MOUNT OLYMPUS

THE ALMOST COMPLETE absence of ancient Greek gods from Christopher Nolan’s epic film, The Odyssey, has sent the pantheon of these deities into a thunderous rage as they claim that *theophobia is behind the decision to virtually exclude them from the tale.

“While the gods are mentioned in Nolan’s oeuvre, the only one seen in the movie is Athena, who is presented as a kind of hallucination based on a woman Odysseus saw during the sack of Troy,” says Homeric scholar Agnes Xenia, who claims to speak for gods who go unheard in this world. “We live in an age of intense secularism, and the Greek gods are frankly livid that it has seen their role in the adventures of Odysseus whittled down to almost nothing. Zeus is particularly annoyed that – though king of the gods – he has been reduced to a catchphrase, ‘Zeus’s Law’, in the movie. Even Circe, who is actually a goddess, is represented as a crude feminist sorceress turning men into what they actually are: pigs. I’m afraid this kind of prejudice is something the Greek gods have faced for centuries, and they are sad to see it perpetuated in the Nolan film. You cannot understand the Homeric narratives without understanding the key role of the gods to the world he describes. To write them out of that narrative is to miss the whole point of who these people Homer tells us about were and what they believed.”

*An irrational dread, morbid fear or hatred for God or religion – ED