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Is Christopher Nolan's Odyssey More Stoic Than Homer's?

Caleb Ontiveros reads Christopher Nolan's film adaptation of the Odyssey against Stoic ideas about the gods, agency, duty, and perseverance.

A Stoa brief of an episode from Stoa Conversations

Stoicism in Christopher Nolan's Odyssey (Episode 230)

Published 24 min

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The episode belongs to its makers. This page summarizes its arguments in Stoa's words and points to the moments where they are made. Brief updated .

The brief

Caleb Ontiveros argues that Christopher Nolan's film adaptation of the Odyssey is Stoic in some respects and unStoic in others, offering a different angle than his earlier episode on Homer's original poem. The comparison turns on how each version handles the gods, human responsibility, and the demands of duty.

On the Stoic side, Ontiveros points to Nolan's choice to strip the gods of literal, personal form. Poseidon becomes the ocean itself, Zeus becomes thunder and lightning, rather than beings who walk among mortals as they do in Homer. He connects this to the Stoic view that the gods are best understood as aspects of nature, not independent supernatural agents standing above it. He also argues the film sharpens Odysseus's sense of responsibility, showing him wrestling with choices, such as whether to join the Trojan War, in a way that emphasizes agency rather than fate. This fits the Stoic distinction between what is up to us and what is not. The film's driving pace, he suggests, also captures the perseverance Seneca praises in one of his letters, where Odysseus stands as an example of loving one's country, wife, and father and continuing to sail toward honorable ends even after shipwreck.

Where the film falls short, in Ontiveros's view, is its treatment of duty. The Calypso and lotus subplot, where Odysseus is told to let go and is kept on her island under the guise of needing to heal before he can return, strikes him as a modern therapeutic addition at odds with Stoic thinking. His duties as king, father, and husband should determine his return, not his emotional readiness. He raises the possibility that Calypso could be read as a deceptive, self-serving figure instead, which would soften the objection. He also finds the film's handling of xenia, the law of hospitality, inconsistent as grounds for Odysseus's exile, and notes that the film downplays Odysseus's thirst for knowledge, a trait that shows up mainly in the sirens scene and that he treats as a virtue with a possible excess.

The takeaway is not that one version is simply more Stoic than the other, but that adaptation choices reveal which values a story assumes matter most. It is worth asking, watching either version, what you think a person owes to their role once the excuse of fate is removed.

Strongest arguments

Nolan's gods as nature fits Stoic theology

3:58

Unlike Homer, where gods walk among mortals and converse with them directly, Nolan's film represents Poseidon as the ocean itself and Zeus as thunder and lightning rather than as personal beings. Caleb argues this matches the Stoic view that the gods are best understood as aspects of nature rather than supernatural beings existing above it.

The film highlights responsibility and agency

7:40

Odysseus is shown weighing hard options, such as whether to join the Trojan War, and bearing the guilt of decisions he could not avoid. Caleb argues this framing shows Odysseus as a free agent responsible for his choices, rather than a figure driven by external forces beyond his control, which aligns with Stoic ideas about what is up to us.

The film's energy conveys Stoic perseverance

10:10

Caleb connects the film's driving pace to Odysseus's resilience and notes that Seneca, in one of his letters, holds up Odysseus as an example of loving one's country, wife, and father and continuing to sail toward honorable ends even after shipwreck. He adds that Odysseus is no sage in either Homer or Nolan, since he is mortal and makes mistakes, but his persistence still stands out as admirable.

The sirens scene shows a virtue of curiosity, possibly excessive

11:10

Caleb notes that the poem emphasizes Odysseus's hunger for knowledge more than the film does, but the sirens scene still captures this trait, since Odysseus wants to hear their song and survive to tell of it. He suggests this drive is admirable but could also tip into a vice of excessive curiosity, pointing to a possible Aristotelian mean.

