From Homer to Gogol: What to read before Nolan's Odyssey
Christopher Nolan's "Odyssey" is released worldwide on July 17, 2026. Screenings are scheduled in a number of Russian cinemas from July 23. In the new film, the director addresses one of the main stories of European culture — the return of King Odysseus of Ithaca home after the Trojan War. Izvestia has collected books that will help to understand the original source, better understand the characters and see how the ancient epic continues to change in modern literature.
Homer's Odyssey
The most logical place to start is with the Odyssey itself, but you should not take it solely as a story about sea adventures. Cyclops Polyphemus, the sorceress Circe, sirens, Scylla and Charybdis occupy only a part of the epic. A significant place in it is given to Ithaca, where Penelope tries to postpone a new marriage, and Telemachus goes in search of information about his father.
Besides, Homer tells the events out of order. At the beginning of the poem, Odysseus has been away from home for many years, and later narrates about a significant part of his travels himself. Such a composition should be especially interesting to fans of Nolan, who has repeatedly experimented with chronology in his films.
Several translations of the poem are available to the Russian-speaking reader. The classic version is considered to be by Vasily Zhukovsky, first published in 1849. The poet did not speak ancient Greek and worked with detailed German footnotes, but his solemn hexameter largely determined the familiar sound of "Odyssey" in Russian.
Vikenty Veresaev's translation, made directly from the ancient Greek original and published in 1953, is considered to be more rigorous. At the end of 2025, a new complete translation by Grigory Starikovsky appeared. He abandoned the traditional Russian hexameter in favor of a looser rhythm and used modern vocabulary. The publication is also provided with detailed comments to help understand the mythological realities and translation solutions.
If you don't have much time before going to the cinema, you can focus on songs IX–XII, in which Odysseus tells about Cyclops, Circe, journey to the kingdom of the dead, sirens, Scylla and Charybdis. To understand the lines of Penelope and Telemachus, it is worth reading cantos I–IV and XIX–XXIII.
Homer's Iliad
The Odyssey begins after the end of the Trojan War, so its hero returns home as an already established warrior, strategist and deceiver. To understand where he is coming from and why this path is becoming more than just a journey for him, it is worth referring to the Iliad.
At the same time, the poem does not retell the entire Trojan War and does not describe the capture of the city. Its action covers a relatively short period of the last year of the siege and is based on the conflict between Achilles and the leader of the Greek army, Agamemnon. Odysseus himself is not yet the main character here, but already manifests himself as a diplomat, adviser and one of the most reasonable participants in the campaign.
Reading the Iliad allows us to see the fundamental difference between the two Homeric heroes. Achilles seeks immortality through fame and is ready to die for it. Odysseus, on the other hand, strives to survive, save his own name and return home. It is this desire, not physical strength, that determines his future fate.
"Legends and Myths of Ancient Greece" by Nikolai Kuhn
Nikolai Kuhn's book remains one of the most famous Russian-language retellings of ancient mythology. It covers the stories of the Olympian gods, the great heroes, the Argonauts, the Trojan War, and Odysseus' return to Ithaca.
Unlike the Iliad and the Odyssey, Kuhn builds disparate legends into a relatively consistent picture. The reader will learn what preceded the campaign against Troy, why the gods intervened in the war, how the city was taken, and what trials Odysseus faced on his way home.
This is a suitable option for those who want to quickly recall the main plots and characters. However, the book does not completely replace Homer.: she conveys events, but inevitably reduces the complex composition, repetitive formulas and ambiguity of the Odyssey itself.
"Troy" by Stephen Fry
For those who are not ready to immediately immerse themselves in the hexameter of the Iliad, "Troy" by British writer and actor Stephen Fry is suitable. The author retells the story of the Trojan War in modern language, preserving the main participants, conflicts and family ties.
The book begins long before the landing of the Greek army — with the founding of the city, the intervention of the gods and the judgment of Paris, who had to choose the most beautiful of the three goddesses. Fry gradually brings the reader to the Greek campaign, the siege of Troy, and the appearance of the wooden horse.
