THE ODYSSEY: WTF is it?

Divas its Odyssey day! I am so thrilled to bring this episode to you all as Christopher Nolan's film hits cinemas. We're covering as much as possible in summary form (there are 12,100 lines of this poem after all), from a tidbit on Homer to the end of the Trojan War and the King's return to Ithaca! As promised, the Hot History Substack https://substack.com/@hothistoryclub is also now live! If you'd like to support us there, you'd be very welcome! Shout out to our incredible researcher Grace McCamish for helping to pull this together, and if you're wanting more Hot History you can follow along on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ https://www.instagram.com/hothistoryclub/?hl=en, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠TikTok⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ https://www.tiktok.com/@hot.history?lang=en and ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ https://www.youtube.com/@hot.history and of course, right here! Til next week, Ainslie x

• 0:01Speaker 00

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• 1:00Speaker 02

  So what do we know about the Odyssey? Basically, Indiana Jones ran because this bitch walked. There's danger, there's quest, there's love, there's bravery, there's challenges and courage and sex and death. Oggigiga, ogggiga, ogggaya. So Odysseus, after 19 years, finally back on the sea towards Ithica, but is almost instantly put through the wringer by Poseidon, who created an extremely tumultuous storm, which saw Odysseus capsize his boat and sink beneath the water. Only saved when yet another woman comes to rescue him. It's got it all here, bar smutty sex scenes set to G-Flips' Bad on Fire, but you know, I guess we can't have it all.

• 1:56Speaker 02

  Hi guys, welcome back to Hot History, your corner of the internet where we cover all the things in history that you probably should know but don't. I'm Ainslie Harvey, your hot historian here, ready to chat about possibly the hottest topic in the world right now, guys, The Odyssey, okay? It is in theaters today and I am so excited to chat about it with all of you. This will be like a spoiler free episode for the film, well, I mean spoiler free as a film about a book written like thousands of years ago can be, obviously. But the point of today's episode is really to arm you guys with the information you need to understand what the different characters are, who plays them, the various kind of

• 2:40Speaker 02

  plot lines and dynamics and the key messages from each of the events throughout the epic poem. But if I'm feeling inspired, I might drop my thoughts and responses to seeing the film for you guys next week. But truthfully, as of this recording, I have not seen the film, but by the time it does come out, I will have. So, um, yeah, I'm just super keen. All of these last kind of two weeks have really led up to, to this big episode. Which does remind me, I had to tell you guys this bit of admin and news. I have officially launched my Substack. It is the new home for Hot History and I wanted to invite you all over to there. I will definitely put the link in the show notes, otherwise just go and search up Hot History.

• 3:22Speaker 02

  Um, but the format will be a free newsletter for you all every single Monday, covering what happened this week in history. So, you know, if you've got a strategy call or, you know, a meeting or a Pilates class that week, for example, you can do both of those things armed with the knowledge that Marilyn Monroe got her big break on that same day, or, you know, Napoleon stole some mummies or whatever it is. Um, but then there will also be additional subscriber only posts, there'll be much bigger think pieces for you guys, the first of which is currently live and I have made free, which looks at why we should give Helen of Troy a fucking break. And the first paywall piece as well, looking at why the internet is so mad at Lupita Nyong'o's

• 4:07Speaker 02

  casting as Helen of Troy. So if you would like to support us there, then you can definitely go and do that. You can get access to those paid articles as well. It's nine ninety nine AUD per month. And you know, you can also join for a yearly discount. So I would also just want to take this kind of moment. Lots of crazy things have been happening and I just wanted to say thank you so much for all of your support, listening along to the show. You know, whether you comment or you follow on social or subscribe on YouTube, whatever it is, I am just truly, truly grateful to each and every single one of you. And, you know, really appreciate every single way that you help hot history grow because this is really truly becoming like a full time job now, which is crazy.

• 4:45Speaker 02

  So little kind of admin done, we are going to get straight into it by rewinding all the way back to the eighth century BCE. So of the time of Homer, not the end of the Trojan War where we left off last week. So even though we did speak briefly about Homer last week, I really want to go into a bit more detail here and give you an idea of who this person is. But the truth here is how, to be honest, we don't really know, guys. Despite his huge significance to Western civilization, there's very little factual information about the man himself, including basic information like his actual gender and identity.

• 5:27Speaker 02

  In fact, Samuel Butler, a late nineteenth century novelist, believed Homer could actually be a young Sicilian girl, while others believe Homer might actually have been a group of poets who combined their works under the one alias. So basically the equivalent of, you know, someone kind of discovering a Coldplay album and believing that Coldplay was a man rather than a band. Taking it a step further, academic Julie Williams even posits that the name Homer might just be a generic term, meaning someone who puts a song together, i.e. a poet. So lots of mystery and intrigue and kind of mystique here around who this kind of person or people is.

• 6:07Speaker 02

  But based on the best guesses that we do have, we believe Homer, whoever him, he, she, maybe, lived in the eighth century BCE in either the Aegean island of Chios, or the ancient Greek town of Smyrna, where he wrote two epic poems, the first, the Iliad, again, we spoke about that last week, and the second, the Odyssey, both of which are written in Ionic and Aeolic Greek, which confirms the East Greek origin hypothesis for this personal peoples. So we're gonna go ahead with that as the base camp of Homeric writings. So what else do we know? Well, as we said last week, the Trojan War and the later events of the Odyssey, which we'll get to in a minute,

• 6:49Speaker 02

  occur around 1250 BCE, which means Homer is writing about them around 400 years later. And in doing so, includes many elements of his own time. Even, you know, just for example here, the Achilles' Shield section, if you remember from last week, we spoke about quite in depth, um, which depicts things like law courts and agriculture. They didn't really exist until the 8th century, you know, kind of model. So it's, it's much more befitting to Homer's own time than a 12th century monarchy. We also know, or to be honest, we don't really know, but many theories have been posited that Homer was actually visually impaired, with the word homeros meaning blind, and the fact there is a very talented blind poet named Demodocus in the Odyssey,

• 7:31Speaker 02

  which is thought to be a self-reflection, and he's actually being played by Travis Scott in Nolan's film. Um, this is also basically like Jane Austen, naming her fairest and most beautiful character in Pride and Prejudice, Jane, after herself, which like queen. You know, this is like, this is what Homer did, kingship. Now, again, all of this is of course largely based on myth and really impossible to authenticate, given Homer's poems evolved orally before the development of writing and the alphabet in Greece around the 8th century BCE, which means, according to academic Julie Williams, these works and the elusive Homer who created them are credited as the beginning of Western literature.

