What The Movie Didn't Tell You... | The Odyssey

So before we actually ask the big question as to why this book has survived for f- over 3,000 years, um, we should probably start with what actually happens in it.

It's sat in our imagination for so long.

The plot is very simple.

Troy has fallen.

Everyone else has gone home.

One man hasn't.

This is the archetype, "Dude, I just wanna get into my bed." So the Trojan War has ended.

Actually, Homer covers the Trojan War in The Iliad.

Um, Menelaus has gone to war with his brother, Agamemnon, when his wife Helen is taken, you may think she fled, um, to Troy.

And in The Iliad, the focal point is not Odysseus.

He is just one of many kings who was coerced into going into Troy, and every king has now returned home, and this is Odysseus's journey as the king of Ithaca.

He has spent 10 years at war, and he is now spending 10 years getting home to his wife, Penelope, who is surrounded by suitors who have assumed that he's died.

Their son, Telemach-

Telemachus

...

Telemachus grows up without his father and begins searching for news of him.

That is indeed correct, but what we also should note is that whilst, as my learned friend points out-

[laughs]

... um, Odysseus was not necessarily up for war, at least to start with, um, he played a pivotal role in the success of war, at least from his end anyway, because the Trojan Horse was actually-

Yes

YesWas something that he devised, and that's really s- a key point in noting how intelligent, crafty, cunning Odysseus is, but we will come to that.

So we have 10 years of war, and then we've got the 10 years that follow that war when Odysseus is essentially ricocheting between monsters, witches, and various disasters.

I mean, we're talking Cyclops, we're talking Scylla or Scylla, whatever the c- correct pronunciation is.

We're talking sirens, we're talking banquets, we're talking the whole Helios' cattle disaster.

It's all there.

So before we actually ask the big question as to why this book has survived for f- over 3,000 years, um, we should probably start with what actually happens in it.

It's sat in our imagination for so long.

The plot is very simple.

Troy has fallen.

Everyone else has gone home.

One man hasn't.

This is the archetype, "Dude, I just wanna get into my bed." So the Trojan War has ended.

Actually, Homer covers the Trojan War in The Iliad.

Um, Menelaus has gone to war with his brother, Agamemnon, when his wife Helen is taken, you may think she fled, um, to Troy.

And in The Iliad, the focal point is not Odysseus.

He is just one of many kings who was coerced into going into Troy, and every king has now returned home, and this is Odysseus's journey as the king of Ithaca.

He has spent 10 years at war, and he is now spending 10 years getting home to his wife, Penelope, who is surrounded by suitors who have assumed that he's died.

Their son, Telemach-

Telemachus

...

Telemachus grows up without his father and begins searching for news of him.

That is indeed correct, but what we also should note is that whilst, as my learned friend points out-

[laughs]

... um, Odysseus was not necessarily up for war, at least to start with, um, he played a pivotal role in the success of war, at least from his end anyway, because the Trojan Horse was actually-

Yes

YesWas something that he devised, and that's really s- a key point in noting how intelligent, crafty, cunning Odysseus is, but we will come to that.

So we have 10 years of war, and then we've got the 10 years that follow that war when Odysseus is essentially ricocheting between monsters, witches, and various disasters.

I mean, we're talking Cyclops, we're talking Scylla or Scylla, whatever the c- correct pronunciation is.

We're talking sirens, we're talking banquets, we're talking the whole Helios' cattle disaster.

It's all there.