O Brother, Where Art Thou? as compared to Homer's Odyssey

Hello World Wide Web!

         This is my first ever blog post, so I'm starting by posting something that I already had written for a college class. My classical mythology class required us to watch a movie, play, or television show based on mythology and then review (1) how accurately it portrayed the myth and (2) whether or not it was any good. As such, one of my family’s favorite films to watch is O Brother, Where Art Thou?

         When I heard in class that it was based off of Homer’s The Odyssey, I thought, “Really? Go figure,” and decided to watch it once again, this time listening and keeping in mind that the film supposedly told the same story as the poem. Fortunately, I have read Homer’s The Odyssey before; unfortunately, it has been five years since then, and I certainly was not reading the epic poem for analysis purposes at the time. Due to this, most of the connections made between the film and the poem will be made with the aid of Arthur Fairbanks’s The Mythology of Greece and Rome (which can be found on Googlebooks), though some details come from my vague remembrances of my personal reading. As such, while I can see many parallels between O Brother, Where Art Thou? and The Odyssey, the film is not a mythically accurate one by any means, even though it is such a great movie that I do not mind watching it time and time again in order to notice new ideas and details.

         First of all, the general premise for both The Odyssey and O Brother, Where Art Thou? is the same. Not only is the general storyline remarkably similar, but also Homer is even given credit as one of the writers for the film—I wonder if anyone thought to ask him about that. The film even begins with the opening lines of The Odyssey: “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 . . .” The main plot is the same in both. Our hero, who has been imprisoned, breaks free and journeys home to his wife. On the journey, many trials, hijinks, and detours occur that delay his return back home. Certain events and characters harken back to Homer’s The Odyssey within the film, as well as some small details that were thrown in here and there just to remind the viewer, if watching close enough, that the epic poem was the basis of the story.

         The main characters in both The Odyssey and O Brother, Where Art Thou? have the same name, cementing the parallels between the two. Homer’s Odysseus is in fact reincarnated in Ulysses Everett McGill, as “Ulysses” is simply the Latin form of “Odysseus.” In the film, the main characters—

Ulysses Everett McGill (George Clooney), Pete (John Turturro), and Delmar (Tim Blake Nelson)—only truly begin their journey by hopping onto a railcar being moved by a blind black man. This man proceeds to tell the trio some details of their future journey, including telling them that the “treasure” they seek may not be the one they look for. This prophet figure parallels with the soul of Teiresias, who Odysseus sought out to learn about the trials during his journey home before they actually happened in order to avoid them if possible. Both the film and the poem include sirens, 

beautiful women—or half-women—whose singing voices charm men and cause them to do things that they normally would not do. In The Odyssey, Odysseus and companions are able to pass by them without issue due to the advice of Teiresias, but O Brother’s Everett, Pete, and Delmar are not so lucky. Pete supposedly is transformed into a horny toad, much to Delmar’s dismay. The idea of transformation of the hero’s companions occurs in The Odyssey as well through Circe’s transforming of Odysseus’s companions into swine. Fortunately, the swine are eventually turned back into men. Unfortunately, “Pete” the toad in O Brother is later squished by the film’s Cyclops character 

Big Dan Teague, a large one-eyed monster that loves to eat meat. Homer’s Polyphemus kills the main character’s companions in a different but slightly more gruesome way—he simply eats them.

         While the journeys home in both The Odyssey and O Brother, Where Art Thou? include many parallels, the trials that Odysseus and Everett face once returning home are extremely similar, with many parallels happening within a small space of time. First, both main characters return home to find that others are courting their wives and that their wives are not exactly discouraging them. Of course, Penelope discourages her suitors for as long as she can, while Penny—another strikingly similar name for the reincarnation of a character—does all she can to keep her ex-husband away in order to provide for her daughters with a more worthy suitor. Both main characters have to use a disguise in order to sneak inside someplace to see their wives. Odysseus sneaks inside his own house while Everett sneaks inside a political rally. The disguise they both use is that of a beggar or homeless wanderer. 

The wife of both characters also sets an impossible task for the husband to do to make sure he is home for good. In The Odyssey, Penelope brings out Odysseus’s bow and a line of double axes, proclaiming that the suitor who can shoot the arrow through all of the axe heads will be her husband. Only Odysseus, who is still in disguise, is able to complete the challenge, leading to the happy reuniting of husband and wife. In O Brother, Penny tells Everett to retrieve their old wedding ring from their cabin, which she says is in a roll-top desk. After a short series of unfortunate events, Everett returns with the ring from the desk only to find it is the wrong ring. Penny then declares that Everett has to find the real ring, which is at the bottom of a very large lake at this point; a challenge that Everett proclaims is “one hell of a heroic task.”

