Christopher Nolan's THE ODYSSEY

Jeff Bernstein · April 23

Extremely rare publication : available in only seven libraries worldwide, according to WorldCat.

Jeff Bernstein · April 24

πολύμητις Ὀδυσσεύς

Ulysse l'astucieux

Edited April 24 by Jeff Bernstein

Jeff Bernstein · April 25

Pico della Mirandola, Oration on the Dignity of Man (1496)

Jeff Bernstein · May 4

Perplex'd the Greek (9.19) = Odysseus

Jeff Bernstein · May 9

Télémaque (2019).

Jeff Bernstein · May 9

Homer in The Great Gatsby, ch.1

We walked through a high hallway into a bright rosy-colored space, fragilely bound into the house by French windows at either end. The windows were ajar and gleaming white against the fresh grass outside that seemed to grow a little way into the house. A breeze blew through the room, blew curtains in at one end and out the other like pale flags, twisting them up toward the frosted wedding cake of the ceiling—and then rippled over the wine-colored rug, making a shadow on it as wind does on the sea.

Anyone who has read Homer would automatically think of Odysseus' odyssey in the use of the adjective phrase wine-coloured rug. eg, οἴνοπι πόντῳ ("wine-dark sea", 5.132; 221; 349). This association is corroborated by the proximate use of sea. Evidently the narrator urges us to make this connection with the ancient vibe.

For that matter, high hallway recalls such expressions in THE ODYSSEY as δόμου ὑψηλοῖο ("house high/lofty", 4.304; οἶκον . . . ὑψόροφον ("house high-roofed"), 5.115; ὑψερεφὲς δῶ ("high-roofed house", 15.432; ὑψηλοῖσι δόμοισιν ("high/lofty house", 17.110).

While rosy-colored recalls ῥοδοδάκτυλος Ἠώς ("rosy-fingered dawn", 3.1).

FRIEND SCROOB leaves it to the good reader to augment the above commentary.

Karim D. Ghantous · May 13

On 5/9/2025 at 4:46 PM, Jeff Bernstein said:

Télémaque (2019).

That's a 'glass half full' kind of attitude!

Jeff Bernstein · May 13

A monumental 'glass half full' moment—for Nolan to bring to life.

While the two men spoke to one another, a dog
lying nearby raised its head, and pricked up its ears :
this was Argos, Odysseus’ great-hearted dog,
whom his owner had bred before leaving for Troy
all those years ago, and so had taken no joy
in him. In the old days he had run through the wilds,
going off with the house servants on hunts for goats
and deer and rabbits. These days, though, he was left alone,
his master long gone, his fur matted by the filth
of the farmyards and infested with fleas; for he
sometimes followed the slaves when they went off
to manure the fields. So there lay Argos, smelling of
mule and cattle filth; and just now, coming aware
of his old master Odysseus standing near,
his eyes widened, and his tail began to wag.
But he was no longer able to go to his master,
for he’d lost the strength to walk. Odysseus, however,
had seen the movement of his head, and looked : then he
looked away, and wiped the tear that fell from his eye.

. . .

And Argos, now that he had seen Odysseus
his master one more time, in the twentieth year,
let black death take hold of him, and his spirit ran away.

FRANK CAPRA. I thought drama was when actors cried. But drama is when the audience cries.

☞ If storyteller Nolan wrings tears from the audience here, he will have unequivocally graduated to the highest level of world storyteller.

