THE ODYSSEY - EPIC POEM BY HOMER - ESCAPE FROM CYCLOPS AND SIRENS
THE ODYSSEY - EPIC POEM BY HOMER - ESCAPE FROM CYCLOPS AND SIRENS
Dear Patrons,
As I always promise to offer you an interesting, informative, and entertaining post, today I am presenting you with a nutshell version of the great epic poem 'The Odyssey' written by the blind Greek poet Homer nearly 3000 years ago. This Blog post will be longer than usual posts. I am sure my readers won't mind the length; they will lap it up and enjoy it. This post is timely, as Christopher Nolan's film "The Odyssey" is currently running successfully in the theatres worldwide. The film is a giant blockbuster and a masterpiece from the Director of Inception and Interstellar. I had hitherto considered "Interstellar" the best movie I have ever seen. Who else can deliver another magnum opus like "The Odyssey"?
Nolan's "The Odyssey" is great, a star-studded triumph that is at once overwhelming and accessible.
There have been several documentaries, television serials, and feature films based on Homer's epic "The Odyssey" over the years.
Homer lived in 800 BC, and his epic influenced historical events that took place in 1200 BC.
I read Homer's Iliad and Odyssey when I was sixteen years old. The list of Nolan's films in chronological order of theatrical release will be shown at the end of this Blog post.
Christopher Nolan is the director, screenwriter, and co-producer of "The Odyssey" (2026), an action-adventure, drama, and fantasy film.
The film has breathtaking visual spectacle and stunning cinematography.
The film has a runtime of 2h 52m (almost 3 hours duration).
Christopher Nolan's film has already surpassed the worldwide box office collection of more than 1 billion dollars. This is Nolan's highest-grossing film.
It is highly recommended to watch Christopher Nolan's film if you are a movie enthusiast.
Hope you will enjoy reading this Blog post.
Love and best regards,
JOHNNY'S BLOG - 2 ( Johnson Vj ).
Christopher Nolan directing Matt Damon
Odysseus (also known by his Roman name, Ulysses) is a legendary king of Ithaca and the central hero of Homer’s epic poem, the Odyssey. He is famous for his great wisdom, clever plans, courage, eloquence, cunning deception, and a 10-year journey home after the Trojan War.
Achilles and Odysseus are the heroes of Homer's epics, the Iliad and the Odyssey. In one of the movie adaptations, Brad Pitt portrayed Achilles, and in the Nolan's film, Matt Damon essayed Odysseus.
It took ten long years to win the Trojan War. The Trojan horse was the brainchild of Odysseus, and the Greek soldiers were hiding inside the gift for the goddess Athena. The Trojans celebrated the win, thinking they saw the back of the Greeks, and danced and drank, making merry over the victory. There were two different opinions amongst the Trojans: one group wanted to burn the wooden horse, whereas the other wanted to accept the gift for Goddess Athena. In the middle of the night, the Greeks opened the belly of the Trojan horse, landed with arms, opened the gates for the other Greek warriors waiting outside, entered the kingdom of Troy, set it ablaze, and devastated it.
If you are a novice to the story of Helen of Troy, the most beautiful woman on earth and the wife of Menelaus, I would like to throw some light on the fact that an oath was taken by Helen's other suitors that, in case of an abduction of Helen, all the other suitors would show solidarity to Menelaus to win back Helen to him. And it did happen. Helen eloped with the young and handsome prince of Troy, Paris. For more details, please read my earlier Blog post about Helen. The Goddess of Beauty, Aphrodite, offered Paris the most beautiful woman on earth instead of a verdict, choosing Aphrodite amongst the other contestants such as Athena and Hera, and Paris was the adjudicator appointed by the supreme god of Mount Olympus, Zeus. Helen was the most beautiful woman in the world.
