Director Christopher Nolan's new film "The Odyssey" has introduced one of the world's oldest stories to a new audience, prompting renewed discussion around why Homer's epic continues to resonate nearly 2,700 years after it was composed. 

Charles Platter, professor of classics in the University of Georgia's Franklin College of Arts and Sciences, joined WABE's In These Times  with Bill Nigut to discuss the film and the enduring appeal of The Odyssey. After teaching Homer at UGA since 1990, Platter says the poem's lasting power lies in its ability to meet each generation where it is. 

"Every generation finds a different Odyssey," he said. 

Today's students often arrive expecting monsters, shipwrecks, and heroic exploits. They leave thinking about compassion, identity, family, and what makes a meaningful life. 

"I think one of the things my students appreciate is the importance the poem gives to the idea of xenia," Platter said, referring to the Greek ideal of hospitality toward strangers. "If you practice it, you are a good person. If you don't—we are talking about you, Cyclops!—you are not." 

For Platter, those questions explain why the poem has endured across centuries. 

"The Odyssey ultimately teaches that life is hard," he said, "but there are values that help both you and the people around you thrive."  

Those values include treating others with compassion, thinking critically versus relying on force, and remaining focused on worthwhile goals. 

Although The Odyssey  is remembered for encounters with the Cyclops, the Sirens, and other mythical dangers, Platter argues that adventure occupies only a fraction of the poem. 

"The other three quarters feels to me like an intense study of who Odysseus is to different people," he said.  

Family members, servants, fellow warriors, and even enemies reveal different sides of the hero, creating a portrait of someone far more complicated than his legendary exploits suggest. 

That complexity begins with the poem's opening word describing Odysseus: polytropos, often translated as "many-sided" or "complicated." 

"Maybe we read for adventure when we were young," Platter said, "but stay on for the nuance." 

The conversations surrounding the poem have evolved during Platter's 36 years at UGA. Students now arrive after years of reading mythology-inspired novels and watching fantasy films. Those stories provide a point of entry, he said, but Homer asks readers to grapple with questions that resist easy answers. 

"The good news is that they seem to do it eagerly," he said. "Students are not afraid to confront questions that don't have an easy answer." 

For Platter, that willingness to wrestle with ambiguity reflects the enduring value of studying the humanities. He describes literature as "a laboratory for thinking." 

Unlike everyday life, where decisions are often made quickly, literature allows readers to observe difficult situations from a distance, consider multiple perspectives, and reflect before reaching conclusions. 

"When I talk about the ancient world as a lab experiment, I mean that we get to observe it, but from a distance," Platter said. "We take the time to examine questions from many sides before deciding how we think." 

Listen to the interview on In These Times with Bill Nigut