"The Odyssey" movie inspires interest in Homer's original epic poem

[00:00:01]Before The Odyssey, the epic new Christopher Nolan movie, there was and still is the Odyssey, the epic poem by the ancient Greek Homer.

[00:00:10]>> No one could stand between me and Homer, >> not even the gods.

[00:00:19]>> Keep us free.

[00:00:27]The release of the new movie this weekend is inspiring people to not only hit the theaters, but the bookstores.

[00:00:34]And for those of you who have time to read the book before you see the movie or don't have time, we thought we'd bring in Kelly Olsen. She is a professor and graduate chair for the classical studies department at the University of Western Ontario. Kelly, thanks for joining us. What an exciting weekend.

[00:00:48]Except you probably won't be watching it during the World Cup, but so many people will flock to the theaters to see this.

[00:00:54]Do they need to read the book ahead of time?

[00:00:57]Yeah. Um, thank you for having me. Yeah.

[00:00:59]No, they they don't really need to read the book ahead of time. I mean, it is a it's a it's a long read. It's an excellent read, but it's a it's a long read. Yeah.

[00:01:07]>> Yeah. You need the cliff notes. Okay.

[00:01:09]Well, help us out and tell us about the original story and its significance.

[00:01:14]>> Well, the nobody really knows when Adysius's story started to circulate um because it was part of an oral tradition. It was part of oral storytelling. So, it's been around for thousands and thousands of years um uh much longer than um than before Homer actually wrote it down in the 8th century B.C.E. so. So, the Odyssey is set in what we call the Bronze Age of ancient Greece. So, that's around 1,200 B.CE.

[00:01:46]uh and um Homer, however you understand Homer, whether it's one man or you know several poets or even a woman, some scholars have tried to make the case uh the poem doesn't get written down until the 8th century BCE and it doesn't get translated into English until the 17th century. So before 1615, if you didn't have ancient Greek, you you couldn't read the Odyssey because it wasn't translated. So yeah.

[00:02:17]>> So one of the popular souvenirs from the movie is I just learned this. A Trojan horse popcorn bucket.

[00:02:23]>> Oh yes, I've seen it.

[00:02:25]>> Okay, so let's talk about the mythology and the legends weaved into the story.

[00:02:29]Okay, there it is. We're Okay, I I that's going to be a definite souvenir.

[00:02:33]>> I definitely need one of those for sure.

[00:02:35]>> Yes. Yes. Let's talk about the uh the story behind that that's woven into the the Trojan Wars. Um the interesting thing about um the Iliad and the Odyssey, the Iliad is Homer's other huge epic is that they are just a small part of a much wider um sort of world of stories about the characters from the Trojan War, both their beginnings and their aftermath, which scholars call the Trojan cycle. So in fact, Homer's Iliad never relates the mo one of the most famous episodes of the Trojan War, which is the abduction of Helen by Paris from her home in Sparta. And Homer also never covers the Trojan horse, which is very interesting. So there there's some uh references made to it in the Odyssey, but Homer never actually details the Trojan horse. So we know about that not only from the Odyssey but from fuller descriptions and other um poets and imaginative writers from antiquity. Uh so yeah so that's very interesting that some things that people think are quintessentially homeriic like the Trojan horse don't actually get described in Homer.

[00:03:48]>> Interesting. Okay. So you know when a classic hits the silver screen goes to the movie theater what is the thinking?

[00:03:55]Do the young does the younger generation then decide hey I want to read that book? I know you would love to have that happen, but what does happen? Do they see the movie then read the book or they just can the book?

[00:04:06]>> Um, you know, it depends. Uh, the Odyssey is a long epic poem and many of the translations are in um poetry form, which I think tends to put people off.

[00:04:18]Some of them are in pros. Um, I I love the Odyssey. I think it's fascinating reading. Um it's really really great and I'm just so pleased you know whether or not people read the book. Um I'm just so happy that the this movie has been made because you know humanities programs and departments are under fire everywhere and anything that can put you know this classic of the western cannon um in the forefront of the public imagination is a great thing in in in my book. So, so I don't expect people to read the Odyssey, but I, you know, I hope they they have an appreciation in the end for the humanities and the kinds of stories that we have been telling for literally thousands of years because they really say something about who who we are as human beings. That's why the Odyssey continues to be popular and continues to be adapted.

[00:05:10]>> Yeah. Well, I've got a summer reading assignment for my three kids right now pronto. Okay. Uh, the question is, I know you're going to see the movie. When are you seeing it?

[00:05:20]>> Oh, I'm seeing it tomorrow. Yes.

[00:05:23]>> Getting some popcorn.

[00:05:25]>> Oh, yes. Hopefully in the Trojan horse bucket. That's what I'm hoping.

[00:05:29]>> Enjoy. And thank you so much. Appreciate talking >> so much. Enjoy.