The Odyssey endures because it fuses fantastical elements—gods, monsters, savage violence—with an infinitely adaptable core plot that has been reworked across millennia of literature and film.
Asked what the Odyssey's appeal boils down to, Tom Holland points to its fusion of gods, monsters, and violence with a plot so adaptable it has been retold from Virgil and Dante through Tennyson to Christopher Nolan. ✦ AI generated
Tom Holland · The Rest Is History · 2026-07-13 · original ↗
starts at this moment · 127:06
“So the appeal of the Odyssey, Tom, what do you think it boils down to?”
I think it's exactly that fusion. I think it's the fact that um it it has gods. It features you know famous monsters. Speaking for myself, I I loved that as a child. That was the quality that I loved. But also to be honest, you know, I loved the violence of it and the the murderous quality of Adysius as well as the the cunning aspect of him.
verbatim transcript · starts at 127:06
127:06do you think it boils down to? because it's obviously the product of a very specific time and place and yet it's proved so enduring and so influential on western literary culture more generally. >> I I think it's exactly that fusion. I think it's the fact that um it it has gods. It features you know famous monsters. Speaking for myself, I I loved that as a child. That was the quality
127:27that I loved. But also to be honest, you know, I loved the violence of it and the the murderous quality of Adysius as well as the the cunning aspect of him. Yeah, >> people I think enjoy that in stories. >> There's a savagery to it that's often lost in children's versions. I think a cruelty, >> but also I think the basic plot of it is so adaptable. It can be retold in so
127:52many ways and it has been retold in in lots of ways. I mean there are elements of it in Virgil's poem the Inid that in turn influences Dante who describes um Adysius after he has returned to Ithaca he ends up bored and he sets sail for his last great voyage to the ends of the world and that is then reworked by Tennyson in the 19th century um in his
128:17great poem Ulyses um and I think it's a perfect way to end this because it describes a hero who will never come to rest, who will always be embarking on fresh adventures. And you can see that now with the Christopher Nolan film. There was the Ray Fines film as well, which describes his homecoming. And that is just one of a kind of endless number of reworkings that continue to to to be
128:42made in film, in fiction, in poetry. So, um let's end it with Tennyson's Ulyses Adysius saying how uh he is going to leave on one last final voyage. Though much is taken, much abides. And though we are not now that strength which in old days moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are one equal temper of heroic hearts, made weak by time and fate, but strong in will to strive, to