As Christopher Nolan revives ‘The Odyssey,’ a scholar finds links between Homer and the Hebrew Bible

Even earlier than its launch on Friday, buzz over Christopher Nolan’s much-anticipated movie adaptation, “The Odyssey,” is introducing a brand new era to Homer’s story of shipwrecks, monsters, gods and the lengthy highway residence. However what does an historical Greek epic must do with Jewish readers — or with the Hebrew Bible?

Fairly a bit, says Jacob Howland, a thinker and classicist who has spent a lot of his profession exploring what has been referred to as the dialog between Athens and Jerusalem. His 1998 e-book “Plato and the Talmud” was impressed partially by a Talmud research group at his synagogue in Tulsa, Oklahoma, the place he was a professor of philosophy on the College of Tulsa from 1988 to 2020.

Howland is presently a distinguished visiting professor within the Faculty of Civic Management on the College of Texas, based in 2023 to place Western civilization and “the American concept” on the heart of academia within the Lone Star State. Howland has written extensively on the Greeks, the Hebrew Bible and the Talmud for Mosaic, the net journal of the conservative Jewish suppose tank and academic philanthropy Tikvah.

Within the first of a current collection of essays on the “Odyssey” for Mosaic, Howland asks, “Ought to Jews Learn Homer?” His reply, no shock, is “sure”: The “Odyssey” and the Hebrew Bible, he writes, “illuminate the enduring questions of human life, together with the right way to deliver order and customary function to the in any other case chaotic relationships between women and men, fathers and sons, familiars and strangers, clans and nations.”

To recap: The “Odyssey” follows the Greek hero Odysseus (Matt Damon within the movie) on his 10-year journey residence after the Trojan Battle. Delayed by storms, nymphs, temptations and the whims of the gods, he survives encounters with the Cyclops, the Sirens and the sorceress Circe earlier than lastly returning to Ithaca. There, disguised as a beggar, he reunites together with his trustworthy spouse, Penelope (Anne Hathaway), and son, Telemachus (Tom Holland), and (spoiler alert) reclaims his kingdom from the suitors who’ve overrun his family.

As Nolan’s blockbuster brings Odysseus again into the cultural dialog, we spoke with Howland about what Homer and the Bible have in frequent, how they differ and why each epics are on the heart of the conservative discourse round “Western civilization.”

Our dialog was edited for size and readability.

As somebody who reads the “Odyssey” professionally, are you excited a few new film manufacturing of this?

I’m going to see the movie. I’ve been inspired, really — there’s been an unimaginable quantity of controversy, which is humorous, as a result of nobody’s seen it but. However I learn that various folks, together with the historian Tom Holland — the “Relaxation Is Historical past” podcast host, not the actor taking part in Telemachus — have seen it and given it sturdy evaluations.

I’m pretty assured we received’t get one thing like “300” — that movie about Thermopylae, with its computer-generated monsters, which youthful audiences oddly beloved however which was, traditionally, horrible. I feel there must be some try, if not at full historic accuracy, then not less than a semblance of it in costuming, ships and so forth — at a minimal, a gritty actuality that transports you into one other time and place, even when a hypercritical viewer might level out an anachronistic helmet or two.

Jacob Howland, presently a distinguished visiting professor within the Faculty of Civic Management on the College of Texas, is the creator “Plato and the Talmud” and quite a few articles about rabbinic Judaism and Greek philosophy. (Courtesy Jacob Howland)

I need to discuss slightly about Athens and Jerusalem, which is how the Twentieth-century German-Jewish thinker and conservative icon Leo Strauss described the stress in Western civilization between the Bible and classical Greek philosophy. The “Odyssey” was written down someplace between 725 and 675 BCE, and the Hebrew Bible was composed primarily between the eighth and second centuries BCE. How conscious are these two cultures of one another?

For those who’re asking in regards to the time of Homer, it’s all hypothesis. However I can discuss to you in regards to the Talmudic interval [roughly the first through fourth centuries CE]. In keeping with Warren Zev Harvey on the Hebrew College of Jerusalem, the rabbis appeared to have identified rather a lot about Greek philosophy. They only didn’t make that clear within the Talmud. They didn’t need to say, “We’ve studied the Greeks.”

