The Odyssey
You’re a man who needs to control his fate, but you can’t control this. – Calypso
These things happened to them as examples and were written for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages have come. So let the one who thinks he is standing be careful that he does not fall. – 1 Corinthians 10:11-12
Are we doomed to repeat the mistakes of history? It seems undeniable that our current missteps are nothing new. We either assume that our ideas are novel, or we think we will be the ones to get things right. An old adage states that those who are ignorant of history are doomed to repeat it. The problem is that those who know history also share the same fate. We just can’t seem to help ourselves.
The Odyssey is not an historical account, but Homer’s epic of the Trojan War and one man’s journey home has been around for 3,000 years as a cautionary tale. A story we are meant to learn from. You may be having unwanted flashbacks to freshman English class where you were forced to read the ancient Greek poem. Maybe you are blocking it from your memory. Maybe you slept through that part of class. In any case, the story has been standard reading for many high schoolers for a reason. It was inevitable that someone of Christopher Nolan’s stature would take the mantle of bringing this ancient story to a modern audience.
The movie is an undeniable spectacle of a master at work. But that wasn’t what struck me the most upon leaving the theatre for the first time. It was not the sweeping locations, the impressive practical effects, the seamless editing through 20 years of story,[1] or the controversial casting decisions.[2] What struck me was how undeniably “Christianized” the story had been made.
The original story is very much an ancient Greek tale, a product of its time. If this movie is your only introduction to the story, then you may be surprised to find out the brutality and certain amorality of various characters and settings in the original. Nolan’s retelling is no less violent and our main character is equally defiant of the gods (even if Nolan’s demythologizing approach casts doubt as to the existence of the gods in the story). Even so, the center of the story has changed dramatically. Instead of focusing on one individual’s ultimate triumph returning home against the odds, who learns his rightful place in the world through perseverance and against hubris, the themes of the story are distinctly biblical.
The first is the overarching premise of “Zeus’s law.” The film describes Zeus’s law as treating strangers with hospitality because they may be gods in disguise. But this premise is co-opted to mean the more general Golden Rule. The words of Jesus, “Treat others in the same way you would want them to treat you” flow directly from Penelope’s lips (Luke 6:31). This is meant to describe the Ancient Greek premise of xenia which was a general rule of hospitality. If a traveler or beggar made his way to your house you were expected to treat them with respect, giving them the food they needed to continue on their way. Zeus was supposedly the arbiter of xenia as shown in the original Odyssey, “for from Zeus are all strangers and beggars, and a gift, though small, is welcome” (Book 6, Line 207-8). Nolan makes it seem like this premise was known throughout the entire known world. “Everyone knows Zeus’s law” explains Odysseus. But there was no such comprehensive moral code during the time. The ancient world would not be as welcoming as we might think.
Nolan has chosen to simplify the premise of xenia for his modern audience to the more well-known Golden Rule. The problem is that they are not one and the same. The premise of Greek (and all ancient) hospitality rules was self-preservation. Respecting a travelling stranger was prudent because you did not know where he hailed from. Showing disrespect or disregard could result in his family or tribe returning to take vengeance upon the disrespectful hosts. Likewise taking advantage of the kindness of a host could result in grave consequences. In the end there is no historical conception of Zeus’s law the way Nolan describes it. It would not be accurate to how Ancient Greeks conceived of Zeus or how the gods operated in their lives or in the world.
But Nolan establishes this well-known modern ethical premise anachronistically to the world of Odysseus. The words of Jesus are much greater than anything in antiquity and show the radical moral standard that Jesus suggested was required of serving the one true God.[3] The Golden Rule would have been completely foreign to these ancient Greeks and it definitely was a stumbling block to many Greeks who heard them almost 1,000 years after the supposed events of this epic.[4]
Tom Holland (the historian, not the actor in this film) decided to investigate the history and origins of his moral compass as well as the general moral consciousness of Western culture. He assumed that his Enlightenment ideals could be traced back to the great Greek thinkers. What he found was a great inconsistency in the ancient Greek thought that he previously considered his moral architect. He states that to these ancient Greek thinkers, “the contradictions between the timeless laws that were presumed to prescribe correct behaviour, and the readiness of the immortals in the Iliad to ignore them, were a scandal.”[5] Holland’s entire moral framework had been shattered. The inevitable conclusion was inescapable. “To live in a Western country is to live in a society still utterly saturated by Christian concepts and assumptions.”[6]
How could Christopher Nolan so easily and effortlessly smuggle in Christian ideals into an ancient Greek poem? How come very few people would even notice or bat an eye at such a switch? It is because Christianity has so permeated Western culture that most of us don’t even realize it’s the air we breathe. Christian ideas are so a part of our world that we have forgotten their source. Christianity has become a victim of its own success.
