By Marjorie Heroux
On Wednesday, Sept. 16, 2026, Department presented a panel on Christopher Nolan’s Odyssey in the LLC Agora. Released in theatres on Jul. 17, 2026, Nolan’s Odyssey has been the subject of both high praise and bitter critiques. During her refl ection, Cianca carefully observed this phenomenon, raising her concerns and her compliments, all while offering an accessible entry point for non- classicists into the world of Gods and heroes of Ancient Greece.
The Odyssey, an ancient Greek tale passed down through generations of oral histories and, allegedly, written down by Homer, is a tale of homecoming. It recalls the adventures of Greek hero Odysseus, as he attempts to return home after the Trojan War, only to find his home, Ithaca, full of suitors endeavouring to usurp his throne and his wife.
Cianca addressed this concern throughout her lecture but also approached three major themes: Gods, heroes, men and pigs. “Gods,” she began, “are in themselves infinitely rich and profound.” It makes them extremely hard to render fantastically without it being cheesy, especially in movies. In the original Odyssey, Gods are a major element of the tale: they mingle in battle, initervene in dreams, protect their heroes, and generally are responsible for the overall chaos happening. Yet, as our lecturer reminds us, Nolan seems to be unsure how to portray the Olympians: Athena, played by Zendaya, is petite and mournful (which is scandalous considering that Athena is meant to be the goddess of strategy and war), Zeus is only mentioned by his law (xenia: the mutual friendship between a guest and their hosts), Poseidon is briefly cited without real proof of existence, and many of the other Gods are essentially absent… Dr. Cianca noted in that regard that it is as though Nolan does not know whether to present the Gods as existing or not.
In another of her points about “Men”, she examined how the portrayal of women was cleansed of their rich essence: “where are the women?”. Mostly shown as sexless creatures, women’s roles in Nolan’s film are to be on standby or push the hero towards their rightful path. Calypso, explained Cianca, is portrayed as a sexy-mommy therapist, devoid of the richness she once had – reflecting the “relentless gray” of the movie and its portrayal of women.
The “Pigs” aspect touched upon the body horror and revenge aspect of The Odys- sey, showing a Circe darker than what she ever was before, and arguably “with more depth”. Cianca noted here that this ties in with Nolan’s obsession with darkness: there are monsters, but no Gods; the world is grey, empty of its whimsy – things are not allowed to be both beautiful and dangerous, and so on.
Using Emily Wilson’s translation, Nolan adapted The Odyssey with startling modernity, cherry-picking elements of the original tale to adapt it for today’s audience. Nolan’s Odysseus is amnesiac, PTSD-ed, honourable (in our modern sense) and longing for Ithaca with passion; on the other hand, Homer’s Odysseus is more versatile: he is cunning, witty, cheating, egoistical, all the while yearning to be home. Nolan’s depiction of Odysseus is clearly more palatable to the American Hollywood audience: the character was meant to refl ect what modern heroes are meant to be.
Mackenzie Keating, classics student, commented on the presentation: “I liked how [Dr. Cianca] focused on the lack of strength in the women characters, considering how impactful and significant their roles were in the original script…I think it’s also important how Dr. Cianca highlighted how in the movie Odysseus was really aware and felt bad as a ‘conqueror’, but in the book he is proud of his accomplishments and his victories as a warrior: there is a clear discrepancy between the original text…and the film adaptation in terms of how he feels about his actions.”
Dr. Cianca closed her presentation on this note: she does not share most classicists’ elitist perspectives on adaptations and praised the famed director for taking a shot at this classic: such adaptations, after all, are beneficial to humanities, and they raise greater awareness of our society and values.