To win back Helen from Paris, a fleet of a thousand ships sailed by sea under the leadership of Menelaus's brother, Agamemnon. Odysseus was the king of Ithaca, homesick and loved his family more than anything else. He could not imagine going away for long, leaving his wife Penelope and son Telemachus as well as his old father. A reluctant Odysseus finally agrees to join Agamemnon's fleet. He was clever and had brilliant ideas. Through the Trojan horse designed by Odysseus, which was instrumental in the Greeks' victory in the Trojan War, their army killed, enslaved, and stole from even affiliated nations of Troy. It took 10 long years to win the Trojan War.
After the Trojan War, our hero Odysseus decides to return to his kingdom of Ithaca. It took another 10 years, surviving the sea, to reach his country and home. It was not a bed of roses for his return from Troy to his hometown, Ithaca. So many adventures awaited him and his crew.
He was to see through the obstacles on their return such as one-eyed giant, Cyclops Polyphemus (whose father is Sea God Poseidon), Laestrygonians (Cannibals), Circe, the witch, Underworld, the land of the dead, Sirens, the man-eating enchantress, the island of lotus eaters, Charybdis (the monstrous whirlpool), and Scylla, (a six headed monster), and Calypso, the nymph who wanted Odysseus as her immortal mate, who finally released him as per the order of Zeus and above all a furious unforgiving Poseidon, who wreck havoc with Odysseus and his crew throughout their sea voyage.
Now, let's examine the hurdles one by one until the time he defeated the men courting his wife and restored his royal household.
It took 20 long years for Odysseus to win the war and then reach Ithaca, challenging the waves, whirlpools, and demons.
Odysseus and his fellow sailors had gotten so used to war, of grabbing supplies rather than trading for them, that in Cicona, their first port of call on their way to Ithaca, they plundered the city, killed the men, enslaved the women, and took what they wanted. The men felt no remorse as the Cicones were Trojan allies. This misdeed angered Zeus so much that he caused a storm to take Odysseus's ship completely off course to the land of the Lotus-eaters, where people did nothing but eat the lotus fruit, which filled them with so much tranquillity that they desired nothing, not even home. Many sailors liked the idea of the lotus fruit and persuaded Odysseus as well. But Odysseus was determined to go home, so he dragged his men back to the ship, bound their feet with chains to stop them from jumping off and swimming back to the island, and set out for Ithaca once again.
The land of the Lotus-eaters is sometimes identified with Libya, and the blue lotus of the Nile is considered the source of the narcotic drug.
The one-eyed giant Cyclopes Polyphemus
Odysseus then reached the island of the Cyclopes, one-eyed giants who herded sheep. He did not realize the danger he was in until he found himself trapped in the cave of the Cyclops Polyphemus. He watched in horror as Polyphemus grabbed and ate his companions raw. Like sheep, he found himself being herded into a pen in the cave, awaiting his fate.
The smart and clever Odysseus found grapes in the cave and turned them into wine. He then identified himself as 'Nobody', befriended the Cyclops, got him drunk so much that the Cyclops lay back and rested, and while he slept, punctured his single eye with the trunk of a tree that he had spent all day sharpening to a point.
As Polyphemus howled in agony, the other Cyclops of the island came to his cave. 'Who hurt you?' they asked. 'Nobody,' Polyphemus replied, and so they left him alone and went away.
Polyphemus was determined not to let his attackers leave the cave alive. So when it was time to let the sheep out, he rubbed their back to make sure no one was riding them. But Odysseus was smarter and escaped by clinging to the underbelly of a sheep.
As he set sail, a relieved and ecstatic Odysseus could not help but shout, Polyphemus, you killer of my men, know that you have been blinded and outsmarted not by 'Nobody' but by Odysseus, king of Ithaca, husband of Penelope and father of Telemachus.
His hubris cost Odysseus dearly. For Polyphemus invoked his father Poseidon, and the sea god whipped up storms and churned out currents, ensuring Odysseus's ships sailed aimlessly for days in no particular direction. Before that, upon hearing Odysseus's shouting, Polyphemus hurled big, heavy stones at Odysseus's ships, narrowly missing the target.