This film adaptation of the Odyssey is just the most recent example of this phenomenon. It can be both a good and bad thing. It is good because Christian messages and truths are inescapable and there are opportunities to make connections and build bridges to the truth (like this very essay). It is a dangerous thing because Christian ideas can be attributed to sources that are contrary to the truth that it proposes. If we continue to assume that ideas like human rights and dignity, equality of persons, and protection from injustice are just free-floating ideas unmoored from the Christian and biblical worldview, then we will effectively saw off the branch we are sitting on. We cannot live in a world of biblical principles and jettison the authority of the Bible. Something has to give.
Even greater than Nolan’s use of the Golden Rule, is the moral journey that Odysseus travels throughout his voyage home. In the original epic Odysseus is battling against the gods, wrestling for control as they thwart his hubris and desire to return to Ithaca. While there remains an undertow of defiance against the gods, Odysseus’s plight is not ultimately against these unseen immortals, but with his own conscience. He exemplifies a particularly Christian dilemma: sin and shame.
The shining symbol of Odysseus’s cleverness and military strategy is the Trojan horse. After 10 years of grueling and ineffective siege warfare against the walls of Troy, Odysseus suggests a cunning plan based on deception and treachery. The Trojan horse is left on the beaches as the invading army supposedly slips away. The “offering to Athena” is accepted and brought in front of the temple within the city gates. Unbeknownst to the Trojans, they have just let their enemies within their walls, and the Trojans pay dearly for their naivete.
In the original, and throughout this adaptation, Odysseus is praised for his military strategy bringing an end to the longstanding war. But Odysseus feels much different about the situation in this version of the story. Instead of seeing it as his ultimate triumph, he sees it as the source of his ultimate shame. It is the constant reminder that he broke Zeus’s law, once and for all. While everyone celebrated Odysseus’s victory, he only saw the destruction that he caused.
Would the original Odysseus feel any sense of sin and shame for his actions in Troy. Probably not. His mistake was defying the gods, not giving credit where it was due, and continuing to challenge the gods during his return home. Here Odysseus’s mistake is much more cosmic, and much more personal. When he tricked his way into Troy and opened the gates for the invading army, “10 years of rage poured into that city in one night.” As he surveys the mayhem unfolding around him Odysseus comes to a grim realization. The destruction and cruelty that he sees is ultimately his fault. He bears the responsibility. He later muses of himself, “To burn the walls of Troy was to burn the world entire. Including his home.” The reality of his sin was spreading across the world and his home was no safe haven.
When a woman is executed while the statue of Athena is decapitated, it symbolizes the broken relationship between Odysseus and the gods, between Odysseus and the rest of the world. “But your sinful acts have alienated you from God; your sins have caused him to reject you” (Isaiah 59:2). The defining characteristic of sin is that it separates us from God and strains our relationship with each other and the world (Genesis 3:16-19, 23-24).
The rest of the Odysseus’s journey home is centered on him dealing with the fallout of his sin and shame. Does he deserve to go home? Does he even want to go home? What will he find when he gets home? As Odysseus makes several stops and questionable decisions along the way his attitude becomes more well-defined. He increasingly feels the weight of the consequences of his actions and further defies any conception of gods that supposedly approve or judge his choices. He claims that “we can’t live by omens and sacrifices” and quickly follows up with “the gods help those who help themselves.”[7] He even chides his men calling them “your gods,” refusing any connection or ownership. His men continue to perish and question his leadership, and the weight on Odysseus only gets heavier.
