Plot Details: This opinion reveals minor details about the movie's plot.

***Hello friends, what we have here is a somewhat mis-placed review, but this is the best spot I could find to squeeze it in on epinions. This is an analysis of Homer's The Odyssey the infamous sequel to Homer's The Illiad and the story of Odysseus, King of Ithaka.

My problem is that there is not a listing for The Odyssey and instead of waiting for Epinions to place one I decided it would fit in well here since I mentioned this film in my paper, and this movie (as it states in the opening credits) is based on Homer's The Odyssey. As for O Brother Where Art Thou I thought it was absolutely incredible film, one of the Coen Brothers best...and it is easily in my top five for 2000. In this analysis you will begin to see how Homer established real characterization, and proof that films continue to borrow from him to this day...

This paper was done for my Great Books I class, I made one of three As in a class of 28...How? Well yes I can write pretty good, but I'm also good at analyzing my teachers. When she would lecture about The Odyssey to us she seemed obssessed with two things:

1) She always dragged on about the sexual temptations of Odysseus.

2) She always related parts of the epic to modern films.

So with this knowledge in hand I based my paper on two things SEX and MOVIES (A match made in heaven)...

I've read several epinions on O Brother saying that some of the adventures are quite random and make no sense...well this will explain many of those events because the most random elements in the film are lifted directly from The Odyssey...

Anyways this intro is entirely too long, the paper is 1800 words itself so if you got the time to read it, or skim it, Enjoy***

"It’s a fool who looks for logic in the chambers of the human heart.”

- Ulyssess Everett McGill (From the motion picture O’ Brother Where Art Thou,
Based on Homer’s The Odyssey, and written by Joel and Ethan Coen)

What Makes Us Human, Can Also Make Us Weak:
An Analysis of Lesson’s Learned by Odysseus,
And establishing The Odyssey as a Blueprint For Modern Storytellers

Regardless how much one may want something and regardless of how glorious the reward at the end of a dedicated journey may be, there will always be varying elements of distraction that may not only delay a journey, but also forever hinder the chances of completing it in its original glory. Homer’s The Odyssey is a story about dealing with these obstacles. The epic tells of Odysseus the King of Ithaka, who has been absent from his homeland for twenty years. Despite his will to return home, regardless of his desire to see his wife, Penelope, and his now grown son, Telemachus, Odysseus is still hampered by his most primal desires, and at the most illogical of times. Homer’s poem is a diagram of human nature.

The Odyssey is a difficult journey on its own merit, even without the existence of defined temptations that attack human vulnerability, and because of its precise examination of these encumbrances it still remains an exact calculation of how a story with a believable human character should be executed and developed.

As with most epic heroes, Odysseus begins with a long and difficult journey ahead of him, but just how much his adventure will test the very elements that make him human, he could have never guessed. He was brought into a Great War between Greece and Troy (The events of this are accounted in The Illiad), that lasted for ten years. When The Odyssey begins Odysseus is stranded on Kalypso’s island.

The gods gather and Zeus listening to Athena’s plea decides to send Hermes, his son, to demand Odysseus’ release from Kalypso. The quote, “The sweet days of his lifetime were running out in anguish over his exile, for long ago the nymph had ceased to please,” (272) is Homer’s first acknowledgment of the power of human desire. It suggests that the temptations of sex from Kalypso, earlier in time, pacified Odysseus, but as much as it originally blinded his epic goal of home, it was not able to completely erase his hope of a return. The existence of a home is a humanistic quirk that Homer essentially bases his poem on.

Other desires are indeed powerful, blurring Odysseus’ vision of what he considers home, but none strong enough to completely take Ithaka from his mind for good. Unable to deny Hermes request from Zeus himself, Kalypso begins preparations for Odysseus to leave, and thus Homer’s epic, The Odyssey, officially begins.

Odysseus’ two original human vulnerabilities will return; one will forever guide him, one will make him temporarily forget about home. Home will loom over every detail within Homer’s human analysis, as every temptation Odysseus and his crew may succumb to, is simply slowing their arrival to the final destination of home.

Lust is introduced early with Kalypso and solidified as a formidable threat within Odysseus later recollection to the Phaeacians of his previous journeys. Odysseus could have remained on Kalypso’s island with the nymph, not having to worry about ruling a kingdom, tailoring to a wife, or training a son to rule, yet without the proper feeling of being home, no one can truly be comfortable. The temptation of sex, and the pleasure of giving in to it, was the first obstacle in Odysseus’ path. It is quite obvious that Odysseus had learned that sex was not everything. He had no soul mate to share his life with, only an object to fulfill his desires with.

Odysseus realized that the more he accepted his life on Kalypso’s island, free of duties and full of pleasures, the more he would lose his dream of home. This is the first true obstacle he defeats in the order that the story is revealed to the reader, yet in a later recantation of his prior journey’s, it is learned that Kalypso was not his original battle with sexual desire. It was because of this earlier experience, that he was more prepared for the temptations of Kalypso that would attempt to take his home from him.

