Christopher Nolan's Odyssey

At war within me is always the pedantic Latin grammar teacher versus the creative writer and maker.

This battle came into sharp focus a couple of weeks ago when with my husband and some members of my adult Latin class I went to watch Christopher Nolan's massive film, The Odyssey.  Delightfully we went to see it at our local cinema, also entitled The Odyssey.

I appreciated that the book is of huge length and Nolan had to omit some episodes. I was fine with the American accents. After all, the original was written by Homer, not Chaucer, Shakespeare or Dickens.  

I liked that he tried to shoehorn some meaning about 'breaking Zeus's law' which he reinterpreted as 'do as you would be done by'.

BUT what tickled up the inner pedant in me was where Nolan filmed an episode and left out some bits. Like when Polyphemus the Cyclops asked Odysseus his name and Odysseus replied 'Nobody', so later, when the other Cycopes asked Polyphemus,' Who has hurt you?' he would reply 'Nobody' and they would all shrug and go about their business.

Or when Hermes appears and tells Odysseus about the holy moly herb he would need to defeat Circe.

In each case, they were missing and I wanted to yell, 'You're missing out a good bit.'

Does this mean my inner pedant is triumphing over the artist in me?

Later in the week, I had lunch with a friend and her baby. Apparently, when my friend reads to her tiny girl, she grows indignant when her mother misses a bit. In common with many small children, she always wants the whole well-known tale complete and unaltered.

I feel this vindicates me. It shows that after all, I'm in touch with my inner child, not my inner pedant.