Finally, Odysseus reached an island that was home to the wind god Aeolus. The wind god was kind and generous and, after taking care of him and his crew for a month, gave him a bag, saying, 'It contains all the winds except the West Wind that will gently take you straight home to Ithaca.'
And sure enough, the gentle West Wind took Odysseus's ships straight towards Ithaca.
When the shores of Ithaca appeared on the horizon, Odysseus decided to take a nap. 'Wake me up after we beach the ship!' he told his companions. But when he shut his eyes and slept, his crew decided to check the contents of the mysterious bag, tied with a silver string, that Aeolus had given to Odysseus. Did it contain some treasure?
As soon as the string was undone, all the winds were released, and the ships were pushed back to the island of Aeolus. When Odysseus woke up and realized what his foolish crew had done, he begged the wind god to help with the West Wind once again.
'I will not help one whom the gods so oppose,' said Aeolus, slamming the door to his house in Odysseus's face.
Aeolus, the warden of winds, was a son of Poseidon who lived on a floating island.
In some tales, Aeolus had six sons and six daughters. He got his sons married to his daughters, and they lived happily, according to Homer. But this tale of incest did not appeal to later writers such as Euripides, who told the tale of how Aeolus killed his son and his daughter and the child of their incestuous union.
Confused by the shifting currents that Poseidon continued to trouble their path, Odysseus, his sailors, and his ships traveled for a long time and finally reached the land of the Laestrygonians, where they were greeted by a tall girl who invited them all to her parents' house for dinner.
But when they reached the house, they realized the horror that they were the dinner, for the Lestrygonians were cannibals, delighted at having such a rich supply of food sail into their harbor. Odysseus and his crew - those who managed to escape the trap - ran back to the shore, but the Laestrygonians followed over the nearby cliffs and hurled stones that smashed all the ships, save one. When Odysseus leaves Troy, he has a fleet of twelve ships. Odysseus and a handful of sailors managed to escape on the vessel. The others were trapped on the shores where the cannibals got to them, tearing them limb from limb and eating them alive.
Odysseus's lone ship finally reached the island of Aiaia.
Odysseus waited on the shore while the sailors explored the island. Long hours passed until at last one sailor returned with horrifying news: the island was home to a sorceress named Circe who pretended to be kind, showed hospitality, and fed them with food and drink as strangers, only to turn them all into pigs.
Determined to release his men from the clutches of the witch, Odysseus marched to her house. On the way god Hermes met him and gave him a herb to eat which would keep him safe from Circe's magical potions.
Circe welcomed Odysseus with a drink but was surprised to find that it had no effect on him. Odysseus then drew his sword and threatened to kill Circe if she did not release his sailors from her spell. Circe released the soldiers and offered her hospitality to Odysseus and his sailors to eat, rest, and recover their strength, and they agreed.
A few weeks later, he decided it was time to go.
Circe advised Odysseus to ask an oracle named Tiresias about how your journey would end. Tiresias stayed across the great ocean, beyond the River Styx, in the land of the dead. Circe told Odysseus not to fear, and she would guide him on how to reach the underworld, aka the land of the dead.
Leaving his ship and his sailors on the edge of the great ocean, he embarks on a mission to the land of the dead to meet Tiresias.
In accordance with Circe's advice, Odysseus made his way to the land of the dead after paying the boatman who ferried him through a cave to the River Styx, which separates the land of the living and the land of the dead.
After reaching there, he gave Cerberus, the hound of Hades, honeyed cakes. When he encountered the ghosts who lived on the other side, he offered them blood, but refused to let them drink it until Tiresias answered his question.
Tiresias came and said to him, 'I know your question and also the answer to your question.' Your journey will end not when you reach home, but when you continue your journey with a rowing oar in your hand, beyond your house, so far inland where people have never seen the sea, and will mistake the oar in your hand for a winnowing fan. Fear not, Odysseus, you will not die on the sea, but the death will come to you from the sea.'
In Greek mythology, one learns that life is so precious and its wonders everyone must relish to the fullest.
