Dear Mr. Christopher Nolan,
It was with great joy that we’ve learned that you are making the film of «Odyssey» (iMDb), which is the oldest of the foundational myths of western civilization and has topped the BBC Culture poll addressing writers and critics in 2018 for the “100 Stories that Shaped the World’’.
I took the initiative to write to you out of my great interest for History and Mythology (Myth-history), in order to cite an aspect of Odyssey that has not been made known and I do not wish to be wrongly interpreted as intervening with your personal laying out of the scenario.
I know well your directional mastery, your great investment and the exceptional cast that you are requisitioning.
But if you really want to stir up the stagnant waters and let Odyssey stay as a movie that will make history in the cinema, you may want to swoop down on the real historical core that no director has as yet dared to show since the first film ever made about the epic in 1911.
Odyssey is not an imaginary literary fictional narrative, but is in fact the documentation of people and their actions in some distant but always historical era.
Deep knowledge and study of the commentators and note-takers who have desymbolized and decoded the allegorical images presented by Homer would be required.
Let’s not forget that Alexander the Great had the manuscript of the other Homer epic, Iliad, always under his pillow, enriched with the decoding comments of his teacher, Aristotle.
We are aware that you are a man that respects accuracy and takes into consideration all the necessary details, that you are careful not to betray the prototype texts, that you avoid the extravagant Hollywood narrations like the ones that up to now have altered the Homer’s narrative and that you care for making epic films based on real facts and real historical references.
Odyssey is not a fictitious story. It is the Odyssey of every man to return to the harmony of his life.
As Plutarch says (45-120). «Myths are the broken mirror of truth».
The replenishment of what’s forgotten is done with fantasy, behind each mythical creature hides a historical fact. The mythology of a nation is part of its Pre-history before the discovery of writing. The legendary narratives have to do with dissemination campaigns of the Greek cities towards the broader area and especially the territories of the coast.
The Ancient Greek English Lexicon of Henry Liddel and Robert Scott, published in 1843 at the entry «myth» (3rd volume, p.194) writes: oration, speech, advice, decision, aim, plan. MYTH versus WORK. The meaning of fairytale or fictitious narrative («Paramythos» or contra-Myth in ancient Greek) isn’t cited. In the Homeric epics the word Speech is nowhere mentioned because it has been replaced by the words Myth and Epos.
Hereunder please find some important bibliography of surveys and studies that have been published, proving that the journey of Ulysse was indeed real.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
«The Ulysses Voyage» (1987), by Timothy Severin (1940-2020), British explorer, historian and author who has crossed the Atlantic Ocean by a leather boat following the trail of St Brendan (489-583). He also built a model of the legendary Argo ship.
«Le periple d’ Ulysses» (2005) by Jean Cuisenier (1927-2017), who was ethnologist, hellenist, experienced navigator.
«Les navigations d’ Ulysses», by Victor Berard (1864-1931), French hellenist, translator of Odyssey and Frederic Boissonas (1858-1946), French-Swiss photographer.
Dorothy B. Vitaliano (1916-2008), American geologist and volcanologist who came up with the term «Geomythology», which is the interdisciplinary analysis of the authentic myths that helps detect and track down the geophysicist as well as astronomic and historical events which are concealed inside them and need decoding.
She wrote the book «Legends of the Earth: Their Geologic Origins» (1976)
«The Wine Dark Sea», by American Henriette Mertz,(1896-1985) (Chicago 1965).
According to her, Ulysses travelled up to the American coasts, aided by the sea streams (Stream Gulf). She has located the places that Ulysses passed from, based on the speed of the sea streams, the durations of his individual journeys from one stop to the other as mentioned in Odyssey. Her view is enhanced by archaeological discoveries that have been found in the continent of America.
By the way would it be possible to use «ARGO», the penteconter ship which was built by the Institute of Survey on the Ancient Navigation and Technology «NAVDOMOS» (that is the type of ship used by Ulysses for his return) instead of the Drakkar Viking ship?
«Odysseia» A nautical epopee of the prehistorical Greeks in the America by Zigfrid Pyrros Petridis,(1929-), mechanical engineer, skipper and navigator (Athens, 1994).
Zigfried’s opinion is that the final vessel used by Ulysse to reach Ithaca was a small sailing boat and not a raft, as rafts do not have neither ribs nor wing voids.
As mentioned in Odyssey (κ’ 19-26, 28-29) Zeus kept all the winds except from Zephyr, the light tailwind, therefore we can conclude that Ulysses was west of Ithaca and approximately at the same geographical latitude. Thus, the island Aeolia must be an island at the west of Ithaca, at a distance equivalent to a 9-day travel with a favourable wind. The distance between Majorka-Sardinia-Sicily-Ithaca is 870 miles, so for a 9 days sailing the average speed 870:9:24=4,03 knots an hour is the speed of an easy sea navigation, which is rationally acceptable. Thus, this must have been the island of Aeolos, one of the Vallearides, the «Gymnasiae islands».
Homer was also the first worldwide to use the term «automatically» and conveyed same to the other languages. Because in the Homer epics there are scientific and technological quotes that go over the limits of imagination and reach the real limits of science, tipping over the fantasies of those that see the Homeric epics as a product of myth-making.
Please see the following:
«Gods and Robots, Myths, Machines and Ancient Dreams of Technology» by Mayor Adrienne, (born April 22, 1946), an American historian of ancient science at the University of Stanford and a classical folklorist who emphasises on how pre-scientific cultures interpreted data about the natural world.
Finally please find hereunder some passages from the Homeric epics so that you can come to your own conclusions on the relation of Iliad as well as Odyssey with true scientific facts:
- The automatic in Iliad are great technological achievements of man that are attributed to Gods.
- The automatic portals of Heaven (rhapsody E’ verses 749-754).
- Automatictripods of Hephaestus (Σ’ 372-377).
- Golden automatic maidservants resembling to human beings with Logic-Voice and Power (Σ’417-422).
- 20 self-regulated bellows. There is a description of a divine foundry which could control the temperature in the furnace in an automatic way in order to warm and melt the metal (Σ’468-477).
- Astronomical knowledge of the vault of heaven: Pleiades, Yades, Orion, The Ursa Major (Σ’ 483-489).
(Β) The automatic in Odyssey are great achievements by known or unknown people.
- The palace and robotic dogs made of gold and silver that were the watchful guards of Alkinoos (η’81-94).
- The automatic vessels of Phaeacians without boat masters or rudders (θ’ 555-563).
- Astronomical knowledge of the vault of heaven (ε’, 270-281).
- Knowledge of shipbuilding technology – building of sail ship (ε’, 234-268) with masts, with woodworking tools and the appropriate wood of trees like spruces, alders and elms.
I hope to have enlightened from my part somehow more the treasure of Odyssey with these states that Homer does not improvise, but knows deeply, narrates and teaches.
It takes faith and courage to break the vicious circle of the belief of myth-made Homeric epics. They are fine guides for self-knowledge that set the top question of our existence: Is there a value in human life? And it’s implied that indeed there is, because the mortality of the humans gives exceptional importance to their moments and lays stress on their actions. Odyssey, as well as Iliad are the epics of the western civilization where lie the foremost concerns in man’s life.
We are awaiting with real interest and excitement your opus and we are conveying to you our best Greek wishes for your success.
Sincerely Yours,
Peter Ioannidis, Philologist – Interpreter of the Homeric epic poems & Editorial journalist.
SOURCE: ARCHIVE of Culuture, Athens, March 1.3.2025.
οδυσσεια, οδυσσεας οδυσσευς νολαν ιωαννιδης κινηματογραφκη ταινια 2026
