381. The Odyssey

Christopher Nolan is making a film about The Odyssey. Homer wrote the original in ancient Greek. Nolan has decided his version will be spoken in modern English. He explained that he wanted language that has emotional meaning rather than intellectual meaning. Modern English, he said, is that language.

Homer did not have this choice. Homer spoke ancient Greek because he was a person who lived in ancient Greece. If he had decided he wanted language with emotional rather than intellectual meaning, and had made that choice carefully, he would have written in ancient Greek anyway, because that was the emotional language of the time. He made the right choice by default. Nolan has to choose it.

The Odyssey is about a man who spent ten years in a war and then ten years trying to get home. The war was over. The man wanted to be home. His wife was there. His son was growing up. Everything that was happening on the way home was a complication. The man did not need language that required translation. He needed language that landed.

There is a version of this story in which the film's dialogue is in ancient Greek and the audience reads subtitles about Odysseus missing his wife. The audience would understand the words. The Odyssey has been translated into English many times and the translations are very good. Nolan has decided not to use the translations. He has decided to have the actors say the thing in the language the audience speaks when they are upset, which is the language Homer was using when Homer did this.

The question of whether this will work is one for people who see the film. The film is not finished. The choice has been made. The man who spent twenty years trying to get home will say so in modern English, and the audience will be expected to feel it.