The Odyssey in Pop Music

The Odyssey at the Movies and on TV 1. Wizard of Oz Question: Compare the outlines of the plot of The Wizard of Oz and The Odyssey. How are they alike? Each story is that of the return home of the hero. The hero did not voluntarily seek the quest. The hero is taken into an imaginary world. He/she has a protector (The goddess Athena for Odysseus and Glinda for Dorothy) who doesn't help him/her all the time, but only some of the time, particularly at the end. The hero slays several opponents and undergoes several ordeals. The hero is steadfast in his/her devotion to the desire to return home. Credit: TeachWithMovies.org 2. Finding Nemo A. Finding Nemo is The Odyssey with gills, sending clown fish Marlin (voiced by Albert Brooks) and his son, Nemo (Alexander Gould), on a journey that's as big as the ocean. Set pieces include everything from a coral reef to a fish tank to the inside of a whale. Credit: The San Francisco Chronicle online B. Finding Nemo is a beautifully-drawn animated film about a little fish trying to get home and an overprotective father fish trying to find his son. ... The story dates back several thousand years to The Odyssey, at least. The story starts with a couple of clownfish, Marlin (voice by Albert Brooks) and his son, Nemo (voice by Alexander Gould). ... Nemo, fed up with his father's fussing, swims into deep water one day and is captured by a diver and put into a fish tank in a Sydney dentist's office. Marlin is determined to find his son. He sets off on an odyssey to find Nemo. Along the way he meets an array of interesting characters. ... The story has a lot of moral and philosophical overtones. One of its messages is that you should not let fear rule your life. Another is to believe in yourself, your family and your friends. Another is that it sometimes takes a lot of courage to obtain one's freedom. The story is mainly about a father's love for his son, but it is also about growing up and facing the world head on. Credit: Laramie Movie Scope 3. O Brother, Where Art Thou? The opening credits of Joel and Ethan Coen's new film, O Brother, Where Art Thou?, announce rather grandly that the picture is "based upon The Odyssey, by Homer." The filmmakers even supply a ritual invocation of the muse, who is asked (via Robert Fitzgerald's translation of Homer's epic) to help them sing of "the man skilled in all the ways of contending."

It doesn't take a classics scholar to notice that the wily brothers have taken a few liberties with their source. Their hero, played with toothy glee by George Clooney, is a hyperarticulate escaped convict named Ulysses Everett McGill, who wanders the dusty byways of Depression-era Mississippi with a pair of dimwitted companions, searching for wealth, his wife and his favorite hair treatment ... When McGill finally catches up with Penelope (Holly Hunter), she turns out not to be the embodiment of wifely constancy Homer rhapsodized but rather the harried, impatient mother of seven daughters who has thrown over her vagabond mate for a weaselly political operative named Waldrip (Ray McKinnon). ("He's a suitor," one of the girls explains to her baffled father.) There are Homeric moments scattered through the ambling, shaggy-dog narrative — a blind soothsayer, a one-eyed Bible salesman (John Goodman) in place of the Cyclops, a governor (Charles Durning) whose Christian name is Menelaus (though he prefers to be called Pappy) and a trio of honey-voiced sirens. Credit: The New York Times 5. Apollo 13 Homer himself could not have written a more captivating story than the fight of Apollo 13. On April 11, 1970, veteran astronaut Jim Lovell and his crewmates Jack Swigert and Fred Haise rode atop the eighth launch of the Saturn V juggernaut to begin their ill-fated journey to the moon. The aptly named Command Module Odyssey and the reluctant Lunar Module – lifeboat Aquarius were to take the three men to a date with the lunar highland area known as Fra Mauro but fate and a faulty circuit in one of the vehicle’s oxygen tanks would irrevocably alter their plans and turn the flight of Apollo 13 into an epic to rival the original Odyssey. After an explosion in the Service Module crippled the spacecraft while it was still outward bound, the crew would spend several harrowing days in near frigid temperatures while the technicians at home worked around the clock to devise new and ingenious ways to keep them alive and bring them home safely. In 1970 some considered Apollo 13 a catastrophic failure, but it has since been recognized as one of NASA’s truly great moments, when the spirit of daring and ingenuity came to life in the team at Mission Control as the successfully brought the crew home. (This true story was turned into a blockbuster 1995 film starring Tom Hanks.) Credit: Spaceshots.com synopsis on the Apollo 13 NASA Mission Report Book 6. Star Trek According to the Star Trek Encyclopedia, the starship USS Odyssey was named for the command module of the ill-fated Apollo 13 moon mission. Furthermore, that name was taken from the works of Homer, The Odyssey being the epic tale of Odysseus. The Odyssey's dedication plaque bore a quote from Arthur C. Clarke's film 2001: A Space Odyssey: "Its origin and purpose, still a total mystery." Credit: Memory Alpha Star Trek website