The Odyssey Onscreen - Part 2 - Scholars react to Nolan's Odyssey

Scholars Doug Frame, Claudia Filos, Keith DeStone, and Olga Levaniouk gather for a second roundtable conversation — this time responding to Christopher Nolan's film The Odyssey and Yann Martel's novel The Son of Nobody, a contemporary reimagining of the Trojan War told from the perspective of an ordinary soldier. The conversation moves from the novel's premise to Nolan's adaptation choices, the figure of Odysseus across ancient and modern versions, Penelope and the homecoming husband tale type, the Trojan horse as a violation of xenia, and what happens when a blockbuster sends audiences back to Homer. 0:00 — Introduction: Yann Martel's The Son of Nobody and its hero Soüs 2:40 — Who's in the room: Doug Frame, Keith DeStone, Olga Levaniouk 9:12 — Nolan's ending: oral tradition, writing, and civilizational collapse 19:57 — What makes a story "an Odyssey"? The question of essential elements 32:48 — Nolan's Penelope and the homecoming husband tale type 38:01 — Nolan's Odysseus: guilt, the Trojan horse, and xenia 52:41 — The "gods in disguise" problem and the Golden Rule in antiquity 1:05:51 — Will Nolan's film send audiences to Homer — and what will they find? 1:16:18 — Doug's take: an Odyssey before the Homeric Odyssey 1:26:14 — First encounters with Homer: coming to the poems from different directions Resources mentioned: — Yann Martel, The Son of Nobody — William Hansen, Ariadne's Thread — Olga Levaniouk, Eve of the Festival (freely available at the Center for Hellenic Studies) — Doug Frame, The Myth of Return (freely available at the Center for Hellenic Studies) — Emily Wilson's translation of the Odyssey — The Return of Martin Guerre (film, 1982) New Alexandria Foundation: https://newalexandriafoundation.org/