Jeff Bernstein · June 5

PREPARE FOR PREPARATION. Good reader, think of a precious artifact from your younger years which you keep preserved at your home address. Please now extrapolate and consider THE ODYSSEY. This story and The Iliad are the two early stories that Europe chose to preserve and protect down through the many centuries to our present time; and there were any number of stories that might have been preserved from way back when but are now irretrievably lost (cf. ninety-nine percent of silents). It is no stretch for Scrooby to pronounce that, religious texts aside, and ignoring the Iliad for now, THE ODYSSEY is the Biggest Story of All-Time (in European history). Now think of storyteller Nolan, and cast and crew, and a film studio all devoted to transmitting this story in the best way they can at this hour of the twenty-first century. Does the Reader think that storyteller Nolan will be sleeping on the job? ¶ Might it be that, considering the wondrous leaps forward that humanist Nolan has made (Dunkirk, Oppenheimer), THE ODYSSEY could, and it sounds ridiculous, "really and truly" exist in a triumphant artistic realm alongside 2001 : A Space Odyssey? "So what?" some will say. But some understand. This post is not idle blather (hopefully) but essential preparation to experiencing the phenomenon of THE ODYSSEY (2026). You, Reader, will see THE ODYSSEY, but will you let it happen? Consider how film reviewer Bosley Crowther wasn't prepared for Kubrick and panned 2001 in the New York Times, but later rejected the original review for a more nuanced review a year later. So what is Scrooby saying? The more prepared we are for the onset of a phenomenon, then, God willing, the better the chance we will experience it as such. And what might this "phenomenon" be? A masterclass in first-rate storytelling. And what does that mean? Possibly life-changing Revelation in 2026. Good news? To the Reader laughing in derision, Scroob returns with : What would you rather it take to wise up?

Edited June 5 by Jeff Bernstein

Jeff Bernstein · July 1

Music

The teaser starts as if with Richard Strauss, and ends as if with Penderecki . . . sound familiar, friends?

Jeff Bernstein · July 2

DEFY THE GODS

"the shadow of a magnitude" / Keats, "On Seeing the Elgin Marbles"

Okay, but what about these Greek gods? What is their fundamental attitude towards human beings? Friend Scrooby, working tirelessly, provides here a translation of the opening of the Trojan Women of Euripides (ll. 1–97), which not only answers the above questions, but also provides a treatment of the origin story of THE ODYSSEY.

POSEIDON
I have come up from the depths of the salty Aegean sea,
POSEIDON, where the Nereids whirl in beautiful dances.
Ever since Apollo and I put up smooth stone walls, perfectly
measured, around this city of Troy, I have had a soft spot
for the Trojans and their home. Now the city is smoking ruins,
destroyed by the power of the Greeks, who built a wooden horse
(a scheme of Athena's and built by the Phocian, Epeus),
inside which warriors were hidden; it went within the walls
of the city and brought destruction to the Trojan people.

The sacred groves to the gods are now deserted; our temples
run with blood. At the base of the statue of Zeus in the midst
of his court, Priam, King of Troy, lies dead. Meanwhile, much gold
and other spoils of war the Greeks are carrying to their ships.

They await a wind to take them back to their wives and children,
pleased to be going home after ten years of war. I have been
beaten by Hera and Athena—it was they who destroyed Troy—
so I'm leaving this famous spot and all of my altars here.

Whenever a city collapses, there's no one left to pray,
and the gods are no longer given their proper reverence.

I hear cries and shouts from River Scamander. There, the women
are being divided up, appointed by lot to this man
or that man; many shrieking women are meeting new masters.

Look there! See the miserable queen of Troy, Hecuba, lying
by the door of the destroyed palace, if you want to see her.

She is weeping many tears for many reasons; and it's worse
for her—she doesn't know her daughter Polyxena is dead,
murdered at the tomb of Achilles. Her husband and her sons
are dead; and her frantic daughter Cassandra, whose chastity
Lord Apollo preserved, is now Agamemnon's property
against the wishes of the god, and the Greek king will force her
to occupy his bed, and take her.

Well then. Goodbye,
my city of Troy, and your walls of smooth stone, once prosperous,
now utterly destroyed and brought to nothing. If Zeus' daughter
Athena hadn't done all this, you would still be standing tall.

ATHENA
You who are near to my father in power and reverence,
may I forget our differences of foretimes and speak to you?

POSEIDON
Of course, Lady Athena. Talk with one's family charms the heart.

ATHENA
Thank you for your kindness. There is something you and I must discuss.

