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Given our interest in war and peace storytelling, it was only a matter of time before we turned our attention to Christopher Nolan’s film version of The Odyssey. In this episode, Alice asks two guests for their reactions.
Dr Emily Hauser is an award-winning ancient historian and Times bestselling author of Mythica: A New History of Homer’s World, through the Women Written Out Of It. Her research focuses on women in antiquity, gender studies, Homer, and the theory and practice of classical reception, particularly in contemporary women’s writing. Emily’s writing has been featured on the BBC and multiple other podcasts, and her books have been published and translated across the world, bringing ancient stories and women into the present.
Dr Owen Rees is an interdisciplinary researcher with a core specialism in ancient history, whose latest book is called The Far Edges of the Known World: A New Perspective On Our Ancient Civilizations. His research interests focus on ancient Greek history and the relationship between warfare, civic society, and veteranship. As part of this research, he is one of the founders and leaders of The Returning Solider Network. Owen is also interested in the misuse of ancient history in the modern day, both in public discourse and also in pseudohistory. He is the founder and lead editor of badancient.com, which brings together a growing network of specialists to fact-check common claims made about the ancient world.
The episode begins with reflections on the stories which Homer's original poem told about conflict's aftermath and post-conflict homecomings. As we review Nolan's adaptation, we analyse its representation of moral injury, the erasure of women's wartime and post-wartime experiences, and the othering of enemies. Emily underlines the gap between how Homer's original poem narrated the near outbreak of civil war at the end of The Odyssey and Nolan's much more reductive 'happy ever after' ending, as one example of missing complexity. Owen reflects on the film's incorportation of modern tropes in veteran storytelling (including the pathology of the 'broken veteran'). And together, we discuss what we might do differently, if we were adapting this epic post-conflict story for the screen.
Tune in to find out more! For a version of our podcast with close captions, please use this link. For more information about individuals and their projects, please visit the University of St Andrews' Visualising War website and the Ancient Peace Studies Network.
Music composed by Jonathan Young
Sound mixing by Zofia Guertin
