A few years ago, at a popular literature festival, Yann Martel, the author of Life of Pi, made a rather pertinent point about the importance of The Iliad and The Odyssey in Western culture. He argued that, much like the Mahabharata and the Ramayana formed the edifice of Indic civilisation, Homer’s two epics, along with the Bible, were foundational texts of Western civilisation.

As Nolan's epic dominates conversations, armchair historians are turning every screening into a Greek literature seminar.

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