What happens when Homer meets Hollywood? GW Today asked Eric Cline, a professor of classical and Ancient Near Eastern studies and anthropology and the author of the bestselling “1177 BC: The Year Civilization Collapsed,” to share his thoughts on Christopher Nolan’s blockbuster movie version of “The Odyssey.”
Q: You’ve seen “The Odyssey” twice now. What are your impressions—as a movie fan and as a classicist? Thumbs up or down?
A: Two thumbs up—on both fronts.
For a movie fan, it is nonstop action and escapism. I was thoroughly entertained. The three hours flew by. I never left my seat so I wouldn’t miss anything.
As a classicist, I could certainly nitpick.
There’s that scene where Odysseus returns to Ithaca after his 20-year journey and laments to his wife Penelope, “Our age of bronze is collapsing.” I chuckled to myself when I heard it. Of course, it’s ridiculous and far too self-aware. It would be like somebody in the Middle Ages announcing, “The Renaissance has begun!”
But while the dialogue may be silly, it’s also quite correct. The Bronze Age world as they had known it was on the verge of collapse or had already passed the tipping point—wracked by a perfect storm of calamities, ranging from drought and famine to disease, earthquakes and migrants/invaders.
The “age of bronze” line, like Nolan’s entire film, combines entertainment with scholarship. It’s both my favorite part of the movie—and my least favorite.
Q: Are you a purist when it comes to classics-related movies? Do you look for historical errors?
A: I wouldn’t call myself a purist. But when I took a class to the movie “Troy” back in 2004, I actually shouted at the screen—to my students’ embarrassment. I stood up in my professorial tie and jacket, and yelled things like, “Don’t put coins on Patroclus’ eyes! They won’t invent coins for 700 years! Use seashells!”
Q: Is that how you approached “The Odyssey”?
A: Yes, I went into it with trepidation. As I sat in the dark, with my popcorn, Coke and Snow Cap candies, I was worried. “Is this going to be horrible?” I asked my kids before it started. Fortunately, it wasn’t.
You can always scan for flaws. Why are they sailing in Viking boats? That makes no sense. I’m not sure I would have had the Trojan Horse look quite so polished either.
But other parts are extremely consistent with history. When the movie mentions the Sea Peoples—the menacing force that may have included individual Mycenaeans in their ranks—I was certain Nolan had read my books!
Homer has been reinterpreted by every era and in every conceivable way. You could set “The Odyssey” on Mars with Odysseus trying to find his way back to Earth, and it could still work. If you’re an absolute purist, you’re missing the point.
Q: In that sense, what did you think of Nolan’s interpretation? Did you like his narrative choices?
A: I liked many of them. His Odysseus may not be Homer’s scheming, complicated man. Instead, he leans heavily into the PTSD aspect from the violence of the Trojan War—perhaps nodding to soldiers returning from Vietnam or Iraq.
I also thought leaving the gods ambiguous worked well. Is the Zendaya figure, who keeps showing up to talk to Odysseus, really Athena? Is she some kind of priestess? Is she a figure of his PTSD-haunted imagination? I think the gods are present—in thunder and waves. We just never actually see them.
Q: Did you ever imagine Homer would have a moment like this in popular culture?
A: In my 35 years of teaching, nobody has been this excited about [“The Odyssey”]. In some ways, we owe Nolan a debt. He has managed to get the world interested in a work that was written—or passed down or sung—2,700 years ago. All of a sudden, social media is full of people discussing “The Odyssey.” About half of my Intro to Archaeology class, with 100 students, said they had seen it. And nearly two-thirds of my Ancient Mediterranean Civilizations class, with 75 [first-years], said they had seen it. From that point of view, Nolan has done a huge favor to classics, archaeology and ancient history.
Q: Will you see it a third time?
A: I probably will. My only regret is not having bought the $70 Trojan Horse popcorn bucket at the theater. If Nolan really did read my book, I hope somebody from the movie company sends me one.