• 8:14Speaker 02

  So, these aren't just stories that we're talking about here, guys. These works are the origins of all stories. And if Homer was a singular individual, as many think he was these days, that makes him a bigger bestseller than Sarah J. Maas and Rebecca Yaros combined. And we know how much the divas love the fairy dragon's smart, okay, so a big deal. Now that's pretty much like I said, everything we do know about Homer, which again, basically, nothing. So what do we know about the Odyssey then, right? The text itself. Well, first thing to note is that the Odyssey follows the journey of Odysseus from the end of the Trojan War in his pursuit to return to his home island of Ithaca.

• 8:55Speaker 02

  A trip which should have taken a few weeks, but instead took yet another decade. So Odysseus at this point, you know, he's done 10 years in Troy in the war like we spoke about last week, and another 10 just trying to get back home during which time he's like hunted down by Poseidon, he's captured by a nymph, his, you know, friends are kind of eaten by, by, um, you know, these big, strong monster things. There's cyclopses, like there's sirens. It's crazy, right? And if you ever think for a moment that you're like annoyed by delays in flights or whatever, you can just think about Odysseus here. And it really makes the Odyssey

• 9:36Speaker 02

  as a text, the first kind of like action, adventure, epic in a way. So basically, Indiana Jones ran because this bitch walked. So where we have the Iliad, which looks at the rage of Achilles in the Trojan War, again, we spoke about last week, the Odyssey looks at the idea of a quest, if you will, right? Which is something that has entertained people for thousands and thousands of years. In fact, a lot of our vernacular is actually credited to the Odyssey with history writer George Wakeman noting that the phrase "between a rock and a hard place" actually originates from this text, which many other historians also credit for introducing techniques and styles of narration with all the tropes we love today, guys. You're really going to enjoy this

• 10:18Speaker 02

  episode, honestly. There's danger, like I said, there's quests, there's love, there's bravery, there's challenges and courage and sex and death and like, it has flashbacks, it has parallel plots, it has drama. Honestly, it's got it all here, bar smutty sex scenes set to G-Flips bed on fire, but you know, I guess we can't have it all. As for its origins, well, it too is dated to the 8th century BCE, like the Iliad, which we already spoke about, with 13 original verses of the 24-book-long epic found chiseled into a clay tablet. So some proper, like ancient sources to go off here, but no original papyrus from Homer's hand if, you know, he or she was one person. As for the language, well, it was originally written in Homeric Greek,

• 11:02Speaker 02

  something that hasn't been spoken for more than 2,000 years. But lucky for us, it's since been translated into hundreds of languages across the world over the centuries, including English. So that's the version we're going to talk about today. So let's dive into the story, guys, and link back up with the famed king of Ithaca, this time around 1250 BCE, right? So at the end of the Trojan War, which, you know, Hector, Achilles, Priam, Paris, Ajax the Great, all those big guys we spoke about last week, dead. Yeah, plus many more, of course. Meanwhile, Odysseus and the remaining Achaean forces have successfully breached the city in the Trojan Horse. They've also killed lots of people. They've found Helen, they've spared her life.

• 11:46Speaker 02

  And now they're kind of scratching their heads. I mean, let us not forget here, divas, they've been warring about for 10 years dreaming of home and now finally, this war is done, right? It's over, it's finished. So they're kind of stunned and I think in many ways shocked, of course, at the sheer level of loss and destruction done both by them and to them. And Odysseus and his men, you know, they're kind of like, all right, well, let's just pack up and go. So they set sail on 12 ships where they encounter the city of Ismarus, who just so happened to be allies of Troy on the way home. So with the reality of the time and comrades they've lost setting in, the men decide to

• 12:31Speaker 02

  do something absolutely stupid and stop off at this city in modern northeast Greece to basically plunder and kill for sport. Yeah, apparently 10 years of that isn't enough. You've got to, you know, do one last raid before the road. But Odysseus, sensing something terrible was on the horizon, commanded his men to retreat, but they refused to listen. So they've literally just stopped off at this island and been like, fuck these guys, let's go kill them. Drawn in by the gold, the wine and the women, the crews stay for a big, rambunctious feast on the beach. Drinking the city's wine and eating their cattle. All the while, their inhabitants launched a counter-attack with Homer saying they quote "came in the morning as thick as leaves or flowers",

• 13:14Speaker 02

  hitting the Greeks hard, leading Odysseus and his crew to flee, abandoning all their plundered goods as well as at least six men from each of the ships. So this is the first trial, right? And commonly talked about as a lesson in hubris and the retribution that comes from unnecessary fighting. After all, like I said, guys, these motherfuckers have had 10 years of war. They just, you know, really did, did this for the love of the game. Something that Zeus, yep, of course, of course, that guy pops his head back up again, like, ugh. I'm so sick and tired of Zeus. I'm not talking about Zeus for episodes after this. But he doesn't really appreciate this. He's like, you guys have already been fighting, can you just not? So he sends a storm after the Greeks, which disorientate their ships,

• 13:59Speaker 02

  driving them fully off course and forcing them to row to land for shelter. Scenes which I believe we see here in the trailer, which FYR, guys, if you're listening on Spotify, you can actually play the video for this. Um, so please, you know, go and do that. There will be lots of visuals throughout this, including kind of what we can expect to see from Nolan. So that's the wrath of Zeus here for the raid on Ismarus, which left Odysseus and his crew forced to dock and regroup on a mysterious, unknown island. Speaking of which, we should actually probably cover at this point in time. Yeah, okay, put up into the story, we're gonna cover the key kind of people on this crew as part of the wider story. So we already know, we have Odysseus, played by Matt Damon.

• 14:41Speaker 02

  We have his wife Penelope, played by Anne Hathaway, who is raiding as queen back in Ithaca, where her son, Telemachus, played by Tom Holland, is currently facing off with a series of different suitors who are trying to marry Penelope as they believe Odysseus is dead, right? Which, to be fair, he has been gone for like 10 or 11 years at this point. So they're thinking, if I can marry Penelope, I can become king. The most vile of whom is a weasel named Antinous, played by Mr. Robert Pattinson. Yeah.

• 15:12Speaker 02

  Now he is always conspiring in Odysseus's court, including sleeping with one of Penelope's servants, Melantho, played by Mia Goth, all of which is sniffed out by Odysseus's childhood friend, Yamaeus, played by John Leguizamo? Leguizamo? I don't know how you say it. You know the guy I'm talking about. So that's the Ithaca contingent, one timeline. But what about Odysseus? Well, for the travelling bunch, we have Hamesh Patel as Euryolochus, Odysseus's brother-in-law and second-in-command. Polite, Odysseus's most optimistic and loyal friend, who we're not sure of his casting, but he's kind of the peacemaker on this voyage. Elpenor, the youngest man in the crew, who again, not sure of casting, and Peremides and Euryolochus, again, not sure on casting, but they are mentioned in Homer's texts.