I feel it’s safer to speak in regards to the Homeric and the biblical as two essentially completely different approaches — completely different understandings of the world, of human life, of the divine — after which ask how they differ, how they work together and what overlap they’ve.

In different phrases, what are the fruitful comparisons for understanding the variations and similarities between these cultures?

Sure. Athens and Jerusalem are the 2 oldest, biggest roots of Western civilization. I don’t all the time agree with all the pieces Leo Strauss says, however he regards these two as a coiled spring, a stress from which the West itself grows. These texts, if we have a look at their basic view of the world, pose a query we have now to resolve for ourselves — and in some sense the way forward for our civilization will depend on how we resolve it.

What are among the main episodes within the “Odyssey” we are able to anticipate to see in Nolan’s movie that bear these sorts of comparisons to Jewish texts, and what questions and solutions can we derive from them?

One factor that can most likely present up is the popularity of Odysseus by his nurse Eurycleia when he returns to Ithaca in disguise — that’s the place Homer tells the story of how Odysseus obtained his scar. As a youth — mid-teens, or thereabouts — Odysseus goes out to hunt a boar. The extraordinary means the traditional Greeks hunted a boar: You get about 5 guys with javelins and a bunch of canine and a internet. The canine find the boar, drive it into its lair, and preserve it at bay, barking. You arrange the web, unleash the canine, they usually harass the boar till it runs out and will get caught within the internet. Then a bunch of males is available in and stabs it.

As a substitute, Odysseus jumps out in entrance and rushes the boar himself, to stab it on his personal, and that’s when the boar gashes him and offers him his scar.

For my part, this charging, wounding boar is a Homeric picture of actuality, not less than from Odysseus’ perspective. Actuality will wound you, and the way do you confront it? You exit, and also you battle. That’s a premise that explains Odysseus’s habits via a lot of the “Odyssey.”

What’s the Hebrew counterpart? 

Essentially, belief in God — belief that there’s an Almighty Creator who has long-established a world liveable and appropriate for human beings, and who will assist them in the event that they belief in Him. It’s not that the Hebrews didn’t know actuality is wounding — it’s that there’s one thing above that wounding actuality. The boar is an animal; the best factor for Homer is basically nature. There are the gods, however what precisely are they?

It’s not that the Jewish custom doesn’t perceive realpolitik. Abraham is a good warrior in addition to a person of God. They perceive it. However the start line is belief. Odysseus doesn’t belief. Odysseus is a person of disguises, crafty, cleverness — leveraging each trick.

Together with the charging-boar enterprise, there’s a well-known essay by a scholar named George Dimock referred to as “The Title of Odysseus.” Dimock’s important level: There’s a Greek verb, odusasthai, which means to trigger ache to oneself and others, and to be keen to take action. Dimock factors out that Odysseus does this in some ways — the Cyclops, whose eye he takes; the suitors, whom he kills; all of it.

By the tip of the story, hasn’t he principally sacrificed his complete entourage?

That is unimaginable, for those who have a look at it. Odysseus leaves Troy with 12 ships, which suggests round a thousand males. A technique or one other, all of them die. So he takes a era of younger males to Troy and comes again with zero.

Twenty years later, you might have the subsequent era — the noble cream of the crop, 108 suitors from Ithaca and the outlying islands. He kills all of them. So: One other era of younger folks gone. Then the fathers of these suitors need revenge, in order that they make battle towards him. He would have killed all of them too, besides that Zeus had Athena intervene, primarily averting a civil battle, with a pact of peace afterward.

Now, this begins to get at the true distinction between the “Odyssey” and the Bible. After the common historical past of Genesis 1 via 11, we get to the patriarchs. God is, in impact, saying: All proper, I’m going with this man Abraham — and remarkably, astonishingly, He says, “Include me, depart your methods and customs behind, depart your gods, depart your loved ones — we’re simply going to go.” At that time, you’re coping with God’s want to type group, beginning with a household, and it builds from there. Odysseus, in contrast, needs to get again residence, however he’s a loner, a person of ache who should endure the world’s harsh actuality to search out achievement.

