Before the Odyssey Movie

The Odyssey is 24 books and roughly 12,000 lines — but it reads faster than the Iliad. Most readers finish in 10-15 hours of reading time total. At an hour a day, you can read the entire poem in under two weeks. If the release date has snuck up on you, you don't need the whole poem — see "Short on Time?" below.

Matt Damon plays Odysseus — the man of many turns, the cunning survivor, the king trying to get home after the Trojan War. Tom Holland plays Telemachus — Odysseus's son, who spends the first four books searching for news of his missing father. Zendaya's role has not been confirmed, but the most prominent women in the poem are Penelope (the faithful wife who fends off suitors for twenty years), Circe (the enchantress who turns men into pigs), Calypso (the goddess who keeps Odysseus captive for seven years), and Nausicaa (the princess who helps him when he washes ashore). Each of these characters has a full entry in the Character Reference section of this guide.

The Cyclops — Odysseus's most famous encounter, where he tricks the one-eyed giant Polyphemus by calling himself "Nobody." This is a showcase for his cunning over brute strength. Circe — the enchantress who turns men into pigs and becomes Odysseus's lover for a year. The Sirens — creatures whose song promises knowledge but means death; Odysseus has himself tied to the mast to hear them safely. Calypso — the goddess who offers immortality in exchange for Odysseus giving up his homecoming. The suitors — the men who have taken over Odysseus's palace in his absence, courting his wife Penelope and eating his food. The poem's climax is Odysseus returning in disguise and destroying them all in a brutal final battle.

Nolan is famous for films that start in the middle and work backwards — Memento, Dunkirk, Tenet. The Odyssey is one of the earliest examples of this structure in all of literature. Homer begins ten years into Odysseus's journey, with the hero trapped on Calypso's island. The famous wanderings — the Cyclops, the Sirens, Circe — are told in flashback by Odysseus himself at a dinner party in Books 9-12. Homer invented the technique Nolan has made his signature. This is not a coincidence that Nolan chose this story. If you've ever wondered how to read the Odyssey in a way that feels cinematic, this is it.

You don't need to read the whole poem before July 17. Books 9-12 are the heart of what most people think of when they think of the Odyssey — the Cyclops, Circe, the Sirens, the journey to the Underworld — and likely the core of Nolan's adaptation. That's 2-3 hours of reading, not the full 10-15.

At a comfortable pace of 2 books per week, you can finish all 24 books before the film's release. Books 1-4 follow Telemachus (Tom Holland's character) — a slower start but essential setup for understanding why Odysseus's return matters so much. Books 5-12 are the famous wanderings — Circe, the Underworld, the Sirens, Scylla and Charybdis. Books 13-24 are the return to Ithaca and the reckoning with the suitors.