Everybody’s a critic…  And critics love playing the game of gotcha with new adaptations of classics of Western literature. The latest to walk the plank is Christopher Nolan, director of The Odyssey, and his reframings of the source.  Artists’ interpretations of Homer in Odysseys for children can be just as distinctive as Nolans, so let’s look at how some major illustrators present a few of the main characters.

Athena, advocate, protector, and guide of Odysseus, talks as much as acts.  While she can be represented in using the traditional iconography of an imposing woman warrior in a helm, draped in a flowing robe that leaves the arms bare, and carrying a spear., much of the time she takes human form, giving the illustrator some range. In the sixteen paintings N. C. Wyeth executed for the family-friendly Houghton edition of 1929, he reimagined the goddess shooting through the air in a naked dress accessorized with a helm, spear, shield, and gold sandals.   The figures of Wyeth and Nolan are opposite ends of the spectrum: one of the strikingly feminine figures could pose on the red carpet, the other beg entry to a convent, but only one looks Olympian.

The distinguishing traits of Penelope, the model wife–discreet, wise, and blameless—are hard to draw so that they are instantly recognizable.  Her wiliness can be captured.  John Flaxman shows the suitors catching her in the act of unravelling Laertes’ shroud, but their faces show little or no anger and hers no surprise.  Less dignified but cunning is André François’s Penelope, who is enjoying every second of deceiving the suitors.  This is a more worthy partner for the man of many ways than a tall willowy woman in a graceful blue robe crying “I want Odysseus!”  and storming out of the room.Francois’ savage but funny illustrations of Odysseus’s crew betray no sympathy for them.  The number of veterans of the Trojan war are whittled down a few at a time episode by episode. For a time, their chieftain’s clever ruses reduce losses overall, such as when they ride out of the Cyclops’ cave of lashed to the bellies of the wounded giant’s great rams. When the ship shoots past Charybdis, all but the six Scylla grabs are saved. Stranded on the island of the sun, Odysseus makes them swear not to touch the immortal cattle and sheep of the Helios.  While waiting for a favorable wind, the food runs out, and the men announce they would rather take the consequences than starve.Some of the animals they slaughter are offered up to Zeus, then they feast on the fat cattle for six days, queasy listening to the meat bellow while it is roasting.  When they are underway again, Zeus makes good on his promise to Helios and splits the ship with a lightning bolt on the open water.  All hands are lost, but they were hardly blameless.  Perhaps if they had known the prophecy, things might have turned out a little differently.

Odysseus’ punishment is to be washed up on Ogygia where the nymph Kalypso lives alone.   The figure of Kalypso asks the illustrator to imagine a woman beautiful enough to distract the hero for seven years on his voyage home. In the Butcher-Lang translation, H. J. Ford, a major illustrator of Lang’s Color Fairy Books, shows him brooding on the shore, staring out to sea, while the nymph stands behind him, veil billowing, in a transparent gown that seems to be made of cords (Charlize Theron’s gown with the uneven hem also had a ropy look).   The viewer is invited to consider he is always so averse to being adored by a goddess willing to make him immortal so he need never leave for Ithaka. My guess is that Kalypso’s conversation with Hermes where she complains about the double standard when goddesses take mortal men as lovers usually cuts to the veiled command that it is time to let him go because the prophecy states he will get home eventually.  The situation Ford depicts is psychologically plausible without probing below the surface. Probably only the youngest or dullest readers will not be able to read between the lines.

Odysseus offers perhaps the greatest test of the illustrator’s ability because the epithets associated with him point to the possibility of choosing more than one scene. “Much enduring” could mean drawing him half dead during a storm or suffering the attentions of Kalypso.  “Many minded” might suggest the scene where he directs his men to sharpen the point of the tree trunk in the fire to blind Polyphemus or grabbing his old nurse Eurycleia by the throat when she recognizes the scar on his leg, so her screams won’t attract attention.

“Zeus-born” and “divine” demand that he be shown as a hero who truly greater than ordinary men, which the climax of the homecoming epitomizes. Willy Pogany made him look like an ephebe, while Wyeth rather cleverly foreshadowed his triumph by showing him wrestling another beggar for the amusement of the suitors.  Alice and Martin Provensen were more successful than most in depicting him stringing the great bow after all the suitors fail, sending an arrow through twelve ax handles, and killing without mercy all those who dishonored his royal house and family by taking advantage of his absence to abuse the laws of hospitality (this was the Odyssey I had as a child so I may be blinded by nostalgia).  Francois offers a cartoony but more visceral take on the same scenes, which may be more satisfying to adults than young people.What the illustrator cannot do is let us hear Odysseus speaking to Athena, Alkinoos, Nausicaa, Penelope, Polyphemus, and Telemachus—that is the translator’s job.   When the words and pictures work well together, the epic’s complexity is celebrated.  When they fall short, we gain insight into the challenges The Odyssey has always posed to resellers and why new ones are eager to offer their own visions to readers.  A truly grand story like The Odyssey can encompass many retellings: no storyteller owns it, but makes additions and subtractions, some of which please or give pause, others more compelling to analyze than experience on the page or screen.  Can there ever be a best version of Homer?  Luckily not for us.