Lately, cinema has became once more to every other Homeric epic to evolve the Greek hero’s tales. In 2025, Ulysses Returns by means of Italian director Ubert Pasolini, starring Ralph Fiennes and Juliette Binoche, was once launched, and the Christopher Nolan-directed manufacturing is eagerly expected for July 2026.
This recurrence will have to no longer be unexpected: because the silent length, filmmakers were impressed by means of vintage texts to make their very own productions, attracted by means of the adventurous tone it imparted. Then again, is the Odyssey only a tale in regards to the exploits of heroes?
Consistent with a 2018 BBC survey, The Odyssey is probably the most influential paintings in historical past. In 24 poems, this epic tells the 10 years of Ulysses/Odysseus’ go back to his house, Ithaca, after the Trojan Struggle. Emphasis is put on his battle in opposition to herbal, divine and human stumbling blocks to go back house to his spouse Penelope and son Telemachus.
However… now let’s believe opening the Odyssey with new lenses. With the exception of the hero preventing monsters or climate storms, we discover a feminine construction that helps the plot. This method calls for a reordering of our expectancies: we now not assimilate the tale of 1 guy, however discover a vast feminine universe inside of its pages. Those ladies aren’t restricted to standard purposes, however turn into strategists, mediators and very important guides for the improvement of go back and forth.
Juliette Binoche as Penelope in a scene from The Go back of Ulysses. Movie affinity ‘Invisible’, however vital
From the start of the epic, the feminine presence is central. The narrative opens with the invocation of the Muse, who no longer most effective conjures up the poet however establishes a structural trend: girl as mediator between wisdom and deed, phrase and destiny.
All these figures are configured as “women’s guides” and function with strategic precision, as their phrase is a right away motive force of motion. They’re those who design the routes, negotiate, interfere within the divine will, make a choice the precise moments of concealment or revelation and, in the end, unblock conflicts and open paths.
Then again, his position is a ways from serving to the hero in tricky occasions. Within the Odyssey, ladies do not simply lead: additionally they suppose, come to a decision, and act with an intelligence as finely tuned because the protagonist herself.
That talent, recognized in Greek custom as metis – sensible intelligence, strategic crafty – is the defining trait of Odysseus. Then again, within the poem it’s not the unique characteristic of the hero. As authors similar to Grace LaFrenz indicate, Odysseus learns from the ladies he encounters a extra affected person and calculating type of metis, related to weaving: drawing plans, plotting answers, correctly weaving time…
The metaphor isn’t unintended. Penelope’s well-known technique—weaving by means of day and unraveling by means of night time to realize time in opposition to suitors who need to marry her in Ulysses’ absence—is an ideal instance of that intelligence that mixes ingenuity, strength of mind, and technique.
Voices that form the adventure
A number of the a couple of feminine characters provide within the epic, we will be able to to find paradigmatic fashions that provide an explanation for what we defended previous.
Aid of imagined Athena. Acropolis Museum, Athens.
Athena might be regarded as the most efficient instance of “women-guides”. She no longer most effective protects the hero on Olympus, however devises his methods, suggests costumes and provides him a lot of time to behave. As well as, it makes it more straightforward to fulfill different ladies who will will let you in a very powerful moments. His intervention is continuing and decisive.
Helen of Troy seems within the Odyssey within the position of hostess and mediator. Within the nice room of her palace, at the side of her husband and different males, she receives and is the primary to acknowledge and query Telemachus and provides him information of her father. Nausicaa, for her phase, fulfills an excessively particular guiding serve as: when she has discovered the castaway, she tells him how you can cross to his mom, Queen Aretha—to not her father, King Alcinous—in order that he is also gained favorably on the palace. This mediation isn’t minor, because it opens the political door for Odysseus to realize the give a boost to of the Phaeacian courtroom to go back house.
Calipso, Circe, or even Ino supply the help of other registers. They do that by means of being hospitable – like Calypso -, counselors – like Circe (who tells him how you can steer clear of the sirens) – or together with her supernatural lifesaving assist, like Ino, who rescues the hero after a shipwreck by means of giving him a mystical veil that permits him to stick afloat and continue to exist in afflicted waters.
And naturally, Penelope stands proud amongst all of them. From Ithaca, she resists intelligently: she laws the dominion, weaves and unravels the shroud of Ulysses to extend the ready of the suitors, she comes to a decision to place them to the take a look at to turn who’s worthy to marry her – realizing that no person will upward push to the problem she poses – and she or he stays firmly in her place. Even the hero acknowledges her wit when he compares her to the honorable king.
On this method, the Odyssey ceases to be the tale of a person who returns to turn the material of feminine voices that aren’t extras, however strategic nodes within the tale. Assuming this certainly not detracts from the central journey. It simply acknowledges and highlights the significance of feminine characters who’ve remained within the shadows for goodbye.
