let's get this bread

The snail. We Look About Us. 1932. Illustrated by Hugh Spencer.

You cannot alter your fate...however, you can rise to meet it, if you choose

Notice how the Mycenaean Greeks and Trojons look like medieval knights in a medieval siege? So really it doesn't bother me if in Christopher Nolan's version the armor isn't right or the ship isn't right if he did it as part of some artistic vision. Because after all, these stories aren't necessarily real history, they are folklore told for entertainment first and foremost, as a form of art second, and as a historical telling last. This is a common feature through history. For example, Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet is a story going back to ancient Mesopotamia and has been told countless times in countless settings. Julius Caesar and Shakespeare's plays on the kings of England were not historically accurate tellings of those events, but were entertainment for the masses.

So what is my point in saying all this. Well believe it or not it is not to defend or dismiss Christopher Nolan's Odyssey as like I said I have not seen it yet.

Rather it's a shameless plug in for my absolute favorite retelling of Homer's Odyssey of all time. The Great Depression Era American Folklore version by the Cohen Brothers --- Oh Brother Where Art Thou (2001)

The Blind Prophet

The Sirens (also Cerci because they turn one of them into a horny toad)

Cyclops

The Lotus Eaters

Hades

Killing the Sacred Cows (Ulysses men are struck by Zeus' lightning, George Babyface Nelson gets the electric chair)

Ulysses prevails over the suitors