• 15:58Speaker 02

  So I'm sure Nolan will include them. Then, of course, we have the other timeline, right? Which is who we're going to see at the beginning, the Achaean counterpart. So we have John Burnthall as Menelaus, Lopeta Noyango as his wife Helen of Troy, and also as her sister, Clytemnestra, who is the wife of Agmemnon, played by Benny Safdie, seen here in the Batno helmet. We also have Elliot Page as Sinon, the Greek soldier who tricks the Trojans into accepting the horse, and TBD guys on Achilles, Paris, Priam, all those guys. I'm not sure, kind of, you know, who they're going to be or if they're going to be included. But for now, let's get back to Odysseus and his crew on this kind of spooky new island.

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• 17:14Speaker 01

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• 17:43Speaker 02

  So, now ashore, Odysseus asks his men to go and suss out who lived here, which is when we meet the Lotus Eaters. Now, if you're a Percy Jackson fan, you'll instantly recognise these guys from this iconic scene here.

• 17:59Speaker 03

  That sounds like an amazing idea.

• 18:04Speaker 03

  But we're on a time-sensitive mission right now.

• 18:10Speaker 03

  Aren't we? I can't remember. I totally forgot what I was gonna say.

• 18:16Speaker 02

  But for those of you not familiar with the sacred Logan Lerman texts, then basically, the gang, they get trapped in the Lotus Hotel in Vegas where this lotus gas kind of erases their memories and sense of time, like they're eating it through these like little treat things. Which in Odysseus's case meant that he and his men forgot about returning home when consuming the lotus flowers, resulting in those who ate the fruit having to be dragged back to their ships and chained to rowing benches. So, basically like the crack cocaine of ancient Greece, okay? Which Homer uses to make comment on human weakness and the dangers of indulgence. So lots of lessons throughout the Odyssey which we're gonna dig into.

• 18:56Speaker 02

  But finally, you know, the spell has kind of worn off and the men are all rowing again, but they're still lost, right? Zeus is still mad at them, they can't navigate. Which brings them to yet another uninhabited stretch of land where the hungry and tiresome crew decide to take refuge from the elements and a break from the sea. Because actually during the scene, some of them are super seasick. And they find a nearby cave where they come across all kinds of, like, it's basically a banquet, yeah? There's fresh food, there's bottles of wine, there's homemade cheeses, all the other kind of essentials for a good, um, you know, kind of picnic board, which these guys are absolutely hanging for. And as such, go to kind of fill their boots with

• 19:39Speaker 02

  all of this, but Odysseus stops them, right? Suggesting that the owner of the cave, clearly a civilized being, it's best to kind of ask him, you know, perhaps he'll even give us a home-cooked meal and some warm beds. You know, this kind of idea of xenia hospitality, which we were talking about last week, you know? After all, it's, it'll be better to ask permission rather than just raid someone's stock cupboard. But this particular tenant had no desire to uphold any kind of xenia, for this cave belonged to Polyphemus, the son of one Poseidon, who had one eye. That's right, divas, we're talking about cyclopses. Nothing makes me so excited than cyclopses. You see them here in the trailer.

• 20:23Speaker 02

  Now, not much is known about the cyclopses in the Odyssey, but we do know they are considered to be a race of single-eyed giants who, again, are known for their lack of xenia and generally tend to kind of cattle and, um, you know, different kind of species of animals as their job, if you will. There is, for obvious reasons here, guys, no evidence of said creatures being real, but historians do believe that the tales of the cyclopses first began as mythology around the Mediterranean after travellers pre-Homer found the skulls of elephants with the hole for where the trunk would be, kind of being seen as, you know, this one eye. So you find this big skull with this kind of hole in the middle of it and go, yep, of course, that's what it is. But alas, I digress. Back to the story.

• 21:08Speaker 02

  So Polyphemus, right? Which, to be fair here, I think he is kind of justified, is pissed off that these kind of random Greeks are in his cave, and instead of inviting them to dinner, he grabs two of them in his fists and just eats them. Yeah, straight down the hatch, no hesitation, no seasoning, nummy, nummy, nummy. Now, were this a normal Cyclops and a normal day? Odysseus probably would have just killed him, right? But he isn't. And there was an even bigger problem here, guys. Because Polyphemus, kind of sensing that there was intruders in his cave, has blocked the exit with a giant rock. So Odysseus and the crew have to play nice here, sacrificing two more of his men for breakfast

• 21:52Speaker 02

  before offering the Cyclops some special wine, which they'd taken from Ismarus. But this was no ordinary bottle of bitch diesel, guys. This was pure alcohol extract, which was meant to be diluted over time. But Polyphemus is like, fuck yeah, I'd love a, I'd love a tipple. And he chugs it all and instantly falls asleep, while Odysseus and his men sharpen an olive wood stake and heat its tip, you know, kind of in the fire, and then stab Polyphemus right in the eye, blinding him. In pain, but needing to let his sheep out to pasture the next morning, Polyphemus opened the cave and placed his hand along the backs of the sheep, so he's kind of feeling down, to ensure no men were riding them

• 22:33Speaker 02

  while the kind of sheep go out, which, you know, of course they weren't, let's be real. Odysseus is a smart guy. So instead, he has his men cling to the sheep from below, so like the underside, which means that Polyphemus can't feel them. And, you know, they're able to kind of get back to the ship and haul off the shore, working fast to kind of pull out into the Aegean. But not before Odysseus, with all his pride and anger, yells back at Polyphemus, saying, "Cyclops, if any mortal asks who put out your eye, tell him it was Odysseus, sacker of cities, who lives in Ithaca." Right? So he's like, fuck you, like, you should know, which just makes Polyphemus even more angry. He starts hurling all his boulders into the sea, but he doesn't hit any of the ships.

• 23:19Speaker 02

  So he's blinded, he's robbed of a meal, and he's now insulted, and calls out to his dad, right? Poseidon, god of the sea, saying, "Grant that Odysseus never reaches home, but if it is his fate to return, let him come late in misery, having lost all his companions in a stranger's ship." Which is basically exactly what happens. So who really won the Odyssey? Polyphemus, right? Which Homer uses to teach us the valuable lesson of hospitality, hubris and humility. Basically just making comment on the fact that if you do someone dirty, you shouldn't then dox yourself. So now, guys, Odysseus and his men have a fucking curse on them by the sea god,

• 24:00Speaker 02

  which is when they land on yet another island, this time the home of Aeolus, a mortal man trusted by the gods to keep the winds. This is one of my favourite kind of stories. Described by Homer as surrounded by a wall of unbreakable bronze, Aeolus's island is the perfect place for a pit stop. And he's actually a really nice guy, okay? He welcomes the crew inside and he's, you know, listening to their tales and tribulations of their journey so far, before then sending them off with a bit of an interesting present. A bag of wind, like the actual force of wind, not just, you know, a nice breeze here, but a bag of harmful stormy gusts, which he hoped would give the crew a pleasant and favourable journey by basically removing it from the atmosphere.

