Odyssey

Christopher Nolan’s Odyssey: A Review

Quintus Curtius Film , ,

Controversy and mudslinging are not new features of the Homeric tradition.  We are told that, in 1715, soon after Alexander Pope published the first volume of his translation of the Iliad, the eminent poet was assailed by Britain’s most fearsomely competent Hellenist, Richard Bentley.  Bentley, with the insufferable bluntness that had made him famous (or infamous), told Pope, “It is a pretty poem, Mr. Pope, but you must not call it Homer.”  Pope revenged himself on Bentley in his satirical Dunciad by portraying the scholar as a pedantic bore who “made Horace dull, and humbled Milton’s strains.”    

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On The Conflict Between Artistic License And Fidelity To A Classic Work

Quintus Curtius Film, Thought , ,

The imminent release of Christopher Nolan’s film The Odyssey on July 17 has ignited a vigorous and necessary debate regarding the tension between artistic license and the importance of fidelity to a classic text.  It is a question of old date.  But while every generation has felt the compulsion to interpret anew the literary monuments of the past, they have often hesitated, out of respect for the antiquity of these monuments, to tamper unduly with the words and sentiments contained within them.

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What Was It That Allowed Odysseus To Return Home?

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Oliver Stone’s memoir Chasing the Light, which I began reading two weeks ago, relates an interesting anecdote.  After returning from military service in Vietnam, the future director enrolled in film school at New York University; one of the classes he attended, taught by a professor named Tim Leahy, dealt with classical drama. 

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The Genius Of The Iliad

Quintus Curtius Literature , ,

About a year and a half ago, I listened to an audio book translation of the Iliad.  I like listening to audio books in my car as I drive around during the day; I can control the content of what I hear, and can avoid listening to the news.  It had been a long time since I had had any extended exposure to the poem, and was wondering if it might mean more to me than it did many years ago.  The full appreciation of works of literature, we all know, is often time-specific.  At one point in a man’s life, a book may seem like a tiresome bore; then, with a refreshing interval of years, the same work can hit you like a bolt of lightning, activating previously dormant or attenuated perceptions.

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