Reject Modernity, Embrace Antiquity 🏺🏛️🧿

They shot in the illegally occupied Western Sahara as reported by Middle East Eye (thanks to @fuckyeahdavidandyonatan for bringing that up)

They dumped their props into a protected area of the Italian sea after shooting (thanks to @godslop for finding the article in English)

Zendaya wearing looted 3000 years old Iranian earrings for the premiere of the movie + having her stylist fly on a private jet just to get her a dress for the premiere in London

No Greek actors in a movie about Greek heritage

While people mentioned that Anne Hathaway was flown in to the set every day, apparently it was not on a private jet but on a helicopter that was being used anyway to fly in equipment.

None of these things are new in Hollywood or exclusive to the Odyssey, its director or its actors, but I do think we as audience should start holding Hollywood accountable when it disrespects our culture, heritage, environment, especially when it's movies that are this big and have a huge budged that would allow for more conscious choices.

Or just watch it here for free

Despite being a movie for kids made twenty years ago it has an inmense amount of love and care for the source material put into it (rosy-fingered dawn is mentioned several times, there's a joke about the Homeric question, it features characters rarely seen in most Odyssey movie adaptations like Ino and Eupeithes...) and I recommend checking it out on youtube if you're interested (the automatic captions are far from perfect but they're not awful, though a lot of the very Spanish jokes can inevitably get lost in translation)

The references start with the intro, each character appears both in their puppet form and as a specific vase painting depicting them. I could not quite put my finger on what specific depiction of Penelope is shown here so if anyone has any idea do let me know!

Still in the intro, two rotating vases appear. On one of them we can spot the famous Achilles and Patroclus by the Sosias painter and Odysseus meeting Tiresias by the Dolon painter.

The city of Troy seems really accurate! It's clear the team behind the movie looked at reconstructions as inspiration. Menelaus' (the guy on the left in the two central images) shield is also a carbon copy of this hoplite's shield from a Corinthian vase! The general look of the soldiers seems to be inspired by this vase and similar ones too. (Top left recon. by Pablo Aparicio Resco) (Bottom left recon. by Archaeology Illustrated)

Armor that looks appropriately bronze-like! Yes! Like in the epics!

Odysseus' ship looks Greek! It even has eyes!!1 The shields feature designs such as the rooster and spiral from the vase on the previous section plus a gorgoneion and a bull head, as seen in vases such as the Chigi vase pictured on the right here. If you have any idea what specific piece of art the other shields could be referencing feel free to let me know.

The main area of the palace we see in the movie with an open ceiling could be inspired by Mycenaean megara like the megaron of Pylos, reconstructed here by Archaeology Illustrated. What is definitely a reference are the columns, which look basically identical to those built by Arthur Evans at the minoan site of Knossos, which are based on pictorical evidence (like the grandstand fresco shown here) despite being full reconstructions. The walls are also decorated with floral motifs which don't necessarily call back to any specific ancient Aegean fresco I could think of but still get the point that palace walls were decorated and not barren across!

In terms of costume I wanted to highlight these two. One of Penelope's servants wears a wrapped hairstyle commonly seen in Greek pottery. Circe's and Penelope's hairstyles also seem to be inspired by ancient iconography. Antinous wears a leopard's pelt around his shoulders, which could either be considered a luxury item or an indicator of the "wild", "uncivilized" nature of the suitors, both of which would be really appropriate for Antinous. Whatever the case, it's an artistic choice that has that homeric taste imo, calling back to people like Paris and Menelaus wearing leopard pelts in the Iliad.

"Iphigenia", a 1977 Greek Epic tragedy film directed by Michael Cacoyannis.

Medea kneeling before Arete by Maud Hunt Squire in The Heroes by Charles Kingsley

Praise Ares; God of manhood and masculinity, of conflict and rebellion, of strength and courage.

Praise Ares, God of all who cower, God of the oppressed and God of the ups and downs of life.