• 24:43Speaker 02

  So a nice thing to do by this guy, although pretty ominous. But Aeolus is genuinely a good guy, like we said, and he even sends a gentle west wind behind the ship as they take off to get them kind of back to Ithaca, which works rather well. And soon, the crew and Odysseus as its captain are catching glimpses of their home. Yeah, guys, they're nearly back, right? To which you must be thinking, hang on, I thought this was meant to be a three hour long movie, but they're home? Well, no, they're not. They simply see the coast of Ithaca, which is when the crew's curiosity gets the better of them and they decide to open the bag, which Odysseus doesn't tell them is full of evil winds. You know, they think it's full of gold, which Odysseus is gonna keep himself.

• 25:28Speaker 02

  As such, an almighty gust of this evil wind erupted, flinging them totally off course all the way back to the island which they'd already come from, right? So they're nearly home and then they're all the way back to the beginning, which Odysseus understandably is fuming over. So he kind of has to get off this ship, go back to Aelius, be like, look, my men are stupid, they opened up this bag of wind, can you just send us on our way back? And this guy's like, absolutely fucking not. You know, it was a one time deal, like you're gonna have to go by the standard winds now, which means you can kiss the next year goodbye.

• 26:07Speaker 02

  Yeah, so they could have, like, they were literally seeing Ithaca, they could have been home. And now they've added an entire three hundred and sixty five days to this journey. I would have committed violent crimes, guys, literally, heads would have rolled. If you've already gone for ten years, and if you're thinking, yes, I would have done the same, like, this is it. Let me tell you, this little windsnafu is nothing in comparison to the Lestragonians. So at this point, morale is low. And the crew are yet again sailing along where they find another island, which Odysseus decides to suss out by sending three guys onwards as scouts, right? So he's learnt, you can't just go to these islands and kind of expect your men to do the right thing.

• 26:53Speaker 02

  You've got to kind of, you know, send people ahead. And these three scouts come across what can only be described as a mountain of a woman, who belongs to a race of cannibal giants called the Lestragonians. Struck by the sheer size of this woman, the scouts just kind of freeze. After which, one of them, you guessed it, again, picked up and gobbled up. There's lots of like, just people being eaten whole. Leading the other two men to flee back to the shore and warn the crew, however, their flight basically becomes like a feeding frenzy, which triggers all the Lestragonians to storm the harbour and throw these huge boulders at the Greeks' ships, sinking eleven of the twelve vessels.

• 27:36Speaker 02

  And then eating several of the crew while Odysseus and, like, the last remaining kind of men narrowly escape with their lives in their last ship. So from twelve ships down to one, and, you know, all these men as well. So like, a really big, big loss here, which is obviously also traumatising because these guys have just seen their friends kind of be eaten whole. So morale was already low, now it's like in the underworld, yeah? So this is some really, really bad luck, right? But like, you're thinking, okay, they've done the bad wind, they've, you know, got these, everyone's been eaten, there's the Cyclops, like, this has to be it.

• 28:19Speaker 02

  But you would be wrong, my divas, for it is time that we meet Cersei. Played in the film by Samantha Morton, Cersei is our first deity we meet on the journey, an immortal goddess slash sorceress. She has the uncanny trick of turning people into animals, which Odysseus is about to see firsthand. So, like we said, they're back on the sea, you know, they're down to one ship. They come across, you guessed it, another island, this time called Ayaya. But unlike the prior stops, there is no giants, or cyclopses, or less dragonians, or anything else as a matter of fact. It was silent, way, way too silent, which, given the prior terrorists, you know,

• 29:02Speaker 02

  sends this kind of unnerving shiver down the spines of the sailors who refuse to go forth without scouts first assessing who was home. Which is when they discover a beautiful palace, surrounded by wild animals, and being drawn in by the sound of gentle singing, the men meet Cersei, the beautiful and powerful nymph who invited them inside, gave them food and drinks, and told them to rest. But kindness, as you've probably guessed, is not her intention. No, you see, while Cersei's section in the actual Odyssey only takes up about forty lines, her character has become an obsession throughout time for her cunning and sleight of hand, thanks to her lacing of the scouts' food with potions, which ultimately transformed

• 29:47Speaker 02

  all the men bar one into pigs. This sole escapee, Euryolochus, ran back to Odysseus, who went to confront Cersei, but was stopped by Hermes, the messenger god, who advised him to instead offer the nymph sex in exchange for his piggy men's freedom. So Odysseus is like, if I have to, you know, I will. So he goes up, he's like, listen, if you turn my men back into humans, I'll fuck you, right? She agrees, after which the two do the deed, um, the result of which, according to Homer, was three children. His men, like we said, they are restored. And despite this kind of like terrible first impression, this crew actually ends up staying

• 30:28Speaker 02

  with Cersei on the island for a whole year, where they lived in her palace, drank fancy wine, were waited on by beautiful handmaidens, and pretty much just had a vacation. But soon, Odysseus's mind wandered to Ithaca and to his wife, Penelope, which kicks him into gear. And after 12 months of pleasure, the crew set off back with advice and instructions on their next steps from Cersei, who seems to have become rather fond of her male friends. So like, bad impression of Cersei, but she's actually a fucking G. I love her so much throughout this, um, kind of epic. And Samantha Morton, who's playing her, is meant to be like, absolutely incredible. So I'm into this. So now you're probably thinking, okay,

• 31:14Speaker 02

  right, this is it, the home stretch. But again, no. This time, on Cersei's instruction, the crew set off not for Ithaca, or for any other kind of cursed islands that they've already stumbled across, but rather for the dark, damp, liminal space where the dead wander free and Hades rules them all. That's right, divas, we're going to the underworld. So with Cersei's instruction, the crew set sail to the edge of the world in order to consult the Thebian prophet, the racist, about their journey home, which is exceptionally rare here, because as we already explained in the Greek Gods episode two weeks ago, the living are rarely permitted in the underworld, which adds this kind of like, you know, extra layer of spookiness. Now, the first spirit that

• 31:59Speaker 02

  appears to Odysseus is Elpena, one of the men who died on the fleet, followed by Odysseus's mum, and Tikla, who spoiler alert here, he didn't know had died while he was away. And she's kind of like, hey, I'm here, I'm dead. You know, R I P. Meeting both of them, Odysseus is very moved, but he has to kind of, you know, convince himself to push on because he's not really here for either of them, but rather this kind of prophet, um, who eventually appears and tells him all about Poseidon's curse. He's like, hey, FYI, you're fucked, right? And the importance of properly managing his men. Basically, he does the whole, like, with great power comes great responsibility speech. Um, you know, you do this and you'll kind of be all right. Here's the things that are

• 32:43Speaker 02

  going to happen and here's how you can overcome them. But while in the underworld, because you know, he's made a trip and all, Odysseus also ends up speaking to Achilles, who fucking hates the underworld guys. And he basically has just like a big old bitch about how it sucks to basically be dead and in this void. So Odysseus is like, yeah, fuck that. And he, you know, yeets out of there, um, and sets off once more for Ithaca with this kind of advice from this prophet on how to proceed. But before long, he starts to hear something strange, right? Something alluring, something magical, which is when we meet the sirens who take up most of book 12 of the Odyssey. Now, when

