What Nolan’s Odysseus tells us about Western elite’s existential angst

SCMP | Aug. 13, 2026, 9:30 p.m. | Original

In every civilisation, certain stories capture the psyche so profoundly that they are retold across centuries. In the West, Homer’s Odyssey is the one.

Countless adaptations have emerged over millennia, inspiring literary giants from Dante Alighieri to James Joyce. Christopher Nolan’s cinematic adaptation is merely the latest. While it reflects the British-American filmmaker’s personal vision, it also offers a glimpse into the anxieties and self-reflections of today’s Western elite.

Homer’s Odysseus embodies the heroic ideal ( kleos ) of ancient Greece. He is courageous, ruthless, inquisitive and daring. A master of trickery, he overcomes adversaries through wit and guile, yet harbours no qualms about brute force. Leading his men on a trail of slaughter, pillage and destruction from Troy and back, he spends 10 years at war and another 10 at sea. He is the ultimate architect of the Greek victory. Returning to Ithaca, he finds his home besieged by suitors who, assuming him dead, seek to marry his wife and usurp his kingdom. Odysseus slaughters them all and reclaims his throne.

This is a man of unhesitating action, untroubled by regret or remorse. He feels no guilt for the sacking of Troy or execution of the suitors. Immediately after the fall of Troy, he leads his men to raid Ismarus; plundering and killing civilians were simply standard features of ancient Greek warfare. Returning home laden with spoils ( geras ) was a badge of honour, not a sin. When the families of the slain suitors assemble for vengeance, Odysseus prepares to meet them in a fresh bloodbath, halted only by Athena’s divine intervention. He is, in essence, the original action hero – achieving absolute self-realisation without repentance.

Friedrich Nietzsche described Odysseus as “the most unscrupulous” – a label intended as praise rather than condemnation. To Nietzsche, life is an exercise in power, struggle and self-imposed destiny, making Odysseus a prototype of the “Superman”. Nietzsche admired the Greek concept of kleos as the ultimate “master morality”: act without guilt, seek dominance without shame and value strength, honour and self-realisation above all else.

Odysseus famously fooled the Cyclops Polyphemus after he and his men stole his food and drink; they escaped by tying themselves to the bellies of the sheep leaving the cave. Illustration: Getty Images
Odysseus famously fooled the Cyclops Polyphemus after he and his men stole his food and drink; they escaped by tying themselves to the bellies of the sheep leaving the cave. Illustration: Getty Images

Dante took a different approach in Inferno . He places Ulysses (the Latin name for Odysseus) in the eighth circle of Hell, reserved for “counsellors of fraud”. Trapped inside a flame alongside Diomedes, he is punished for using his intellect and eloquence to deceive.

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