Discourse around the Greek epic The Odyssey erupted on X following the reveal that Christopher Nolan will be adapting it for the big screen. The announcement exposed that some people have never heard of The Odyssey, let alone read it, which came as a shock to those who consider it to be an extremely culturally important text.
Now it’s war between people who think this ignorance is inexcusable and those who feel that expecting everyone to know of the story is insensitive to non-Americans, or classist, or something.
What is The Odyssey?
The Odyssey is an epic poem written by Homer in the 8th or 7th century B.C. The protagonist is Odysseus, the king of Ithaca, and the tale chronicles his journey home from the Trojan War. On the way, he runs into several obstacles after angering Poseidon, turning a simple trip into a 10-year slog.
The story became so popular and enduring that it was translated from Greek to Latin and then into many different languages and is today considered one of the most influential texts of all time. In 2018, BBC polled literary experts from around the world to create a list of “100 Stories that Shaped the World,” and The Odyssey came out on top.
Director Christopher Nolan to adapt The Odyssey
On Monday, Dec. 23, Universal Pictures announced Nolan’s The Odyssey for 2026 in a tweet.
“Christopher Nolan’s next film ‘The Odyssey’ is a mythic action epic shot across the world using brand new IMAX film technology,” they said. “The film brings Homer’s foundational saga to IMAX film screens for the first time and opens in theaters everywhere on July 17, 2026.”
Big names to expect in the film include Matt Damon, Tom Holland, Zendaya, Robert Pattinson, Lupita Nyong’o, Anne Hathaway, and Charlize Theron, according to The Hollywood Reporter. This will be Nolan’s first film after the wildly successful Oppenheimer depressed audiences in 2023.
Is it weird if you haven’t heard of The Odyssey?
In the U.S., it’s very common for The Odyssey or The Iliad to be part of the public school curriculum. It’s also been adapted or referenced in films and TV shows many times already, starting over a century before Christopher Nolan decided to do it with a direct adaptation.
After Universal Pictures announced the upcoming film, some X users reacted with curiosity and then surprise upon learning how old the original story is—specifically, actor and producer Matt Ramos seems to have started all this, saying that he assumed it was an Assassin’s Creed title.
Others reacted with shock at the idea that there were people who didn’t know about The Odyssey already. This quickly turned to mockery and lamentations about the state of public education and general knowledge.
The tide again shifted when more X users started accusing the jokesters of being too centered on the U.S., claiming that other nations don’t teach The Odyssey. The other camp lobbed back claims that even if it’s not taught, the epic poem is such a vital and widespread part of human culture that total ignorance around it suggests a significant shift in that culture.
Those crying foul because not everyone speaks English as their first language only fueled the opposing side because the story is available in so many languages. Others acted as though The Odyssey originated in the U.S. rather than ancient Greece, leaving themselves open to attack.
People are predicting that the next round of the discourse will be to call any expectation of knowledge around The Odyssey “classist.”
Odysseus? In my Odyssey?
The Odyssey discourse managed to reveal that not only are there people who haven’t heard of the story, but plenty more didn’t realize that the word “odyssey” meaning “a long wandering or voyage” is derived from the name of the poem’s main character, Odysseus. This fueled a genre of side-jokes that might help take the annoying sting out of the fighting.
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