To prepare for the film, the book is especially useful because it connects events scattered across various ancient sources. In the Odyssey, the fall of Troy is already a thing of the past, while Fry turns it into a complete and understandable story.
In 2024, Fry completed the cycle with the book Odyssey, in which he retold the travels of Odysseus and the return of other participants in the Trojan War. However, there is no official Russian edition of this part of the cycle yet.
"The Trojan War and its heroes. The Adventures of Odyssey by Elena Tudorovskaya
Another available option is a prose retelling by Elena Tudorovskaya. One book combines the prehistory of the Trojan War, the siege of the city and the subsequent wanderings of Odysseus.
The author retains the main episodes of the Homeric poems, but presents them in ordinary prose, without a complex poetic rhythm and numerous repetitions. Here appear the dispute of the goddesses, the abduction of Helen, the march of the Greek army, Achilles, Hector, the Trojan horse, the cyclops Polyphemus, Circe, sirens and the return of Odysseus to Penelope.
The book was originally intended for a young audience, but it is also suitable for an adult reader who needs to remember the plot in a short time. If you have a few days left before going to the cinema, this is one of the most practical options in the entire selection.
The Penelope by Margaret Atwood
Penelope entered the culture as a symbol of fidelity: while Odysseus was traveling, she promised to choose a new husband after she finished the funeral shroud for Laertes, Odysseus' father, but at night she let loose what she had woven during the day. Atwood suggests that the heroine herself tell what happened on Ithaca in the absence of her husband.
Penelope leads the story after her death and treats her own legend with irony. She recalls her marriage to Odysseus, the rivalry with Elena, the pressure of the suitors and the return of her husband. A separate vote is given to 12 maids executed by Telemachus on the orders of Odysseus after the massacre of Penelope's suitors.
The Penelopiade, which is small in volume, shows how differently the same plot can be read. For Odysseus, the return becomes the restoration of justice, but for the women of his house, the finale turns into a trial without the right to defense.
"Penelope's Yarn" by Claire North
Claire North offers another version of Ithaca's life without Odysseus. While men are fighting at the walls of Troy, the island is actually ruled by women. Officially, Penelope is only expecting a husband, but in reality she has to restrain suitors for her hand, negotiate with neighbors and prevent an internal war.
The narrator is the goddess Hera, who watches people with irony and irritation. Thanks to this, the story combines family drama, court intrigue and political romance.
Penelope's Yarn opens Claire North's trilogy. In the second part, "The House of Odysseus," Penelope finds herself embroiled in a confrontation between Orestes, Electra, and Menelaus, while the king of Ithaca himself appears only in the finale. His return home and the massacre of the grooms become the basis of the final novel of the cycle.
"A Thousand Ships" by Natalie Haines
The Trojan War is usually portrayed as the story of Achilles, Hector, Agamemnon, and Odysseus. Natalie Haines focuses on women who rarely find themselves at the center of a heroic epic—Trojan captives, warrior wives, goddesses, mothers and daughters.
Among the heroines of the novel are Penelope, Clytemnestra, Andromache, Cassandra, Hecuba and Polyxena. Their stories add up to a general picture of the war, seen not from the battlefield, but from a destroyed city, a victorious camp and a home from which loved ones might not return.
Penelope's letters to Odysseus occupy a special place. As the rumors of his adventures grow more incredible, her patience gives way to skepticism. The book reminds us that while the hero creates his own legend, someone else has to pay for his absence.
The Lost Books of the Odyssey by Zachary Mason
The final edition of Zachary Mason's novel consists of 44 short chapters offering alternative versions of the Homeric story. In one case, events develop differently, in another, the roles of the characters change, in the third, a familiar myth turns into almost a philosophical task.
The author proceeds from the very nature of the ancient epic. Before the written record, the legends existed in the oral tradition, and the performers could reconstruct and supplement them. Therefore, the version known to modern readers as Homer's "Odyssey" could theoretically be only one of many.
The book is suitable for fans of complex constructions, alternative lines and unreliable narrators. It can be called the part of the collection closest to Nolan's creative method: Mason takes the myth apart into fragments, and then collects several incompatible realities from them.
