My favorite scene in Homer’s The Odyssey comes in Book 6. One of the reader’s earliest introductions to Odysseus sees him washed up on an unfamiliar shore, his crew long since gone, and Odysseus now 18 years older than when he set out on his journey. Wordlessly, he cries uncontrollably on the sands of the beach for what he has lost. He is found by Nausicaä, and he is subsequently brought into the court of King Alcinous. There, the Phaeacians yearn to hear the stories of Odysseus, the war hero and mastermind of the Trojan Horse. Yet as they begin to recount his tales, Odysseus stops them each time, tears returning to his eyes. He does not wish to recount his victory or war-torn past.
In Christopher Nolan’s adaptation of The Odyssey (2026), this entire sequence is conspicuously absent. Waking up on the beach, Matt Damon’s Odysseus only sees Athena, played by Zendaya. Zendaya’s Athena reappears at times in the story, watchful and from afar, such as during conversations. On the beach, Athena is seen in the distance, and Odysseus is stoic. There is no court of Alcinous. Athena’s inclusion also stands out against the rest of the film in that she is the only god personified. As has been criticized by Emily Wilson, the translator of the popular 2020 translation of The Odyssey that Nolan took inspiration from, it is a godless film 1. Rather, the gods are often vaguely referenced in terms of evoking natural phenomena (e.g., the storms in the distance representing Zeus). So why then does Athena appear time and time again, wordlessly watching?
To understand Athena’s role in the film, it is useful to return to earlier interpretations of the poem. The story of The Odyssey is many things, not the least of which is a story of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Jonathan Shay’s (2002) Odysseus in America: Combat Trauma and the Trials of Homecoming has most authoritatively used the original text as a framework to understand the poem through the lens of PTSD. Shay argues that Odysseus’ mistrust, lying, explosive violence, and emotional concealment mirror the real-world symptoms seen in combat veterans. He further argues that unlike Odysseus, for whom the titular odyssey of 10 years acts to process his trauma, modern soldiers go from the battlefield to civilian life via a quick plane ride, removing the ability to process trauma. Yet, Nolan’s film refines this allegorical parallel to PTSD beyond the original poem. Many of these qualities Shay touches upon, including the mistrust, lying, and emotional concealment, have been stripped from Odysseus in Nolan’s version, rendering him an “uncomplicated man,” per Emily Wilson. Yet, a new trait, core to PTSD, is introduced: avoidance.
Understanding Nolan’s The Odyssey as allegorical for PTSD fundamentally alters how several scenes are read. For much of its runtime, it feels far removed from the commentary on PTSD of the original poem; Odysseus seems unbothered by the passage of time. Contrarily, it also diverges from the poem in directly calling attention to Odysseus’ role in the Trojan War, which remains relatively implicit in the original poem. The film’s third act reconciles this contradiction by rendering the film’s past events as an exercise in avoidance of trauma. It is only in the finale of the film that the function of these visions of Athena is revealed. Odysseus finally tells the story of his sacking of Troy, and in it, the desecration of a statue of Athena is juxtaposed with the execution of an innocent Trojan, played by Zendaya. This parallel invokes Quran 5:32 (“Whoever kills a soul unless for a soul or for corruption . . . he had slain mankind entirely”) and other religious traditions holding that to kill an innocent is equivalent to killing a god. Simultaneously, it recontextualizes the recurrent appearances of Athena across the film as a type of living embodiment of the guilt that Odysseus holds with him. Athena never intervenes in the film as gods do in Homer’s original poem; rather, she watches, materializing at exactly the moments Odysseus would otherwise be flooded by memory of Troy. This parallels the sense of being watched that trauma survivors describe (Sims & Sims, 1998). While in Homer’s original poem Odysseus breaks down in recounting his journey, in Nolan’s film, instead, he remains stoic while seeing Athena in the distance, avoiding the memories of the war.
So, returning to Book 6 of The Odyssey, Odysseus cries on the beach, overcome by trauma. But in the film, something just as characteristic of PTSD occurs. Odysseus sees Athena, analogous to the innocents he killed in the Trojan War, and he looks away. He avoids reckoning with the regret that comes with such a vision. In Nolan’s The Odyssey, no gods remain to offer Odysseus solace from PTSD. Rather, Athena, the only god that remains, serves only as a reminder for him of his combat trauma.
Footnote:
1, https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v48/n14/emily-wilson/an-uncomplicated-man
References:
Shay, J. (with Internet Archive). (2002). Odysseus in America: Combat trauma and the trials of homecoming. New York : Scribner. http://archive.org/details/odysseusinameric0000shay
Sims, A., & Sims, D. (1998). The Phenomenology of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder: A Symptomatic Study of 70 Victims of Psychological Trauma. Psychopathology, 31(2), 96–112. https://doi.org/10.1159/000029029
The Odyssey
Director: Christopher Nolan
Universal Pictures, 2026: RT 2hr 52 min
Web photo courteous of Universal Pictures
