As Christopher Nolan’s blockbuster fuels debate over its departures from Homer, a Greek literature scholar explains the missing gods, the hero’s trauma and why the ancient epic itself invites radically different interpretations

There’s no denying the power of the film on the big screen. But how far should modern moral sensibilities influence adaptations of classics? asks the Guardian’s chief culture…

If you smooth out Homer’s epic poem and modernise it too much, you lose what made it so important to begin with