When Odysseus identifies himself to the Phaeacians he tells of another sexual temptation, this time involving a beautiful goddess named Kirke on the island of Aiaia. Kirke’s initial reception of Odysseus’ crew was a malicious one. She turned all of the crew to swine and blocked the vision of Ithaka from their mind. Odysseus saved his crew from Kirke, thanks to admirable advice from Hermes, and was granted sexual favors from the goddess (who happened to be well known for this ability).

Kirke soon brainwashed Odysseus, saying such things to him as; “Remain with me, and share my meat and wine; restore behind your ribs those gallant hearts that served you in the old days, when you sailed from stony Ithaka.” (329) Here Odysseus is not only tempted by the sexual benefits of remaining on the island of Aiaia, but also the luxury included with living such a goddess. The absolute bliss of sleeping in the bed of Kirke resulted in a loss of space and time within Odysseus’ mind, “As we were men we could not help consenting. So day by day we lingered, feasting long on roasts and wine, until a year grew fat.” (329)

Odysseus may save his crew many times throughout the pages of the poem, yet this time the hero would have never again spoken of Ithaka if it was not for his crew, “Captain, shake off this trance, and think of home – if home indeed awaits us, if we shall ever see your own well-timbered hall on Ithaka.” (330)

It is this experience that allowed Odysseus to keep a strong grasp on his goal of home when stuck on Kalypso’s island. Odysseus almost lost his ambition to return home, and undoubtedly when put into a similar situation with Kalypso he made sure to always remember where he came from, and what he had truly hoped to return to by the end of his tale.

Odysseus, having learned a lesson early on in his travels, quickly puts his acquired experience into action, and through this Homer allows the reader to relate to his main character as a human being, not just a Greek hero.
Sex is a very basic human instinct, and because of this Homer decided to make it Odysseus’ first temptation. However, sex does not run its course throughout the entire epic, making way for many equally dangerous temptations. Curiosity is as intuitive of as walking and talking.

At times it can be positive, leading mankind to great discoveries and technologies, yet when it is found in The Odyssey it tends to cause unnecessary troubles.

When Odysseus is given an ox-skin pouch from the wind god Aeolus containing all winds but the west, it is the curiosity of the crew that drives them to open the pouch thus releasing all winds and sending them right back to where they started.

Odysseus and his crew must sail past the Sirens who sing songs of temptation so loudly that no sailor near their island can stop themselves from following the voices and remaining trapped there forever. The crew stuffs their ears with beeswax so they cannot hear, Odysseus (due to his own curiosity) leaves his ears free but ties himself to the ship so that he will not be able to act on the irresistible summoning of the Sirens.

The temptation is so strong that because of Odysseus’ curiosity he nearly looses his mind. Homer acknowledges that curiosity is not something that should be ignored, but the lesson to be learned is when there is a greater goal, such as home, curiosity can take the back seat.

The true brilliance in Homer’s work is how it was able to make these “heroes” as fallible as every other human being is.

In establishing the epic and the realistic human character Homer developed a how to book of temptations and human vulnerability for modern storytellers. This is easiest to see within the filmmakers of this day and age. Some go as far as to directly credit The Odyssey as the basis for their film. Writers and directors Joel and Ethan Coen made one of the most critically acclaimed movies of 2000 in O’ Brother Where Art Thou and directly lifted specific scenes from the poem into their film.

Three escaped convicts attempt to travel home to recover a buried treasure. Throughout the entire movie their vulnerabilities are exposed by different temptations. Some are taken directly from Homer’s work, such as the Sirens, the Cyclops, and the suitors, while others are new yet equal in many ways to the effectiveness of Homer’s original ideas. This shows you that vulnerability is as necessary of a character development today as it was in ancient Greece.

Paul Verhoeven’s 1992 thriller Basic Instinct learns a lot from Homer’s take on sexual desire, but instead of just opening with sex, it bases the entire plot around it.

Curiosity is exemplified quite well in Steven Spielberg’s Jurassic Park where inquisitive scientists clone dinosaurs just because they can, but fail to question if they should.

Within practically every movie and modern novel some aspect can be dated back to Homer’s work.

Surprisingly enough the fact that vulnerabilities and flaws make a human character believable has not changed at all from Homers time to our time of film and mass media.
Homer has mapped out elements of human nature that every reader of his poem can admit to dealing with at one point or another.

The Odyssey is a metaphor for life in some ways, as there will always be defined temptations that attack our own human vulnerability, but as we gain experience and learn from these issues, our greater goal will always become clearer, and as it was in Homer’s time this is the same in today’s society. You can always judge a literature piece by how long it remains effective. Homer’s The Odyssey does not only pass this test, it sets the standard for his era and our own.




PLEASE NOTE: If you decide to rate this Review Somewhat Helpful or below because it is not a complete review of O Brother that is your choice and I will not complain about it, but the truth is there are many excellent reviews on O Brother already posted on epinions (enough to know if it would be the type of film you would want to see or not) and there are none on one of the most famous pieces of literature in history (because of Course The Odyssey does not exist in epinions database at this moment). So bare that in mind before you rate this, and also acknowledge that I warn this is not a full review of O Brother in the first line of my post...







Recommended: Yes