The Odyssey's enduring power rests on the simple, universal core of a man's desperate yearning (nostos) to return home, layered with monsters, alien environments, and brushes with powers beyond mortal understanding.

3:51of ways a foundational work of western literature and possibly beyond that because there are theories that perhaps the Sinbad cycle, the story of Sinbad the sailor um in the Arabian Knights that perhaps that derived from the Odyssey because I guess the central core idea is a pretty obvious one when you think about it, which is about a man far from home trying to get back to his

4:14wife, to his son to his homeland. And in Greek, he has this kind of desperate yearning um for a nostto. They called it, you know, this this this return back home. And on this journey along the way, he meets with monsters and he meets with menacing alien environments. Um and he has brushes with powers beyond the limits of mortal understanding. And on top of that, there are strange

4:41distortions of time and space. you have multiple narratives and you have these kind of dizzyingly subjective experiences. So it is I mean you know people have suggested that everything that Adysius tells us in the Odyssey may actually not be true. I mean we don't know and that is kind of part of the fascination. It's it's it's in one level a very simple story a man trying to get

5:04back home and on the other it's it's kind of brilliantly sophisticated and meta. You made it sound like Inception or something. you know the um the Christopher Nolan film where Leonardo DiCaprio is trying to get back home uh to his kind of to his kids and um and actually that's not a coincidence because playing with time a central character who's trying to return to something meeting with monsters uh

5:27flashbacks flash forwards a sort of dizzying whirl of events and you're never quite sure exactly where you are those are very Christopher Nolan obsessions and Christopher Nolan by an extraordinary coincidence has made a film of the Odyssey that is coming out later this week, Tom, on the 17th of July. There's been a lot of conversation about the Odyssey recently. Um quite a few controversies already thrown up

5:51before people have even seen the film from the trailers and stuff, right? >> From the trailers. Um and so we will be having um a bonus with Daniel Mendelson to talk about that and that will be out uh later this week. So massive sense of anticipation, but it's not the only reason I think for doing the Odyssey on the rest is history because to be honest, it's a story that I've been