After visiting the land of the dead, Odysseus returns to Circe's island. She explains how he could journey home, warning him of the dangers that lay in his way. The very first hurdle was the Sirens.
Sirens were seen as metaphors for prostitutes who lured sailors from their purpose.
In modern writings, they were often confused with mermaids who seduce sailors.
The Sirens sang beautiful songs that enthralled sailors and made them sail their ships towards the rocky island where they lived. Here, their ships would get stuck between the rocks, and the Sirens would feast on them.
Circe had advised, 'Fill your ears with wax when you are sailing by their island so that you will not hear their haunting, irresistible song.' But Odysseus was curious about the Siren song, and he had a plan to hear it. He instructed his sailors to tie him to the mast of the ship and not untie him even if he ordered or begged them.
Thus, with Odysseus tied to the mast and the sailors' ears filled with wax, the ship sailed past the island of the Sirens. Unable to hear the song themselves, the sailors watched as Odysseus's eyes filled with longing upon hearing the haunting song of those enchanting creatures. Later, he would tell them how the song spoke of the glory of his days past and the wonders the future held for him.
'I wanted to hear more of it...to break free and swim towards them,' he confessed when the ship had moved into safe, silent waters.
(On the southern edge of the west coast of India, Kerala, there are tales of a seductive damsel known as a 'Yakshi' who seduces the young travelers, takes them to her home, and then pierces her extra-long compass tooth into their veins in their neck and drinks their blood and kills them).
Then came the narrow strait between two monsters, Charybdis and Scylla, that Odysseus and his men had to navigate. Charybdis was a monstrous whirlpool that sucked in everything that came near her. Scylla was a six-headed monster who grabbed and ate anything within reach. Circe had told Odysseus to steer the ship straight ahead through the restless waters. They managed to avoid Charybdis completely but not Scylla, who snatched six sailors, one with each of her six heads. The sailors pleaded with Odysseus to stop, screaming as Scylla slowly ate them alive, tearing into their flesh. But Odysseus carried on; he had no choice but to keep moving if he wanted to escape. Sacrifices had to be made.
The story of Charybdis and Scylla being on either side of a narrow strait through which ships had to pass gave rise to phrases about being trapped between two problems: between the Devil and the deep sea, between a rock and a hard place, out of the frying pan into the fire.
After many days of traveling over silent and safe waters, during which they exhausted all their supplies, the hungry, thirsty, and miserable sailors reached an island where they saw cattle grazing.
'It is the island of Helios,' said Odysseus. 'Circe told me of this. We must not stop here, for we may upset him.'
But the sailors wanted to stop. They were tired and sick of the sea. A night's rest was all they desired. Odysseus gave in finally but warned them to leave the cattle alone. Yes, said the sailors, but at night, while Odysseus slept, they slaughtered one of the fat, lovely cows and cooked and ate until their stomachs were filled. For the second time the sailors disobeyed Odysseus.
An angry Helios complained to Zeus, and shortly after Odysseus's ship set sail, a bolt of lightning struck it. The ship broke, the mast sank, and the soldiers drowned. Odysseus survived, clinging to a piece of wreckage.
The shipwrecked Odysseus washed up on an island that was the home of Calypso, a lonely nymph who fell in love with him.
Charlize Theron as Calypso
For the next seven years, she washed him, clothed him, fed him, entertained him, took care of his every need, but turned away every time he spoke of going home. In other words, Odysseus lived in a beautiful, comfortable paradise that he could never leave. Eventually he would forget, of that the nymph was sure. But Odysseus was determined not to.
I think any other director would have been tempted to show some nudity and sleazy sex during his stay with the nymph Calypso. But Christopher Nolan is one such director who never exposes his heroines in any of his films except Oppenheimer (2023). But the Indian audience was denied that eye-candy sequence while showing the actress in a black costume when the film was released in India.
At last, a day came when the goddess Athena could no longer bear the sufferings the poor Odysseus was subjected to. For years she had watched him spend hours staring at the sea, weeping for his home. Athena begged Zeus to order Calypso to let Odysseus go. 'Let him go,' Zeus commanded. Calypso agreed, but she had one last trick. She offered her beloved Odysseus the unthinkable: immortality!
