The Mighty Dead: Essential Reading Before Watching the New Odyssey Adaptation

“You don’t get Homer, Homer gets you,” wrote Adam Nicholson in The Mighty Dead: Why Homer Matters, an exploration of two foundational ancient epic poems: the Iliad and the Odyssey. With Christopher Nolan’s highly anticipated film adaptation of the latter, Nicholson’s book becomes essential for anyone eager to dive deeper into the narratives’ broader significance.

Nicholson’s work encompasses three main themes. First, he philosophizes about how Homer—always referred to in the singular, yet acknowledged as a collective over generations—articulates the essence of life amid the interplay of civilization and barbarism. He also addresses the enduring fascination literary figures like John Keats had with Homer, particularly as expressed in Endymion, famously titled by Alexander Pope’s translation, though imperfect in its execution.

The subsequent themes ground Nicholson’s analysis. He scrutinizes the texts of the Iliad and Odyssey, analyzing linguistic variations in Greek, tracing the language’s roots back to the Mycenaean period, and utilizing his linguistic findings to posit that poetry predates earlier estimates significantly. He asserts that the standardized written form of Homer originates from a much older oral tradition that dates back to 2000-1800 B.C.

Furthermore, Nicholson uncovers echoes of Homer in archaeological discoveries throughout the ancient Mediterranean, including papyri from the Hawara site in Egypt and pottery shards found in Ischia, which represents one of the earliest forms of written Greek dating to around 150 AD. These relics reveal layers of cultural history, correlating with distinctions seen in 8th-century BC pottery and Mycenaean shaft tombs, yielding insights into the era preceding the Bronze Age collapse.

Nicholson focuses on the milieu that birthed these poems rather than the historicity of the poems themselves. After all, poetry embodies myth. He crafts a vivid picture of a complex ancient society and the people for whom these tales served as a connection to a nomadic, warrior-centric past.

Revisiting The Mighty Dead reminded me of my own exploration of history during my honeymoon in Crete. My husband and I visited the Archaeological Museum in Heraklion, where we admired a boar’s tusk helmet on display—an item that also features in the 10th volume of the Iliad worn by Odysseus. This experience was a poignant reminder that, as Nicholson compellingly articulates, the world of Homer persists around us for those keen to recognize it.

Mycenaean and Peloponnesian Archaeology: Insights into Ancient Greece

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