"Dead Souls" by Nikolai Gogol
Some researchers and literary critics compare Chichikov's journey with Odysseus' travels. We are not talking about a direct retelling of an ancient poem, but about a similar compositional principle: the hero moves from one independent episode to another, encountering characters along the way, each of whom represents a special human type and a separate world.
Chichikov, like Odysseus, acts through cunning, the ability to change his manner of behavior and the ability to guess the desires of the interlocutor. He does not fight cyclopes and sea monsters, but consistently passes through the possessions of Manilov, Korobochka, Nozdryov, Sobakevich and Plyushkin. Each stop becomes an independent test and at the same time a new part of the overall picture of the country.
Gogol called "Dead Souls" a poem, although the work is written in prose. Comparison with Homer allows us to see in Chichikov's journey not only a satirical trip through the Russian province, but also a kind of inverted "Odyssey": the hero is not moving towards home and restoring order, but pursues a dubious goal.
"Ulysses" by James Joyce
It is not necessary to take on "Ulysses" immediately before going to the cinema.: it's more like the next level of immersion. James Joyce brings the structure of the Homeric epic to Dublin on June 16, 1904. Odysseus' place is taken by advertising agent Leopold Bloom, Telemachus by young writer Stephen Dedalus, and Penelope by Molly Bloom.
Instead of ten years of wandering, the reader gets one day, instead of mythical islands — streets, editorial offices, inns, a hospital and a house. However, ancient motives continue to work in the daily lives of the characters: exile, the search for a father, temptation, return and an attempt to find their place.
The connections between the chapters of Ulysses and the episodes of Homer are not always explicitly stated. It is all the more interesting to read the novel after the Odyssey, recognizing Cyclops in the aggressive nationalist, sirens in the music and conversations of bar patrons, and returning to Ithaca in Bloom's late arrival home.
"Cold Mountain" by Charles Fraser
Charles Fraser's novel proves that neither gods nor monsters are necessary for the new Odyssey. Wounded soldier Inman deserts from the Confederate Army and goes home to Ada. He is being chased by a local militia looking for fugitives, so the road turns into a constant evasion of the chase. In this line, one can see a modern analogue of Poseidon's wrath: Inman, like Odysseus, aspires to go home, but an external force repeatedly distances him from his goal.
While Inman is passing through a devastated country, Ada is trying to save the farm and learn how to live independently. The parallels with Homer are noticeable, but they do not turn the novel into a literal retelling. Inman's path is the story of a man who survived the war, but is not sure that he is able to return to his former life. Ada, like Penelope, doesn't just wait: the absence of a man forces her to rebuild her own world.
"Cold Mountain" shows particularly well the modern understanding of the Odyssey as a story of post-war trauma. The main danger for a returning warrior lies not only in the road, but also in the fact that the house and himself have changed irreversibly during the separation.
What to read before the movie
It is not necessary to try to cover the entire collection. For basic training, Homer's "Odyssey" and one modern reinterpretation are enough — for example, Margaret Atwood's "Penelope", which shows what happened on Ithaca during the absence of the protagonist.
For those who don't remember Greek mythology well, it's easier to start with Nikolai Kuhn. "Legends and Myths of Ancient Greece" consistently introduces the main plots, gods and heroes. If there is very little time left, a prose retelling by Elena Tudorovskaya will do. "The Trojan War and its heroes. The Adventures of Odyssey" covers both the prehistory of the journey and its key stages.
"Dead Souls", "Ulysses", "Cold Mountain" and "The Lost Books of the Odyssey" should be left for a while after watching. They do not help to quickly recall the plot, but they show how the Homeric story of war, wandering and returning home continued to live in the literature of different countries and eras.
On June 25, Medialogia presented the top 30 Russian series ratings for May of this year. He was led by the Boys project, which scored 2984 points. The second place was taken by the TV series Euphoria (1983 points), and the third place was taken by the Russian Sled (1617 points), which rose by five positions in just a month. The top five also included the anime "Magic Battle" (1378 points) and the TV series "Stranger Things" (1159 points).
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