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Posted on 07/16/2026 5:57:29 AM PDT by 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
(Excerpt) Read more at amgreatness.com ...
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Will no one rid me of this turbulent actress?
VDH ping
VDH is shredding the left’s sexist claim of The Odyssey and The Iliad.
No literature classes, but plenty of Womyn's Studies classes. That's just sad.
I always point out to feminists count your blessings you live in America, so shut-up and enjoy the fact you are not a slave in a hijab or mud hut.
If memory serves me I believe I read her being quoted as insane she never even heard of The Odyssey. Not just that she hadn’t read it
It’s gonna do a header into the abyss just like supergirl did.
There must be a reason for putting out this trash but box-office receipts ain’t it.
“I always point out to feminists count your blessings you live in America, so shut-up and enjoy the fact you are not a slave in a hijab or mud hut.”
That’s in our future once the “religion” of lies, hate, misogyny and rape takes over. Perhaps the sure to come civil war might prevent it, but who knows?
In 1963, while a 4th grader, our teacher read the story every morning for about 30 minutes. I recall many of the scenes which she read. I wouldn’t think myself an expert on it. But the hog does.
I’ve read theories that the female actors who are talking up the female empowerment angle in pre-release interviews are intentionally generating controversy that isn’t in the movie with a goal of creating good critical reviews. The idea is that the critics will knee-jerk give the movie good reviews if they think Nolan made some feminist take on the Odessey. Critics who have seen it say that isn’t the case, and that the controversial casting - Lupita Nyong’o and Elliot Page - aren’t in it that much despite how prominent they were displayed in pre-release advertising. So its all a plot and Nolan is betting that most people just won’t pay attention to the culture war and will see it anyway. If true, its an evil genius plot that may work. But for it to work, Nolan would have to make a good movie and he may fail on more conventional grounds like boring plot, bad color and sound, too long and bad casting that has nothing to do with race or gender swapping. When I first heard about the casting, my biggest disappointment was Matt Damon as Odysseus. That’s horrible casting to me. So are Tom Holland and Zendaya. None of them are right for a Greek epic.
To me part of the magic and history is this great sweeping epic and others (Sparta, Athens, Greece etc.) being so concentrated in such a small intense, brilliant area of the ancient world, it is like a live birth of the great Western world, so much bursting forth so hot and intense from such a tiny dot and peoples of the world.
When you bring in black Africans and the modern casting it kills the magic by bringing one back to global mobility, jet airliners, international trade crossing the globe, immigration, more modern history, diversity and multiculturalism, it takes you out of the moment and wipes out most of why the tale is special and enduring in the first place being a window into our birth, it makes it just another action film with no core.
I have yet to hear about who is even playing the lead character of Odysseus.
I wonder what’s next. Maybe Nyong’o will demand that all of Homer’s works be burned. And all digital copies be deleted.
After all, that is the leftist way.
Wow it’s amazing how much free press haters of this movie are generating for it. If I was a conspiracy oriented person I’d say this hating is actually bought and paid for as part of the movie’s promotion.
> There must be a reason for putting out this trash… <
I have a general theory about that. Ten people are at a meeting. Nine of them are relatively sane. But one is extremely woke. The woke person proposes something that is both politically correct and very stupid.
The other nine know it’s a bad idea. But no one speaks up, for fear of being called a racist or a hater.
So the woke guy’s proposal is adopted.
Homer created for men what has proven to be a wonderfully timeless measure of womanhood. The quantification of measure is the mili-Helen System
Helen was the Spartan woman for whom a thousand ships were launched to achieve her rescue. She is historically believed to be the most beautiful of all women. She represents the top value of 1,000 mili-Helens
A woman’s beauty can be measured in mili-Helens. Thus an average woman is quantified at the level of 500 mili-Helens. That is, 500 ships would be launched to permit her rescue.
The timeless message of Homer proves as valuable to day as it was centuries ago
In early showings, I’ve seen complaints that bad sound quality makes following the dialog difficult. Hopefully they quickly fixed that ahead of the regular release.
Idiot...
When education becomes indoctrination.
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