Christopher Nolan has tackled an epic that few people have dared to before in The Odyssey. The epic poem by Homer is a sequel to The Iliad, which showed the Trojan War. This one follows Odysseus, the king of Ithaca, and his 10-year journey back home after the war. Matt Damon plays the mythological hero.
Odysseus is one of literature’s oldest heroes, and while his heroics have been legendary, his character is far more complex than his actions. He’s a war hero, a trickster, a devoted husband, and one of the most morally complicated figures in ancient myth.
Before you settle into your IMAX seat, here are ten facts about Odysseus that will deepen your appreciation for the character Homer created nearly 3,000 years ago.
| Movie Name | The Odyssey |
| Directed By | Christopher Nolan |
| Based On | The Odyssey by Homer |
| Main Cast | Matt Damon, Anne Hathaway, Tom Holland, Robert Pattinson, Lupita Nyong’o, Jon Bernthal, Zendaya, and more |
| Release Date | July 17, 2026 |
| Rotten Tomatoes (as of July 16, 2026) | 96% |
1. Odysseus Was Known for His Intellect and Cunning
An epic naturally has warriors as its heroes. Even The Iliad had characters like Agamemnon and Achilles as the main characters. However, while Odysseus is a formidable warrior in his own right, he is most distinguished as a man of brains. Despite being the king of Ithaca, he is known for being the smart one and uses clever ideas and cunning schemes to gain victory alongside his combat prowess.
Homer frequently calls him ‘polytropos,’ meaning ‘of many turns’ or ‘the man of many ways,’ a nod to his adaptability and cunning. This intelligence is what separates him from warriors like Achilles or Ajax. It’s also why Athena, the goddess of wisdom and strategy, favors him above nearly every other mortal in Greek mythology.
2. He Fakes Insanity to Get Out of Fighting the Trojan War
While The Odyssey sees Odysseus travel back home after a brutal war, he was initially uninterested in even joining it. The King of Ithaca apparently wanted to avoid the draft in the Trojan War and feigned insanity to escape it. According to legend, Odysseus pretended to be mad by plowing fields with an ox and a donkey.
However, he was caught by the Greek envoy Palamedes, who placed his son Telemachus, an infant at the time, in the way of his plowing, and Odysseus swerved to avoid killing his boy. He is a reluctant hero who went to the decade-long war and did not see his family for 20 years.
3. The Trojan Horse Was Odysseus’ Plan
The Trojan Horse is one of the most iconic images and moments in world history, where the Achaeans hoodwink the Trojans into accepting a gift: a huge horse structure in which Achaean soldiers are hiding to attack. The term itself has become an allegory for a hidden malevolent agenda in the garb of something positive. Nolan’s movie will feature some parts of the sequence.
Odysseus came up with the idea. The ruse worked, Troy fell, and the war finally ended. This act cemented Odysseus’s reputation as the ultimate strategist of the Greek forces
4. Odysseus Survived Monsters and Gods in The Odyssey
While Odysseus used his intelligence to win the war, his cleverness earned the wrath of many gods and monsters. In The Odyssey, he angers Poseidon after blinding the Cyclops Polyphemus, who is the son of Poseidon. This leads the God of the Sea to use all his might to stall his return to Ithaca by water.
Odysseus is also given the chance to live through eternity with the nymph Calypso, but he refuses to continue it and goes back home to Ithaca. He meets Aeolus, who gifts him a bag containing all the winds except the West Wind, which would return him home to Ithaca.
5. He Had an Affair with a Goddess While Trying to Get Back Home
One of the most interesting episodes on his journey back home is his affair with Circe. Odysseus and his men visit Circe, the witch-goddess; she turns half of his men into swine by feeding them cheese and wine. However, Odysseus survives her magic with the help of Hermes, who had given him a magical herb called moly.
Circe falls in love with Odysseus, admiring his resistance to her magic. He convinces her to turn his men back to normal, and they spend a year in her abode. His men later convince him to return to Ithaca. Charlize Theron plays Circe in The Odyssey.
6. Odysseus Lost All of His Men after the War
Perhaps the most sobering fact about Odysseus’s journey is its cost: he arrives home to Ithaca completely alone. All the soldiers who sailed with him from Troy die along the way, killed by monsters, storms, divine punishment, or their own poor choices, such as eating the cattle of the sun god Helios against explicit warnings.
Odysseus survives not because he’s invincible, but because he’s the protagonist whose fate the gods have specifically decided to spare. This grim detail underscores that the Odyssey isn’t just an adventure story; it’s also a meditation on loss, survival guilt, and leadership.
7. His Dog in Ithaca is the First to Recognize Him
One of the most heartbreaking moments of The Odyssey is when Odysseus finally comes back home to Ithaca, but is in disguise. Athena disguises him as a beggar so that he can assess what the situation with his family is like, since he had been gone for twenty years.
Initially, only his loyal dog, Argos, recognizes him instantly through his disguise, before he too dies. It is an incredible moment in the epic, which sees the king return home to a kingdom he no longer recognizes, and which no longer recognizes him. It proves that the war changed him more than he realized.
8. Odysseus is Not an Epic Hero Like Other Mythological Stories
As we mentioned before, Odysseus is known not for his strength and power, but more for his intellect. However, he is also perceived differently by multiple characters. He makes many mistakes, even as a king, which ends up with him losing his ships, his men, and most importantly, a lot of time with his family.
He is a man who is known by his mistakes and struggle. His journey back home is not just heroic, but one of mental strength. By the end, he is a broken man.
9. He is Killed By His Son But Not in The Odyssey
The end of The Odyssey sees Odysseus and Telemachus successfully slaughter the suitors, but a subsequent war with the suitors’ vengeful families is stopped when they are intervened in by Zeus and Athena. However, Odysseus’ end is told in another epic, Telegony, where his son, Telegonus, kills him. Telegonus, the son of Circe, sails to Ithaca searching for his father and, in a case of mistaken identity, ends up killing Odysseus in a skirmish without realizing who he is.
10. Odysseus’ Name Perfectly Captures His Journey
Odysseus’s name wasn’t chosen at random. According to Homer, his grandfather Autolycus, a legendary trickster and master thief said to be a son of the god Hermes, named him, and the name is linked to the Greek verb ‘odyssomai,’ meaning ‘to be angry with,’ ‘to hate,’ or ‘to cause pain.’
Autolycus explained that he’d caused plenty of grief to others in his life, so his grandson would carry that legacy in his name. It’s a fitting bit of foreshadowing: Odysseus spends the entire epic causing trouble for his enemies and enduring no shortage of pain and suffering himself.
Are you excited to watch The Odyssey? Comment below.
