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Homer's epic was adapted for the big screen with significant changes to characters, scenes, and narrative. The director chose to focus on Odysseus' psychological journey, leaving out some of the poem's most well-known episodes.
Transforming a poem of about 12,000 lines, which takes a whole day to read aloud, into a three-hour film was a challenge from the start that required numerous cuts. That's exactly what Christopher Nolan did with "The Odyssey," leaving out a number of important scenes and characters from the Homeric epic, while also adding new elements not found in the original text.
What Nolan left out
gods
Homer's "Odyssey" begins with a conversation between Zeus and Athena on Olympus. With Zeus's approval, Athena plays a crucial role in Odysseus' return to Ithaca, helps destroy Penelope's suitors, and supports Telemachus by taking on various forms.
Meanwhile, Poseidon constantly hinders Odysseus' journey, while Hermes intervenes at two key moments in the narrative.
In Nolan's film, only Athena, played by Zendaya, appears. She is presented as a vision that only Odysseus, played by Matt Damon, sees, and represents his conscience more than an actual deity.
Nausicaa and the Phaeacians
One of the most famous episodes of the poem is Odysseus' encounter with the princess Nausicaa, after he ends up on the shores of the island of the Phaeacians.
After this episode, Odysseus recounts his adventures with the Cyclops, Circe, Scylla, and Charybdis, before the Phaeacians help him return to Ithaca.
Nolan has removed this part entirely. Instead, Odysseus recounts these events to Calypso, played by Charlize Theron, as memories that gradually return.
Missing ghosts
The film depicts Odysseus' meeting with Agamemnon in the underworld, but leaves out several important figures from the poem.
Achilles, the greatest Greek warrior, is not present, nor is Ajax, who refuses to reconcile with Odysseus. Also missing is Odysseus' mother, whom he tries three times to embrace without being able to touch.
Another missing character is Elpenor, Odysseus' unfortunate companion who dies after a fall and begs for a proper burial. In the film, his role is replaced by Sinon, played by Elliot Page.
Execution of slaves
Nolan avoids one of the poem's harshest scenes, where twelve slave girls who had betrayed the palace and had relations with suitors are hanged on Telemachus' orders.
However, the director creates a variation on this story: Melantha, played by Mia Goth, is pushed towards massacre by Penelope herself, practically being sentenced to death.
Also missing is the brutal punishment of the shepherd Melanth, whose nose, ears, hands, feet, and genitals are cut off in the poem.
Penelope's bed test
In the poem, Penelope is not immediately convinced that the beggar is her husband. She tests him by asking him to describe their marital bed, built by Odysseus himself on the trunk of an olive tree.
Only he and Penelope know this secret.
Nolan replaces this episode with a statue of Athena, which Odysseus shows to Penelope as proof of his identity.
What Nolan added
The Trojan Horse
Although Homer does not fully recount the story of the Trojan Horse in "The Odyssey," he mentions it several times.
Nolan decided to include this episode, as the idea of using the horse is traditionally associated with the ingenuity of Odysseus and the fall of Troy.
SINO
The character of Sinon, played by Elliot Page, does not exist in Homer.
He is taken from Virgil's "Aeneid", where he tricks the Trojans into bringing the wooden horse into the city.
Nolan also builds a new story for this character, placing him in the Greek army.
Sea peoples
The film repeatedly mentions "sea people," who are presented as a threat to the Greek world.
Such an element does not exist in Homer.
Also, Odysseus in the film says that the Trojan War was actually fought for control of trade routes, a modern interpretation that relies more on historians than on the Homeric epic.
What Nolan changed
Calypso
In the film, Calypso uses lotus flowers to erase Odysseus' memory, but then lets him continue his journey.
In the poem, she does not use any substances. Their relationship is primarily erotic, and Calypso keeps Odysseus by her side until Hermes brings her Zeus's order to release him.
Cyclops
In Nolan's film, the Cyclops speaks very little, while in Homer he has a long dialogue with Odysseus.
As a result, two iconic moments of the poem are missing: the deception when Odysseus introduces himself as "Nobody", which prevents the other Cyclopes from helping Polyphemus, and the moment when he reveals his true identity, allowing Polyphemus to ask Poseidon to curse him.
These changes align with Nolan's choice to portray Odysseus less as a hero of ingenuity and more as a man traumatized by war.
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