Greeks Bearing Gifts

When the trailer appeared months ago for Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey, I was underwhelmed, although certainly not for the same reasons as the world’s richest Nazi; its glimpses of Matt Damon and his crew wandering around an island just didn’t offer much to get excited about. But on its arrival the movie was rapturously received, so I waited until I’d seen it (on Thursday, on Imax) before reading translator Emily Wilson’s review, which had sparked an inevitable backlash, both to the movie and to her critique of it, when it appeared last week. Reading Wilson’s discussion of everything Nolan left out gives me fresh motivation to read her translation of Homer’s poem, which has been staring at me from the shelf since I bought it a couple of years ago… but it doesn’t alter my overall impression of his movie, which despite some quibbles was overwhelmingly positive. Having not yet read the poem itself, my prior familiarity with the story was from reading retold highlights as a kid, and…