Nolan's 'The Odyssey' Film And The Power Of Hair In Greek Mythology

My favorite line in The Odyssey is this one.

Athena transforms Odysseus, and the text says, per the translations, she made the hair grow thick on top of his head and flow down in curls like hyacinth blooms.

I recounted those lines for you in episode one when we talked about how the New York Times describes curly men in Hollywood as having flopsy hair that tumbles like overcooked fusilli.

Now, this show has dissected how we as a society have gone from flowing curls in hyacinth blooms to overcooked fusilli, and The Odyssey was part of that cultural analysis for me.

So naturally today we discuss the new Christopher Nolan film and what it shows us.

The ancient Greeks and Romans were obsessed with curly hair.

We interviewed hair archaeologist Janet Stevens in episode five.

It's called How to Look Like a Greek God.

And Janet told us that curly hair was, as a rule, considered the most desirable.

The Greeks even invented primitive curling irons called a columnistrum to make wavy and loosely curly hair even curlier.

Think about a skewer.

They would put it over hot coals, and then you'd wrap your hair around that.

And the trick was to not completely singe your hair, but have it be hot enough that you can actually get those, you know, heat curls.

So how does all this come across in Christopher Nolan's adaptation? Now, I have to say, I was looking out for where there would be a scene with Matt Damon and he's transformed and given a head of thick curls because I love that line, flow down in curls like hyacinth looms, but...