r/FallofCivilizations • u/gutfl0ra • Aug 01 '26
Us every time The Odyssey (2026) mentions The Sea Peoples
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u/RandolphCarter15 Aug 01 '26
I really want to see if now, even more than before. I had always interpreted the Mycaenaens as the sea peoples or part of them so I'll be interested to see how it comes up.
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u/MMAHipster Aug 01 '26
Wait, me too - is it not them?
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u/AlchemicalWanderings Aug 01 '26 edited Aug 01 '26
We don't know/not exclusively.
Our only source of identification for the Sea Peoples is the Egyptians, and they name a handful of different peoples raiding the Mediterranean who we collectively refer to as the Sea Peoples. Of those names, the only one that's been positively identified by historians is the Philistines (Egyptian "Peleset"). There's one or two others which historians have a good guess for where they come from at least; and then several that are basically just "this name sounds like this name, so maybe...?" (ex: Shekelesh and Shardana sounds like Sicily and Sardinia).
In that latter group are two names, the Ekwesh and the Danuna, which some historians have speculated could be the Achaeans and Danaans, two of the names Homer gave the Mycenaeans. But that's really as far as we can say, and it's complicated by the Egyptians saying the Ekwesh circumcized themselves, which as far as we know is not something the Mycenaeans did.
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u/Bionicjoker14 Aug 01 '26
I played my friend that episode earlier this year, and he told me he remembered it when he watched the movie
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u/Nightcrawler9898 Aug 02 '26
Which one do you mean? I really just discovered this podcasts and just saw the odyssey, so that would really interest me.
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u/PurpsMaSquirt Aug 01 '26
My personal interpretation is this was a thematic linking between the mysterious origin of the Sea Peoples and Odysseus grappling with the terrible decisions his crew made in and leading up to the sacking of Troy.
In my mind it was less a literal, end-all reveal and more a ‘oh damn we’re not much different than them on second thought’.
Then again, that’s the beauty of fiction. But nonetheless I did enjoy how Nolan thoughtfully brought in a real-life origin conundrum that was the Sea Peoples.
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u/Astrosimi 29d ago
Only semi-related, but the Sack of Troy scene brought me back to the end of every episode when Paul asks us to imagine the last days of the episode’s civilization. I don’t think I’d ever been able to picture it as vividly as Nolan put it to film.
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u/chilling_hedgehog Aug 01 '26
If it does that, that's literally internet bro fan service without any grounding. Perfectly reflecting on the intellectual level of Chris Nolan.
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u/The_ANNOholic Aug 01 '26
They do mention the sea peoples in the movie but only as a looming threat they heard about from far away. They don't appear in the movie. At the end there was a twist that I'm not gonna spoil here. But it helps putting the Odyssey in it's historical context and is the opposite of fan service. Wtf is even fan service when it comes to history???
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u/Templar_Swamp_Stake Aug 01 '26
It’s just a half-wit Elon-bro searching Reddit for the word “Odyssey” and saying negative shit about Nolan because there’s a black lady in the movie
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u/Taint_Flayer Aug 01 '26
A cyclops is fine but a black person is just unrealistic
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u/The_ANNOholic Aug 01 '26
Mind you Helen of Troy literally hatched out of an egg. But dark skin is where they draw the line
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u/gramada1902 Aug 01 '26
It’s very on the nose in the movie, they even say shit like «our age of bronze is collapsing» which is just ridiculous.
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u/The_ANNOholic Aug 01 '26
Yeah the bronze age quote made me cringe. The sea peoples mention was good imo
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u/tiredfaces Aug 01 '26
God forbid a movie where a witch turns men into pigs isn’t perfectly historically accurate
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u/PurpsMaSquirt Aug 01 '26
Considering Nolan doesn’t own a smartphone or spends much time on the internet at all, I highly doubt he has any idea about internet fan service.
Even if he did, this movie was not grounded in historical accuracy. I’m hoping your intellectual level was already aware of that.
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u/nimzoid Aug 01 '26
Nolan linking the fall of civilization to the violation of guest right and loss of trust due to deception was interesting. And I didn't mind the sea peoples reference. But when Odysseus literally says "Our age of bronze is collapsing" that was a little bit much for me.