The Odyssey

Corrected entry: In the Cyclops cave, Odysseus tells his men not to slay the sleeping giant, otherwise they would be trapped behind the huge stone door, yet there is a space above the door showing sunlight about 3 feet by 2 feet. They could not climb up 20 feet to escape?

Correction: Evidently the space is not big enough for men to escape with all their gear. Two feet by three feet is not that big for a grown man, and they could easily get stuck.

Corrected entry: The cork on the sack of winds, often changes from being white to being brown.

Correction: No, the cork is always white, but there is a brown leather covering partially over it.

Corrected entry: Eurylochus' speech to the Trojans when they first discover the horse is slightly out of sync.

Correction: His lips are in perfect sync.

Corrected entry: When the wooden horse is being pulled into Troy, there is an overhead shot in which you can tell that it's at least 15 feet taller than the city gates. How did they get it inside?

Correction: It was intentional. The Trojans had to take apart part of the walls and gates to get it in. The Greeks couldn't break through the Trojan walls so they built the horse intentionally bigger than the gate. They left behind one man with a story to entice the Trojans to get the horse into the city. This way, the Trojans broke through their own walls allowing the rest of the Greek army into the city.

Rlvlk

Correction: He got the armor from his ship, of course. At this point he realized that Circe was holding him back, and perceived her as an enemy, so he armed himself from the ship's storage.

Twotall

Corrected entry: Achilles' corpse is covered in wounds when they unveil it. But when Odysseus sets the torch on him, all of these wounds have disappeared.

Correction: He was the son of a goddess. In the original myth, Zeus prevented any damage to be done to Hector's body after death and left him looking better than when he was alive. Achilles' mom stepped in here.

Rlvlk

Corrected entry: No coins are put on Achilles' eyes or tongue at his funeral. In Greek times, they always would put coins in either the eyes or tongue of the dead so that they could pay the ferryman in the Underworld.

Correction: Not always and Achilles was the son of a goddess. According to the myths, Hercules climbed atop his pyre still alive with no coins. There are many more references like that in the myths.

Rlvlk

Corrected entry: Odysseus is dressed differently whilst climbing up the cliff to get to Circe's palace than what he is wearing when he enters the palace.

Correction: He is wearing the same clothes, he just pulls his tunic over his shoulder after reaching the palace.

Corrected entry: The Trojan soothsayer wades out a short distance into the sea (below knee-depth) and then suddenly Poseidon's sea serpent appears and attacks him. Shot cuts backward to a visibly frightened group of Trojans on the shore, and in a flash the soothsayer is much further from the shore than he previously was, struggling in the serpent's coils.

Correction: The sea serpent pulls him out further in the sea.

Corrected entry: During the battle in Odysseus (Armand Assante)'s throne room at the end of the film, his son Telemachus hurls two spears at two of the evil suitors. Both are hit in the chest and go flying all the way back across the room to hit the wall. One problem: There's no amount of force from a thrown spear that could make them fly that far! It's ridiculous.

Correction: Actually, the force that can make the men fly that far is Athena. (According to the writer of the story, Homer).

Continuity mistake: When Elpenor says "We will not reach Ithaca without you" Odysseus replies "Yes you will" and hugs him. In that shot Odysseus' right hand is on Elpenor's back, but in the next as Odysseus says "It is I who am lost" his hand is on Elpenor's head.

More mistakes in The Odyssey

Athena: The gods cannot do for man what man must do for himself.

More quotes from The Odyssey

Trivia: The makers placed an animatronic head over a sumo wrestler's body to create the cyclops.

More trivia for The Odyssey

Question: At the beginning of the movie, when the men are boarding the ship, a line of sailors are marching single file, nodding their heads up and down and chanting "Ahh-ah, ah-ooh" repeatedly. What are they doing this for?

Answer: It's a marching chant, sort of like an ancient version of the marching music we have now.

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More questions & answers from The Odyssey

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