The suitors' punishment is more morally justified than in Homer

12:30

Nolan portrays the suitors as actively violent, scheming to kill Telemachus and Odysseus's servants and attacking Odysseus directly, which makes their deaths feel earned rather than an act of rage. Caleb contrasts this with the poem, where Odysseus beheads a suitor who pleads for his life and has servant women who consorted with suitors killed, scenes the film omits entirely.

The film's treatment of xenia and exile is inconsistent

16:20

Nolan has Odysseus exiled for violating xenia, the law of hospitality, through both the Trojan horse and the killing of the suitors, but Caleb argues neither example fits well: the horse was used in wartime, and the suitors themselves violated hospitality by overstaying and threatening Odysseus's household. He suggests this is a forced modern addition that does not cohere with the rest of the film's world.

The Calypso and lotus subplot wrongly endorses therapeutic passivity

19:40

Caleb criticizes the film's Calypso scene, where she tells Odysseus to let go and let the ocean take him where it wills, and feeds him a lotus that keeps him on her island for seven years under the guise that he needs to do internal work first. He argues this framing is unStoic, since Odysseus's duties as king, father, and husband should determine his return regardless of any need for personal healing, unless Calypso is read as a deceptive, self-serving figure.

Concepts discussed

  • Dichotomy of control Some things are up to us, namely our own judgments and actions, and everything else is not, and only the first kind is truly free and our own.

Philosophers and works discussed

  • Odyssey By Homer.
  • The Odyssey (2026 film) By Christopher Nolan.

Questions this episode answers

  • How do the Stoics understand the nature of the gods?

    4:37

    The Stoics did not believe in supernatural beings existing above nature. They spoke of the gods but understood them, in a more metaphorical sense, as aspects of nature itself rather than as independent individual beings.

  • Is Christopher Nolan's Odyssey more Stoic than Homer's poem?

    2:53

    In some ways yes: the film removes the gods as literal beings and frames Odysseus's decisions as fully his own responsibility, both of which fit Stoic ideas. In other ways no: it downplays Odysseus's thirst for knowledge and introduces a therapeutic subplot with Calypso that runs against Stoic duty.

  • What does Seneca say about Odysseus as a moral example?

    10:19

    Seneca writes in one of his letters asking to be shown, through Odysseus's example, how to love one's country, wife, and father, and how even after shipwreck to keep sailing toward those honorable ends.

  • Why is the killing of the suitors more justified in Nolan's film than in Homer's Odyssey?

    12:47

    Nolan portrays the suitors as actively violent and armed, scheming to kill Telemachus and already having killed some servants, unlike the poem where a suitor pleads for mercy and is beheaded anyway and servant women are executed. This makes the film's version feel like justified defense rather than uncontrolled rage.

  • What is wrong with a therapeutic reading of Odysseus needing to "let go" before returning home?

    19:40

    The idea that Odysseus must first do internal work before he is ready to return, as Calypso suggests, is criticized as unStoic because it ignores his clear duties as king, father, and husband, which should determine his return regardless of his emotional readiness.

Related primary passages

Some things are in our control and others not. Things in our control are opinion, pursuit, desire, aversion, and, in a word, whatever are our own actions. Things not in our control are body, property, reputation, command, and, in one word, whatever are not our own actions.The things in our control are by nature free, unrestrained, unhindered; but those not in our control are weak, slavish, restrained, belonging to others.

Epictetus, Handbook 1 Read in context

The opening line of the Handbook and the definition Epictetus gives the whole tradition.

He who acts unjustly acts impiously. For since the universal nature has made rational animals for the sake of one another to help one another according to their deserts, but in no way to injure one another, he who transgresses her will, is clearly guilty of impiety towards the highest divinity.

Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 9.1 Read in context

The opening claim of the whole meditation: injustice is not a social lapse but a break with the rational order that made us for each other.

Sources

  1. Epictetus, Handbook Primary text, Stoa library
  2. Marcus Aurelius, Meditations Primary text, Stoa library
  3. Stoa Conversations, Stoicism in Christopher Nolan's Odyssey (Episode 230) Podcast episode, original episode