         In addition to similar plot devices in both the film and the poem, there are small details in the film that relate back to the original myth. The personality of the main character is one such detail. Both Odysseus and Everett are smooth-talking, intelligent men who can find an answer for any question asked and a solution for any problem they come across. Unfortunately, I believe that this comes at the price of their morality. Both are on a journey back to see their wives, but neither of them have anything against sleeping with other women on the way home. Odysseus, if I am remembering correctly, manages to find the time to have some fun with nymphs and princesses, while Everett intends to sleep with one of the sirens from the river. After finding Pete missing, Everett acknowledges that having sex probably would not have been a good thing, but, as Delmar says, he was “fixin’ to fornicate.” Another small detail that could be easily overlooked in O Brother, Where Art Thou? was the name of the candidate for governor, Homer Stokes. I assume that this inclusion of the original plot’s author is similar to how Stan Lee is incorporated into all of his superhero movies, but only a name was used since Homer himself is no longer with us, having died over 2,000 years ago. Other details are more vague. Both The Odyssey and O Brother include a water-related natural hazard. Odysseus has to navigate around the whirlpool of Charybdis, and Everett has to swim through a flood brought about by the building of a dam. Another reference is not even Greek, but it does trace back to ancient Rome. When Everett learns that his daughters are using his wife’s maiden name, he declares that he is the pater familias, a Latin term used in Roman society for basically the head of a household.

         As described, there are many parallels and similarities between Homer’s The Odyssey and the film O Brother, Where Art Thou? Even as I make these connections, though, I have to acknowledge that the film was a modern remake and many of the plot details, such as the setting and the time period, would be mythically incorrect. Originally, The Odyssey takes place in the Mediterranean and the various islands found throughout the sea. Odysseus’s journey takes ten years after the Trojan War around 12^th century BCE. O Brother puts the setting in a more relatable, at least to American audiences, rural Mississippi with small towns, cows, and all. The timing is during the Great Depression of the 1930s, which contributes to why Penny is looking for a suitor that can support her and her daughters and why George Nelson is traveling the countryside robbing banks. Someone watching the film that has knowledge of The Odyssey also has to acknowledge that Homer’s epic poem is a myth. Yes, there are probably parts of the poem based off real history—a war between Greece and Troy—but the majority of the content is not historically accurate. In comparison, O Brother is more historical than mythical, using real historical events—the Great Depression—to outline the characters’ motivations and costumes to match the time period chosen for the setting.

         Despite the details that link The Odyssey to O Brother, Where Art Thou? and the completely different settings and time periods, I would recommend O Brother, Where Art Thou? to almost anyone, which is something I have certainly done in the past. The depression of the time period when it is set is overlaid by the multitude of comedic events in the film. These events range from small, such as the repeated “Damn, we’re in a tight spot!” near the beginning when the trio is being smoked out of Pete’s cousin’s barn, to longer and more involved, such as Everett’s frequent exclamations of “My hair!” and obsession with “Dapper Dan” hair pomade that eventually leads to him being tracked down using his hair treatment’s smell. The comedy also reaches from the dark, such as the accidental coming-across of a Ku Klux Klan rally and subsequent disguise as “colored” color guards, to more light-hearted, such as the “He’s a suitor!” proclamation and the “Do you have a maiden name, Daddy?” question of the Wharvey gals. O Brother also appeals to me as an ex-choir member and life-long singer through its many catchy songs. While the film cannot be considered a musical by any means, the soundtrack is so enjoyable that my family owns a copy that we had bought almost immediately after watching the film for the first time. Not only does a song—“Man of Constant Sorrow”—contribute to Everett’s wife’s acceptance of him, but singing is used to emphasize the mood in other scenes, specifically “Didn’t Leave Nobody But the Baby” during the siren scene and “Lonesome Valley” during the near-hanging scene at the end of the film. Both the comedy and the musical numbers are major reasons that I believe that O Brother, Where Art Thou? is a great film to see even if the audience knows nothing about Homer’s The Odyssey.

         On a side note, over fall break I actually heard "Man of Constant Sorrow" over the radio in a deli I ate lunch at during a trip. I busted out laughing (and singing of course!).