The Odyssey (2026) by Melinda Sue Gordon—Universal Pictures
Christopher Nolan's
Odyssey has received backlash for every aspect of its production:
dialogue and accents,
costuming and set design, and especially its
casting choices. Among the controversies was Nolan's use of Emily Wilson's
translation for inspiration. The issue is largely political since Wilson is a feminist
whose beliefs influenced her work and media outlets have celebrated her, partly,
because she is female. But is their evidence that Wilson's work might be detrimental to the story?
Yes.
Scholars have noted that Wilson's translation imposes certain interpretations. John Byron Kuhner highlighted how she translated the same word - huperphialos - as "insolent" or "arrogant" for Penelope's boorish suitors but as "high-minded" for a drunken, cannibalistic monster. Deborah H. Roberts and Richard Whitaker mentioned that she placed more blame on Odysseus for the deaths of his crewmen than the original.
The simplifying of Odysseus is a reoccurring problem with Wilson's translation. She says he "has affairs with Calypso and Circe in the course of his wanderings" (40) and calls him "an adulterer" (79) but misses how these experiences might be rape. Calypso keeps Odysseus on her island against his will and he's so unhappy that he sits on the shoreline, crying (5. 151 - 158). That said, Odysseus does return to bed with her after she's ordered to let him go (5. 226 - 227), but that may due to habit rather than desire. Circe, meanwhile, had to be bedded or she would've killed him and his men (10. 280 - 300). Granted, we only have Odysseus' word for that, and he's known to lie. But taking both scenarios at face value, they involve coercion and contravene his ability to consent, so framing him as just a philanderer erases the text's complexity and the possibilities of sexual victimization.
Wilson further undermines Odysseus by dismissing love as a motive for leaving Calypso:
Presumably, Odysseus is inspired by a deep loyalty to his wife, son, father, and the place of his birth, and moved by a deep and constant love for those he left behind. But we must avoid projecting the anachronistic ideas of chivalric romantic love onto Odysseus, who is not a medieval knight performing valiant deeds for the sake of a beautiful lady... If Odysseus had stayed with Calypso, he would have been forever subservient to a being more powerful than himself. He would have lost forever the possibility of being king of Ithaca, owner of the richest and most dominant household on his island—an estate wealthy in pigs, sheep, goats, fruit, grain, wine, and slaves, with an old father, a young son, and a desirable, much-courted, and valuable wife all devoted to him, and all increasing his value in the eyes of his neighbors" (60).
Robert Girvan, however, found multiple translations with a line about Odysseus missing Penelope and Ithaca (1. 10 - 15). Wilson's was among two that didn't. Either she thought this detail was insignificant or she wanted to hide contradictory information. Neither bolsters her integrity as a scholar or translator. And if Nolan took inspiration from her distorted work then the skepticism and backlash appear warranted.
