Homer’s Odyssey in Modern and Digital Receptions

Module 3 focuses on receptions of Homer’s Odyssey, one of the most influential and popular epics ever created. The 10-year journey home to Ithaca from the Trojan War by Odysseus, the “man of many ways,” has become so entrenched in Western culture that, as Hall notes, “no later author could ever again make a fresh start when shaping a narrative or a visual representation of a voyage, a metamorphosis, a run-in with savages, an encounter with anyone dead, a father-son relationship, a recognition token, or a reunion between husband and wife” (Hall 2008, 8). Moreover, the epic has “so deeply…shaped our imagination and cultural values” that it is now often difficult “even to identify ‘spin-offs’ from the Odyssey” (Hall 2008, 3).

Module 3.1 outlines both the narrative richness of the Odyssey and the complex way in which that narrative is delivered to the ears and eyes of its many audiences over the millennia. The multilayered and non-linear way in which the story unfolds, in particular the epic’s emphasis on story-telling and disguise and the consequent uncertainty as to the truth of the stories being told, has proven almost as important in modern receptions as the narrative itself. In addition, the epic is rich in sensory experience, vivid characterizations, and a stimulating blend of realistic detail mixed with sometimes wild and supernatural elements.

Perhaps it has been the particular nature of the Odyssey, as described in 3.1, that has generated the quantity and variety of receptions in different modern media. In module 3.2, a raft of “direct” receptions (called “Modysseys”) are surveyed; by “direct” is meant a reception that, following a deep engagement with the original source, attempts to limit changes and interventions into the narrative and structure of the ancient epic, and to communicate the work to a modern audience “directly” as opposed to “indirectly” (by means of either significant changes to the original, passing references to it, and so on). Reception categories such as “direct” and “indirect” are inexact, to be sure, and should be regarded as broad tendencies. 3.2 surveys a range of “direct” receptions in film and TV from very early in the history of cinema up to a 2013 French TV Miniseries. In the 1997 French TV Miniseries directed by Andrei Konchalovsky and starring Armand Assante as Odysseus, CGI was used to great effect in creating storm scenes and various locations, especially the Underworld scenes in what was otherwise a rather tedious rendition of Homer’s epic.

Module 3.3 briefly surveys some “indirect” receptions of the Odyssey. Here the field is wide open, as almost any modern film or TV series (or any “indirect” reception in any other medium) can claim descent from the ancient epic no matter how thin the connection is.

The close connections between the concepts and narrative arc underpinning Homer’s Odyssey and Science Fiction (usually now written as “SciFi” or “SF”) are examined in module 3.4. As Rogers (2015) notes, “The Odyssey’s journeys and encounters with the Other … work in the service of a somewhat grander theme, a theme that is also fundamental to much SF: what it means, or could mean, to be human” (219). The “Great Adventures” undertaken by Odysseus during the early years of his 10-year long journey home, says Rogers, constitute “a thought experiment that meditates on a number of possible ways one could combine aspects of human, divine/superhuman, and animal/subhuman existence. The presence of such Others, of such alternate ways of being and doing, in turn casts doubt on the certainty of ‘man’ himself” (219-20). These and other themes are taken up in module 3.5, which investigates the interface between the Odyssey and the various series of the long-running TV show Star Trek. The “Original Series” of Star Trek (aired from September 1968) made the connection to Homer’s epic reasonably explicit in its opening titles, and the entire set of Star Trek series took the idea of a long voyage home into the “final frontier” of outer space. Three episodes of “The Original Series” specifically explored material from the Classical World (although not the Odyssey itself). Star Trek Voyager (1995-2001) and Star Trek: Odyssey (2007-2011) both drew more explicitly on Homer’s epic voyage, and with increasing use of CGI during the 1990s and especially from 1997 onwards. The last-named series included episode titles relating to Homer’s Odyssey and Iliad, but paradoxically the episodes themselves were almost entirely unrelated to what their titles referred to.

Module 3.4

Module 3.5

Finally, in module 3.6 the French-Japanese anime TV Series Ulysses 31 (1981-82) is discussed. It has proven impossible to discover the extent to which this series was digital created. Although computer animations had begun to be produced from 1967, it does not appear that Ulysses 31 was created in this way. But the series now certainly exists and is stored digitally, and it is as part of digital popular culture that is enters into consideration here. Set in the 31st Century, the series follows the adventures in space of Ulysses (the Latin name for Odysseus), his son Telemachus and their crew aboard their spaceship “Odyssey.” Many episodes draw specifically on Homer’s epic, but of course some details are adjusted to suit the new era.

Recommended Reading

1. Bakogianni, Anastasia & Ricardo Apostol. “Introduction: Face to Face—Locating Classical Receptions on Screen” In Apostol, Ricards and Anastasia Bakogianni, eds.  Locating Classical Receptions onScreen. Palgrave Macmillan, 2018, pp.1-16.
2. Daugherty, Gregory N. “Indirect or Masked Modysseys? Establishing a Working Set of Criteria.” In Apostol, Ricardo and Anastasia Bakogianni, eds. Locating Classical Receptions on Screen: Masks, Echoes, Shadows. Palgrave Macmillan, 2018, pp.19-42.
3. Rogers, Brett M. “Hybrids and Homecomings in the Odyssey and Alien Resurrection.” In Rogers, Brett M. and Benjamin Eldon Stevens, eds. Classical Traditions in Science Fiction. Cambridge University Press, 2015, pp.217-242.
4. Rogers, Brett & Benjamin Stevens. “The Past is an Undiscovered Country.” In Rogers, Brett M. and Benjamin Eldon Stevens, eds. Classical Traditions in Science Fiction. Cambridge University Press, 2015, pp.1-24.
5. Kovacs, George. “Man and Mortal in Star Trek: The Original Series.” In Rogers, Brett M. and Benjamin Eldon Stevens, eds. Classical Traditions in Science Fiction. Cambridge University Press, 2015, pp.199-216