Patrick Comerford
The Odyssey is one of the greatest stories ever told. It is a core part of the history, mythology and cultural heritage of Greece. Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey is already becoming one of the greatest films of the 21st century, and is already introducing many people to one of the greatest works of classical literature.
The ancient Greek epic poem by Homer, who also wrote The Iliad, tells the story Odysseus, king of Ithaca, as he spends 20 years trying to return home: 10 years are spent fighting the Trojan War, and 10 years are spent travelling back home through the Mediterranean Sea.
Many Greeks are disappointed by the new film, expressing concerns that Greek actors were largely absent from major roles, that Athens was not included in the global promotional tour despite being the birthplace of the story, and that it uses very little Greek language and presents little that is authentic Greek culture. They say that a story so deeply rooted in Greece deserves meaningful Greek involvement.
In response, other Greeks are pointing out that this is Hollywood, not a history class. Indeed, the Odyssey itself is epic poetry and never was intended to be narrative, chronological history. Epic poetry and history have different functions, nor does any cinemagoer expect a Hollywood film to be textbook history.
The film opened in Greece last weekend, and is boasting the highest box office sales of any opening weekend this year. The calls for a boycott just may not be having any effect at all.
Far-right Greek extremists staged a protest outside the cinema hosting the premiere, handing out leaflets claiming the film ‘insults Greek history and civilisation’, condemning the casting choices, and using the slogan ‘Greece Belongs to the Greeks, the Odyssey Belongs to Homer.’ They claimed the film fails to honour Homer’s epic and called on audiences not to watch the film.
The extreme right Ethniko Metopo (Εθνικό Mέτωπο, National Front) used racist and fascist images and slogans in its protests outside cinemas at the weekend. They claimed the film ‘insults our history and culture’ and said: ‘Our lives, our history, and our civilisation will not become black.’
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But, historically, whoever said Helen of Troy was not a black woman, or did not have dark Minoan features? Indeed, who even believes Helen of Troy was a real, historical figure?
I have yet to see the film, but hope to see it soon. Christopher Nolan looks like introducing a new generation to Homer, the Odyssey and the Iliad, as he dramatizes and retells the story of Odysseus and his encounters with different types of monsters and temptations as he tries to make his way back home to Ithaca from Troy.
I have encountered my own Cyclops and my own sea monsters in my journey in life too, I am sure, I too have come close to my own Scylla and Charybdis, and I too have been tempted to spend too much time among the lotus eaters.
It is a theme that I imagine is found in every culture. Jonah tries to delay heading off to Nineveh, and endures his own terrifying sea ordeals. When he arrives at Nineveh, the temptations and obstacles continue to divert his attention, and it takes him three full days to cross the city.
We all encounter distractions and temptations along our journeys in life, and Christopher Nolan’s film is one more telling of one of the greatest stories in literature.
In a letter to Christopher Nolan, Herod Priovolos says that like generations of Greeks he grew up with Homer’s story. He says ‘Homer did not sing of Odysseus simply to entertain us with ships, storms, gods and monsters. He told the story because he understood what war, time, distance and loss can do to the human soul.’
And perhaps he is right to point out that the film catches the drama of the Odyssey but does not get to examine the real significance and meaning within the poetry.
Herod Priovolos points out how Odysseus leaves Ithaca as a king, a husband and a father. He returns 20 years later alone, exhausted and disguised as a beggar, carrying the memory of every companion who never made it home.
The monsters are not merely creatures created for spectacle. The Cyclops is power without justice, the Sirens are the beautiful voices that tempt us to abandon our purpose, Circe represents the danger of losing our humanity. Calypso offers Odysseus immortality, but even eternal life becomes a prison when the price is forgetting his wife, his son, his homeland and his own identity.
And, Priovolos continues, Ithaca is not merely an island. ‘Ithaca is the place that remembers you when the world no longer recognises your face. It is the home that remains alive inside you after everything else has been taken away. It is Penelope growing older while she waits. It is Telemachus becoming a man without his father. It is Argos surviving long enough to recognize his master one final time.’
Odysseus is not great simply because he defeats monsters, Priovolos writes. ‘He is great because he is proud, frightened, wounded, clever, imperfect and deeply human. He loses his companions, his youth, his name and 20 years of his life, yet he refuses to forget who he is. When he finally returns, Penelope does not recognize him through strength, glory or appearance. She tests him. Odysseus proves his identity by remembering the bed they built together around the roots of a living olive tree.’
For Priovolos, that is the heart of The Odyssey. Not the battles. Not the ships. Not the monsters. Two people standing before each other after 20 years, asking whether love, memory and identity can survive everything time has done to them.
‘That is why this poem has survived for almost 3,000 years. Every human being is trying to return to something: a home, a person, a lost part of themselves, or the life they had before the world changed them,’ he says.
‘So use Homer’s seas, gods, heroes and monsters. But please understand what you are touching,’ he tells Christopher Nolan and, of course, filmgoers. ‘The Odyssey was never truly about how far a man could travel. It was about how much the world could take from him before he stopped being himself, and whether, after losing almost everything, he could still find his way home.’
