Facing the War
Nolan’s The Odyssey has become a worldwide phenomenon, with twenty-five to thirty million viewers worldwide on opening weekend alone. In just thirteen days, its box office total has surpassed the lifetime earnings of Nolan’s previous release, Oppenheimer. People are drawn to more than just the epic filmmaking; they are drawn to the story of a hero haunted by his greatest victory. The Odyssey gives us a picture of reality where there are few quick resolutions.
The film shows us the kind of man Odysseus is before leaving for the Trojan War: he is the good king of Ithaca; a man beloved by all. He cares even for the animals he hunts—plucking his bowstring before shooting to alert his prey to his presence. When asked why he does it, he explains that hunting is like fighting but with stealth. He wants the hunt to be a fair fight. He lives his life by the golden rule of the time: Zeus’ law requiring a host to give shelter to visitors and strangers and a guest not to betray the trust of their host.
By the end of the first decade away from home, it becomes clear that desperation and bitterness are beginning to creep into Odysseus’s heart. He finds himself willing to do anything it takes to end the war—even if it means going against his morals.
Odysseus’s clever idea to build the Trojan horse does indeed end the war, but it comes at the cost of letting his morals slip, breaking Zeus’s law. After he tricks the Trojans into bringing the horse inside their walls, Odysseus and his men sneak out of the horse where they were hiding. They let the rest of their army in and the city is laid waste, with Odysseus watching as “ten years of rage pour into [the] city in one night.” For the next decade, Odysseus bears the weight of guilt for the “fires, anarchy, and pain” he saw as the city burned.
It takes years of consistency to change the trajectory of a life. The Odysseus who left Ithaca wasn’t the same man who won the Trojan war. The latter man turned a fight into a hunt and never ‘strummed his bow’ to warn the people of Troy. It wasn’t a fair fight.
Today’s now-based culture makes it difficult for this idea to sink in. Many understand it on a surface level and would give a dismissive, “Yes, of course change takes time.” But they don’t take the time to process what that means. What makes each person who they are is millions of moments and experiences. It is not just about the actual events that occur but how we process them. What narratives and thinking patterns do we develop? Are they good or bad? And what long-term effects will they have on our lives?
What makes each person who they are is millions of moments and experiences
These are questions that cannot be answered in a moment. It takes years, sometimes decades to discover the effect. And because the narratives and patterns we develop become so deeply ingrained in us, it can then take years to overcome them.
For Odysseus, his longings for home and his family were good desires to have. But the bitterness and desperation that built in him over years of not being able to have those desires realized led him to make a traumatizing error that continued leading him further from who he truly was and the home he longed for.
Facing the Journey Home
As Odysseus begins his journey home from war, bitterness and desperation follow him. He wants to get home as quickly as possible, and he doesn’t want to sail home with his king. So Odysseus decides to voyage through uncharted areas in hopes that both of his goals will be accomplished. But he finds himself and his men becoming more lost as they lose faith in the man who used to be their untouchable leader. Then, Odysseus is given a prophecy: his men will not make it home. They will all die at sea. In that moment, feeling the weight of their lives and those already lost,he decides to defy the gods and their oracle. He can save his men from the gods.
Once again, Odysseus begins with a good desire: he wants to protect his men and get them home. And he does indeed protect them from multiple dangers along the way. But what he doesn’t account for is his men’s free will. He is clever enough to save nearly all of them from external forces, but he cannot save them from themselves. Refusing to accept this, Odysseus once more bears the burden when they in fact die. When he ends up on Calypso’s island, he eats lotus flowers and forgets everything: who he is, what he is doing, and what he wants. He remains shipwrecked there for seven years.
When Odysseus finally does begin to remember, it gives him a much-needed opportunity to pause and process everything that has happened. He can see clearly the burdens he placed upon himself. He remembers what the Siren’s song earlier in his journey had told him: “It told you that what you most want is what you can’t have. And what you most can’t have is what you already had, and lost… it told me I didn’t want to go home.” This convoluted sentence paints us the picture of Odysseus’s twenty-year journey: What he already had and lost was home and being someone who wanted to make it home. He couldn’t make it home because of the man he had become: crushed under the burdens he put on himself and clinging to desperation and bitterness.
When we actively live in the present, letting go of trying to control each moment, we can see all the ways that God is big enough for all of reality and our lived experiences
What finally allows Odysseus to make it home is realizing that he cannot force his will to happen. He has to accept the journey that is given to him. Calypso tells him, “You cannot control this… Give up the fight, give up control and live. It is a leap of faith you haven’t yet made.” Odysseus builds himself a raft and sets himself adrift in the ocean, having faith that what is meant to happen will happen. Storms rage around him, and he doesn’t try to fight them. And finally, after twenty years, he finds himself washed ashore on his beloved homeland. He is no longer the same man who left, but after ten years of trying, he has found his way back home and to himself. He sees how each and every one of his experiences during the war and on his journey have taught him something about life and himself, and he uses those to once more reclaim his throne.
Arriving Home
When we actively live in the present, letting go of trying to control each moment, we can see all the ways that God is big enough for all of reality and our lived experiences: school, friendships, family life, personal choices, and even pain and suffering. Following God is a lifelong process that requires humility, practice, and intention. When we remember God in each and every moment, the idea that change and answers don’t come in a single moment can become ingrained in us—they come by walking with God year after year.