The Odyssey
A Universal studio apartment chief recently made headlines by claiming that Homer , the legendary originator of Classical Greek lit , would likely have been proud of Christopher Nolan’sThe Odyssey . Clearly , it ’s an implausibly bluff statement , and it inevitably sparkle far-flung disputation among fans of Nolan ’s work and Classical bookman likewise . From what we know about the legendary writer , who purportedly lived around 2800 year ago , if he inhabit at all , it ’s very hard to secern what Homer would have made of the music director ’s late moving picture .
Homer Likely Wouldn’t Be Impressed By The Odyssey’s Inaccuracies
consecrate thatThe Odysseyis set in the Eastern Mediterranean during the thirteenth century BC , it ’s inevitable that Christopher Nolan ’s motion-picture show adaptation of the oeuvre will contain some diachronic anachronisms . It ’s debatable whether Homer himself would have picked up on any inaccuracy in the film , though , as he ’s said to have lived over 400 years after the events limn in his epic poem take position . Luckily for him , today ’s Classical scholars and archaeologists are up - to - speed with many facet of Bronze Age Mycenaean Greece , which is whereThe Odyssey ’s mythical torpedo Odysseus is supposed to be from .
Scholars have already taken publication with the type ofarmor Matt Damon is seen outwear in an early still image from Nolan’sOdyssey . It turns out that Mycenaean warriors wore a very dissimilar military get - up into fight , known to archeologist as the Dendra armour , including a flaky - sounding , oblong wooden helmet ( viaArs Technica ) . On the other hand , Damon ’s costume , and his headwear in particular , bears all the authentication of Greek hoplite armour from the 8th century BC , the geezerhood in which Homer lived .
From classics like Spartacus to oblation from the 21st hundred like Troy ( 2004 ) , Greek mythology movie often showcase Hollywood at its ok .
Homer likely would n’t have been too impressed by this costume choice , just as we would n’t look to see soldiers in a movie about the 1600s apparel in advanced army gear . Yet the writer could n’t have known what the Mycenaeans of 1250 BC wore into battle , either , as there would have been no historic phonograph record about what their armour bet like available to him at the time .
The Odyssey Probably Won’t Have Any Singing, Which Homer Wouldn’t Agree With
Homer Told His Stories In The Form Of Verses Which Were Sung
One matter ’s for sure about Homer ’s first response to Christopher Nolan’sOdyssey . The Ancient Greek poet would be very broken by the medium of moving characterisation , and knock over by the lack of telling in this adaptation of his story . Since the cinematic medium was invented in the 19th one C , it die without saying that there was no such thing as a flick in Ancient Greece . Meanwhile , Nolan has never directed a musical , and it does n’t seem like he ’s about to start now with this historic epic .
Even Ancient Greek stage dramas were 300 year forth from the sentence in which Homer ’s said to have writtenThe Odyssey , and his other great epical poem , theIliad . The only truly narrative fine art variety make love to have existed in Homeric Greece was poetry , which was typically sung from memory by bards at social gatherings . In fact , Homeric - style verse was n’t just an artistic production variety in this era of Greek history . It was a human body of historic record , which admit the memory of former centuries to be expire down from contemporaries to generation .
2004 sword - and - sandal epic Troy got a good deal right in its adaptation from Homer ’s original account , The Iliad . But it ’s also terribly inaccurate at times .
The music , rhythm , and rhyme of ancient heroic poetry were initially hardheaded twist for recording history , as they made it promiscuous for performing artist to commend the story being passed down to them , in the absence seizure of written records . Naturally , tarradiddle were warp and embellished in the process of being pass orally from one generation to the next , and it ’s debatable whether any part of the myths recorded by Homer inThe IliadandThe Odysseyactually happen .
It ’s get into that some version of the Trojan War , which take shape the basis for both poems , did indeed take place . However , this state of war for certain did n’t take place in the manner depicted inTroy , the picture show most compared to Nolan’sOdysseyproject . Homer would likely be amazed and horrified by the photorealism of both films , which would contrast deeply with his own vivid verse narrative . Nevertheless , it ’s potential that if he had to choose , the poet would go for Nolan ’s Odyssey over Wolfgang Petersen ’s gaudy but jejune 2004 flick starring Brad Pitt .
Homer May Have Been Blind & Might Not Have Even Existed
His Existence As A Historical Person Is Highly Disputed
Every assumption as to what Homer might think of Christopher Nolan’sOdysseyis discipline by the estimate that the author even existed as a historic somebody . There is pot of grounds to advise that bards like Homer did be around the time that he was supposed to have been alive , and that at least one of them recited theIliadand theOdysseyas they were then transliterate using the other Greek ABC’s .
But Homer the person live solely in historic references at least 300 years after he was say to have lived . No contemporary grounds of his existence survives today . It ’s more likely that theIliadand theOdysseywere part of myth cycles top through the generation of Ancient Greece via oral tradition , and formalized in the 8th century B.C. by multiple authors ( viaGreek Reporter ) .
This is n’t a movie made for Ancient Greek poets . It ’s made for a modern - twenty-four hour period global audience .
Even if we say , for the sake of argument , that Homer the person did live , then allusions in brusque poem known as the HomericHymnsandEpigramssuggest thathe was unsighted , as many Ancient bards were . He would n’t have been able to take issue with exactly how historically accurateMatt Damon ’s Odysseus costumeis , although he likely would have had the same problems many moviegoers have with Christopher Nolan ’s mixing of the strait in his flick .
It ’s dependable to close that Homer , if there was such a person , would n’t have enjoyed Nolan’sTheOdysseyvery much . But , this is n’t a film made for Ancient Greek poet ; i ’s made for a modern - day global audience . If the film is half as safe as former report evoke it could be , then it ’s sure enough last to be a workplace that any director should be gallant of .
Sources : Ars Technica;Greek newsperson
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