Christopher Nolan’s cinematic adaptation of “The Odyssey” has taken the world by storm. Earning close to $1 billion to date, the blockbuster is introducing the nearly 3,000-year-old story to a new generation of moviegoers.
The 12,000-line epic prose poem attributed to Homer follows the heroic king of Ithaca, Odysseus—also known by the Latin variant Ulysses—on his journey home after the 10-year-long Trojan War, using monsters, murder, war, gods, and disasters to pose timeless questions about loyalty and perseverance, resilience, temptation, loss and the universal search for belonging. It originated in an oral tradition in ancient Greece and was performed at festivals for hundreds of years.
Maria Peña at the Library of Congress (LC) is detailing some of LC’s “Odyssey”-related items on the library’s blog, and it’s both a fascinating look at important historical artifacts and a snapshot of the depth and importance of the library’s collection and work.
Spanning centuries, LC’s items document how artists, cartographers, and translators around the world have translated and reimagined Odysseus’ journey anew. From medieval engravings to graphic novels, LC’s holdings document how each generation seems to find fresh meaning in the mythical, decade-long struggle of the Greek hero to return home to his family following the Trojan War.
In the library’s collection, you can find:
- A papyrus fragment from “The Iliad,”the precursor to “The Odyssey,” that dates back to 2,000 years ago.
- A 1597 map by Flemish cartographer Abraham Ortelius that merges myth and geography to trace Odysseus’ journey across the ancient world, roughly the present-day Mediterranean, in his Theatrum Orbis Terrarum.
- A 1616 edition of “The Whole Works of Homer, Prince of Poetts, in His Iliads and Odysses,” translations of “The Illiad” and “The Odyssey” by poet and playwright George Chapman, a contemporary of William Shakespeare, that opened the story to readers beyond the Greek-speaking world and became an enduring influence on English literature.
- A 1640 etching by Theodoor van Thulden that captures the moment Odysseus outwits Polyphemus, the man-eating Cyclops. One of 58 illustrations in the book, “Errores Vlyssis,” van Thulden shows Ulysses and his crew trapped inside a cave as they get the giant drunk and drive a burning stake into its single eye before escaping.
- A rare French limited edition published by H. Piazza in 1899 that shines a light on Princess Nausikaa, whose grace and compassion save a shipwrecked Odysseus on the island of the Phaeacians. It is the only book to be fully illustrated by the artist Gaston de Latenay, whose integration of text with color lithographs, custom borders, and decorative vignettes makes “Nausikaa” a highly prized rarity. LC owns copy 80 of a limited run of 400.
LC also holds three first editions of “Ulysses,” James Joyce’s 1922 novel, which took its design, inspiration, and ambition from “The Odyssey,” including the signed #1 copy of the first edition, literally the very first copy of “Ulysses” to be printed.
The various translations of “The Odyssey” held by LC reveal hundreds of distinct voices across the ages, from Arabic, Russian, and Spanish versions to recent English translations by Emily Wilson (the basis for Nolan’s film) and by Daniel Mendelsohn. There’s also a unique translation into Sorbian, a West Slavic language spoken by ethnic Slavs in Germany (not to be confused with Serbian).
Odysseus’ journey is also captured in graphic novels and comic books in LC’s Small Press Expo Collection. Within this archive, Gareth Hinds’ acclaimed graphic novel adaptation uses “sweeping, watercolor panels to turn ancient Greek gods and monsters into a high-impact visual landscape for contemporary readers.”
With Nolan’s film version now packing theaters worldwide, LC’s various versions of “The Odyssey” reveal how it has endured across time.
“Through text, images, maps, and storytelling,” write Peña, “each generation finds new routes into a timeless story that, at its core, continues to raise the same questions about endurance, identity, and the universal longing for home.”
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Photo: Matt Damon as Odysseus. Courtesy of Universal Pictures.
