The Odyssey Hullabaloo

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

What I understand is you guys get overly worked up about stupid stuff.

Complacency about cultural subversion is how we got where we are in the first place. The original work of the Odyssey will certainly remain despite this movie, if it can even be found anymore, but, in the culture at large, in the public consciousness, the image of black Helen of Troy, trans whatever the hell Page was, and all of the other revisions of the story will be the more prominent view of the work. And that is the purpose of such revisionism. Stephen King is trash, and nobody gives a damn if the movie version of one of his trash books fails to be faithful to his trash writing, but the Odyssey is a civilizational Classic. It carries great cultural significance. There is a reason it has lasted thousands of years, whereas King's trash will be gone in a generation.

In a time where the PHYSICAL replacement of the populations of Western Civilization are occurring at a breakneck pace, only a damned fool would fail to recognize the CULTURAL replacement. There is a reason that current incarnations of King Arthur legends, or documentaries about Cleopatra, replace the very white original characters, fictional or real, with the non-white intended replacements. Erase the history and culture to make a people weak, and then erase the people.

Perhaps your leftist sensibilities will not allow you to see what's plainly in front of your face, or perhaps you support it, but don't expect reasonable people to acquiesce to their own destruction quietly.

Physical copies of the Odyssey are very easy find.

And now I’ve seen the movie. And once again you cannot critique a movie without seeing. Let’s talk about some of the idiotic woke accusations:
Page and Nyong’o are on screen for a combined of under 5 minutes.
The “feminism” in the movie is really not much more than giving Penelope an arc and a little agency. Calypso also gets a tiny arc. And Circe is little sympathetic.

Outside of that it’s a damn good movie. Typical Nolan pacing, only feels like a 2 hour movie. Great shots, great FX (very little CG, Nolan hates CG), great acting, excellent interpretation of the story. Honestly you guys are missing out.

That’s hilarious you picked King Arthur as some immutable story that shouldn’t be altered. The actual legend of King Arthur, from around 830 AD, is pretty skinny. Just lists some battles really. Then there’s the Welsh poem that doesn’t even have him as a king, he’s just a warrior defending Britain. It’s not until the 12th century Arthurian legend really takes off, modernized (12th century modern obviously) and starts sucking up a whole bunch of other legends (like the Green Knight suddenly becoming Gawain). You see, this Arthurian Legend you think is so precious is really just a bunch of fan-fic and remakes. He’s been constantly morphing over the centuries to fit the desires of the story teller.

BUT, and here’s where you’re really proven to be completely full of, the fact that Arthurian Legend keeps getting rewritten also keeps the originals alive. If it wasn’t for the 12th century explosion of retelling of Arthur we probably wouldn’t have that legend anymore today. There’s tons of these kinds of stories that are largely lost to history, unless hang out with a very specific crowd of history nerds. But remakes, re-imaginings, fan-fic, movie adaptations, these are the things that introduce a new generation to the old stories. Without them, the old stories go away.

It’s why there was another reprinting of the Iliad and Odyssey in 2024, just a few months before The Return came out. Somebody saw money in the bank, that that movie, and now this movie, would respawn interest in the books. So far from erasing history these things PRESERVE history.

But you’ll never understand that, because you’re addicted to seeing yourself as a great defender of western civilization. You’re not. You’re an old man yelling at the clouds on an anonymous message board. I mean so am I. But I can admit it. You can’t.

So we’re done. Buh bye, have a great day. I truly hope you see this movie, I think you’ll actually like it if you can open your eyes. It’s damn good.

You’re an old man yelling at the clouds on an anonymous message board. I mean so am I. But I can admit it. You can’t.

I'm not yelling at clouds. This is a discussion board. This is its very purpose. I know I can't convince the likes of you, someone without a soul, of anything, but there are others who might read this far who see an idea that resonates with them, that expresses a feeling they might not yet have been able to put into words. That's the value here. But principles and ideas I'm sure are things that you don't care much about. You seem to be the kind of person who would defend the presence of the illegal alien that raped and killed his daughter because people should think of the food they bring.

I find it funny that you try to characterize me, but all you're doing is telling me about yourself. You're a guy on a political discussion forum who is shocked that politics enters into almost every discussion. But hey, you go enjoy your movie, if that's all you really have.

I went, with my wife and son, to see the movie on IMAX today. As a group, we all liked it.

Yes... I was ticked off to see Achilles portrayed by a transexual... even more to see the added dialogue that suggested the feats of Achilles were “exaggerated”. Seeing and ugly “Helen of Troy” was annoying. But it was a highly entertaining movie.

I never studied or read Homer’s works. I’m more inclined now to want to. The messages in this movie were timeless, and worthwhile. The action was gripping. Time flew by... and overall, I think, it’s a GOOD thing for America to see. The men were MANLY... well, other than Achilles. But who really thinks he wasn’t manly?

Zendaya, and maybe she plays Athena, or maybe not.
I’ll put a spoiler warning here just to be polite to random scrollers:
Throughout the movie Odysseus keeps seeing a character played by Zendaya, and conversing with her and calling her Athena
Nobody else can see her
And then way to the end of the movie when we get the sacking of Troy we see another character played by Zendaya grabbed by Greek soldiers, who are about to chop off her head, on the steps of Athena’s temple, they cut away from the actual beheading but the statue of Athena’s head comes off with a clean break (like a cut) at the neck
And we get reminded periodically throughout the movie that the gods can appear as anybody (be nice to the beggar, could be Zeus or any other god in disguise)
So the chick Odysseus sees could be Athena in the guise of the girl he saw executed
Or could be that girl’s ghost and Odysseus just keeps calling her Athena
Or could be he’s just off his nut and hallucinating

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