Homer Has Never Been Hotter Christopher Nolan’s film adaptation of The Odyssey has inspired a massive new wave of people reading the epic.

Slate ^ | 12th August 2026 | Nadira Goffe

[Cronos]

Nolan’s Odyssey is a massive boon to those who care about literature and the written word.

Book versions of Homer’s epic poem have been selling like hotcakes in the wake of the film’s release. Just days after the film premiered, translations of the story had reached Nos. 4, 8, and 49 on Amazon’s bestsellers list, with a translation of the Iliad at No. 61.

Nolan’s film “boosted sales” of the book enough to net a sales increase of 76% “across all editions,” including both text and audio versions of the tale, as Spotify revealed that listens to the audiobook on the streaming platform “jumped more than 240%” weeks before the premiere and were “up roughly 680%” after the blockbuster’s release. The BBC reported that in the U.K., print sales of the classic epic had risen “by 700%” in the week following the film’s release when compared to the same period in 2025; meanwhile, the audiobook narrations of the poem by Sirs Stephen Fry and Ian McKellen had entered both the Spotify U.K. and U.S. Top 10 lists, respectively. Even now, after the Odyssey hype has settled down a touch, Emily Wilson’s translation sits at No. 14, and Robert Fagles’ at No. 19, on Amazon’s bestsellers list; Wilson’s translation has also captured the No. 2 spot on USA Today’s bestseller list. And let’s not forget the libraries: The New York Public Library and Brooklyn Public Library both confirmed to me that there has been a spike in demand for the Odyssey, with the NYPL citing a “338 percent increase” last month. Madison Stoneburner, a marketing specialist for OverDrive (the company behind the digital library app Libby), told me that following The Odyssey’s release, “ebooks and audiobooks on Libby saw a 1,005.93% increase in checkouts compared to the same period in 2025.”

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TOPICS: Books/Literature
KEYWORDS: epigraphyandlanguage; godsgravesglyphs; homer; slate; theodyssey

[Cronos]

It's getting people to read.

The movie is a retelling of the epic, but this seems yo be encouraging more people to read, which is a good thing

[Bob Ireland]

***Book versions of Homer’s epic poem have been selling like hotcakes in the wake of the film’s release***

In the original Greek? 🤔

[Bob Ireland]

I looked at your chart of Judaism. I would be tempted to connect Christianity with the Essenes. Not dogmatically, but for consideration. 🤷

[proxy_user]

ἄνδρα μοι ἔννεπε, μοῦσα, πολύτροπον, ὃς μάλα πολλὰ
πλάγχθη, ἐπεὶ Τροίης ἱερὸν πτολίεθρον ἔπερσεν:
πολλῶν δ᾽ ἀνθρώπων ἴδεν ἄστεα καὶ νόον ἔγνω,
πολλὰ δ᾽ ὅ γ᾽ ἐν πόντῳ πάθεν ἄλγεα ὃν κατὰ θυμόν,
ἀρνύμενος ἥν τε ψυχὴν καὶ νόστον ἑταίρων.
ἀλλ᾽ οὐδ᾽ ὣς ἑτάρους ἐρρύσατο, ἱέμενός περ:
αὐτῶν γὰρ σφετέρῃσιν ἀτασθαλίῃσιν ὄλοντο,
νήπιοι, οἳ κατὰ βοῦς Ὑπερίονος Ἠελίοιο
ἤσθιον: αὐτὰρ ὁ τοῖσιν ἀφείλετο νόστιμον ἦμαρ.

[Cronos]

The period from 100 BC to about 100 AD saw the Jewish world abuzz with talk of the end of Daniel’s prophecy.

That’s when we see numerous people claiming to be the Messiah, starting from Judas of Galilee in 6BC to Bar Kochkbha in 132 BC (who actually did set up a small, and very short lived independent Jewish state).

The Essenes were also another group that was seeking closeness with God at that time.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

"Homer has never been hotter"

[Cronos]

I work with some folks in Greece and they tell me the film has renewed interest in reading the epic even there.

Though it was originally in Homeric Greek which differs considerably from modern Greek.

A modern speaker finds Homeric Greek virtually unintelligible without specialized study, much like an English speaker reading early medieval texts. The difference is in grammar, pronunciation, and vocabulary. Homeric Greek uses five active cases (nominative, genitive, dative, accusative, vocative), while Modern Greek drops the dative case, merging its functions into the genitive and accusative. Homeric Greek relies heavily on verb infinitives, which do not exist in Modern Greek.

So it’s somewhere between a modern English speaker trying to read Chaucer and Shakespeare.

[Cronos]

Ándra moi énnepe, Moúsa, polýtropon, hòs mála pollà.

I’m still struggling with the Greek script, for no sensible reason except I haven’t spent enough time. It does sound grand in Greek

[Varsity Flight]

The return of the Nephilium. 📖

Genesis 6

Anak

Goliath

Interbreeding blood contamination

Mind conditioning

They will believe the Delusion

[TigersEye]

Poor Homer. He probably never made a single drachma on his work.

[lee martell]

That’s a big positive outcome of this movie.
Great. At least something good will come of it besides making lots of dough.

Me? I could not stay awake through the first 20 minutes, so I left. It was like going to see
“One Battle After Another” all over again!

[Skywise]

I prefer WHD Rouse’ translation of Odyssey and Illiad.

A lot of the translations try to maintain the poetic language of Homer (the original books were written as long “poems”) but Rouse said that didn’t work in English as the rhythym of the language just gets forced in english, doesn’t work, and muddies up the story.

Rouse, instead, translated it to a prose version that’s just as effective and easy to read in English.

[lee martell]

It’s Greek to me!

[Bob Ireland]

***Though it was originally in Homeric Greek which differs considerably from modern Greek***

🙂 Note that I did specify 'original' Greek. I have a Homeric Greek dictionary - but it has been tooooooo many years.👴 I wouldn't tackle it now. Mostly I can read the 'words' ... but not much of the meaning. 🗿

[proxy_user]

If you study classical Greek in college, your professor will make sure you know the alphabet and can pronounce the words before moving on to basic vocabulary and your first declensions and conjugations. If you learn Attic first, then shifting to Homeric is a bit of a challenge, but not that difficult. I read the Odyssey in the summer of 1974, after two years of classroom Greek. I’d already done some Plato and two plays of Euripides.

[Bob Ireland]

***Bar Kochkbha in 132 BC***

Bar Kokhba Revolt 132 CE...😉

[Organic Panic]

I assume they are getting the feminized woke version that inspired Nolan.

[Bob Ireland]

***I assume they are getting the feminized woke version that inspired Nolan***

Yes, I heard the story had been 'modernized' somewhat. Must be Disney... 🤷

[stanne]

“ I assume they are getting the feminized woke version that inspired Nolan.”

She didn’t like what Nolan did with the odyssey

‘Wilson called the movie’s script “abysmal” and “emotionally empty”, stating she would be ashamed to have written any part of it’

[Kleon]

I’m from a time when all students started with Xenophon. I thought Homer was quite a bit easier due to fewer contracted forms and more basic sentence construction. The biggest challenge for me was the vocabulary. Homer is full of words used only a handful of times in the entire corpus.