• 33:26Speaker 02

  I say siren, you're probably imagining like a seductive mermaid-like baddie who lives under the sea and sings to sailors who get sucked underwater by the magic and beauty, or, you know, Cleo, Emma and Ricky from H2O. But in the Odyssey, the sirens are neither of those things. Instead, described as bird women creatures who mainly live above water and taunt sailors with their beautiful voices, which is exactly what happens to Odysseus and his men when they come across some of these enchanted bird ladies who FYI are not just like mysterious and like a bit taunting, they're properly dangerous here, guys. They

• 34:06Speaker 02

  torture their victims before drowning and then eating them. So this is like super precarious for this small crew who are only saved by the advice of Cersei, who warned Odysseus that he should fill his crew's ears with wax, which he does, and you know, they're all good. But Odysseus does something really like weird here and to me it's kind of out of character. He doesn't want wax in his ears. No. Instead, what he wants is to look and listen to the magical creatures. He's like, oh, you know, what is this? And as such, told the crew to tie him to the ship's mast so that he could listen while staying firmly in place, which for the first time in this whole fucking journey, actually worked. And the crew and the ship kind of get out of the sirens unscathed.

• 34:52Speaker 02

  But guess what? Things soon go back to shit. Yeah, I mean, you didn't actually think like a quick trip to the underworld and, you know, Ewax would end this story, did you? Hell, no. Instead, the men come face to face with not one, but two terrifying sea monsters. Yay. This is literally, guys, like the cruise from fucking hell, right? I'd never go on a cruise at the best of times, but this is fucked. For now, the men are in the Strait of Messina, which separates mainland Italy and Sicily. And they come face to face with Skylar, a female creature with six heads, snake-like necks, and 12 feet. And Sharadus, a mysterious being who lived under a fig tree opposite Skylar's cave,

• 35:36Speaker 02

  though some say she was actually a personification of a whirlpool, who would drink water three times a day and then belch it back out, creating this kind of massive vortex in the water. Regardless, you have this sea snake, or you've got a big whirlpool. Which is when Odysseus and his men find themselves stuck between the original rock and hard place, right? Trying to avoid Skylar and this other kind of whirlpool force. So what the hell do you do? Well, our queen Cersei showed up once again. My god, she's like really coming through. Again, I told you, she's like saving these men's arses all the time. And urges them to sail closer to Skylar, the scary six-headed creature, who was basically deemed the lesser evil because she'd only kill some of the crew, not swallow the whole

• 36:20Speaker 02

  ship in a whirlpool, you know, like the other kind of person would. So RIP to six of Odysseus's already tiny crew, who were gobbled up by Skylar via each of her heads. But the rest, they make it through, right? So they're passing through the Strait of Messina, where they land on Thrynnica, the sacred island of the god Helios, keeper of the sun and guardian of the immortal, who lived here with his two daughters that guarded 350 magical cattle, who symbolized the cycles of the sun and the moon. Now, key to note here, guys, the crew were already like nervous as fuck to dock here, right? Because the prophet in the underworld had already said to Odysseus, hey,

• 37:07Speaker 02

  tell your crew that if the cattle on this island are harmed, the wrath of the gods will be released on all of them. Okay? No.

• 37:17Speaker 00

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• 38:15Speaker 02

  Fucking around here. So, they're all warned of this, but ultimately they're starving. And while Odysseus is asleep, they decide that survival is more important than a bit of divine punishment, so they go and kill. Cook the meat on a fire. And guess what happens? The sea suddenly stills. The Helios, owner of the cows, saw and heard all of this, and despite the crew leaving the next day, he calls up Zeus. Ring, ring, hi, these men are fucked. And he strikes the ship with a thunderbolt and creates this terrible storm. And guess what? Boom. Yeah? The ship fucking explodes. All the crew, every single one of them, except for Odysseus, are consumed by the sea,

• 39:00Speaker 02

  dead. Alone now, stranded with nothing, Odysseus grabs onto a bit of the ship's debris and after nine cold days and nights at sea, he washes up on the island of Agiga, where he is rescued by its resident, Calypso. Played by Charlize Theron in the film, Calypso is a beautiful nymph who is believed to be the daughter of Atlas, a Titan god. Described as alluring with gorgeous clothes and braided hair, she lived on Oggigaya as punishment for supporting her Titan father in the Titanomiki, which again, two weeks ago we spoke about in the Greek Gods episode. If you haven't already listened, definitely do it. But to be honest here guys, this is hardly a punishment. Because Oghigaya is absolutely breathtaking, okay?

• 39:46Speaker 02

  There's violet meadows, there's orchards of fruit, there's aqua blue waters, there's forests, and the whole place smells of like sandalwood and cedar and juniper. Like, at no point in this journey, I mean, I've already said it a million times, would I ever want to be in Odysseus' kind of steps. But I reckon I'd pit stop here. You know, I wouldn't mind a little, um, a little vacay, especially if Shalise is there. We'd have a great time. Which FYI, I love how throughout this whole thing, Odysseus is basically just being saved by the gals. Like first there's Cersei, and now Calypso, who brings him in and kind of, you know,

• 40:26Speaker 02

  falls head over heels for him here, which again, this, this lady's been stuck on this island alone, and there's this little guy who's distressed, and she's kind of like, "Oh, I can take care of you", and so she kind of falls in love with him. And according to some versions of this tale, actually, their affair produces two kids, um, which means obviously then it wasn't quite a one night stand. In fact, Odysseus has stayed on Oghigaya for not one, not two, but seven years. So again, 10 years fighting in the wars, delayed by a year from the windbag, chilling with Cersei for a year, and now holding up with Calypso for another seven. So 19 years, right? This motherfucker has been on the wonder.

• 41:12Speaker 02

  Although, to be fair, Calypso did technically hold him captive while he's kind of, you know, going on about how he's homesick for his wife and child, but she doesn't really care. In fact, it would take intervention from Zendaya herself to set Odysseus free. That's right, guys, we are talking about Athena, goddess of war and wisdom, who ends up asking Zeus to intervene and send Odysseus home. He agrees, sending Hermes, the messenger god, to tell Calypso to let Odysseus go free, which she really doesn't want to do, guys. So instead, she goes back to Odysseus and is like, "Hey, what if I make you immortal? If you stay, you can live forever." But he rejects, you know, he's like, "No, I need to go and see my, my wife and son. Nothing's

• 41:55Speaker 02

  more precious than that to me," which really kind of touches Calypso's heart, who not only agrees to let him go, but gives him everything he needed to complete his journey, right? Including a gorgeous bronze axe. Um, she makes him fresh sails and warm clothes, um, wine, water, favorable winds, all of this. So Odysseus, after nineteen years, is kind of finally back on the sea towards Ithaca in this little makeshift raft kind of thing, um, but is almost instantly put through the wringer by Poseidon, who created an extremely tumultuous storm, which saw Odysseus capsize his boat and sink beneath the water, only saved when yet another woman comes to rescue him.

