Free Republic. If you offer an opinion, or the rebuttal of someone else’s opinion, posters following guidelines are free to respond. You addressed me before I responded to you. Even a “yes/no” question can be seeking an opinion.

If you don’t want me to respond, stop accusing me. I will not let you ask me a question, and then let you answer it for me, and then say, stop responding. That is not reasonable. Read your last post again:

“You don’t know the difference between a yes/no question and an opinion seeking question?”

“Yes you do. Everyone does”

“Get away from me”

[stanne]

Did you see the movie?

That’s yes/no

Anyone’s opinion on a movie they have not seen is certainly in a different category from opinions of those who have seen the movie

Enough

[Dr. Sivana]

We are all in the same category, as the movie is not released, and we are not on the special preview list.

The question was an implicit “if you have not seen the movie, you cannot have an informed opinion on it”.

I haven’t seen “A Clockwork Orange”, “Rocky”, “M*A*S*H”, “The Barbie Movie”, “Meghan Markle’s ‘As Ever’ Lifestyle Show” and yet I have opinions of them based on factual information.

You are definitely sticking around and responding to all who disagree with you, and that’s great. I do not accept the idea that I need to see a movie that I may or may not see to form an opinion on aspects of that movie based on reliable sources.

[stanne]

Not interested in your opinions on something you nor anyone you know has not seen

If you mush have the last word you must. Take this as the response

[discostu]

The first Wonder Woman was good. Wonder Woman 1984 was terrible. Takes more than a good actress to make a movie work.

[rlmorel]

It’s been my observation that when people start complaining about your grammar or format, instead of the issue, they’ve run out of relevant things to say and they end up, trying to shoot the messenger instead of the message.

That’s fine.

I think we can agree on this. I made a mistake pinging you on it… But I can make sure I don’t do that again.

[MinorityRepublican]

The first Wonder Woman was good. Wonder Woman 1984 was terrible.

Haven't seen Wonder Woman 1984.

Obviously they were working with a bad script which is typical of Hollywood nowadays.

[discostu]

But you can’t. You proved it. Page isn’t a muscular warrior. Whichever muscular you were referring too that’s not who Page is playing.

I’m not horrified by anything. I’m hysterically laughing at you clowns going on and on and on about a movie you haven’t seen, and don’t want to. You guys have spent 3 or 4 times the length of the movie obsessing about it. It’s hysterical. You’re hysterical. Also pathetic. Only person worshiping a false god here is you, the false god of your own uninformed opinion.

Really, as I said to the other one. If you don’t want to watch it fine. No big deal. But that’s the key, you need to understand that not wanting to watch a movie, ANY movie, is no big deal. So be smart and just move on.

[wardaddy]

Stanne has a moderate view on culture war
Good luck

Suicidal empathy

[ChildOfThe60s]

I can’t claim to having read the Aeneid or the Odyssey or the Iliad. I can however lay claim to having read the unabridged version of Don Quixote. We were threatened with our lives not to read an abridged version.

I will throw in One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich
by Alexander Solzhenitsyn. Which I read in the 7th grade.

[Bullish]

Don’t worry, her 15 min of fame are already used up.

[fr_freak]

I’m hysterically laughing at you clowns going on and on and on about a movie you haven’t seen, and don’t want to.

See, that's the part that you clearly don't understand. Or maybe you do, and you're just being a troll. People don't give a damn about the movie, itself. They care about Western Civilization. They care about a long cultural tradition, of which literature is a huge part, and of which the Odyssey is one of the most prominent works.

Some Hollywood a-hole, yet again, decides to piss all over a great work of literature, and to piss on all of the culture that it represents, to the point where an ENTIRE COUNTRY has objected to it as a matter of national pride, and we got soulless people such as yourself saying "Hurr durr it's just a movie, what's the big deal." That you could be on a conservative discussion board for so long, even filled with as much mushy-headed leftist indoctrination as you clearly are, and not understand the difference between objection to a movie as a deconstruction of society and culture at large and an objection the the quality of the movie, itself, is an amazing testament to the insidious mix of long-term subversive propaganda exposure and the Dunning-Kruger Effect.

But hey, you go on "laughing hysterically" at people who object to the theft and degradation of their cultural heritage. That's totally a normal, non-bug-eyed thing to do. Although I suspect that you haven't truly laughed in years.

[discostu]

Actually I understand entirely that you CANNOT spend HOURS complaining about a movie you don’t give a damn about. If you didn’t give a damn you wouldn’t be whining on this thread.

They’re not pissing on a work of literature. They’re making a movie. There’s an apocryphal story of an interviewer asking either Roger Zelazny or Stephen King about how Hollywood ruined one of their books (I actually think it was Zelazny, the book and movie being Damnation Alley and King referenced it later). And they answered the one true answer:
They didn’t ruin my book, the book’s right there. They ruined their movie, but my book is fine.

See even if ALL your complaints wind up accurate (even though we already know they aren’t), the book is fine.

What I understand is you guys get overly worked up about stupid stuff. And you do it over and over again. Every movie or book or TV show you don’t like is the NEXT GREAT CRISIS. And yet none of them are. None of them EVER are. None of them ever will be. Because it IS just a movie. And like all things is temporary. And a few years now only the big fans of it will care. And 3 months from now you’ll have moved on to the next hysterical whine. And I’ll still be laughing at you.

You’re not defending our cultural heritage. You’re inflating your self importance. And that’s ALWAYS hilarious.