Meet the terrifying monsters in Christopher Nolan’s blockbuster ‘The Odyssey’
Viewers of Christopher Nolan's "The Odyssey" may be surprised by how many mythological creatures are packed into Homer's ancient epic.
Filled with A-list stars, the major box-office hit takes audiences from one mythical encounter to the next as Odysseus fights to make it home.
"The movie is visually stunning. It needs to be seen in the theater," said Joel P. Christensen, provost and senior vice president for academic affairs at the CUNY Graduate Center and a professor of classics.
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Christensen, a Homer scholar, told Fox News Digital that audiences don't need to read "The Odyssey" beforehand because Nolan provides enough context to follow the story.
Unlike many modern blockbusters with a single central villain, nearly every stop on this journey brings a new monster or supernatural threat.
As Christopher Nolan's adaptation introduces new audiences to the ancient epic, here's a look at the legendary creatures that define Odysseus' journey in the book, according to Encyclopedia Britannica.
Spoiler alert: Plot details from "The Odyssey" are noted below.
The most famous of the Cyclops, Polyphemus traps Odysseus and his crew in his cave before devouring several of the men.
The name Polyphemus roughly translates to "rich in songs and legends" or "widely talked about," per Britannica.
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Odysseus eventually blinds Polyphemus with a sharpened wooden stake — allowing him and his remaining crew to escape the Cyclops' cave.
Polyphemus is one of the sons of Poseidon — prompting the sea god to curse Odysseus' journey home.
In the film, Polyphemus is played by actor Bill Irwin.
Laestrygonians are giant cannibals who destroy nearly all of Odysseus' fleet after luring the ships into their harbor.
They appear in Book 10 of "The Odyssey," where they destroy nearly all of Odysseus' fleet at the harbor of Telepylus, hurling massive boulders.
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Odysseus escapes the attack aboard his lone remaining ship, sailing on to the island of the sorceress Circe.
A powerful sorceress, Circe encounters Odysseus and his crew on the island of Aeaea.
The daughter of Helios, the sun god, Circe famously turns Odysseus' men into pigs but fails to curse the protagonist himself.
She eventually falls in love with the Greek hero and helps him continue his journey home, advising him about the dangers of the voyage ahead.
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Christensen told Fox News Digital that the most "unforgettable sequence" is when Circe turns Odysseus’ men into pigs — something that may disturb viewers.
"It makes audiences viscerally uncomfortable: It is well paced, imaginative and unsettling," he said. "That’s not strictly a creature scene, but it shows men revealed as creatures!"
Samantha Morton plays Circe in the Nolan film.
In Greek mythology, sirens are half-bird and half-woman creatures who lured sailors to their deaths.
In Book 12 of "The Odyssey," the sorceress Circe warns Odysseus about the Sirens' irresistible song.
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To protect his crew, Odysseus orders their ears plugged with beeswax while he has himself tied to the ship's mast so he can hear the song without obeying the Sirens.
Scylla and Charybdis are two of the most famous sea monsters in "The Odyssey," presenting Odysseus with one of the most dangerous challenges of his journey home.
In the book, Scylla and Charybdis trap Odysseus in a narrow strait, with Scylla waiting on one side to snatch sailors from passing ships and Charybdis creating a massive whirlpool on the other.
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Odysseus survives by following Circe's advice to sail past Scylla, despite knowing the monster will claim six of his men.
The move allows him and the rest of the crew to escape.
Calypso is a nymph that Odysseus encounters on the mythical island of Ogygia.
In the book, she falls in love with Odysseus and refuses to let him leave, keeping the Greek hero on the island for years.
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Calypso reluctantly lets him go when Zeus orders his release, helping him build a raft to continue his journey home.
Charlize Theron plays Calypso in the film.
Like any adaptation of a sprawling ancient epic, Nolan's film condenses parts of Homer's story for the big screen, Christensen noted.
While visually stunning, the expert said the film's adaptation of some mythological figures falls short of Homer's original.
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He pointed to changes in the portrayals of Polyphemus and Circe, arguing that the film makes the Cyclops "more of a monster than a man," while depriving Circe of agency.
Nolan "impl[ies] that she turns men into pigs because she has been sexually assaulted before," said Christensen.
"This is one of the film's weaknesses: Traditional gender roles become a shorthand for actual story."
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"Nolan had to reduce some of the repetitions we see in the Homeric ‘Odyssey’ and had to limit the length of some scenes," he said. "He also made the choice to limit the depiction of the divine."
Even so, many of the epic's most recognizable mythological figures remain central to the story.
"For people who do know ‘The Odyssey,’ remember that film is a very different medium than epic poetry is: It is shorter and visual, so many changes are required to allow the story to work as a movie," he said.
"This is Nolan’s ‘Odyssey,’ not Homer’s."