This comes to a head as Circe gives Odysseus directions to Hades in order to receive instructions on how to return home. Because of the treacherous stops they have already faced, they are willing to do anything to eventually return home. In Hades Odysseus is met with the incarnation of his own sin. Sinon returns to address Odysseus and his deception. “You didn’t trust me with the truth. . . I died for your lie.” Odysseus knows that he has blood on his hands, but who is he accountable to? He knows he is accountable, but the gods are undeserving judges. Even so, the moral law within him continues to condemn him.
The prophet Teresias gives Odysseus his further directions and further warnings. He informs Odysseus that more of his men will die from the trials ahead. “I can still save them from the gods,” Odysseus defiantly responds. “But not from themselves,” Teresias counters. This interchange exposes the heart of the matter and Odysseus is coming to realize it. The real problem is not the mythological creatures they have faced and will have to face, but themselves. Sin has proven contagious. “Just as sin entered through the world through one man and death through sin, and so death spread to all people because all sinned” (Romans 5:12). The effects of Odysseus’s sin spread like gangrene. Everyone is culpable, but Odysseus bears the weight most of all.
The realization hammers home when the dead in Hades chase Odysseus and his crew back to their ship. One man yells repeatedly, “Is this our fate?” It is a question that reveals an ultimate hopelessness that was inescapable in the ancient Greek world. All people, good, bad, and indifferent, were destined to wash up on the shores of Hades. The world of humanity was simply a playground for the gods, or worse, a place with no meaning and no accountability. A place where all shared the same ultimate fate.
This hopeless outlook is the dirty secret of many worldviews. They have no hope to offer and no ultimate accountability or justice. This returns us to our original question: Is history doomed to repeat itself? If we bite into the lie that there is no hope, then we will inevitably make the same mistakes as our predecessors. The book of Judges tells the story of Israel after the times of Moses and Joshua and before the monarchy. There was a cyclical pattern of defiance toward God, Israel being taken over by foreign invaders, the people crying out to God for help, and God sending a judge to help liberate them. This pattern happened multiple times, each time the nation of Israel forgetting the mistakes of their neighbors and ancestors and choosing to sin once again. The key verse at the very end of the book describes the pattern and ultimate cause. “In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes” (Judges 21:25, ESV).
If the ultimate standard of goodness rests on the individual, then there is no true standard. Everyone does what is right in his own eyes and the world falls into chaos and darkness. Odysseus felt that he was the catalyst for this very darkness. While not the ultimate reason, he was a contributor as his conscience attests to. “The law is written on their hearts, as their conscience bears witness and their conflicting thoughts accuse or else defend them” (Romans 2:15). Odysseus knows he is accountable, even if his worldview does not adequately supply what his conscience testifies to.
And this accountability also points to hope. The movie ends with confidence in a better tomorrow. “Civilization will rise again. And dawn will break over the darkened world. And our mistakes will once again be forgotten.” While this final phrase could be interpreted that history is destined to continue a never-ending cycle of rising and falling, the uplifting music and attitude of the characters suggests a more hopeful understanding. But this hope is only possible in a world born of the Christian message. A world that understands that sin is real, it affects all of us, but there is a solution that God has promised. The world left to our own devices is a cyclical pattern of pain and death. A world with no hope for a better tomorrow. A world without any expectation of ultimate justice or wrongs being made right.
But the Christian story, the one this film so desperately requires in order to tell its own, promises a better future rooted in the righteous nature of its Author and Savior. History has proven a destructive cycle of violence, cruelty, and selfishness, brought about by the sin and rebellion of human beings. Again and again, we have illustrated the truth of the proverb, “a dog returns to its own vomit and a sow, after washing herself, wallows in the mire” (2 Peter 2:22). The only hope of breaking the cycle was never from within. We never had the power. God had to enter into the world, not only to show us the way, but to deal with sin in a way we never could. “God made the one who did know sin to be sin for us, so that in him we would become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21).
There is hope for a new dawn because the God who entered into the world and paid the penalty for sin is the same God who sits on the throne. He is the Righteous Judge who will bring all things into harmony (Colossians 1:20). And for all of us who deserve righteous judgment, for all of us who have sinned like Odysseus, we can be made right with the Righteous Judge because of his redemptive work through Jesus Christ (Romans 3:22).
Are we doomed to repeat history? Is this our fate? Left to our own devices, the answer is yes. But through faith in Christ, we can avoid the sins of our fathers and repent of our own. God has made a way where we could not, promising a dawn will break over this darkened world.
