Books and Movies: The Odyssey

The Trojan Horse appears in Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey

I saw Christopher Nolan’s version of The Odyssey the night it opened. Emily Wilson’s critique notwithstanding, I mostly loved it. Bill Irwin’s take on the Cyclops—how tragic his blinding! The long shots from above, tracking Telemachus’s ship as he departs to find answers about his missing father! The delicious despicableness of the suitors! The hilarious horror of Circe’s transformation of Odysseus’s soldiers into swine!

Most of the critiques of Nolan’s version focus on his “blanding down” of the character Odysseus, who, in Emily Wilson’s translation, is first and foremost, “a complicated man.” Matt Damon’s Odysseus wasn’t so much complicated as confused. I think this was a deliberate choice Nolan made. The reveal towards the end that the deluded, dissociated haze Odysseus has been in since the movie’s first frame, which appeared to be caused by Calypso feeding him lotus flowers to obscure his memory, is actually a self-delusion caused by his own guilt over having created the Trojan Horse to deceive his enemies, thereby violating the ancient laws of hospitality that had been in operation throughout the Bronze Age.

The Proto-Indo-European word for “host” —gʰóstis—was the same as the word for “guest,” implying that the relationship was reciprocal, all of a piece. Laura Spinney’s excellent book Proto corroborates Nolan’s premise. Most scholars believe the P-I-E, were herders who came from the Caspian steppes in roughly 4500-2500 b.c.e and spread west, east and south, bringing their language with them along what became the Silk Road and ushering in the Bronze Age (3000-1000 b.c.e.). The descendants of these herders were those who became the Celtic, Germanic and Italic tribes, as well as the Indo-Iranians who spoke Sanskrit and Old Persian, the Anatolians who founded Troy, and of course the Greeks.

The males of these tribes and clans engaged in all sorts of coming-of-age rituals that involved their separation from the rest of their communities, banding together as brothers, and living outside the laws and norms of society, living like and with dogs and wolves in a ritualistic way. A cohort might invent its own secret language or hand gestures, a code they would use into adulthood after they married and reintegrated themselves into the greater culture. A specific greeting served as a verbal handshake. It signaled: “I am a guest-friend, not an invading enemy.” This common language allowed young men to navigate through hostile territories without triggering immediate tribal warfare, one of the ways the Indo-Europeans succeeded in blanketing Europe and Western Asia. The guest-host compact allowed them safe passage through any territories their predecessors had already colonized.

If this is the world Nolan’s Odysseus comes from––in which a pillar of the culture is the notion that one must feed and honor guests––it becomes clear exactly how destructive Odysseus’s Trojan Horse was—akin to dropping the atom bomb on Hiroshima. Most children know the notion of fair play. If you’re playing hide and seek, you don’t peek. If you are wrestling with your sister, you don’t bite her. If you give someone a gift, you don’t bill them for it later.

I’ve probably written this before, but in our current grisly era, reading about historical linguistics, etymology and ancient migration patterns soothes me like nothing else. Maybe this is because it allows me to pull the lens way back and see how change is natural and inevitable. Maybe it’s just because it takes my mind off the previously unimaginable destruction of our country and democracy. I’m sure that Nolan’s film resonated with me and with others precisely because of the current echoes—we have a leader who blatantly flouts the rules of law, yes, but he also flouts the unwritten codes, the version of Zeus’s law that is American engagement in politics. We never used to call for retaliation against our political enemies (at least not out loud). No one ever suggested we raze national parks or dismantle wings of the White House or publicly offered voters $5000 to vote. And of course there’s the issue of immigration. What kinds of hosts have we become? How thoroughly have we flouted the laws of Zeus, not to mention Jesus. I was a stranger and you welcomed me. (Matthew 25). Love your neighbor as yourself. Who is your neighbor? Anyone who needs your mercy. (Luke 10:25-36).

My mom has challenged her children and grandchildren to write postcards to get out the vote. Here’s me obeying, sending postcards to potential voters in Texas. Go James Talarico!!!!