In anticipation of Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey, set to be released in theaters on July 17, Dan Berman, professor of Greek and Roman classics in the College of Liberal Arts, explores what modern audiences can learn from the ancient story.
Professor of Greek and Roman Classics Dan Berman sat down with Temple Now to explain why Homer's famous epic still matters today, in advance of the new movie adaptation.
Photo by Ryan S. Brandenberg
For centuries, Homer’s epic poem the Odyssey has captivated audiences. This July, acclaimed director Christopher Nolan is releasing a film adaptation of the ancient story, starring Matt Damon as Odysseus, the charming and complex hero who embarks on a perilous journey home to Ithaca after two decades away following the Trojan War. Nolan’s highly anticipated film adaptation is expected to be a major film event of the summer, featuring a star-studded cast and immersive cinematography shot entirely on IMAX cameras.
Dan Berman, professor of Greek and Roman classics in the College of Liberal Arts at Temple University, shared his insights on the upcoming adaptation with Temple Now. In this conversation, Berman explores why the Odyssey has resonated with audiences throughout history, the challenges and opportunities of adapting it to the big screen, and what can be gained from engaging with the classic story, in any format.
Temple Now: What are the major themes of the Odyssey? Why is this film adaptation relevant for today’s audiences?
Dan Berman: Of course, a major theme of the Odyssey is adventure and return—that experience of coming home after a long time away and nothing feels the same. That’s why I love teaching this story to college students, because they can relate to how it feels to have left home. From there, we get themes about journeys and the impact they have on travelers, how the journey itself changes us as we travel along. This is a timeless theme that has certainly connected with audiences over many generations.
There are also themes about migration and the movement of peoples, which feels especially relevant to audiences today. The story wrestles with questions about homelands and the negotiations of them, where people are meant to be and live. It’s also a story about war and instability, what happens to a community after years of conflict.
And the Odyssey is a story about defining national identity. In its time, the story engaged audiences about what it meant to be Greek, who was Greek and who wasn’t and where those lines were drawn. For today’s audiences, we are wrestling with similar questions in our own country and culture. I am curious to see what messages Nolan’s adaption will send about how we define ourselves, as individuals and as a community.
TN: What is the central plot of the Odyssey?
Berman: The central plot is pretty straightforward, though it is told in a complicated way. The Odyssey is about a central hero, Odysseus, who is king of Ithaca and goes off to war to capture Troy and bring back Helen, who is the wife of Menelaus. It takes 10 years to sack the city of Troy. And then it takes Odysseus an additional 10 years to get home. So, the Odyssey is essentially the story of how Odysseus returns home, the long and eventful journey back to Ithaca and the discovery that his home has been significantly changed during his time away.
TN: The Odyssey is an ancient story that has remained popular for centuries. Why has this story remained so significant in Western literature?
Berman: I think one of the reasons why the Odyssey is so universally appreciated is because Odysseus is a complicated guy. In the first lines of Homer’s epic poem, we hear that Odysseus is “wily” or “tricky,” depending on the translation. He’s not a simple person and while he does ultimately make it home to Ithaca and is reunited with his wife, Penelope, along the way he uses tactics that aren’t always honest or straightforward. He is a famously good talker and talented at spinning stories, not only in this poem but in all of Greek myth. Sometimes those stories aren’t true. Sometimes he tells them for his own benefit. He’s not a hero in the way we understand Superman to be a hero. But Homer’s poem embraces that, and it is definitely part of his mythic persona.
TN: The Odyssey originated as an epic poem. What are epic poems? How would they have been performed during their time?
Berman: These Homeric poems were oral epics, the Iliad and the Odyssey. They were composed with the intention of being performed aloud with a bard reciting the poem, or a version of it. The bard would be accompanied by music and would have recited the poem in meter. And they were really long. In its day, to have sat through and listened to the Odyssey from beginning to end would have taken many, many hours. And it’s important to remember that the original performances would have involved a fair amount of improvisation. The version of the Odyssey that we have written down is not necessarily the only version, but it is one of likely many versions of the story. It is a reflection of the oral tradition.
TN: What could be some potential challenges for adapting this epic poem into a feature film?
Berman: One of the challenging things about the Odyssey, especially for adapting to film, is that the narrative time in the story is a bit weird and complicated. It doesn’t just start at the beginning and tell the story to the end. It starts in the middle of Odysseus’ 10-year journey home and cuts back and forth in time and in place, sometimes showing Odysseus on his journey and other times showing his family back home in Ithaca.
Another challenge for film adaptation is how to depict the gods and the supernatural. In the poem, the gods play a direct role in Odysseus’ journey and there are a variety of ways that a movie could represent this, so I am curious to see what choices they make. Likewise, in the poem, Odysseus visits the underworld. In previous movie adaptions, this has been represented as a hell-like scene, but it doesn’t have to be portrayed that way. There are a lot of creative storytelling opportunities available, especially with today’s moviemaking tools and technologies.
Christopher Nolan is directing the new film, and I think if anyone can take on the challenge of this story, it is him. He is known for making big movies that tackle complicated themes, such as time, memory and identity. The Odyssey has all those elements and is a rich text for Nolan. What he did with movies like Interstellar and Inception could definitely play into his approach for this story.
TN: What are some potential advantages to a film adaptation of the Odyssey?
Berman: One of the neat things that this film will do is connect with people who might not have had access to the story before or might not have otherwise engaged with it. The full Homeric poem can be intimidating, but this will be a major film, released in theaters, which makes the story overall more approachable for the modern audience.
As someone who teaches texts like the Odyssey, I think it would be great if people were to see this movie and think, “Wow, that was really cool story, maybe I should go back and actually read it.” There are many excellent and accessible translations available.
And the movie will inevitably change things from the story as Homer tells it. As a classics professor, I think that’s okay. I don’t get upset when movie adaptations change elements of classic stories. Homer’s work began as oral poems and, to an extent, it was an improvisation. It’s not out of the realm of possibility to imagine that the original bards changed details, switched things around, to fit the style and goal of the storyteller. That’s how these art forms work.
I believe that we always benefit from engaging with stories like the Odyssey, in any format. If you engage with it, think about what it means to you, your community, the world we live in today, you are going to be better for it.