Instant reaction to Christopher Nolan's "Odyssey"
We have just got back from watching Nolan's Odyssey film. There have been a great many comments on this film but few if any on the most interesting thing about it - the way it links the legends from Homer's mythic poem to real historical events, e.g. the civilisational collapse at the end of the late Bronze age.
Archaeological evidence is consistent with Troy VII having being sacked in the early 12th century BC, possibly around the date for the fall of Troy proposed by the ancient Greek philosopher Eratosthenes, which was 1184 BCE.
E.g. shortly before the late Bronze age collapse which the historian Eric Cline dates to 1175 BCE. He wrote a book on the collapse which nails his colours firmly to the mast on tht date:
1177 B.C.: The Year Civilization Collapsed, by Eric H Cline
It certainly does appear that most of the other Mediterranean civilisations went down like ninepins not long after Troy did, collapsing completely in many cases or surviving but greatly weakened in Egypt's case. There was then a dark age, although there is some dispute about how long it lasted. Many historians think about two or three centuries.
There were multiple reasons for the string of disasters which overtook these civilisations, but one was a wave of attacks by marauders known to us only as the “Sea peoples.”
We won’t write too much here to avoid spoiling the film, but we were impressed by the way that a number of characters spoke with concern about possible attacks by the Sea Peoples, and towards the end of the film it is explicitly suggested that the Trojan war might have helped precipitate a dark age. This was very well integrated into the story. For those of us with enough knowledge of history to realise that the balance of evidence suggests there really was a dark age which began shortly after the fall of Troy, that made those elements of the story more powerful.
We may publish a full review shortly.
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