Homer’s Odyssey, with its fabulous monsters and intense tale of human endurance, was a natural candidate for Christopher Nolan’s latest Hollywood blockbuster. But amid all the fantasy and heroic human drama, there are two far more homely scenes in the poem which remain among the epic’s most memorable. Both involve animals.
One is the touching, tragically brief reunion of the hero (played in the film by Matt Damon) with his faithful dog Argos. It’s a deceptively low-key episode which reflects powerfully on the epic’s themes of patience, loyalty and loss.
