Lidiana Velazquez
Professor Harlitz Kern
EUH 2011
28 September 2016
Paper 1
At first, one would not assume that the film O Brother, Where Art Thou is based on the The Odyssey, but they would be wrong. The Odyssey is a Greek epic poem that follows a hero, Odysseus, on his nostos. Odysseus left his home to battle for an ally’s kidnapped wife at the battle of Troy. However, after the battle is won he spends a decade trying to return back home. The Odyssey chronicles his adventures and the setbacks he suffers on his journey. O Brother, Where Art Thou is a film that chronicles the adventures of an escaped convict, Ulysses Everett McGill, and his two companions. Everett, like Odysseus, is fighting to get back home to his family. Despite the obvious distinctions, the film clearly parallels The Odyssey.
The first clue that O Brother, Where Art Thou is based on the epic comes along in the first minute of the film. The opening line of the film is:
O Muse!
Sing in me, and through me tell the story
Of that man skilled in all the ways of contending,
A wanderer, harried for years on end…(O Brother, Where Art Thou, 0:46-0:56)
Like The Odyssey, the film opens with an invocation of the muse. The inclusion of this invocation immediately creates a link between the two works.
There are numerous similarities between The Odyssey and O Brother, Where Art Thou that prove that the film is based on the Greek epic. One of the most overt of the similarities is the names used in the film. The name of the main character in O Brother, Where Art Thou is Ulysses Everett McGill. The name Ulysses is the latin name for Odysseus, the name of the hero in Homer’s epic, The Odyssey. In the film, the name of Everett’s wife is also clearly adopted from the Greek epic. Odysseus’ wife is named Penelope and Everett’s wife is named Penny, which is often a nickname for Penelope.
In both The Odyssey and O Brother, Where Art Thou, the main characters escape from a situation that is holding them back in order to get back to their families. In the first pages of The Odyssey the reason for Odysseus’ delay back home is revealed:
But one man alone…
his heart set on his wife and his return—Calypso,
the bewitching nymph, the lustrous Goddess, held him back,
deep in her aching caverns, craving him for a husband. (Homer, The Odyssey, p.78)
Odysseus had been held captive by Calypso on an island for seven years. He finally escapes with help from the gods. Similarly, Everett escapes prison to reunite with his family, although he gets help from two slow-witted convicts rather than gods. Although they do it in different ways, both characters escape captivity to return home.
The parallels between the film and the epic are extensive. Both Odysseus and Everett have men with them, assisting them along the way, and at times, making things more difficult for them. Additionally, both men are desperately trying to get back to their wives. In Odysseus’ case, his faithful wife Penelope waits for him for ten years. Despite having her pick of suitors, she never takes another husband. Although she loses faith at times, she refuses to let herself or her son believe that Odysseus is dead. In contrast, Everett’s wife becomes engaged to another man, which is what prompts him to escape prison in the first place. She also tells their three daughters that he was hit and killed by a train. Despite their different circumstances, both Odysseus and Everett do everything they can to get their family back together. Odysseus achieves this by killing all the suitors in his home when he gets back. Everett, on the other hand, does it by punching Penny’s fiancé and setting out to find her original wedding band. Although they have different situations to work with, both Odysseus and Everett are dedicated to their wives and their children.
In both The Odyssey and O Brother Where Art Thou, the main characters have their future foretold by a blind prophet. In the film, the prophet is a blind man who gives the trio a ride on his handcart. The man tells Everett that “You will find a fortune, though it will not be the fortune you seek” (O Brother, Where Art Thou, 7:13-7:18). This ends up being true in the end when he find the wrong wedding band for his wife. In The Odyssey, the prophet Tiresias predicts some difficulties for Odysseus’ journey. Tiresias tells him that “A sweet journey home, renowned Odysseus, that is what you seek but a god will make it hard for you” (Homer, The Odyssey, p. 252). This prophesy ends up coming true since Poseidon does all he can to make Odysseus pay for blinding the Cyclops.