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New film The Odyssey based on bloodbath epic poem with hundreds of gruesome deaths

It might be the hottest new film of the summer, but The Odyssey has been around almost 3,000 years. And when it came to drama, those ancient Greeks didnt hold back

[They look pretty scary - and so they should]

They look pretty scary - and so they should(Image: Melinda Sue Gordon)

Star-studded epic The Odyssey is out this week, starring Matt Damon as Odysseus and Zendaya as Athena, goddess of wisdom. It follows the hero on his perilous journey home from the ten-year Trojan War.

The movie is based on the poem attributed to ancient Greek author Homer. Here Meg Jorsh digs out some facts you Odyssey

Homer away: A blind bard from the coastal Ionia region, Homer was one of historys most revered writers. He also almost certainly did not exist.

Historians now believe his epic poems the Odyssey and the Iliad were composed by many authors over hundreds of years, as part of an oral storytelling tradition.

[Homer sounds a lot like the average writer in temperament]

Homer sounds a lot like the average writer in temperament(Image: Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

Homer lone: According to legend, Homer came to a tragic end when he retired to the island of Ios in the 8 th century BC.

He was posed a riddle by some fishermens children: What we caught we threw away; what we didn't catch we kept.

When he failed to guess the answer lice he fell into a deep depression and died of grief.

Home of the brave: Homer Simpson was not named after Homer. The bumbling Simpsons dad got his moniker from cartoonist Matt Groenings father, the filmmaker Homer Groening.

Troy boy: In the poem, Odysseus travels from Troy an ancient city in present-day anakkale, Turkey across the Mediterranean to the Greek island of Ithaca.

The movie was filmed in many of the same locations, including the Sicilian island of Favignana, where the hero barbecues goats with his men.

[Expect plenty of drama if you go and see the movie]

Expect plenty of drama if you go and see the movie(Image: Melinda Sue Gordon)

Sole survivor: The original story is an absolute bloodbath. Odysseus leaves Troy with a fleet of 12 ships and around 600 men.

But due to storms, monsters, and a certain incident where the crew eat the sacred cattle of the sun god Helios, he ends up the only one to make it back to Ithaca alive.

Puppet master: Shot entirely with IMAX cameras, the movie uses more than two million feet of film.

And director Christopher Nolan prefers analogue stunts to CGI special effects. He set up a puppet 60 feet tall to play Polyphemus, a monstrous Cyclops voiced by Bill Irwin, in a cave in Crete.

[Matt Damon shows off his impressive beard as Odysseus]

Matt Damon shows off his impressive beard as Odysseus(Image: Melinda Sue Gordon)

Hair raising: Matt Damon had to grow a real beard for the 91-day shoot, which he calls the toughest experience of his career.

Nolan explains: Im not a big fan of wigs and fake beards. You want the physicality of real hair, so that you can put a firehose on the guy and do all the things we need him to do.

Sequel wrongs: Just two lines remain of a lost sequel to The Odyssey, called the Telegony, in which Odysseus is accidentally killed by his son Telegonus, who then marries his own stepmother Penelope. Given all that, we cant see Christopher Nolan getting involved.

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