An Odysseus for our age

Published July 23, 2026 4:22pm ET | Updated July 23, 2026 4:22pm ET



“Let’s go home,” Matt Damon says brusquely, playing an exhausted Odysseus. Damon’s a good actor, and that moment in previews got me pumped for the movie. It’s a punchy, understated framing of the Odyssey: A perilous journey home from a lengthy and disastrous home.

But that’s not a scene from Homer’s Odyssey. I’m not saying “let’s go home,” is a loose translation by some feminist scholar. The whole scene, with Odysseus gathering his men on the beaches after sacking Troy, is absent in the epic poem. It was invented by Director Christopher Nolan.

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