Should I Watch This Movie? – I understand if your conscience prevents you from watching a movie for fear of supporting a certain casting choice. If not, watch the grand epic and appreciate how an ancient Greek poem can evolve into a Christian tale of sin and the reality/accountability of the moral law.
Should This Movie be in the Top 250? – By pure scope it deserves to be among the greats, and I imagine the appreciation of this movie will only grow with time.
[1] Christopher Nolan and his editor Jennifer Lame have found a way to tell sweeping stories that effortlessly transition between locations and time periods. The chosen technique in this film is through the use of memory, both of Odysseus and those waiting in Ithaca. The development of their style can be seen in their previous works Tenet and Oppenheimer. Nolan’s previous work with Lee Smith on Inception and Dunkirk also play with this method of storytelling, telescoping through different times with different characters.
[2] The Internet was ablaze concerning two casting decisions in particular. The first was Lupita Nyong’o, a black woman, playing Helen of Troy and her twin sister Clytemnestra. I found the outrage at this casting choice misguided. While a Greek probably wouldn’t have dark skin as Nyong’o does, casting a beautiful woman in a fictional tale is well within the right of the casting director and the director of the film. Homer’s epic falls in the same line as Shakespeare. No one batted an eye when Denzel Washington played Macbeth in The Tragedy of Macbeth. Like Shakespeare, I see no reason to cast a wide net in a retelling of Homer’s epic.
The second was Elliot Page, a transgender, playing Sinon a Greek fighter in Odysseus’s army. Sinon is not in the original poem, but is described in the Aenid (written by Virgil in about 19 BC). It is here that we also find the greater tale of the Trojan horse whereby Sinon is the trickster who convinces the Trojans to bring the offering inside the city walls. (Interestingly, Dante in his Inferno describes Sinon in the 8th circle of hell reserved for fraudsters and falsifiers of words). In Nolan’s retelling Sinon is left to bring news of the horse to the Trojans but is ignorant of Odysseus’s plan and the men stowed away inside. I can understand the outrage at casting a transgender as a Greek soldier. If your conscious prevents you from watching this film as to not give credence to the delusions of this person, then I can recognize and appreciate that stance. While the character has an importance in the story, the actor is on screen for all of a few minutes and does not distract from the greater narrative.
[3] Confucius had a supposed version of the Golden Rule recorded in the Analects Book 15, Verse 24 which states, “What you do not wish for yourself, do not do to others.” But Jesus suggests the much more morally imposing statement positively, not negatively. It is a very simple premise not to do anything that you would not want done to you. It is much more daunting and ethically challenging to take the initiative in actively performing good deeds toward others even if they do not deserve it. This statement by Confucius is often called the “Silver Rule” or the “Negative Golden Rule.”
[4] C. S. Lewis comments on the counter-cultural ethics found in the Psalms: “Then, suddenly, just as you are going to give up, your eye falls on the words, ‘If thine enemy be hungry, give him bread to eat, and if he be thirsty give him water to drink’ (xxv, 21). One rubs one’s eyes. So they were saying that already. They knew that so long before Christ came. There is nothing like it in Greek, nor, if my memory serves me, in Confucius. And this is the sort of surprise we shall often get in the Psalms. These strange, alien figures may at any moment show that, in spiritual descent (as opposed to cultural) it is they, after all, who our ancestors and the classical nations who are alien. Conversely in reading the classics we sometimes have the opposite surprise. Those loved authors, so civilized, tolerant, humane, and enlightened, every now and then reveal that they are divide from us by a gulf. Hence, the eternal roguish tittering about pederasty in Plato or the hard pride that make Aristotle’s Ethics in places almost comic. We begin to doubt whether any one of the (even Virgil himself) if we could recall him from the dead might not, in the first hour’s conversation, let out something that would utterly estrange us.” Christian Reflections: The Psalms, 144.
[5] Tom Holland, Dominion: How the Christian Revolution Remade the World, 37.
[6] Ibid., 13.
[7] The phrase “God helps those who help themselves” is often attributed to Benjamin Franklin in Poor Richard’s Almanac in 1757, but can be traced back to Aesop’s Fables specifically the story of Hercules and the wagoner.