• 42:39Speaker 02

  Yeah, the girls saving Odysseus this whole time. Known as the goddess Eno, she told Odysseus to strip off his heavy clothing and gave him a veil, which kept him alive as he swam to the nearest bit of land, while Athena calmed the sea. Arriving naked and hungry on the island of Skyria, Odysseus heard the voices of girls in the distance, which he follows, finding the gorgeous queen Nacissa, who again, feeling sorry for this poor guy, takes him into the palace of the Phaeacians, who showed him excellent zinnia, which is a running theme throughout the entire Odyssey, as we kind of said, um, you know, about basically wanting to be charitable to those who come to you in help, which in this case, the Phaeacians do, giving Odysseus food, shelter, clothing,

• 43:24Speaker 02

  and also probably most importantly at this point, An opportunity to vent. So, like a real housewife plied with ice cold Belvedere, Odysseus spills the beans on who he is, why he's standing in front of them, looking like a man who hasn't, you know, known joy for seventeen years and like just this whole story. From the cannibals to the windbag, to the sirens, to the skylark, you know, all while, of course, admitting the parts where he was a dick and, you know, his crew kind of killed these magical cows, Odysseus tells his story. And wowed by these trials, the Phacians were really sympathetic towards him, granting him a magical Phacian ship, which was basically set up with this like pre-programmed GPS for Ithaca, so he couldn't go wrong.

• 44:10Speaker 02

  And so Odysseus, after ten years of war, and now ten years at sea, finally sets off once and for all back home, arriving on the shores of Ithaca, where he looks nothing like the king who left. Now, you may be thinking, well, fucking obviously, right? He's been to war and like stranded at sea and it's been twenty years. Of course, he's gonna look different. But that is not what I mean here. Cautioned by Athena that all was not well in the Ithican royal court, she disguised Odysseus as an old beggar to basically allow him to like go undercover, right? And suss out the situation for himself. Speaking of which, what is happening at the Ithican royal court?

• 44:53Speaker 02

  Well, for the last seven years or so after the end of the Trojan War, so Trojan War ends, one or two years after that, Odysseus like still hasn't come home. Various suitors had gathered in Ithaca vying for the hand of Penelope, Odysseus's wife, in order to become king, right? Like we spoke about at the top. But you're probably thinking, well, hang on, isn't Tom Holland his son? Like obviously, you know, he would become a king. But this is not necessarily the case. In Mycenaean Greece, a king's position was not always inherited automatically. And with Telemachus still being so young and having kind of never proved himself as a leader, it was a real possibility that one of the suitors could actually become king.

• 45:36Speaker 02

  But again, this all depended on Odysseus like being dead, right? Which Penelope never believed he was and as such refused all of the suitors, telling them she would remarry when she finished weaving a funeral shroud for Odysseus's dad. They accept this reasoning. They're like, okay, yeah, you know, fair enough. We can't, we can't stand between a lady and her crafts, living in her castle, waiting for the shroud to be finished, which guess what? It never was. Yeah. Penelope basically would like all throughout the day weave this shroud and be like, yeah, yeah, when this is finished, when this is finished. But then at night, she'd sit there and like unpick all of her work, which Homer says she did for three years before one of her maids, Melantho, Mia Goth,

• 46:18Speaker 02

  revealed the trick to the suitors, which brings us to year twenty. So this is like this final year that we're in now. And after the ruse is exposed, the one hundred and eight suitors become increasingly aggressive, demanding that Penelope choose a husband, which is when Odysseus, disguised as the beggar, returns home. Now, before we get back to this main kind of timeline, I do want to talk about what Telemachus is doing like in all of this, because this will be one of like the other timelines that are happening concurrently to Odysseus's journey in Nolan's films. We know he loves the different timelines, so there'll be lots of back and forth. So with the suitors breathing down his mum's neck and no sign of his dad, Telemachus goes on his own journey called the Telemachy,

• 47:03Speaker 02

  which is basically the first coming of age story which follows the search for his father. So Telemachus was born kind of right around the outbreak at the Trojan Wall, probably like a year, year or two before. And as such, he grows up without his dad and kind of without his mum, who while, you know, obviously still present, was just devastated at her husband's absence. And obviously like the stress of having these one hundred and eight fully grown random men in her house, which she's expected to entertain them under proper xenia. So no Penelope slander on this page. I won't hear it. But Telemachus is over all this waiting around, right? He wants to know what happened. He's also getting bullied by the suitors, the worst of whom, like we said, is Antonius, Robert Pattinson.

• 47:47Speaker 02

  And so Athena appears to Telemachus and encourages him to undertake a journey to look for his father. So yes, divas, like I said, we're going to be getting Zendaya and Tom Holland acting together yet again, which, you know, I personally can't get enough of. Okay, quick pause. This is future Ainslie speaking here. I saw the Odyssey last night, guys. There is zero Tom Holland and Zendaya scene time. So sorry to be the bearer of bad news here, but no, this is a major deviation here. So big sad. We're just all gonna have to watch Spider-Man instead. With Athena disguising herself as Mental, a friend of Odysseus, and accompanying Telemachus on the search, where they stop at the Kingdom of Nestor in Pylos,

• 48:30Speaker 02

  where Telemachus basically has this like confidence crisis. He's like, you know, I can't be taken seriously. I'm just a boy. But Athena's like, come on, stop pissing about. You can do this, which he does. Asking Nestor point blank about his father, who was impressed by his directness and confidence, telling Telemachus of his father's bravery in the war. But he's sorry, you know, he basically doesn't know what happened to him after that. He hasn't seen him. He hasn't heard from him. So at this point, Telemachus and Athena journey on to visit our OGs from the Iliad, okay? King Menelaus and Queen Helen of Sparta, who, you know, they're like, yeah, your dad, oh my God, we love him. He was so great. Like, he's so brave. And it really

• 49:12Speaker 02

  does become clear to Telemachus through this, how revered and respected his father was, which he's like, you know, thank you. But um, where the fuck is he? Right? And they're like, well, last we heard, he's trapped on Calypso's island. Obviously terrible news, you know, we're so sorry. But Telemachus is like, no, it's all right, because it means he is not dead and really confirms what his mother has said all along. Odysseus is alive. She doesn't have to remarry. Telemachus can still inherit after his father's death. Like, let's go. So with this news and this newfound kind of confidence, Telemachus returns back to Ithiga, arriving on the shores at the same time as his father, which is when we kind of come back to our original timeline, right?