Penelope waiting for Odysseus … Μαριάννα Βαλλιάνου, Η επιστροφή, Mariánna Valliánou, ‘The Return’I am reminded of the poem ‘Ithaka’ in which CP Cavafy transforms Homer’s account of the return of Odysseus to Ithaka. This transformation is a variation on how Dante and Tennyson handle the same theme. They offer an Odysseus who arrives home after a long absence only to find Ithaka less than fully satisfying and who soon makes plans to travel forth a second time.
However, Cavafy answers them by telling Odysseus that arriving in Ithaka is what he is destined for, and that he must keep that always in mind: one’s destiny, the inevitable end of the journey, is a thing to be faced for what it is, without illusions.
The meaning of Ithaka is in the voyage home that it inspired. It is not reaching home or again escaping its limitations once there that should occupy Odysseus so much as those elevated thoughts and rare excitement that are a product of the return voyage.
As Edmund Keeley says, this new perspective is what frees the voyager’s soul of the monsters, obstacles and angry gods, so that when the voyager reaches his Ithaka he will be rich not with what Ithaka has to offer him on his return, but with all that he has gained along the way, including his coming to know that this perspective on things, this unhurried devotion to pleasure and knowledge, is Ithaka’s ultimate value.
Ιθάκη, Κωνσταντίνος Π Καβάφης
Σα βγεις στον πηγαιμό για την Ιθάκη,
να εύχεσαι νάναι μακρύς ο δρόμος,
γεμάτος περιπέτειες, γεμάτος γνώσεις.
Τους Λαιστρυγόνας και τους Κύκλωπας,
τον θυμωμένο Ποσειδώνα μη φοβάσαι,
τέτοια στον δρόμο σου ποτέ σου δεν θα βρεις,
αν μέν’ η σκέψις σου υψηλή, αν εκλεκτή
συγκίνησις το πνεύμα και το σώμα σου αγγίζει.
Τους Λαιστρυγόνας και τους Κύκλωπας,
τον άγριο Ποσειδώνα δεν θα συναντήσεις,
αν δεν τους κουβανείς μες στην ψυχή σου,
αν η ψυχή σου δεν τους στήνει εμπρός σου.
Να εύχεσαι νάναι μακρύς ο δρόμος.
Πολλά τα καλοκαιρινά πρωιά να είναι
που με τι ευχαρίστησι, με τι χαρά
θα μπαίνεις σε λιμένας πρωτοειδωμένους
να σταματήσεις σ’ εμπορεία Φοινικικά,
και τες καλές πραγμάτειες ν’ αποκτήσεις,
σεντέφια και κοράλλια, κεχριμπάρια κ’ έβενους,
και ηδονικά μυρωδικά κάθε λογής,
όσο μπορείς πιο άφθονα ηδονικά μυρωδικά
σε πόλεις Aιγυπτιακές πολλές να πας,
να μάθεις και να μάθεις απ’ τους σπουδασμένους.
Πάντα στον νου σου νάχεις την Ιθάκη.
Το φθάσιμον εκεί είν’ ο προορισμός σου.
Aλλά μη βιάζεις το ταξείδι διόλου.
Καλλίτερα χρόνια πολλά να διαρκέσει
και γέρος πια ν’ αράξεις στο νησί,
πλούσιος με όσα κέρδισες στον δρόμο,
μη προσδοκώντας πλούτη να σε δώσει η Ιθάκη.
Η Ιθάκη σ’ έδωσε τ’ ωραίο ταξείδι.
Χωρίς αυτήν δεν θάβγαινες στον δρόμο.
Άλλα δεν έχει να σε δώσει πια.
Κι αν πτωχική την βρεις, η Ιθάκη δεν σε γέλασε.
Έτσι σοφός που έγινες, με τόση πείρα,
ήδη θα το κατάλαβες η Ιθάκες τι σημαίνουν
Ithaka, Constantine P Cavafy
As you set out for Ithaka
hope the voyage is a long one,
full of adventure, full of discovery.
Laistrygonians and Cyclops,
angry Poseidon – don’t be afraid of them:
you’ll never find things like that on your way
as long as you keep your thoughts raised high,
as long as a rare excitement
stirs your spirit and your body.
Laistrygonians and Cyclops,
wild Poseidon – you won’t encounter them
unless you bring them along inside your soul,
unless your soul sets them up in front of you.
Hope the voyage is a long one.
May there be many a summer morning when,
with what pleasure, what joy,
you come into harbours seen for the first time;
may you stop at Phoenician trading stations
to buy fine things,
mother of pearl and coral, amber and ebony,
sensual perfume of every kind –
as many sensual perfumes as you can;
and may you visit many Egyptian cities
to gather stores of knowledge from their scholars.
Keep Ithaka always in your mind.
Arriving there is what you are destined for.
But do not hurry the journey at all.
Better if it lasts for years,
so you are old by the time you reach the island,
wealthy with all you have gained on the way,
not expecting Ithaka to make you rich.
Ithaka gave you the marvellous journey.
Without her you would not have set out.
She has nothing left to give you now.
And if you find her poor, Ithaka won’t have fooled you.
Wise as you will have become, so full of experience,
you will have understood by then what these Ithakas mean.
– Constantine Cavafy (translated by Edmund Keeley and Philip Sherrard)
