Don’t worry. There won’t be any major spoilers on the film.
I found Nolen’s version of “The Odyssey” to be a pretty great adaptation, although it is not above criticism. I’m fairly certain the people at the time didn’t contextualize themselves as living within the Bronze Age. That’s anachronistic. And I was disappointed that they left out Nobody.
But I loved how the relationship between humans and the gods was portrayed. It was a masterful work of storytelling, leaving open the question of do the gods intervene in human affairs? Or is it just our perceptions of them that brings them into the story?
Additionally, if the Greeks were not directly identified as the Sea People, there’s a case to be made in the text that they at least functioned as if they were. Menelaus’ journey home wasn’t that much shorter than Odysseus’ journey. He just spent the years ransacking coastal communities and accumulating great wealth before his return.
In that sense, Nolen’s version pretty accurately tied into the real world history of the Bronze Age collapse.
But there’s more to the story than what’s in Homer, or what made it onto the screen. So today we’re going to look at one of the mythical characters that didn’t make it into the movie.
Odysseus had a son named Telegonus.
Early on his journey, Odysseus landed on an island belonging to Circe. Circe was either a witch, a goddess, or a nymph, depending on your source material. Although she’s usually a daughter of Helios (the sun god) and was counted among the Oceanid nymphs. She was well-versed in magic and potions, and turned anyone who offended her into an animal.
So, when Odysseus and his men landed on her island, she turned the men into pigs. Clever Odysseus saw through the trap and convinced her to turn them back into people, which she did. Then they went to bed together.
Odysseus ended up staying on the island for a year before heading back out to Ithaca. So, presumably, they went to bed together a lot.
Enough for Circe to conceive without Odysseus realizing it. Circe gave birth to Telegonus. Although, depending on the source material, up to five kids come up. Hard to do in only a year, but myths seldom line up with each other.
But I digress.
Circe raised Telegonus in Odysseus’ absence. When he came of age, probably around 10 years after Odysseus returned to Ithaca, she sent him off to find his father. But the journey is dangerous, so she gave him a spear tipped with the venomous barb of a stingray to keep himself safe.
After an arduous voyage, Telegonus’ ship sank and he washed up on the shores of Ithaca, except he didn’t realize he had made it to Ithaca. He thought he had landed on an island called Corcyra.
He was starving and instead of seeking hospitality, Telegonus decided to ransack the local people.
Odysseus and Telemachus (his son by Penelope) go out to fight off the invader. In the fight, Odysseus catches the barb on the tip of Telegonus’ spear and dies from the venom. Telegonus accidentally murdered his father.
And thus was the end of the clever Odysseus.
The story of Telegonus comes from a lost epic called “The Telegony.” It was likely oral tradition at the time Homer compiled his epic, but it’s possible he was familiar with the songs.
So that’s the end of the Odysseus’ story that didn’t make it into the movie.
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