It’s Greek to Me

I’m not much of a movie watcher these days, though I won’t let my not actually seeing the new version of “The Odyssey” stop me from commenting on it. My preference is for delightful comedies like the recent “The Sheep Detectives”. Why aren’t there more clever and light-hearted movies like this? But anyway …

Back in college, I read at least parts of “The Odyssey” (in English translation) in a world literature course and certainly this ancient story with its many dramatic twists and turns has held people in thrall for many centuries. When I think about epic poetry from the distant past before the written word, I am always amazed at how the early poets/bards were able to memorize thousands of lines of poetry and recite for hours. Certainly, you had to make it dramatic to hold listeners’ attention. Whether Homer was one actual person who wrote this epic almost 3000 years ago or whether it was the work of several authors doesn’t seem to matter.

I am totally unfamiliar with the Greek language, ancient or modern, but I took four years of Latin in high school (I’m not really sure why).  So I did take a stab, pardon the pun, at translating bits of Julius Caesar, Cicero, and Virgil’s “Aeneid”. My main memories of translating Virgil in Latin class went like this: “Sister, I had trouble with this sentence …”  I was not meant to be a classics scholar.

It still amazes me how economical Romans were with the written word. A quote of three or four words might equal a long sentence in English. And I’m fascinated by how many English words have their roots in Latin, by way of Norman French, after 1066 and all that.

My main problem with seeing the new and highly praised movie of “The Odyssey” is that I can’t stand violence, which also leaves out most contemporary movies and TV shows for me. Can we stop with the true crime already? When it comes to the classic stories on film, I think how cheesy the Hollywood epic films from 1950’s were, though I always liked “Ben Hur”.

We’ve gone long past those days, though I just read an essay by The Odyssey’s latest translator Emily Wilson, who sharply criticizes the new movie. Wilson, who is a classics professor at the University of Pennsylvania, criticized Christopher Nolan’s adaptation for lacking “psychological, emotional, political and ethical depth.” So the debate on presenting the classics rages on.

            The Trojan horse is a mythic story with staying power, though I need to banish Monty Python’s hilarious Trojan rabbit from my thoughts. Those Python guys really knew how to mess with the classics, whether the ancient Greeks or the semi-ancient Britons.

The story of poor Argos, Odysseus faithful and now neglected hunting dog has apparently captivated listeners/readers for centuries. When Odysseus finally returns home after 20 years of adventures, he comes in disguise. The only one who recognizes him is poor old Argos who rises from the dung heap he is lying on just long enough to greet his old master before dying. I’m sure that the ancients knew that dogs didn’t live for 20 years (they don’t live that long even now) but it makes a poignant story that has endured for centuries. Loyal dog stories didn’t begin with Lassie.

Speaking of ancient times, the new TV program “Pompeii Out of Time with Tom Hiddleston” on Nat Geo/Disney is worth watching. While it is a bit gimmicky in its presentation, this in-depth look at what might have happened to three different individuals that awful day when Vesuvius erupted in the year 79 really grabs your attention and sympathy for such a terrifying tragedy.

The traveling exhibit on Pompeii that was at Boston’s Museum of Science about 15 years ago was well worth seeing also. I get the heebie-jeebies when I think of the millions of people who still live in the shadow of Mt. Vesuvius these days.

Some people did escape the volcano and settled in towns nearby. The Pompeii Out of Time program concludes with a look at some survivors in a refugee camp elsewhere around the Bay of Naples. With all our contemporary disasters, unprecedented wildfires, flash floods, earthquakes, and other natural horrors, the scene looks all too familiar to modern eyes.