With its star-studded cast and wildly successful director, Christopher Nolan’s “The Odyssey” is expected to be one of the highest-grossing films of 2026. But amid rave reviews of first screenings on the one hand and backlash against inauthentic casting and dialogue on the other, little has yet been said about the heart of the story.
At its heart, “The Odyssey” is neither Nolan’s next potential Oscar nor a mere action-adventure flick. It’s one of the Western canon’s foundational love stories—as some have argued, its finest.
To many, this claim may come as a surprise; several of “The Odyssey’s” most famous episodes have nothing to do with marriage. From Telemachus’ search for his long-lost father to Odysseus’ cunning defeat of Polyphemos and evasion of Scylla and Charybdis, “The Odyssey” often evokes elements of the hero stories we’ve loved from earliest childhood.
But Homer didn’t become the father of Western literature solely because of his brilliant portrayal of war or trickery. Both “The Iliad” and “The Odyssey” turn on marriages. “The Iliad” is animated by the disaster of Helen and Menelaus and by the tragedy of Hector and Andromache. But this aspect is overshadowed by Achilles’ struggles with war, honor, and mortality.
In “The Odyssey,” though, the hero’s marriage is the guiding star of his arc, and thus, of the entire work. Unlike the heroes of “The Iliad,” who fight for the destruction or preservation of a civilization, Odysseus has a deceptively simple aim: He battles monsters and divine retribution so he can return to his home and, above all, his wife, Penelope.
What many authors glaze over—the hero’s return to normal life—is for Homer a separate epic in its own right. Odysseus’ journey back to Penelope takes as long as the Trojan War itself—10 years—implying an equivalence between the grand pursuits of nations and armies and the faith needed to sustain a marriage.
The obstacles Odysseus faces are not incidental roadblocks. Most strike directly at his marriage.
Take the Lotus-eaters, for example. Odysseus explains, “[They] did not plan death for my comrades but gave them of the lotus to taste. And whosoever of them ate of the honey-sweet fruit of the lotus, had no longer any wish to bring back word or to return, but there they were fain to abide among the Lotus-eaters.”
This sleepy intoxication has no lure for Odysseus. He physically drags his men away and continues on his journey with no apparent struggle.
But if sloth isn’t a problem for Odysseus, lust is, at least initially. The goddess Circe keeps Odysseus as a lover for one year, with no evident struggle on his part. But ultimately, Odysseus rejects his divine paramour and negotiates his own release.
The goddess Calypso is bolder than Circe: She enslaves a miserable Odysseus for seven years. By the end of this time, the formerly fickle Odysseus values his wife more than life itself. Calypso warns him of impending danger and offers him immortality if he takes her as his wife, but he declines, choosing to retain his mortality and brave divine wrath to return to Penelope.
For a pre-Christian culture, it doesn’t get much better than choosing your wife over a goddess.
And Penelope is far from passive in this marriage. Odysseus is gone for 20 years, and he is presumed dead for half of them. During this time, Penelope raises their son, Telemachus, to manhood; instills in him a love for the father he has never known; and resists immense pressure to marry one of her 108 detestable suitors.
When Odysseus finally does make it home, it is his and Penelope’s devotion to each other that enables victory in the climactic battle of the epic. Twenty years older and disguised courtesy of Athena, Odysseus is unrecognizable even to his wife. He proves his identity to her via the literal bedrock of their marriage: their immovable bed, which he built into the foundation of their home.
Once Penelope recognizes her husband, she devises a contest for her hand which she knows only Odysseus himself could accomplish, enabling him to vanquish the suitors and reclaim his home and kingdom.
In an era where marriage rates are tanking but Nolan’s “Odyssey” is inspiring such excitement, perhaps it’s time to re-read Homer’s original.
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[ H/T The Daily Signal ]
