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Contains spoilers for "The Odyssey"
Some have said that Christopher Nolan's adaptation of "The Odyssey" gets the source material wrong by not mentioning many of the Gods on the peripheries of Homer's epic poem, but there's one notable exception which reverberates throughout. In an early sequence, Ithaca's queen Penelope (Anne Hathaway) is facing up to the rising anger of her son Telemachus (Tom Holland), furious at the dozens of suitors emptying their remaining supplies of food and wine. They want his mom's hand in marriage to take his place as the rightful heir to the throne, even as he's insistent that his father Odysseus (Matt Damon) will return to claim it. Penelope advises her son from fighting back, however, as doing so would break Zeus' Law, which is the social contract modern viewers probably know better as the Golden Rule: to treat others how you wish to be treated.
Various characters refer to the concept of Zeus' Law throughout, and as we approach the chilling finale, Nolan masterfully circles back to this idea and reveals he's transformed this foundational fantasy tale into a companion piece to his box office smash "Oppenheimer" — a story of a man reckoning with his guilt due to defying the Gods, disrupting any chance of long-lasting peace. It's an easy-to-grasp moral concept and feels even more devastating for how it serves as a metaphor for our current moment, but does the idea of Zeus' Law have any basis in historical reality, or is it a Hollywood simplification of a more complex idea? Well, as you should expect from Nolan, nothing here is overly simplified, but the Golden Rule is even more vital to the plot than many viewers may realize.
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The historical origins of Zeus' Law
Zeus was known as the King of the Gods, and this is because he was seen as a wide-ranging authority, with liars and dishonest market traders punished under his eye. However, the Law referred to by the characters here is in reference to his status as the Patron of Hospitality, which in Ancient Greece was known under the term Xenia (as historians have pointed out, the term "Zeus' Law" was not in use). Loosely translated into English as guest friendship, it's the idea of a reciprocal friendship between a guest and their host; a host must provide hospitality, and a guest must show courtesy and respect in return. There was a widespread belief during this period that Gods could be mingling with the public in disguise, and so regular people would want to highlight their virtuousness.
Historians believe that the Golden Rule predates Ancient Greece, noting that a variant first appeared in Ancient Egyptian story "The Eloquent Peasant," dating back to 1850 BC, which read: "Now this is the command: Do to the doer to make him do." However, it was in the "Iliad" many centuries later where this idea was explored to a greater extent, outlining the cause and effect of Xenia, with Homer arguing that the Trojan War was caused by violating that social contract. The depiction of Paris running off with Helen while a guest of her husband Menelaus was the bad Xenia that triggered the conflict; via flashback, Nolan gradually complicates the idea that Odysseus was a hero for fighting that war, questioning whether this foundational law can apply in a time of conflict.
What Has Christopher Nolan Said About Zeus' Law in The Odyssey?
In a recent interview with the Los Angeles Times, Nolan discussed Zeus' Law. He said: "It is the golden rule, the idea that you treat people the way you want to be treated. Partly it's because a humble person may be a god in disguise, but it also allows society to function. People need to travel and trade, and everyone is at the mercy of strangers. Its abuse has terrible consequences. There is a price to be paid for vengeance, and violence is the most straightforward expression of that." In short, applying this idea of Xenia as a key theme helps complicate what we've known for centuries as the original tale of a hero's journey; many of the causes and effects are present in Homer's text, but Nolan recontextualizes various actions by Odysseus previously depicted as heroic as tempting fate.
Some examples of bad Xenia being punished in "The Odyssey" are the Cyclops getting blinded because of trying to eat the soldiers in his cave instead of being a good host and offering some of his bags of cheese. During what is by far the most jarring scene in "The Odyssey," Odysseus' men are turned into pigs by Circe (Samantha Morton) for being ungracious guests, and later, when he arrives home, Odysseus' first victim in his massacre is Antinous (Robert Pattinson), perhaps the least gracious guest of all, who finally gets his comeuppance after not offering the disguised king any of his food scraps. This might be the most direct violation of them all, proving that you should never tempt fate and turn down the chance to help those in need — especially if you can't see their face.
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Read the original article on Looper.