Odysseus refused, for he knew that with immortality he would lose any memories of his home and family. He preferred the joy of living to an old age and dying surrounded by his loved ones. Calypso had no choice but to let Odysseus go. With a broken heart, she watched as her beloved sailed away in a raft, filled it with supplies, and made his way towards Ithaca.
While Zeus had forgiven Odysseus his many faults, the sea god Poseidon had not. He knew he could not stop Odysseus from reaching home, but he refused to let it be easy. So he whipped up a storm that shattered Odysseus' raft, and watched as Odysseus tossed and tumbled on the waves, and was dragged naked to the island of the Phaeacians, covered in salt and filth. Here, the local princess Nausicaa - who was playing ball on the beach while her maids were washing the clothes - found him, gave him clothes and invited him to her father's house, where he was made welcome. The king and his queen were suspicious about him, and they asked him to narrate his story after Odysseus had been bathed, fed and made comfortable. After listening to his story, they found it hard to believe that this was the legendary Odysseus. Odysseus started to weep for he realized his son now be twenty, if alive, and his wife no longer the young maid he had left behind. Would his father still be alive? Feeling sorry for him, the king Alcinous decided to take him at his word. He said to Odysseus that his sailors would take him to Ithaca.
Odysseus was in a deep slumber when the Phaeacean ship reached Ithaca. Not wanting to disturb his sleep, the sailors left him sleeping on the beach and returned home. When Odysseus awoke, he was not sure where he was. He asked a passing shepherd who said, 'Ithaca!'
According to Aristotle, Odysseus's son Telemachus eventually marries Princess Nausicaa.
Odysseus did not reveal his identity to anyone, for Tiresias had told him that there would be trouble when he arrived home.
As there had been no sign of Odysseus for ten years since the Trojan War, his neighbors had assumed he was dead. They were eager to claim his beautiful wife, and his lands and his sheep as their own, ignoring the protests of young Telemachus. Suitors came every evening to his house and ate and drank all they could find in the kitchen and the larder, forcing the servants to serve them. 'You must select one of us as your husband,' they threatened Penelope when she protested, 'or we will rape you and your servants, kill your son and burn down your house.'
Penelope managed to keep the men at bay by declaring that she would marry them after she finished weaving a shroud for her father-in-law, Laertes, who was old and still alive. All day she would weave the shroud, but at night, she would unravel it, removing the threads, so that the shroud was never finished.
Every day she hoped that Odysseus would return before her deception was caught, yet there was no sign of him, and now she had no choice but to choose a new husband from amongst the suitors, or risk rape and plunder.
When Odysseus entered his own house, he found that Penelope had organized a contest, the winner of which could claim her and her husband's house as his trophy. No one recognized him, except his old dog Argus, who wagged his tail before breathing his last. The servants were too distracted to notice him, as they were busy catering to Penelope's suitors.
Unable to ignore their attention any more for fear that they would harm her son and her servants, Penelope declared to the suitors that she would marry the man who could perform a particular feat: string Odysseus's bow and shoot an arrow through the metal hoops of twelve axes placed in a single row. 'Odysseus could do it. So must my next husband,' said Penelope.
The suitors liked the idea and began to try one by one. But to their shock, none could even string the bow. This made them angry: Was this yet another ploy by Penelope to keep them away?
Odysseus suddenly walked up and said, 'May I try?' The suitors scowled at the stranger's audacity, but Penelope said no guest in Odysseus's house would be turned away.
To everyone's astonishment, the stranger effortlessly strung the bow and shot an arrow through twelve hoops of axes. This was no stranger - this was Odysseus! Before anyone could utter a word, Odysseus picked up another arrow and struck one of the men who had abused his wife. Then he shot another arrow. And another. Telemachus joined him, as did the servants of the household. Before long, every 'suitor' had been killed.
