This summer, I had the pleasure of writing a research paper comparing Emily Wilson’s and Robert Fagles’ translations of The Odyssey, fixating on each of their depictions of Calypso, the goddess who falls in love with and captures Odysseus on her island. For the most accurate comparison, I selected the same two passages in both translations, and analyzed the literary differences between them. I found that Wilson’s version of Calypso is given much more control over her actions and home than Fagles’. Wilson also places more emphasis on the fact that Calypso is a woman, and therefore is subject to a misogynistic double standard between her and the male gods.
When I wrote this paper, I was working in the kitchen of a wilderness canoeing camp on a remote island in Ontario, so I had no way of watching Christopher Nolan’s film adaptation when it was released. One of my peers who had seen it recommended Emily Wilson’s review, “An Uncomplicated Man,” saying that Wilson articulated everything she thought about the movie. Wilson claimed that Nolan’s female characters lacked depth, and that throughout the movie, he played into derivative cliches even in regards to Odysseus himself, hence the title “An Uncomplicated Man.” As for Calypso, Wilson stated that she was missing any of the strong emotions that are made clear in Homer’s original poem, characterizing her as a “therapist” rather than a scorned goddess.
I had seen this negative response to Calypso’s character online too, so I wasn’t totally surprised by her assessment. On TikTok, my for you page was filled with people saying that Charlize Theron’s Calypso had zero personality outside of essentially being Odysseus’ caretaker in her twenty minutes of screen time.
When I returned home to New York in late August, I immediately went to my nearest theater to watch it. As a standalone movie, it was indeed breathtaking, especially knowing that so much of it was practical effects rather than CGI. But, as a Greek mythology nerd and a feminist, the inaccuracies were stark.
Now having watched the film, I strongly agree with Wilson’s criticism of Nolan’s version of Calypso. The only times her character spoke was to help inform Odysseus of his past and get him to remember the purpose of his journey. In the second passage that I selected for analysis in my paper, both translators depict Calypso as angry in regards to the gods’ criticism of her, but Nolan’s movie does not portray her anger at all. This passage is one of the only times in the poem that Calypso speaks, so Nolan excluded one of her character’s most defining moments. Her character exists solely to help the male protagonist on his journey, and she has no character depth beyond her relation to him.
