Parents Parents 2026 BCE 2026 CE 🤝 "These kids and their damned tablets"
Books of All Time
@booksofalltime.bsky.social
A new podcast that's tackling classic literature in chronological order. New episodes every other Sunday. Hosted by @rosejudson.bsky.social.
Very fun recreation of a section of book 8 of The Odyssey! soundcloud.com/user44475620...
sound of singing homer
Listen to sound of singing homer by user444756202 #np on #SoundCloud
soundcloud.com
Jennifer Ouellette@jenlucpiquant.bsky.social · 2w agoHear What Homer’s Odyssey Sounded Like When Sung in the Original Ancient Greek www.openculture.com/2026/07/home...
Hear What Homer’s Odyssey Sounded Like When Sung in the Original Ancient Greek www.openculture.com/2026/07/home...
Hear What Homer’s Odyssey Sounded Like When Sung in the Original Ancient Greek
Image via Wikimedia Commons It’s been a humanist truism for some time to say that Shakespeare speaks to every age, transcending his time and place through the sheer force of his universal genius.
openculture.com
THE ODYSSEY By Elon Musk EMIT A RESULT, GROK, OF THE BIOHACKING ABSOLUTELY GOATED ONION-LAYERED CRYPTO DADDY HE WAS SUPER VERY GOOD RAD AT EVERYTHING, HOW HE SELF-DRIVING CYBERTRUCKED A.F. TO ITHACA AFTER BUSTING UNIONS AND DEFYING TAX LAWS IN TROY MANY NPCS HE OUTSHINED, HELLA SKILLED AT GAMING
the forest killing-spree scenes would have "gender-bent Heavenly Creatures set in ancient Mesopotamia" vibes
Emperor Norton@ashleynaftule.bsky.social · 2w agoHonestly, an epic of Gilgamesh adaptation that plays up the himbo bromance of the G-Man & Enkidu to a Point Break level of intensity would be sick
Here at BoAT, we only nurtured one major hope for Nolan's adaptation: namely, that Robert Pattinson would be an entertaining slimeball as Antinous. No less an authority than Emily Wilson says he is, so we look forward to seeing it!
EMILY WILSON@emilyrcwilson.bsky.social · 2w agoI wrote about the Nolan Odyssey for the LRB. I'll summarize some of my main points below, in case you don't feel like reading all that. www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/b... here I talk to Uberto Pasolini about HIS adaptation of the Odyssey of a couple of years ago with R Fiennes and J Binoche. Nolan isn’t the only adaptation in town!
BONUS: Mary Beard on Homer's Odyssey
Podcast Episode · Ancient Lives with Mary Beard · 28 July · Bonus · 13min
podcasts.apple.com
We can heartily recommend this volume, having relied on it for last year's Big Fat Greek Drama Summer. Some of the essays at the back about the origins of drama and what's known about how plays in Ancient Athens were staged were also really illuminating!
Benjamin Dreyer@bcdreyer.social · 2w agoBTW, ever faithful to the home team, I recommend to you this Modern Library volume, which includes wonderful translations by, among other distinguished contributors, @emilyrcwilson.bsky.social.
5. Adaptations are often most successful when they make clear, courageous choices about what to leave out - so, for instance, the movie "The Return" seems to me both a much more radical departure from the original source, and also a more successful film.
I wrote about the Nolan Odyssey for the LRB. I'll summarize some of my main points below, in case you don't feel like reading all that. www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Emily Wilson · An Uncomplicated Man
As they say at the awards shows, I was humbled to learn that Christopher Nolan has read at least the first line of my...
lrb.co.uk
There are two guys who really need to stow their carry-on baggage.
Dr. Karen Carr@quatrus.bsky.social · 2w agoMy favorite depiction of the Trojan Horse, and the earliest known version. I love the windows, like an airplane, and that the windows go up the neck too.
“It is really exciting to see just how many young people, especially young women, are fired up about ancient literature and classics in a new way . . . This is a subject that anyone from any background can engage with.” #booksky #classicsky www.inquirer.com/entertainmen...
A Penn professor thought she’d sell 1,000 copies of her ‘Odyssey’ translation. She sold more than a million this year alone, thanks to Christopher Nolan.