Praise Ares, father, son, and lover. Kind, loving Ares, blood-soaked and no less important for it.

I have been thinking recently of the various facets of Ares. He is so much more than a God who fights; he is who teaches us to set our armor aside and dance, he who teaches us that the most masculine thing one can do is not just to cause harm, but to love fiercely; to protect, to nurture. What is more masculine than love, especially to love so strongly that one would fight for it? To love a person, to love an ideal, to love a belief so dearly that it becomes your guiding star as you move through the conflicts and anger and hardships of life? I don't see much love for Ares as the God of cowards, either. God of all who flee, God of those who are scared to fight... and God of courage, of fighting while scared. Ares is not a God who has no fear; he delights in it. He dances with it. He tells us that fear is how we live, that fear and love and anger and joy and conflict and peace -- all of these are beautifully, beautifully human. It is proof we are alive.

Praise Ares.

Screenshot via Alejandra Caraballo @esqueer.net on bluesky

Tldr Amnesty International, global human rights organisation, published a report called 'A growing threat: the anti-rights movement in the UK'. In it is detailed, amongst others, a whole bunch of transphobic groups and organisations, including Beira's Place, JK Rowling's trans exclusionary sexual violence support service. JK Rowling threw a shit fit and got Amnesty to take the report down by threatening libel. This was obviously not enough, because you can't appease a fascist, so now she's going to bankroll a bunch of lawsuits anyway through the JK Rowling Women's Fund.*

You can read an archived version of the report here, please save it and share it.

Black-figure funerary plaque with scenes of prothesis (laying out of the dead) and chariot race

Greek (from Attica), Archaic Period, c. 520-510 B.C.

terracotta

(there's actually a very funny reason as to why some older films that depict Grease did a strangely better job at tricking into thinking that the actor was Greek. They would hire predominantly mediterranean, olive skin, or even perhaps slightly tanned people. Now obviously that is just a cheap way to not hire proper Greek actors, but at least the filmmakers are doing a good job at tricking the audience into becoming more immersed in the film.)

(Nolan's version of odyssey has ultimately decided that shotgunning whoever is popular currently at the moment and would bring in the big bucks was far more important than actually taking into consideration who would probably be more appropriate for the role)

(keep in mind, Hollywood nowadays is no longer actually interested in making films but ultimately fishing for money. They make the bacon real as attractive as possible only for you to find out it has no flavor)

(never mind that the film literally looks like as if halfway through production Nolan was trying to create a medieval fantasy film and probably found out that some rando from tikTok made a whole ass musical about the Odyssey within a few short months to 2 years and is ultimately extremely successful with no large quantities of budget needed.)

(with that being said, somebody also pointed out that there is a whole scene in The Odyssey that looks like it was ripped directly from troy, also known as that very hilariously infamous scene where Achilles ransacks a temple of Apollo and then made the comparison with a scene where Odysseus decapitates the statue of Athena. Keep in mind, Odysseus was frustrated and at odds with his own faith in the gods because he was put through such a ringer, it wasn't outright trying to be completely hateful towards them. In the mist, the gods literally still had faith in him in spite of his frustrations, even theologically giving a very interesting lesson that the gods are actually never going to leave you, they're the host and where the guests if you want to put it in a theologically shrewd way)

(however in the movie it almost makes it out to be that Odysseus has decided to open his mouth to say something genuinely offensive and then try to backtrack by trying to tell them when "don't do this this will piss off the gods". Which to me sounds like he isn't that odds with his spiritual beliefs above more as if he's regretting what he said while simultaneously still hating the gods)

(to make a long story short, this film is a mess from both a production point of perspective and once you start actually analyzing other media in comparison, you start to realize that Christopher Nolan's version of The Odyssey is probably the worst example of them all. At least the other movies tricked you into thinking you are watching Greek people in ancient Greece, and in many cases there is people who have Greek descendancy in these films, it's just not the case in this situation.)