There were a lot of egregious changes and exclusions — Aeolus and the bag of winds, Nobody, the marriage bed, Helen’s speech, Circe’s help, Odysseus talking to his mother in the Underworld, the many mentions of how his fate was prophesied long ago — but I think the worst one is the Phaeacians.
Part of that is a theme Nolan was entirely uninterested in — at least compared to “war is bad and watching your friends die is sad.” But a huge theme of the Odyssey is foreignness and how can be dangerous, the way to act when facing alien cultures and people who don’t act the way you think they should. Odysseus himself is spurning his own Greek culture and customs at every turn (which is its own massive issue), so of course the movie couldn’t explore this theme, but…it’s such a big focal point.
The Importance of the Phaeacians:
So many books of the Odyssey are spent exploring xenia (which the film calls “Zeus’s law” and also grossly misinterprets, which is its own post). For so long, the formula is “Odysseus and his men arrive on a foreign island, whoever lives there violates xenia in some way, the Ithacans escape but with some casualties.” It’s one of the most formulaic aspects of the story.
Which is why it’s very pointed that he recounts all those awful violations of xenia while he is a guest of the Phaeacians. Who are foreign, whose island is strange to him, but who follow xenia to the point of self-detriment.
Like, it is prophesied that the Phaeacians will someday help a man hated by Poseidon (who is their patron god) and in doing so lose his favor and doom themselves. They know this prophecy. They know that the degree to which they welcome and help foreigners will someday destroy them. They hear Odysseus’ story and realize that Poseidon hates him. And they send him home with an honor guard and a ship full of treasure anyway.
Isn’t that important? That Odysseus tells a story about the danger of people who are different and foreign, only to receive his greatest blessings and ultimate happy ending thanks to the help of people who are foreign, but not actually so different from him after all.
The Importance of Odysseus telling his story to the Phaeacians:
Here’s the thing: the most classic books of the Odyssey, the ones everyone thinks of when they first read it — the Lastrygones and Polyphemus and Circe and Scylla/Charybdis and the cattle — all of those are told in first person by Odysseus.
Wily Odysseus of many tricks and tonuges. Odysseus, known for his many disguises and lies. Odysseus, the least reliable narrator imaginable even before you consider that he has extra incentive to lie to the Phaeacians!
Because Odysseus is their guest. He’s extra incentivized to 1. Guilt the Phaeacians into being nice to him, and 2. Not admit to any of his own wrongdoings when it comes to xenia and his attempts to exercise guest-right.
There’s a ton of classical scholarship investigating Polyphemus the Cyclops especially — because Odysseus outright says “my men wanted to just rob his cave, and boy do I wish I listened instead of doing the proper thing and following xenia!”
That statement sounds so unbelievably suspicious in the original Greek that many scholars feel the intended reading is that they did exactly that. Polyphemus killing the men and refusing to follow xenia may have been partly or completely motivated by the fact the Ithacans broke that pact first by stealing from him. And no, that wouldn’t excuse the cannibalism, but…Odysseus killed the suitors under those exact same circumstances. They ate his food and took his stuff and invaded his home, so he killed them.
But this isn’t even the only case where Odysseus’ words are deeply suspect! For example, with respect to Scylla and Charybdis, he got extensive advice from Circe, and her words as paraphrased by Odysseus are outright contradictory. Circe opens with “I will tell you of both, then make your choice,” but ends by telling him directly “Scylla is the right choice — better to lose six men than all of them.” Circe told him outright “You are treating monsters and gods like mortal warfare — your weapons and wits won’t help you here,” but Odysseus then mentions armoring up to try and fight Scylla anyway. Circe starts telling Odysseus how he might listen to the Sirens if he wishes, then stresses the importance of their knowledge.
It’s possible Circe spoke misleadingly, or that Odysseus ignored her warnings. It’s also possible that he is putting words in her mouth, as part of his story to the Phaeacians, in order to excuse his own actions.
There’s every chance Odysseus lied about a full quarter of the Odyssey’s events. But the film removes that ambiguity, or at least the agency involved in the lies, by instead having Odysseus be slowly regaining his memory after Calypso drugged him with lotus. (Also an insane departure from canon.) And that’s far less interesting and longer to tell than a clear narration with potential for outright lies would’ve been.
The Importance of Odysseus telling his story:
Bards, storytelling and song are also terribly important to the Odyssey as a text. We see how these can be sources of anguish, tools for comfort, or just the way history is remembered and passed on.
The value placed on the oral tradition is why the Odyssey and Iliad survived until the modern day at all! They were so important and beloved that many many people wrote them down during times with little written record.
Which is why it’s insane that bards are barely present at all in the movie. The one in Ithaca I think gets to say less than 20 words in the whole film. (I know Nolan said he was trying to pay tribute to rap/hip-hop, but the issue remains that the bard didn’t get to say anything of substance.) The bards from Sparta are cut altogether. So is the act of poetic recitation by both a Phaeacian bard and by Odysseus himself, because he doesn’t meet the Phaeacians in the film. And it’s not just narratively significant, but culturally too.
It was a widely held belief in Ancient Greece that bards and poets became possessed by the gods when composing and performing their works. That’s how important and holy song and storytelling were to their culture. It was divine. It was worship and celebration and historical record all in one.
There’s a reason the first scene we get on Ithaca is a bard regaling the suitors with tales of the Trojan War! It’s because the stories told by bards are important. You had to do something wonderful to be remembered like that. It’s contrasting Odysseus with both the suitors and with Telemachus, who sit and listen to stories rather than live them.
Axing the Phaeacians doesn’t just remove a highly important plot point that introduces narrative ambiguity. It undercuts the themes, the viewer’s understanding of events we don’t have factual knowledge of, and undermines a huge part of Ancient Greek culture all in one go.
I don’t think any level of narrative convenience justifies that. Even before you consider that letting Odysseus be a more active and conscious and lying narrator, rather than an amnesiac slowly recovering his memory, could’ve saved huge amounts of time.
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