West Philly's Emily Wilson, who penned a highly acclaimed translation of the epic poem in 2017, is having a big summer.
inquirer.com
The pedants revolt! After our instant reactions last time we put our classical hats on not to spot errors in the armour, but to ask what a specifically classical lens reveals in Nolan’s Odyssey podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/i...
Christopher Nolan's Odyssey 3: The Pedants Revolt
Podcast Episode · Instant Classics · 23 July · 57min
podcasts.apple.com
Following a trip to the Odyssey yesterday I wanted to do a Circe Mari. So looked out the greek pottery for reference
Odysseus and his men landing on an island where they have to play basketball against the Harlem Globetrotters
This is an incredible thread by the peerless Emily Wilson. Translator and funny, too.
EMILY WILSON@emilyrcwilson.bsky.social · 3w agoThere is a lot to say about the Nolan Odyssey movie. But one point that I think has not been emphasized enough is: this is a film about living in LA, as Nolan, my erstwhile British compatriot and age mate, has done for years. I gather it’s a strange place.
There is a lot to say about the Nolan Odyssey movie. But one point that I think has not been emphasized enough is: this is a film about living in LA, as Nolan, my erstwhile British compatriot and age mate, has done for years. I gather it’s a strange place.
20 years teaching the Odyssey to college freshmen who didn't do the reading have emotionally prepared me for Twitter this week.
We only spent about six months with the Indian epics, but yes: Homer is a master of brevity compared to them, even when comparing the heavily abridged English versions available to the average reader. Hanuman is THE BEST, though.
Audrey Truschke@audreytruschke.bsky.social · 3w agoI have spent the last 3 days binge-reading Emily Wilson's Odyssey. After two decades with my mind occupied by the Indian epics, I have a lot of reactions (including, damn, the Odyssey is short). I'm enamored with the translation though.
I have spent the last 3 days binge-reading Emily Wilson's Odyssey. After two decades with my mind occupied by the Indian epics, I have a lot of reactions (including, damn, the Odyssey is short). I'm enamored with the translation though.
The events of the Odyssey would have been set 500 years previously at the time that Homer composed them, equivalent to writing about the voyages of Columbus today. For example Homer probably imagined Iron Age hoplite armor, while actual Bronze Age Mycenean armor looked like this:
"The glory is the actual fantasy. Most men in classical antiquity weren’t noble warriors. . . . They told tales of outsized heroes they could never equal, just like we do now. What was attainable was a family and a home. Those are the things that are slipping away. Achilles was never real."
Michael Hobbes@michaelhobbes.bsky.social · 3w ago"No moral panic is more unoriginal than the fear that contemporary men are no longer as manly as the heroes who preceded them."
"The world of books is its own almost complete universe, which you can wander in and get to know, and where there are always new landscapes to explore."
Naomi Alderman@naomialderman.bsky.social · 3w agoIf you’re up and scrolling you could be up and reading. Just ten minutes to get started, it does feel better than scrolling 🥰 open.substack.com/pub/naomiald...
If you’re up and scrolling you could be up and reading. Just ten minutes to get started, it does feel better than scrolling 🥰 open.substack.com/pub/naomiald...
'reading is a radical act'
"Couch to 5k" for reading week 3. includes: an interview with Emma Gannon! a celebration of reading plays! and: how to memorise a poem! (if you want to)
open.substack.com
ah yes, the non-linear narrative gimmick, invented by Nolan in his film Memento (2000)
@lastpositivist.bsky.social · 3w agoMatt Walsh complains that Nolan brought his obsession with nonlinear story telling to the Odyssey, undercutting the original's narrative. The defenders of western civilisation, folks.
Just going to say here, I think I've said this before, a 'historically accurate' version of the Odyssey is not possible because the Odyssey does not take place in a historical setting - it takes place in a fantastical pastiche of four centuries, mixed in with gods and monsters.
Watcher Guru@watcher.guru · 3w agoJUST IN: Elon Musk says Grok will make a "full-length movie" of The Odyssey that is "historically accurate" by the end of this year.
Like, you could attempt a historically grounded depiction of what a siege or large-scale raid in 1184 BC might have looked like, but that's not the Odyssey. You could attempt a historically grounded depiction of what a sea voyage c. 750 BC might look like, but that's not the Odyssey either.