Christopher Nolan has repeatedly pointed toward one particular line from Emily Wilson’s translation of The Odyssey as an inspiration for his film:

“Tell me about a complicated man.”

It is a line intended to introduce Odysseus as a figure with many different sides—a warrior, liar, husband, survivor, manipulator and one of the most intelligent characters in Greek mythology.

But now Emily Wilson has actually SEEN Christopher Nolan’s version of that character.

And according to her…He isn’t particularly complicated at all.

In a recent interview, Wilson described Nolan’s Odysseus as a “traumatized Jason Bourne”—an action hero who feels guilty about being an action hero. She criticized the removal of his intelligence, disguises, humour and many of the qualities that make him so memorable in Homer’s poem. She also argued that Penelope’s role had been reduced, that the movie failed to humanize many of the victims of Odysseus’s violence and that its moral messaging was ultimately incoherent.

And since that interview, she has apparently become even harsher, describing the film’s writing as “abysmal” and saying...

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So, I went to see The Odyssey.

In spite of the countless dislikes on the movie’s trailers.

In spite of some of the questionable casting choices.

In spite of the almost complete lack of Greek representation in an adaptation of one of the most famous GREEK myths ever written.

And in spite of the MULTIPLE videos made by me criticizing decisions the filmmakers had already revealed.

But despite ALL of those things, I was never going to simply let the movie pass me by. I’m perfectly willing to make judgments based on the information available to me. But I’m also not going to draw a line in the sand and completely make up my mind about a movie I haven’t even seen yet.

And now that I HAVE seen it…

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I did it. I went to see The Odyssey.

I won’t spoil anything here, and I’ve got a full review on the way, but before I release that, I want to talk about Circe—the witch from The Odyssey who transforms Odysseus’s men into pigs and eventually gives him the instructions he needs to reach the entrance to the Underworld. The movie also makes some pretty significant choices about who Circe is, what she represents, and how her encounter with Odysseus actually unfolds.

And that inspired me to take a deep dive into some of her history, examining her origins and how the Circe we saw on screen differs from the Circe of Myth.

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Christopher Nolan has made a movie with real ships, real oceans, one of the most expensive productions in history, and quite possibly the most recognizable cast ever assembled.

And somehow, the most interesting thing about the trailer is how many people seem to hate it.

Hey everyone, welcome to Mythology Explained. Over the last couple of months, I’ve made quite a few videos discussing Christopher Nolan’s upcoming adaptation of The Odyssey. But after the release of the latest countdown trailer, the reaction surrounding this movie has become far more negative than I think anyone expected. The comment section is filled with people mocking the casting, the costumes, the accents, and the general direction of the film.

And if we consider how popular Nolan is in general, the fact that one of HIS trailers has generated this level of hostility is pretty significant.

Interestingly, Nolan recently dismissed much of the pre-release criticism as essentially “irrelevant” (his words not mine) because no one criticizing the film has actually seen it yet.

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Hey everyone, welcome to Mythology Explained. Over the last couple of months, I’ve made quite a few videos discussing Christopher Nolan’s upcoming adaptation of The Odyssey. I’ve talked about casting, the apparent lack of Greek representation in one of the most famous Greek stories ever written, Lupita Nyong’o playing Helen of Troy AND Clytemnestra, the rumours that Elliot Page might be playing Achilles, and more recently, I took a look at Emily Wilson’s translation of The Odyssey, which Christopher Nolan has mentioned on multiple occasions.

And now the FINAL trailer has officially dropped. Here are my thoughts.

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A little while ago, I made a video discussing one of the strangest rumours surrounding Christopher Nolan’s upcoming Odyssey movie: the idea that Elliot Page might be playing Achilles. The reason of course that rumour generated so much discussion is pretty obvious… Achilles is arguably the most famous warrior in all of Greek mythology, the central figure of the Iliad, the son of a goddess, the greatest fighter among the Achaeans, and a character who has been visually and symbolically defined for nearly three thousand years. So when people started speculating that PAGE might be playing Achilles, the internet immediately started arguing about whether that casting made any sense (spoiler: it didn’t), what Achilles was actually supposed to represent, and how closely modern adaptations should stay to the mythological image of these ancient characters.

Anyway..We've got an update.

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Today we’re going to be talking about Christopher Nolan’s upcoming adaptation of The Odyssey…But not in the way that I’ve already talked about it. In some of my previous videos on the topic, I covered some of the major controversies surrounding the film. In particular, the casting, where I highlighted the apparent lack of Greek presence in a film adapting one of the most important Greek stories ever written. I also touched on the rumours surrounding Elliott Page and Achilles, AND I’ve talked about how strange it feels to adapt a story so deeply concerned with homecoming, identity, ancestry, and cultural belonging while seemingly treating Greekness as something that can mostly be supplied by sets, costumes, ships, and scenery. But over the last few days, I’ve noticed a different controversy starting to take shape around Nolan’s Odyssey…One that’s even more complicated. Because this time, the argument is not just about who is playing Odysseus, or Helen, or Achilles, it’s about which version of The Odyssey modern audiences should be given.

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Hey everyone, welcome to Mythology Explained. Today we’re going to be talking about Christopher Nolan’s upcoming adaptation of The Odyssey. Now, ever since the trailer first dropped, the film has been making headlines for its questionable casting decisions. And when I touched on these things in my OWN videos, one of the things that I noticed right away was the GREEK response. That is, how ACTUAL greek people feel about it. Sounds important, right?

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Hey everyone, welcome to Mythology Explained. In today’s video, we’re going to discuss the REAL wives of Satan: the demon queens, seductresses, and female spirits who, according to ancient Jewish mysticism and medieval demonology, stood beside the rulers of Hell itself. Because while most people have heard of Lilith, very few realize she was only ONE of several infernal feminine entities associated with Samael — a figure often equated with Satan. And together, these entities formed something resembling a dark mirror of heaven itself: queens, consorts, angels of prostitution, mothers of demons, and spirits associated with temptation, death, lust, and chaos.

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Before there were gods, before there were Titans, before even the earth or sky — there was only silence. An endless, gaping expanse.

The Greeks called it Chaos: not disorder, but the raw void out of which reality itself would be born.

Chaos wasn’t a god in the way we imagine Zeus or Poseidon, but rather the very first principle of existence — the source from which everything else emerged: earth, sky, gods, monsters, even fate itself. Yet Chaos was not always imagined the same way. Some traditions describe it as the offspring of Chronos, Time itself — not to be confused with Cronus, the Titan king. Others saw Chaos as a shapeless mass of matter and energy, waiting to be molded into the universe. And in yet another version, Chaos was thought of as the lower layer of air surrounding the earth, lying beneath the bright upper sky called Aether.

Today, we’re going to be addressing all of these different accounts, and more, as we unpack Chaos: the FIRST Primordial Deity.

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