Penelope greeted her husband with tears in her eyes and introduced her son to his father. All the servants hugged their master. An old maid checked his thigh and found an old hunting scar, thus confirming that this was indeed Odysseus. Odysseus's father, the old Laertes, who had refused to live in the house after the invasion of the 'suitors', returned to embrace his son. Everyone was happy.
Still, Penelope was doubtful.
"Shall I ask the servants to move our bed to the courtyard so that we can spend this night of reunion beneath the stars?' she asked.
Odysseus smiled. 'My clever and faithful wife, you know that bed cannot be moved, for it was carved out of the trunk of an old olive tree with roots still in the ground. Did we not build our house around this fixed bed?'
Penelope nodded in delight as her husband took her in his arms. Yes, her husband was finally home.
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Christopher Nolan's films according to the year of their theatrical release:
- Tarentella (1995)
- Larceny (1996)
- Memento (2000)
- Insomnia (2002)
- Batman Begins (2005)
- The Prestige (2006)
- The Dark Knight (2008)
- Inception (2010)
- The Dark Knight Rises (2012)
- Man of Steel (2013)
- Transcendence (2014)
- Interstellar (2014)
- Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016)
- Dunkirk (2017)
- Justice League (2017)
- Tenet (2020)
- Oppenheimer (2023)
- The Odyssey (2026)
Matt Damon in Christopher Nolan's "The Odyssey".
REVIEW OF THE FILM "THE ODYSSEY" (2026) BY DIRECTOR CHRISTOPHER NOLAN.
Needless to say, Nolan's "The Odyssey" is a brilliant movie. The entire film was shot using IMAX Film Cameras. I have watched the film in a multiplex with an IMAX screen.
The screenplay and the direction are superb. The genius Nolan, as he always does, outsmarts his own earlier films with a new benchmark. His style of movie-making is beyond comparison and sets a new high for filmmakers. He extracted brilliant performances from his lead actors, and the background music score is excellent. The action sequences were shot with impeccable talent. He has not left any loopholes for critics to underrate him. This movie adaptation by screenwriter Nolan from Homer's Odyssey is nothing but brilliant. I savored every bit of it.
The music by Ludwig Goransson is exceptionally good.
There is an Indian actor, Gujarati-speaking, Himesh Patel, as a sailor and a close aide to Odysseus.
Great camera work, great sound, great storytelling and great acting, definitely one of the best performances for a few of the actors, Himesh Patel, Tom Holland, John Leguizamo and probably Anne Hathaway and Rob Pattinson.
I know it is an adaptation made with creative freedom but Homer's Odysseus is prideful and ruthless, and from what I can tell, in this movie we only see glimpses of that.
I am sure this epic movie by Chris will sweep many Awards in the forthcoming award season.
The sequence in which the sorcerer Circe turns the sailors into pigs is smartly shot.
The climax scene where Matt Damon (Odysseus) wins the contest and destroys the 'suitors' one by one and wins back his love, Penelope, is fabulous. All the scenes shot on the sand dunes on the beach, especially the half-hidden Trojan horse in the sand, are spectacular. The performances are superlative by Matt Damon (Odysseus), Charlize Theron as Calypso, and Anne Hathaway as Penelope; all won many hearts in the audience. The actor who played Telemachus (Tom Holland) deserves special mention as he received more screen space in the film, and the villainy of Robert Pattinson is high class.
Anne Hathaway as Penelope in "The Odyssey"
There are a couple of genuinely moving emotional scenes, and a few set pieces look absolutely brilliant. The rest, though, never quite reaches those highs. The music is perfectly serviceable, while the cinematography is easily the film's strongest asset-proper gorgeous to look at.
This is Nolan's highest-grossing film at the box office.
Overall, it deserves a 9/10 rating for the movie by master craftsman Chris Nolan.
The movie merits repeat viewing. I myself want to watch it again. If you know the story, the movie is all the more enjoyable.
Let us expect more films like this from Christopher Nolan in the coming years, enriching our movie-watching experience!
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