• 49:58Speaker 02

  So now Odysseus, like we said, who is disguised, is home. And he begins his ascent from the shores to the hut of his former childhood friend, Imaeus. We're one of you, literally, I'm gonna try not to cry. I was writing this and weeping, like, fully crying. If you've got a dog, maybe like skip ahead, but one of the saddest and most memorable scenes in really all of history plays out. Lying on the ground, old, nearly blind and too weak to stand, was Argos, the puppy Odysseus had left behind when he set off for the Trojan War. Argos, having waited twenty years for his master to return, immediately recognised Odysseus despite the disguise, which Homer painfully describes to us, saying

• 50:41Speaker 02

  that he wagged his tail and lowered his ears, trying to greet Odysseus, but he no longer had the strength to crawl. Suck it up, suck it up, suck it up, suck the tears up, guys. I don't know how we're gonna watch this scene. I wish there was like, a setting for films, like it's like a special viewing, where there's no animal deaths or injuries or like otherwise sad things to do with any form of animals, especially dogs. But Odysseus greets him, he sheds a tear, you know, he bends down, he kind of says goodbye to Argos, which Homer tells us here, "the dark shadow of death descended upon him as soon as he had seen Odysseus in his twentieth

• 51:20Speaker 02

  year." Wanna cry. Don't cry, don't cry, don't cry. Okay, we're moving on, alright? We're just gonna have to close our eyes for that part of the film, and we're just gonna have to at least be like, well, Odysseus is back home, okay? He's, he's, he's at least got to say goodbye, he's seen his doggy. Now we're moving on, no more tears. So Odysseus carries on to Eumaeus's hut, where his old friend, despite, again, not recognising him, like he's in this disguise, welcomes him in, and he's like, "Yep, come in, um, you know, here's some food, here's shelter", and he's kind of like, spilling the tea. He like, he like loves a gossip. He's like, "Oh my gosh, you should, you know, hear what's going up in the, up in the palace there, there's, you

• 52:03Speaker 02

  know, all these suitors", but there's, it's really tragic, because there's this new twist, "while Telemachus has been away, I've overheard their old hatching a plan to kill him", right? "Which is when footsteps approach." Already on high alert, Odysseus turns towards the door, and who should walk in but his own grown son? His jaw drops and his eyes grow wide as the baby he'd left was now a man. And while not recognising his father, he treated him graciously, accepting the responsibility of caring for the old man. This was all that Odysseus really could have hoped for, right? And after the journey he'd been on, which is all about great learning and the importance

• 52:44Speaker 02

  of humility and graciousness and xenia, seeing that his son kind of has all of this and more is a moment of real pride, after which Athena removed the beggar's disguise and revealed Odysseus, king of Ithaca, to his son after 20 years. Oh, chills. Telemachus was, of course, struck by his father's return and the two embraced before hatching a plan to take down the suitors. He's like, "All right, son, let's lock in, love to see you, but these fuckers have to die." Telemachus is cautious, of course, given the sheer number of suitors, but Odysseus tells him like, "It's all right, Athena's on our side, it's all gonna be fine." After all, like, let's be real, he's fought, you know, cyclopses and, like, cannibals,

• 53:29Speaker 02

  so, plus he's been like bashed around with, by gods, Poseidon, so he's like, "Whatever, I'm just gonna kill these motherfuckers, like, it's a cakewalk, it'll be easy." And he passes this confidence on to Telemachus and they hatch this plan together. So after this huddle, Odysseus transforms back into the beggar, so he's got his disguise back on, he accompanies his son to the palace, where he then sneaks off, um, Telemachus this is, sneaks off, gathers a bunch of weapons, kind of keeping them hidden but nearby so that when they would launch their offensive, they'd be ready, right? He then returns to his mother, who he really sees in a new light. Having journeyed in search of his father and now full of confidence and maturity, he really saw her not as neglectful or sorrowful, but a woman of strength and duty, someone

• 54:13Speaker 02

  who never gave up and as such was courteous and empathetic towards her. Again, I said no Penelope Slender is allowed. Meanwhile, beggar Odysseus is kind of like creeping about the palace when he runs into the suitors and tries to, you know, get to know who's, who's who in the zoo right here, what are all of their kind of motives, what's the dynamics? Which is when he meets Antonius, who is like, "Fuck you, what are you doing here, you're a beggar, get out." He throws a chair at Odysseus, but instead of Odysseus falling over, it just like ricochets off him, because he's like fucking buff, because he's, you know, been fighting all of these people and literally fighting for his life for 10 years. And he then turns around and basically says, "Well, you're raiding off another person's table just as I do," which, fucking facts, I hate Antonius, he's such a weasel.

• 54:56Speaker 02

  Like, weasel is the perfect way to describe him. Like, he should have been played, lover of Pattinson, he'll be amazing, but he should have been played by one of the, like, Hollywood's rat men, you know? So after this, Penelope then walks in, right? She's stunning, she's beautiful as ever. And she kind of announces to everyone present, ahem, hello, yeah, hi, no more fighting. Just letting you all know, I'm gonna pick Ithaca's new king based off who can string this old bow of my husband's and shoot an arrow through 12 lined up axe heads. So the suitors are all curious, kind of about this task, it seems like a lot to ask, and retire in order to prepare for the tournament, which is when Penelope comes forth to the beggar Odysseus and questions him.

• 55:38Speaker 02

  Through tears, she asks if he has ever seen her husband, to which he replies, "Your husband will be home soon." Overjoyed, she asks the old nurse Eurydice to help clean up, um, you know, this kind of beggar. She then finds this kind of scar on Odysseus' leg that she herself attended to and is like, "Oh my god." And he's like, "Shush." And she's like, "Okay, cool, like, whatever you need me to do, I'll do, right?" So at this point, Odysseus has a couple of allies, um, but, you know, he's still kind of got a face-off against these suitors, which goes down the day of the archery contest. So it's kind of, you know, all these suitors are in this line, they're lined up. And the first on the block is Telemachus, who failed three times to string this big bow.

• 56:21Speaker 02

  But on the fourth, it seems like he's just about to succeed, until Odysseus, still disguised, basically like looks at him and he's like, "No, don't do it, like, I'll do it." After this, Odysseus goes over to Eumaeus and basically is like, "Look at my scar, look at my scar." And he's like, "Oh my god, it's you." And Hedon says to him, "Yes, it's me, but like, shush." And FYI, can you go and lock the queen and her maids kind of away for safety?" Again, it's very dramatic here. Um, and after every single suitor has kind of failed to string this bow, they can't do it, Odysseus finally steps forward. The suitors are absolutely outraged by this. After all, like, if this beggar, right, manages to do this task, he's gonna become king of Ithaca.

