Tell me, Muse, of the master of non-linear storytelling

Christopher Nolan's Odyssey adaptation, epithets, ankles, and Rupert Campbell-Black

Apr 22, 2025

Christopher Nolan’s adaptation of Homer’s Odyssey has been CLOGGING my feed lately, everyone and their mum has an opinion about it but honestly I’m just excited to see it when it eventually comes out. This newsletter feels a wee bit premature—the more we learn about the cast and the film itself, the more there will be to actually dive into—BUT a few of you have asked for my thoughts on it and I had a lindt-induced brainwave over the Easter weekend so let’s get into it.

Firstly, I am not and will never be the sort of person that is going to take you through the film frame by frame or text line by line and discuss each individual instance where Nolan deviates or is faithful to the original text. Nothing against the classicists that will (and there are many, just you wait), but I’ve never been a details person. Frankly, I don’t care. Even when I was writing academic essays and had to FORCE myself to care, I always struggled with the nitty gritty (much to the dismay and horror of my long-suffering supervisors).

Why did this type of referencing ever fall out of fashion.

Details bog me DOWN (and get in the way of my outlandish/tenuous claims). When it comes to Nolan’s Odyssey, many other classicists and ancient historians with their big, beautiful, detail-oriented brains will put in the hours so we can focus on the BIG PICTURE. Namely, why the hell are people still banging on about the Odyssey three thousand years later?

(I am aware my handle is literally Cosi’s Odyssey so I am well and truly ✨part of the problem✨ but it’s a hangover from when I first started my ancient history page on instagram and it was 50% a travel account).

As I said, it’s early doors for the adaptation—we’ve got some blurry photos and a handful of details (I’m not opposed to speculating re cast announcements, scroll to the end because I’m keen for your thoughts)—but let’s circle back to my lindt-induced revelation. It was 1am, I’d eaten an entire chocolate bunny, ears-first, when the word polytropos started floating around in my mind. It actually felt like a pinball that was bouncing around rather violently, hitting the sides of my skull until it eventually settled next to Christopher Nolan.

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Polytropos (πολύτροπος) is an incredible word that kicks off the Odyssey, specifically Homer’s description of its eponymous hero, Odysseus. It has been translated a whole bunch of ways; Lattimore kicks his translation off with “Tell me, Muse, of the man of many ways,” while Emily Wilson’s translation opens with “Tell me about a complicated man.” Polytropos literally means many-turned or much-turning (not quite as sexy in english). It has been interpreted as mentally agile, generally tricksy, and far-travelled.

This epithet is just sensational. For those of you that don’t know what an epithet is, it’s a descriptive term or phrase that frequently accompanies a person/place or thing. Homer LOVED an epithet ~ bright-eyed Athena, rosy-fingered Dawn, slim-ankled Penelope etc.

Ancient Greek men***

hercules and megara from the movie hercules

English translations, particularly those that, like Wilson’s, admirably attempt to maintain the brevity and pace of the original work, zap this particular epithet of its OOMPH. Polytropos, say it aloud, it sounds so GOOD. (Imagine a handsome, sun-soaked Greek man with a deep voice whispering it to you if that helps). Fagles gives us another translation that is hands-down my personal favourite; “Sing to me of the man, Muse, the man of twists and turns…”

This brings us to Christopher Nolan who, one could argue (and I WILL argue) is a DIRECTOR of twists and turns. I will confess I have not seen every single one of his films but I have seen ENOUGH to confidently say most of his films leave me looking/feeling like this:

A puppet made to resemble a shrimp, with large bulging eyes and frazzled hair.

In no particular order:

Inception = ?????????
Interstellar: ;( but also ???????
Dunkirk: jesus christ WHAT
Tenet: ¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿

The point IS, Nolan is known for making his films insanely confusing. In an interview he admits to doing this on purpose. Rather than trying to screw with the audience, he’s actually trying to deliver on what he thinks great cinema should be — complicated, dense, and, most of all, mysterious. In short, he loves a twist and a turn, just like Odysseus.

BUT WAIT THERE’S MORE (isn’t there always).

Nolan also shares similarities with Homer, both fond of plunging their audiences into the middle of a story as opposed to the beginning. This technique is known as in media res (Latin for “into the middle of things”). Aka timeline fuckery. Given that the Odyssey already has an insanely confusing timeline (it begins at the point where Odysseus has already been wandering for years and he’s stuck on Calypso’s island) I DREAD to think what Christopher Nolan has in store for us. Maybe he’ll be super transgressive and present the whole thing in chronological order so it’s actually easy to follow?? Hope springs eternal.

File:Herbert James Draper, Calypso's Isle.jpg — Herbert James Draper, *Calypso's Isle,* 1897.

Something that does terrify me about this adaptation is what Universal’s distribution chief Jim Orr said about the film at CinemaCon. He described it as “modern” and “propulsive” with an “out of this world twist.” I’m sorry what sort of TWIST??? Presumably you’re using IMAX to bring mythical monsters like Scylla and Charybdis to life and we may actually see the witch-goddess Circe transforming men into pigs on the big screen??? Is a twist strictly necessary???

To wrap up, and SPOILERS for the Odyssey (but it is 3000 years old so I really don’t know how sincerely I can apologise for spoiling this for you), as you probably know when Odysseus gets back home and sees the BEVY of suitors circling his beloved wife Penelope he slaughters all of them in a horrific, bloody display of mass murder. So my question to you is WHO would you cast as Penelope’s suitors? (Fan-casting for those of you that are TikTok native).

I.e. who is a male actor that’s vaguely attractive but kind of an asshole who you could see getting violently slaughtered by the righteous, recently-returned husband on the big screen?

Tell me, Muse, of the master of non-linear storytelling

Christopher Nolan's Odyssey adaptation, epithets, ankles, and Rupert Campbell-Black

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