London (AFP) – Christopher Nolan’s adaptation of “The Odyssey” has not only lured legions of fans to cinemas but sparked huge interest in the UK in Homer’s epic poem and other Greek and Roman mythology works. Some involved in Classics academia hope the blockbuster’s box office success and wider cultural impact will also prompt more young people to study the subject.
The movie’s mid-month release has helped hike UK print edition sales of “The Odyssey” by 1,400 percent in the four weeks to July 25 compared to the same period last year, according to market researchers NielsenIQ. A 2017 translation by British-American classicist Emily Wilson of the millennia-old mythological tale has been flying off the shelves at a similarly increased rate. Britain’s biggest bookstore chain Waterstones saw sales of Wilson’s work rise over 1,000 percent compared to 2025 and were “increasing every week” alongside purchases of “all other available translations,” a spokeswoman said.
Meanwhile, NielsenIQ noted many related works — including “The Iliad,” Madeline Miller’s “Circe,” and Margaret Atwood’s “The Penelopiad” — had also seen “significant” sales uplifts. Actor and writer Stephen Fry’s “The Odyssey” currently tops the history bestsellers on Amazon’s UK website. Two of his other Classics books — “Mythos” and “Troy” — occupy the second and fifth spots respectively on the online giant’s list. Audiobooks are also sharing in the boom, with Spotify reporting that searches for “The Odyssey” translations have skyrocketed by 310 percent.
“People are drawn to these stories,” University of Exeter Classics lecturer Richard Kendall told AFP, hailing the sales spike as “fantastic.” “And that’s not just writers who continually return to the Greeks and Romans — the history, the myths, the characters, the events — that’s also readers. These are ripping good yarns.” Kendall, the first expert-in-residence earlier this year at Britain’s The Classical Association, cautioned against viewing the renewed literary interest just in cinema-related isolation. “If this is a gimmick, it’s been a gimmick that’s been lasting for over 2,000 years at this point,” he said. “It’s wonderful that this has created so much popularity. People are reading more, but this is just this iteration … People will always return to these stories.”
Nonetheless, at University College London (UCL) — where British-American director Nolan reportedly studied Homer as an English undergraduate — there are hopes for an increase in enrolments. “The buzz around the film has been tremendous, and we’re hoping to see a bounce in student numbers in the next few years,” Phiroze Vasunia, head of its Greek and Latin Department, told AFP. He noted there had been “an exceptional level of interest in Classics and in ancient studies” in recent years, coinciding with the growing fanfare around Nolan’s movie.
Based on Homer’s poem written originally in Greek around the 7th or 8th century BC, the film tracks hero Odysseus as he faces obstacle after obstacle on his trek home from the Trojan War. It stars Matt Damon and Anne Hathaway as Odysseus and his wife Penelope, with Tom Holland portraying their son Telemachus. Nolan’s first movie since 2023 Oscar-winner “Oppenheimer,” it has wowed audiences and critics, topping the US box office for two straight weeks and already taking $640 million worldwide.
But not everyone has been won over by the modern adaptation of one of humanity’s oldest stories. Wilson — behind an acclaimed translation which Nolan has praised — generated headlines this week after penning a scathing critique of his screenplay. She argued it “lacks psychological, emotional, political and ethical depth.” “I would be ashamed to have written any part of this,” Wilson argued in the London Review of Books, adding it “lacks many of the elements that make the poem great.” High-profile British historian Mary Beard was similarly unconvinced, though like Wilson, she welcomed the interest in Homer. Writing in The Times, Beard bemoaned that the poem’s “erotic puzzles, the teasing ironies, the intriguing questions about truth and falsehood” had been replaced with “a rather ponderous Hollywood message about civilisational decline.”
© 2024 AFP
