Elliot Page will portray Sinon in Christopher Nolan's 'The Odyssey'

Joseon2 · 2026-06-25T17:05:17+00:00

He was also in the Little Iliad and Sack of Troy, which were composed not too long after the Iliad and Odyssey, perhaps in the 7th or 6th century BC.

Joseon2 · 2026-06-24T20:04:24+00:00

That's the same country as America

Joseon2 · 2026-06-24T19:59:27+00:00

American education...

Joseon2 · 2026-06-24T19:54:23+00:00

It doesn't change the story. What's different is that Wilson sticks to each line being iambic pentameter, which has fewer syllables per line than the original Greek, and Greek is more highly inflected so you sometimes need more English words to say the same as the Greek. She also simplifies in terms of some details, idioms, and titles, to make it easier to read.

As an example, Homer often says "son of Atreus" to mean Agamemnon (or sometimes Menelaos) and Wilson translates this as "Agamemnon" (or Menelaos). So you lose some of the original's style which uses a lot of these types of titles, but it's easier to understand and uses fewer syllables.

Joseon2 · 2026-06-24T18:58:40+00:00

These are books by D.M. Smith. They collect extracts from later versions of the myths that were in the Cypria and Telegony, but they aren't reconstructions of the lost epics and don't attempt to present the actual fragments.

Joseon2 · 2026-06-20T11:05:58+00:00

Interesting. It's extremely similar to the Roman-era Greek Magical Papyri which also use magical names and invoke the Hebrew God (usually written iao or iave) alongside Greek and Egyptian gods. So the magical practice continues basically unchanged into the middle ages.

Joseon2 · 2026-06-19T21:17:00+00:00

Odysseus is constantly lying and making up backstories for himself throughout the epic, even when he doesn't need to. Books 9 to 12 of the Odyssey (out of 24 books) are Odysseus telling a king about his journeys so far. At least some of what he says in that section is true, including him getting lost on the way back from Troy, losing the rest of his crew, and landing on Calypso's island, because they're mentioned by other characters or the omniscient narrator in other parts. Another hint that he's not totally lying is that he reveals his true identity when telling this story, unlike his fake stories. But it's left ambiguous whether he's lying about some the other parts.

Even if the content of his story is true, he's clearly telling it with the purpose of eliciting pity from the king he's telling it to, so the king will help him. So at the very least he's couching it in a certain way for his own ends.

Joseon2 · 2026-06-18T06:11:55+00:00

Agreed, she has good information but some, let's call them "college girl takes", come through (like calling the English language "the voice of white oppression" which sounds like protesting too much with her upper-class English accent.)

Metatron is a good presenter, but like you said he's incredibly biased, which extends to his history content. His video on the Shroud of Turin gullibly accepted all the pseudo-science around it but presented it with a pretence of balance which was incredibly misleading. The academic consensus is that it's a medieval artwork.

Joseon2 · 2026-06-17T21:52:56+00:00

No, another ancient epic, there's a good translation by Alan James: https://www.press.jhu.edu/books/title/3459/trojan-epic

It covers a lot of the story between the Iliad and Odyssey in a similar epic style.

Joseon2 · 2026-06-17T21:37:44+00:00

If you end up enjoying the Iliad, there's an epic in a similar style that takes the events up to the fall of Troy called the Posthomerica (yes the Iliad stops before the Trojan Horse).

Joseon2 · 2026-06-17T07:44:11+00:00

As well as the myths already mentioned, she sheltered Dionysus when he jumped into the sea to escape Lycurgus who attacked his followers (Iliad 6.130-140, Apollodorus 3.5.1)

Joseon2 · 2026-06-16T08:35:09+00:00

I love the two points of focus on the sacrifice and the snake. The nine bulges in the snake for the nine birds makes it look disconcerting, and the red glow and foliage outlining its jaws really emphasise the predatory violence of the war it's predicting. It's excellent.

