Nolan’s Odyssey and the Iliad

The Odyssey begins ten years after the fall of Troy. Nolan's film opens with a man desperate to get home from a war that has already ended. The Iliad is that war — ten years of siege, the rage of Achilles, the death of Hector, the burning of Troy. Odysseus is a secondary character in the Iliad, but a crucial one: he is the cunning strategist, the man who thinks when others fight. Understanding who he was at Troy makes his journey home mean more.

In the Iliad, Odysseus is not the central hero; Achilles is. Odysseus appears throughout the poem, however: leading embassies, giving speeches, and surviving where others die. He persuades Achilles to return to battle and retrieves Achilles' armor. Homer calls him polytropos, the man of many turns. The Iliad, which covers a few weeks in the tenth year of the war and ends with Hector's funeral before Troy falls, presents Odysseus before the losses of the return voyage. The Odyssey, which begins ten years after that fall, presents what the journey home costs him.

The Trojan Horse does not appear in the Iliad — the poem ends before Troy falls. But it is Odysseus's idea, and it is the act that defines his reputation for centuries. It is referenced in the Odyssey, the Aeneid, and throughout ancient literature as the moment cunning defeated strength. If Nolan's film references the Horse, this is the context. For the full story of the Horse and the fall of Troy, read Book 2 of Virgil's Aeneid immediately after the Iliad.

For readers who have finished the Iliad, or who go straight to Homer's Odyssey, the companion site at readingtheodyssey.com covers translations, characters, and the journey map. It also includes a dedicated "Before the Nolan Film" page with a reading schedule, a cast guide, and a breakdown of the material Nolan adapts.