In “Odysseus and Polyphemus,” an 1896 portray by Arnold Böcklin, Odysseus and his crew escape the Cyclops Polyphemus. (Wikimedia Commons)

Let’s discuss in regards to the Cyclops, an episode that reveals rather a lot in regards to the character of Odysseus. A one-eyed big imprisons Odysseus’s males in a cave and rolls a stone towards the doorway to allow them to’t get out — even when they kill him, they’d nonetheless be trapped inside.

Odysseus comes away from the battle with Troy right into a postwar world, a political disaster, He’s now a grizzled veteran of a bloody, horrible 10-year battle. And the very first thing he does is sack town of the Cicones — an precise historic folks — killing all the lads and enslaving the ladies. He’s in a nasty temper. Very shortly after, they spot the Cyclops’s island — smoke rising — and resolve to go see. They understand a monster should dwell there: All the things is big, racks of cheese stacked means up excessive. Odysseus says, “Let’s wait and meet this man.” His males say, “No — let’s simply take the stuff and go.” He insists on sitting contained in the cave, ready. It’s insane — he needs to measure himself.

The Cyclops episode is admittedly the antithesis of what’s taking place with Abraham and the patriarchs, who’re constructing a household, a tribe, a nation, wanting ahead. Odysseus simply needs to check himself. When the Cyclops returns, Odysseus makes use of his cleverness, blinds him, they usually sneak out beneath the rams. Then he shouts his personal identify — which is what will get all his males killed, as a result of the Cyclops is Poseidon’s son, and Poseidon is livid. He identifies himself fully: “I’m Odysseus, I dwell in Ithaca, right here’s my handle.” That episode is clearly one by which Odysseus is giving delivery to himself — an act of absolute hubris.

So Odysseus has two competing needs. One is to make his identify — to realize glory and fame via his exploits. The opposite turns into: I’ve to get residence.

Is there a biblical character who’s a helpful compare-and-contrast for this notion of what it means to be a person, or a hero?

There’s Jacob, however let me begin with David. The David and Goliath scene is incredible, as a result of Goliath is a Philistine, and the Philistines got here from the Aegean — most likely Greek audio system, although some suppose Crete. So Goliath, in impact, is a Greek. He’s described as monumental, incredible — and he’s bested by David. David killing Goliath is a model of what students of fable name the “wily lad” story — one other model is Odysseus with the Cyclops, one other huge, unhealthy opponent. Apparently, David hits Goliath proper in the course of the brow, which is the place, on Greek vases, the Cyclops’ eye is depicted.

So Goliath is huge and unhealthy, after which there’s Saul, a doofus who says, “It’s a must to put on my armor.” David says, no, I’m not going to do this. David trusts within the Lord. When Odysseus defeats the Cyclops, he says, in impact, “I did this — I’m Odysseus.” David says, “No — I belief within the Lord; the Lord protects me.”

“David Giving Because of God After the Demise of Goliath,” an 18th-century portray
attributed to Charles Errard the Youthful. (Wikipedia)

And Jacob?

Odysseus is a wrestler, and Jacob could be very Odyssean — combating with Esau, leveraging Esau’s starvation to steal his birthright, scheming together with his mom Rebecca, who can be an Odyssean determine, telling him to decorate in skins to deceive Isaac. Then Esau needs to kill him, and we get the scene the place Jacob wrestles on the Jabbok [River], the night time earlier than he has to confront Esau. He’s anxious, he’s wounded, he fights this “ish” — this determine, angel, no matter it’s — and he’s weak. He’s feeling concern, feeling guilt. He’s holding on and combating as a result of provided that Esau blesses him — which occurs the subsequent day — can Jacob let go. In different phrases: “I’ve to make it proper with my brother.” Then he’s informed his identify shall be Israel — as a result of he strives with God.

So to sum this up: The Jewish hero is weak and trusts in God; the Greek hero can present no vulnerability and may solely belief in himself. And sure, there’s Athena and the opposite gods, however the Greek gods are fickle.

