It seems everywhere you look, from conventional outlets to social media, someone is criticizing Christopher Nolan’s forthcoming"The Odyssey" movie adaptation (based on a two-minute trailer and rumor ... but that’s for another essay).
The complaints run from the look of the armor and the dialogue choices to the casting of a person of color, Lupita Nyong’o, as Helen and possibly a transgender man as Achilles. But almost all the objections are centered on the idea that Nolan’s movie will not be historically accurate or faithful to the text.
The power of Homer’s"Odyssey" is not in historical accuracy or textual faithfulness. I should know. I’ve been performing the epic in original contemporary bardic song for 20 years, and here’s what I’ve learned about the role of truth in storytelling and how to bring an ancient story to modern audiences in such a way that it moves them and connects them to their humanity.
I love the absolute nerdiest, most culturally specific aspects of Homer’s"Odyssey." I studied the classics in college, learned ancient Greek and read Homer in its original language. It moved me profoundly. I wish that everyone could engage with the text on the level I was able to. Nothing I’ve done in my life has made me feel like I felt reading Homer in Greek.
So trust me when I say that I am acutely aware of the ways in which Nolan’s movie does not (apparently) conform absolutely to the ancient Greek text and the archaeological record of the Bronze Age Mediterranean.
But here’s the thing: The original text itself doesn’t conform to the historical record either. There are some aspects that do, but others that were clearly imported by bards for dramatic impact and audience relevance. One could — and I would — argue that the text itself is a largely incomplete and one-dimensional “translation” of centuries of original oral performances over which the stories were developed and canonized until they were fixed in writing.
So Homeric bards themselves made choices about historical accuracy. They were singing about times and events that predated their performances by four or more centuries. The world portrayed, and the language used, are constructed with a mix of what we might call history as well as storytelling license intended to make their contemporary audiences feel something for the story and characters.
What I’ve learned in singing my own version of the story for 20 years is that the truth and power in epic poetry is that it provides a mirror in which the audience can see themselves.
Storytellers make choices in order to make their audiences feel things about the characters and stories. I made these choices by favoring the original song performance format of epic in exchange for narrative specificity and accuracy: My"Odyssey" song cycle tracks the emotional journeys of the characters and uses contemporary song to help my modern audience access the characters in ways I feel are analogous to how ancient audiences might relate.
There is not a single proper name in my songs. And yet audiences believe it is the story of the"Odyssey."
Nolan will (and should) do the same thing. That includes casting actors that he thinks will allow audiences to relate to them. That includes using words he believes will make the story come alive for the audience. That includes stylizing the movie in ways that might not belong in the Bronze Age but will make theatergoers feel things like fear, awe, joy and grief.
There are many truths that a movie can tell about the story of Homer’s"Odyssey." Uberto Passolini’s"The Return" in 2024 convincingly told the truth of Odysseus as a veteran suffering the trauma of war and homecoming, and how his absence and damage spread into his family and community.
Nolan’s"Odyssey"will tell perhaps some of that same truth — but like any interpretation, it will and must find its own version of the eternal story. Together, each generation creates from the"Odyssey" a living organism of truth, a sum of many tellings, each of them true to their bard and audience in the act of telling.
Chicago singer-songwriter Joe Goodkin has spent 20 years performing the"Odyssey" as an original bardic song.