POSEIDON
Do you bring word of a new message from Zeus, or another god?

ATHENA
No. I want to speak of right where we stand, the city of Troy.
This is why I have come to you. I hope to win an ally.

POSEIDON
You are going to cast aside all your hatred for this place?
Now you feel compassion while the city burns to ashes?

ATHENA
Let's return to my original point. Will you hear my words,
and then undertake to do with me what I would wish to do?

POSEIDON
Of course. But what is it you want? This is what I want to know.

ATHENA
I want to cheer up the Trojan people, my former enemies;
and bring down upon the Greek army a bitter, painful return.

POSEIDON
What is this with you, first hating very much, and now loving?

ATHENA
Are you aware my temples have been treated outrageously?

POSEIDON
I know; it happened when Ajax carried Cassandra away.

ATHENA
And for what he did the Greeks gave him no punishment at all.

POSEIDON
And it was with your strength that the Greeks annihilated Troy.

ATHENA
This is why, if you are willing, I am going to hurt them.

POSEIDON
I am ready to do as you say. What would you have me do?

ATHENA
I want their voyage home to be thrown into confusion.

POSEIDON
While they're still standing here on land, or sailing on the sea?

ATHENA
When they're sailing home from Troy. Zeus will send
thunderstorms and hail and contrary winds relentlessly.
He promises me a lightning-bolt to throw down at their ships
and I will consume the Greeks in fire. You, Lord Poseidon,
will make the passage of the Aegean a treacherous way
of mighty waves and much clamour, with whirlpools to drag them down.
Fill all the coastlines of Greece with dead bodies. Then they will learn
to reverence me rightly in my temples, and other gods, too.

POSEIDON
I can do that; so we need not waste any more words on it.
The beaches of Greece will be covered in many dead bodies.
So then. Go on up to Olympus, and take the lightning-bolt
from your father's hand, and wait for the Greeks to let out their sails.

How dumb are these mortals! They pillaged Troy, desecrated tombs
and our temples, yet aren't nearly smart enough to save themselves.

Edited July 2 by Jeff Bernstein

Jeff Bernstein · July 16

THE POWER OF ANCIENT GREEK

Evocative of Sappho's "Come, Aphrodite, pour your nectar into golden cups."

The happy ending of Good Girls Go to Paris (1939)

Stephen Perera · July 16

this thread has become something.....shall I say...I wasn't expecting....

Jeff Bernstein · July 22

Good Reader, Scrooby shall transmit two points, elementary ones yet indispensible ones, for understanding of THE ODYSSEY.

1.

THE ODYSSEY is an epic poem.

An epic poem celebrates the power of the culture that brought it into being.

2.

Reduce 2001: A Space Odyssey to a foundational question : "What is consciousness?"

THE ODYSSEY, first and foremost, concerns a marriage, a family—

so, 1 + 1, the foundation of THE ODYSSEY is a companion piece to 2001.

*

An epic poem is a distillation of power ¶ SPECULATION : The Nolan Experience is concocting a Stargate.

Edited July 22 by Jeff Bernstein

Jeff Bernstein · July 30

BOOK X : THE GIANT LAESTRYGONIANS

. . . ἰχθῦς δ᾽ ὣς πείροντες ἀτερπέα δαῖτα φέροντο.

The king roused the mighty-boned Laestrygonians,
who came in a terrible multitude from all over,
looking not like men, but like the monstrous Giants.
And from the rocky heights running around us
the Laestrygonians threw down boulders larger
than a man could lift : so then came the clamour
of the crush of ships shattering one by another,
and the cries of my men while they were speared through
like fish and plucked from the water, and taken
away as odious meals. While my men
were being killed within the deep harbour,
I drew my sword from my side, and cut the cables
from my dark-prowed ship. I ordered my crew to grab
the handles and row us away from the shower
of stones. Quickly, then, they sliced up the sea with their oars,
in terror of death, and left the rocky heights behind :
and they were glad to be back out on the open sea.