Are there comparable comparisons between a feminine heroine within the “Odyssey” and a biblical character — maybe Penelope and what she represents versus one of many matriarchs?

Penelope and Rebecca are two sturdy however very completely different ladies. Each are succesful, like Odysseus, of tolerating deep and lasting ache. Penelope appears extra passive, however she has a sort of Odyssean crafty and steely dedication. She holds the suitors at bay for 3 years by delaying marriage till she’s completed weaving the funeral shroud for Odysseus’s father Laertes. In addition to her trick of weaving by day and unraveling by night time, the shroud isn’t just for Laertes. It’s for the suitors, and it signifies the burial of a complete epoch — a previous slain by the violent passions of the youthful era, now not constrained by ancestral methods.

Whereas Penelope patiently awaits Odysseus’s return and prepares to bury a dying epoch, Rebecca seems ahead, towards the good nation that God had promised to make of Abraham’s offspring. Isaac, likely traumatized by his close to sacrifice, is the passive associate of their marriage; he stays put when Abraham sends his servant to discover a spouse for him, whereas Rebecca jumps on the probability to go away her residence. She is bodily vigorous (she endures a breach delivery of twins, and carries water for all of the servant’s camels) and powerful in will, and it’s she who’s endowed with Odyssean crafty. She perceives that it’s Jacob, not Esau, who has the toughness and ambition wanted to be the bearer of the covenant. It’s she who instructs Jacob the right way to disguise himself as Esau in order that Isaac’s blessing will go to him; who takes on herself no matter curse Isaac might placed on Jacob; and who instructs Jacob to flee to Beersheba, understanding that she’s going to most likely by no means see him once more.

“Penelope and the Suitors” by John William Waterhouse (1911-1912). (Aberdeen Metropolis Council Archives, Gallery and Museums Assortment/Wikimedia Commons)

These are actually helpful comparisons. However it raises a query, which perhaps a rabbi would reply otherwise than a scholar: Is there a temptation, studying the “Odyssey” and the Bible, to conclude that one worldview, not the standard of the literature however the worldview, is solely higher than the opposite? Does Homer have one thing to show Jews about the right way to be a hero, or a lover, or the right way to be intelligent?

I used to be simply educating Exodus, and we obtained to the scene the place Moses punishes the Israelites for the sin of the Golden Calf — a really Homeric episode, morally messy. Had been any of the Levites who did the killing themselves concerned in making the calf? Are they solely killing individuals who deserve it, or will harmless folks die too? My college students discover it excessive — 3,000 males killed. My response is: Learn Machiavelli, the place he says armed prophets succeed and unarmed prophets fail — and that 3,000 is about half a % of the roughly two million Israelites there. If Moses doesn’t get this beneath management, they’re all going to die. That’s Greek — that’s realpolitik. However it’s already there within the Jewish custom too, going again to Abraham.

So — is the Jewish custom superior? I feel so, and particularly for in the present day, due to our circumstances. The USA was at its peak after World Battle II, and now our establishments are collapsing. What do we’d like? Belief. We have to rebuild. So for those who ask which custom is best, right here’s one criterion: What’s the benefit of belief? It’s a sort of youthfulness, a sort of fertility, a sort of generativity — the capability of the Jews to rebuild what’s been damaged, to regrow, to reestablish themselves at each civilizational disaster, is unparalleled in historical past. The Greeks have a parallel of types — there’s a capability to discover a new means ahead there too. However it appears to me what we’d like in the present day is belief — as a result of individuals are withdrawing their power from the duty of mending the world, as a result of they don’t need to make investments their time, power and hope in one thing they consider may fail.

If we’re going to avoid wasting Western civilization, which I do suppose is in disaster, we have to renew ourselves by seeking to the Jewish custom particularly.

Many individuals in the present day, particularly on the political proper, argue that Western civilization is beneath siege, and the important thing to its revival is reclaiming its roots within the Historic Greeks and Christian traditions. I feel some Jewish thinkers and suppose tanks — together with Tikvah, the place a few of your work has appeared — have rather a lot invested in together with Judaism and Jewish concepts among the many cornerstones of Western civilization. Is {that a} pure match, or was Judaism extra of a counterculture that was always difficult classical and Christian concepts?

