Essay / ‘The Odyssey’ and what we lose when myth belongs only to its heroes

Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey (2026) is everything audiences expect from a modern mythological epic: grand battles, brutal violence and a hero caught between glory and guilt. Adapted from Homer’s ancient Greek poem, the film is an impressive feat of action-adventure cinema. But for all its spectacle, it loses something when the myth remains so firmly centred on its hero: the women whose stories are left underwritten.