Christopher Nolan’s “The Odyssey” opens Friday, to global anticipation and some controversy over his casting choices – but what do Greeks think?
Conversation about adaptations often revolves around how closely they follow a source text. But in a country where Homer’s story is taught and retold at all schools, many point to how the epic has been kept alive for nearly 3,000 years: not despite reinvention, but because of it.
“What we want children to understand is that every new creation is exactly that – a new creation,” Filippos Mantzaris, who teaches “The Odyssey” to seventh graders, told The Associated Press.
The film, starring Matt Damon as King Odysseus and a number of Hollywood stars, follows Homer’s outline: The king’s return home from war through gods and monsters to find a palace overrun by rivals.
Students grow up interpreting Homer
