Does "The Odyssey" Understand Ancient Greek Religion?

Christopher Nolan’s “The Odyssey” hit theaters a little over a week ago.

The film earned an estimated $124 million on its opening weekend and, at the time of this recording, received a score of 95% on Rotten Tomatoes and 4.4 stars on Letterboxd.

While Nolan’s mastery of his craft and a well-loved cast have certainly done their part in making the film a success, the credit must still go where it is due—to the architect of the source material: Homer.

Tradition says that Homer was a blind, rambling poet. However, most historians agree that it is unlikely that one man put the epic together. Instead, The Odyssey was likely built on hundreds of years of oral tradition—with each poet adding their brick to the masterful wall that is the tale of Odysseus. And today, through this new film, our century adds its own brick to the wall.

And through the centuries of this poem’s adaptation and evolution, the amalgam of worldviews the different poets brought to the story exposed the spiritual beliefs of an entire age.

For readers coming from an Abrahamic faith background, the way deities are presented in the tale is both familiar and foreign. The power checks out—as does the relational element and the blessings. But the foolishness, the pettiness—the humanity of the gods—feels foreign and even blasphemous.

So how does this new rendition, made by people living in a society dominated by Abrahamic faiths and secularism deal with the devout, but perplexingly hubristic character of Odysseus? Is faith treated thoughtfully and with respect? Or is it made out to be as fantastical as the strange creatures of Greek myth?

To find out how religion is and isn’t represented in The Odyssey, I spoke with Religion Unplugged’s very own culture critic and frequent host of the podcast, Joseph Holmes.