USC Attempts to Jump on ‘The Odyssey’ Bandwagon in Literary Misfire

Apparently, USC does not have any literature classes — or at least none on ancient Greece. Christopher Nolan’s “The Odyssey” hit theaters on Friday, and the USC football team tried to get in on the fun, posting “Our Odyssey begins August 29” on X, referring to their first game of the year.

The issue with that is Homer’s 8th century epic poem “The Odyssey” follows Odysseus’ 10-year journey back to Greece after defeating the city of Troy in the Trojan War — the same city that serves as inspiration for USC’s nickname. The literary Trojans never had an odyssey.

In fact, Troy was burned and destroyed during the Trojan war, according to Homer’s earlier poem “Iliad” — with very limited survivors.

Actually, the article author could do well to take a good Greek literature class himself.

The burning and destruction of Troy was foretold as a fate... in the Iliad—— but NOT reported there.
(Neither was it reported in the Odyssey — though there are four books of the Odyssey with partial recollections of the battle, etc.)

The actual fall and burning of Troy are detailed in the Epic Cycle, specifically a lost poem known as the Iliupersis (The Sack of Ilium), as well as in later works like Virgil’s Aeneid.

Some years ago,
some of the boys in the then-Stonier (”stoned”) USC dormitory got upset when it was announced that the university was about to build a new multi-million dollar building to display all of its football trophies. (USC has always been well-known as a “football factory”...and there was a “secret” office downstairs in Stonier Hall where the jocks would go to get replenished of funds (cash handouts). When a nice newish sports car drove it, that was usually a football star.

At any event, the dorm boys were upset that the university was spending a lot of $ on just housing its sports trophies instead of repairing or replacing Stonier Hall dormitory (it was double-condemned...once by the building inspector because you could pull bricks right out of its walls with your bare hands) and again condemned by the health department (because of the famous Trojan Cockroaches resident therein....they were about 2 inches or more in size, orange/red and black tiger-striped.. and they would march up and down the hallways in perfect goose-step V-formations)

so anyway they managed to catch USC then-President Norman S. Topping in a sober and receptive mood. They went in to see him in his nice (presumably non-roachy) office suite. He reported listened (I wan’t there, this is all from USC friends I’ve known)....and then rose from behind his desk and told the kids to get back to their books (and cockroaches). That the new trophy building was a gift to the college. And that the “football factory” he was running was a money-maker for the university, the teams attracted a lot of alumni donations every year. He reportedly concluded by telling the boys that they should be grateful for all of the above because it helped subsidize their tuition fees.

of course, all the above is based on Oral lore just like Iliad/Odyssey. Even thought it derives from Troy (USC) and not Athens or Ithica.

I guess I’m feeling a bit Homeric today?
Cheers
smiles smiles

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