Christopher Nolan’s take on Homer’s Odyssey is certainly a blockbuster. But, argue Pele Cox and Rich Uridge in the second part of their Odyssey odyssey, it’s also a flockbuster with opinion splitting into two distinct herds.
In this bonus episode they also explore whether movie soundtracks can spoil the way our imagination “hears” poetry and delight in one of the earliest visual representations of the epic poem.
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Poems
- Rich read from Book 22, The Battle in the Hall translated by E V Rieu.
- Pele read from her trusty and well thumbed Robert Fagles translation.
Notes and further reading
Nolan’s blockbuster isn’t the first visualisation of Homer’s Odyssey. Nor are any of the others films that have been made over the years. That honour may well go to The Sculptures at Sperlonga discovered in 1957 in the grounds of the villa of the Roman Emperor Tiberius and thought to date back to the 1st century AD. They’re well worth a look. Thanks to Fabio Barry for bringing them to our attention.
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