I had this book as a child. Must of read it dozens of times.
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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I had this book as a child. Must of read it dozens of times.
I’m just not going to be able to get over Matt Damon as Odysseus. He is just not right for historical period dramas or epics. I saw him in The Last Duel and it was horrible. I was watching Matt Damon the entire time. He is good in other movies - ones set in modern times. But I would see Matt Damon in the Odyssey. I’d also see Tom Holland and Zendaya. I would not be able to get into the story.
true but that can only go so far. asses in seats is what counts
Kind of my theory on Tesla trucks. In a meeting someone is doodling and winds up with what looks like the Tesla truck. Someone else says... wow that’s ugly and the guy who drew it says...betcha we could sell that. The other people say nah, no way. So they make bets on whether or not it will sell. Yay or nay. Then they build it to find out. lol
Nolan movies always make money. Even when you think they shouldn’t. And millions of dollars worth of free advertising from whiny babies is definitely going help.
A very hard pass for me.
Every Nolan movie gets that complaint. It’s tradition now.
The Odyssey is an embodiment of Hellenic culture—and still deeply revered in Greece as an iconic symbol of the ongoing national experience. Given the tradition of brilliant Greek actresses such as Irene Pappas or Melina Mercouri, Nolan might have employed at least one Greek actor or actress in an epic about the indomitable people of Greece.
Who better than the Greek scholar himself, to comment on The Odyssey? He can read it in the original ancient Greek - something Mr Nolan or Lupita Nyong’o have not demonstrated.
FR Index of his articles: Victor Davis Hanson on FR
Town Hall: Victor Davis Hanson on Town Hall
American Greatness: Victor Davis Hanson on American Greatness
His website: Victor Davis Hanson The Sword of Perseus
One of his sponsors' website: The Daily Signal
Please let me know if you want on or off this new VDH ping list.
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Furthermore they were White. Therefore responsible for slavery in the early USA.
Right? 
We'll be seeing Will Smith, or maybe Samuel L. Jackson as Abraham Lincoln any day now.
Arghhhhh. That makes me crazy in films, especially when watching with my wife or other people.
When the dynamic level is all over the map, I choose to wear headphones with the sound turned up, so I can hear the dialogue which is so soft it makes me itchy, and explosions and actions that are ear-popplingly loud, but that is the only way.
Otherwise, my wife is suffering at the loud parts, and I am squirming in frustration at trying to hear the low dialogue.
Whatever. I have no intention of seeing this, whatever anyone wants to call it.
I hope so, but Grok was clear weeks in advance that Supergirl was going to bomb and he’s saying this one will be one of the most—if not the most—financially successful films of the year.
Apparently it’s Matt Damon.
The film’s not even out yet and I’ve already lost interest. Someone watch it and let me know how bad it sucked.
Am looking forward to watching so I can make up my own mind.
Read The Odyssey over two semesters including time reading Clark’s translation into Latin. A great story.
Victor Davis Hanson is a national treasure.
Whoever said “woke is dead” hasn’t been paying attention. Woke is still alive and well and deperately needs killing. Put a fork in it.
Woke movies like Nolan’s idiotic Odd Assy needs to be pummeled into the stone age by normal people. Here is hoping it bombs terribly and flops just like Snow White and Supergirl.
On a slightly different topic, I think Nolans work is ass. He could be brilliant in the past with stuff like Memento and Inception. His more recent stuff is trash. He even completely messed up something as easy to tell as Dunkirk. Interstellar sucks ass despite all of the critical praise.
I haven’t seen Oppenheimer, so there is that.
I thought that Homer’s Odyssey was a lot more boring and draggy than Homer’s Illiad.
But then I couldn’t get through Tolkein’s “The Two Towers” either. The half with Frodo and Sam painstakingly crawling toward Mordor was simply torture to read. It took me at least 4 attempts to force myself to finish that half of the book and I would never read it again.
Hollywood is dead and can't make a good movie today. I wouldn't see any modern Hollywood movie today for free. Not if you paid me. If I ever see another Hollywood movie made after 2010, it will be because it has been highly recommended by word of mouth from friends and relatives I trust, or such as being proven overwhelmingly approved here on FR as solid entertainment without any woke influence. Otherwise, I don't plan to see another modern Hollywood movie for the rest of my life. There are still hundreds of movies from the 1940s through 1990s that I have yet to watch, all of which are at least not the woke waste matter that depraved Hollywood is putting out today.
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