Christopher Nolan has directed a new version of The Odyssey. The movie comes out in July 2026 but the trailers have dropped and people are mocking it for its ahistorical costumes and setting. It was apparently filmed in Scotland, which bears little resemblance to the Mediterranean, and the costumes are not one would call historically accurate.
To which I have to ask: does historical accuracy matter?
A movie about real people should have historically accurate costumes and sets, but the dialog would only be flavored by it. Hidden Figures was set in a real place and a real time about real people. It had to be designed to fit that. Frost/Nixon was constrained by it. Even movies like The Godfather constrained itself to a real time and a real place.
The Odyssey, however, is mythology. It is philosophy. Yes, there is historical evidence that there was a sack of Troy, so *The Iliad* is time- and place-bound, but it is also mythology. We don’t read The Odyssey to learn about geography or history. We read both of these works to explore humanity, emotions like rage, freedom, loss, bravado, hubris, honor, and bravery. We read these stories for their human element and an illustration of how humans viewed divine figures.
It has also proven to be a powerful connection for refugees. In 2015, Robin Bates related an anecdote from a professor teaching the work and it’s effects on the students fleeing Syria, Iraq, and Palestine.
Mythological storytelling allows for a wide variation in how it is presented. St. Francis of Assisi is credited with creating the first nativity scenes and they have never been historical. They have always depicted the birth story of Jesus in local clothing, with people who look like the locals. The story is important, but not historical fact. (That Jesus was born I accept as fact, but the star, shepherds, inns, and magi are mythological in my opinion.)
This is true most of all in Shakespeare. I’ve been going to the Oregon Shakespeare Festival for decades. Comedy of Errors in the wild west or a jazz club. Romeo and Juliet in the barrio. Julius Caesar in the US Senate and also in a Nazi camp. The mechanicals of A Midsummer Night’s Dream as hippies in a VW Bus and the fairies as tutu-wearing punk rockers played by men.
Shakespeare is also mythological storytelling. We watch the plays to learn about being human, not about the economic struggles of a Jew in Venice.
So I will refuse to wring my hands over the costumes that look more like Batman than Bronze Age. I may even decide to see the movie when it comes out. I saw it put on as a play several years ago and it was wonderfully done but I don’t recall it being historical in its costumes at all. Nolan has proven himself as a storyteller, and The Odyssey is one of the big stories that fueled western civilization for a long, long time.