You’re gear­ing up to see Christo­pher Nolan’s Odyssey, but you haven’t read the Home­r­ic work. Or you read it so long ago that it feels like you’ve nev­er read it at all. No wor­ries. Above, Tom Hol­land and Dominic Sand­brook, the hosts of The Rest Is His­to­ry pod­cast, take you through the major plot lines of the Odyssey, unpack­ing the lit­er­ary and his­tor­i­cal mean­ing of the epic’s dif­fer­ent tales. It’s a good primer—just what you need to get ready for one of the big­ger cin­e­ma releas­es this year. Enjoy!

If you would like to sup­port the mis­sion of Open Cul­ture, con­sid­er mak­ing a dona­tion to our site. It’s hard to rely 100% on ads, and your con­tri­bu­tions will help us con­tin­ue pro­vid­ing the best free cul­tur­al and edu­ca­tion­al mate­ri­als to learn­ers every­where. You can con­tribute through Pay­Pal, Patre­on, and Ven­mo (@openculture). Thanks!

Relat­ed Con­tent

Watch the First Spec­tac­u­lar Film Adap­ta­tion of the Odyssey (1911)

Archae­ol­o­gists Think They’ve Dis­cov­ered the Old­est Greek Copy of Homer’s Odyssey: 13 Vers­es on a Clay Tablet