• 57:05Speaker 02

  But Telemachus is kind of like, "Look, we've got to give all men present a chance." Basically like the reverse Cinderella story. After which Odysseus tells them, "If I manage to do this, I'll hit something even more impressive afterwards." Again, the drama, I love it. So the suitors, full of judgment, are like, sure Jan, you know, you go and do it. Show us all, it could be funny, we'll love like a, you know, something to laugh at. Odysseus, of course, like strings it easily, he fires a single shot through the axe heads, um, followed by one more, straight through Antonius's throat. Yep, straight through the neck. After which, you know, he then reveals himself and thanks to Athena, he looks so fucking good, guys.

• 57:48Speaker 02

  Like, he looks exactly like he did when he left, you know, for the Trojan War, he's got botox and collagen and all of the things, like, he looks amazing. And all of the suitors are like, holy shit, what have we done? Not only have we, like, basically robbed this guy for all these years, you know, eating his food and staying in his palace, but like, he's here and we've been giving him shit as this beggar. And they're like, please Odysseus, like, we'll be good, like, here's some money, like, let us go. And he's like, no, fuck that, all of you are gonna face my fucking judgment. And so Telemachus and Odysseus and Eumaeus, they all arm themselves and they start fighting, but then, then the suitors get weapons and it just turns into chaos and for a minute Odysseus is like, I can't do this, but then he, you know, Athena comes and speaks to him

• 58:32Speaker 02

  and she's like, bitch, remember all of those, remember the Cyclops? Remember the Trojan War? Like, you'll be fine. She also then kind of joins in the battle and it's over, right? Odysseus is home, he's killed all of these suitors, he calls for the old maid to bring in kind of all of the handmaidens who had betrayed Penelope, um, and kind of hangs them and justice has been spared. Speaking of which, how does Penelope react to all of this? I mean, that's the big thing you wanna know. Well, to be honest, not that well, guys. After 20 years away, Odysseus expected, you know, weeping and lots of sex, but that's not what happened.

• 59:13Speaker 02

  Seeing the amount of men that this man had killed, Penelope believed that Odysseus must have been a god, not her true husband. He tried to convince her, but still her eyes clung to the ground, she wouldn't even look him in the face, right? So defeated and probably kind of pissed, which like, I think, I think that's probably justified, right? You wait for your wife for all of these years to like... Be like, oh my god, although he didn't really wait for Adyde, he fucked both Cersei and Calypso. But still, he's like pretty depressed. He's like, oh, like, I just wanna lay down. Like, this has been a day. And she's like, oh, yep, okay, you can lay down, but like, servant, can you move, can you move his bed into the other room? And Odysseus is like, what are you talking about?

• 59:55Speaker 02

  That's impossible to do. I carved that bed myself out of an olive tree. It is too heavy to move. After which Penelope's like, holy shit, it is you. And the two finally, after twenty years embrace, and then all the sex happens, right? After which Athena then extends the night, so it's like, instead of, you know, twelve hours of darkness, whatever it is, it's like two days of darkness. Lots of fucking, during which all of this time, um, you know, Odysseus is like, oh, let me tell you what I went through. Like, I was delayed because X, Y, Z, although I'm sure he left out the Cersei and the Calypso parts. But he kind of, um, you know, lays it all out on the line, all this death, all this, all this, um, suffering and everything he's been through

• 1:00:39Speaker 02

  on this really perilous journey, and basically ends it being like, ah, how good is it to be home and, you know, in your own bed? Which, to be fair, is like, the most relatable thing about Odysseus and this whole fucking trip. Basically, the Odyssey boils down to, other than the fact that, like, the person who gets the last laugh is probably Polyphemus, who's like, made Odysseus go on this extra ten-year journey because he blinded in, is really the key message that there is nothing on earth better than getting into your own bed after being away for ages.

• 1:01:15Speaker 02

  To which, that is just like a story as old as time. It will forever transcend, you know, the generations. So, home as a king, he loves his own bed. Which brings us up to the final book of the Odyssey, right? Book twenty-four, which is Odysseus's reunion with his father. I'm never sure how to say it. I think it's Latice. La- Letice. Letice. I'm gonna go to Letice. Still disguised, he loves this disguise. He keeps pulling it on and off. He goes to Letice's home and slowly reveals himself by describing the details of a number of trees that he had planted when he was a boy, after which the father and son emotionally reunite. Again, lots of drama, like, oh.

• 1:01:58Speaker 02

  Are you getting what I'm putting down? Like, am I, aren't I? He loves like teasing people. But eventually, the father and son go back to the palace. They link up with Telemachus, where the three generations of men are now forced to deal with all of these suitors' fathers, you know, who they've like, he's killed all of these guys. Um, which basically ends with this epic scene of Letus killing Antonius's father with a swift blow. Like, basically like a badass grandpa, basically. Which brings us to the end of the Odyssey. It's a tale of tests and tribulations, looking at the dangers of hubris and gluttony and temptation and pride, while enforcing one really key, consistent message throughout, apart from the how good your own bet is,

• 1:02:41Speaker 02

  which is xenia, hospitality, and kind of humility. Something that if you do, can have an impact that changes someone's life forever. So while Homer's works, especially the treatment of women in the Iliad in particular, is questionable, to say the least. The message is really woven throughout, remain as steadfast today as they did back then. And something we'd all do well to heed in our own lives. Which brings us to the end of another episode of Hot History, guys. Thank you so, so much for following along with me on this episode. I know it's like lots of, and then this, and then this, and then this crazy thing. And like, it's, it's, it's a lot, but I honestly can't wait for you all to go and see the Odyssey in your nearest cinema. And if you can, definitely go and see it on IMAX, right?

• 1:03:24Speaker 02

  It's meant to be, it was all filmed on IMAX cameras. It's meant to be seen on IMAX, to be epic and, and, you know, huge. Um, and I really want to say to you guys, regardless of the noise of a casting and costumes and botox faces and, you know, like whatever the fuck else people are whinging about. I really do think we should all revel in any chance to immerse ourselves in history, especially ancient history, which is so rich and fundamental to how we understand our world and ourselves within it through cinema. So I hope these couple of episodes have kind of laid enough groundwork for you to go in as an expert. Um, you know, and kind of be like, yes, this, this, this, or if not, just have a good time, right?

• 1:04:04Speaker 02

  Sirens, cyclopses, kind of almost camp levels of drama, magical cows. Like, it's just cool. And make sure you tune in next week as well, because we are keeping it in within, um, the ancient Greek world, but. We're kind of stepping, stepping away from the Trojan War, the Odyssey kind of stuff. We're looking at one of my favourite characters in history. Her name is Artemisia of Caria. Um, she was this queen who then went and became like a navy admiral for the god King Xerxes. And she was described as more man than men. So make sure to tune in. But as always, guys, if you are looking for some more hot history before then, then find us on TikTok at hot dot history and on Instagram at hot history club.

• 1:04:48Speaker 02

  I've also linked the Substack down for you guys below, but it has been a pleasure as always, getting down and dirty in time with you. And I will speak to you all shortly. Thanks, guys. Love you. Bye.

• 1:05:07Speaker 04

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