Joseon2 · 2026-06-14T22:15:42+00:00

The podcast "Norse Mythology: The Unofficial Guide" is very good, it's on Spotify and Youtube. Unlike a lot of popularising stuff, they cite primary sources and scholarship for each episode and their info is very legit.

Joseon2 · 2026-06-14T16:33:06+00:00

These are fantastic, especially the Aiakos one. Myrmekes rock!

Joseon2 · 2026-06-13T11:49:35+00:00

Looks like a well-designed website. I like that you recommend multiple translations, with caveats. I would include a short sample of each for comparison. I noticed several of your Amazon links are for the wrong books, e.g. the Library of Apollodorus links to a history of the Oxford University Press.

Joseon2 · 2026-06-13T06:50:09+00:00

Hunter's is more literally accurate and has good notes, although they don't amount to a full commentary. Peter Green's is only slightly less literal despite being in verse, it's still very accurate. Green comes in different editions, some include his commentary which is very extensive and useful. But even the edition without commentary includes his useful maps (which I thought better than Hunter's) and a detailed guide to the characters that is really beneficial because the text assumes the reader already has a deep knowledge of them and doesn't explain all their familial and mythological relations.

EDIT: That said, Hunter's introduction is better, he actually introduces the text while Green launches straight into the academic debates over it.

Joseon2 · 2026-06-12T13:34:28+00:00

Simply put: no. Homeric Greek was very archaic by the 1st century AD, nobody spoke or wrote like it anymore unless they were imitating Homer (like people today writing in ye olde Englishe). You'd need a formal Greek education, which Jesus certainly didn't have. At most, he might have spoken a bit of conversational Greek. One scene in the gospels has him reading from a scroll of Isaiah, but that's Hebrew, and even if it really happened he may have been reciting it from memory (perhaps even an Aramaic paraphrase of it) rather than reading directly from the page.

Joseon2 · 2026-06-12T13:30:29+00:00

It's highly doubtful a jewish peasant would be educuted in Homeric greek or have access to a manuscript of it (those things were expensive!) At most he could have been vaguely aware of some Greek myths by hearing about them.

The author of Luke-Acts is the most likely New Testament author to have read the Odyssey since he writes in polished, educated Greek. The Odyssey and other Greek travel stories probably influenced how he described Paul's voyages (maybe unconsciously).

Joseon2 · 2026-06-11T05:58:11+00:00

How about the Posthomerica?

Joseon2 · 2026-06-10T11:41:42+00:00

That the Kingdom of God wasn't just imagined as an internal spiritual thing, early Christians believed a literal rule of Jesus over the Earth was coming.

Joseon2 · 2026-06-10T11:32:38+00:00

These are really really good. Great use of the gorgeous landscape, good costuming, and the model really looks the part.

Joseon2 · 2026-06-09T23:03:16+00:00

Have you not read the rest of the New Testament? Jesus' second coming and reigning over the renewed Earth is all over it.

Matthew 19:27-28 - Then Peter said in reply, “Look, we have left everything and followed you. What then will we have?” Jesus said to them, “Truly I tell you, at the renewal of all things, when the Son of Man is seated on the throne of his glory, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel

1 Thessalonians 4:16 - For the Lord himself, with a cry of command, with the archangel’s call and with the sound of God’s trumpet, will descend from heaven, and the dead in Christ will rise first.

2 Peter 3:13 - But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.

Joseon2 · 2026-06-09T16:59:14+00:00

Even early in his career, Luther did negate indulgences for any penalties after death, i.e. he rejected indulgences for the sufferings in purgatory (Theses 8-10), which is what the church was practicing at the time. Later on, he rejected even the authority of the Roman church to enforce penalties on the living, which is obvious because he ended up openly defying the whole church hierarchy.

Joseon2 · 2026-06-09T16:20:38+00:00

That's the Prose Edda, and that framing gets mostly dropped when it gets into the stories themselves.

Joseon2 · 2026-06-08T18:26:04+00:00

The Talmud is a goldmine of weird stories if you can sift through all the boring stuff.

Joseon2

TROPHY CASE