I used to be a senior fellow at Tikvah, they usually introduced me on to design Greek and Jewish programs. After I obtained to the College of Austin [the pro-free inquiry, “anti-woke” liberal arts college whose founders include the Jewish journalist Bari Weiss] I designed their mental foundations program — their liberal-education core — and set it up with Genesis, Exodus and so forth. I feel what Tikvah is attempting to do — and what UT Austin is doing too, within the Faculty of Civic Management, the place I’ll be educating Genesis and Exodus this fall — and what different universities try to do, is give the Jewish custom its rightful place.

From the founding fathers onward, there’s this notion that America is a selected land — that we’re, in some sense, a selected folks, engaged in an ethical, religious, political mission. Lincoln, I feel, brings this to a sort of perfection — he turns it right into a civil faith, chatting with a individuals who’ve learn the Bible, with out pushing any explicit sectarian model of it. We don’t know which aspect God is on, however the challenge isn’t going to work except we perceive ourselves to be on a sort of collective mission, understanding we’ll make errors and have to be forgiven.

You’ve written that the Hebrew Bible, like Homer, is without doubt one of the “taproots of the good branching oak of Western civilization.” Do you are concerned in regards to the Christian nationalists who insist Western civilization is intrinsically tied to the Christian religion, and denotes a particularly Christian civilization?

For positive, I feel it’s an enormous drawback. As with something involving the Jews, I’m horrified by the antisemitism I’ve seen constructing on the left, now mirrored on the appropriate. Younger folks particularly are being memed into antisemitism.

It does appear to me that the one means ahead is to maintain having these conversations — to say, right here’s what we’ve inherited, right here’s how these texts have formed who we’re as Individuals, how we perceive issues, even for those who’re a staunch atheist, the Bible has formed your enthusiastic about all of this. Solely then can we get to some extent the place extra folks than simply the Jews may say, “Your Christian nationalism, which imagines Christianity got here out of nowhere with no actual relationship to the Jews besides rejection, is essentially ill-informed and damaging.”

Director Christopher Nolan and producer Emma Thomas attend the London premiere of “The Odyssey” at Odeon Luxe Leicester Sq., July 6, 2026. (Jeff Spicer/Getty Photos for Common Footage)

To return to Nolan’s model of the “Odyssey”: What do you hope it will get proper — or, for those who’d quite reply the opposite means, what do you dread it would do to a narrative of such antiquity and energy?

Odysseus, as I’ve indicated, has some questionable qualities as a pacesetter, however he’s a way more sophisticated, versatile particular person, higher suited to a brand new actuality. I feel that’s a part of why Homer centered him. He’s a personality who can maintain two issues collectively without delay — perhaps greater than two: “I need to be an excellent particular person, however my obligation is to the group; I need to shield my household and make a reputation for myself, however I’m keen to do what’s essential.”

That’s true of the Hebraic heroes too — Abraham certainly didn’t suppose it was an amazing concept to say his spouse Sarah was his sister [when threatened by Pharaoh and King Abimelech] not as soon as however twice, however he needed to; in any other case they weren’t getting out of there. It’s a must to maintain the required and the nice collectively. That requires a sophisticated one who can juggle each.

And I feel it’s such a primal story, from the perspective of the human soul and human historical past. On the person degree, it’s the form of a life — leaving residence and coming again. And it’s the form of a group too. Biblically, we’re all exiles, all attempting to get again to Eden, for those who like. The story of human life is attempting to make, or recuperate, or return to a house — on each the person and the communal degree — and it’s a unending process. I feel Homer knew what he was doing: Learn the final web page of the “Odyssey”, and also you sense there’s quite a lot of work nonetheless to be carried out. As a result of it doesn’t finish. That is what life is about — after which going ahead too, having youngsters, caring with their residence, serving to them make one.

I hope the movie exhibits that.

The views and opinions expressed on this article are these of the creator and don’t essentially mirror the views of JTA or its dad or mum firm, 70 Faces Media.