Christendom senior Hannah Blosser ’27, like millions around the globe, went to see film director Christopher Nolan’s adaptation of Homer’s The Odyssey this summer, approaching it with a critical eye honed by years of studying the ancient world at Christendom. Her consideration of the film, both as a classicist and as a liberal arts student, led her to write an essay about it — one that has now earned recognition in an international contest and been published by the University of Waterloo.
Blosser, a passionate classicist, initially approached Nolan’s Odyssey with skepticism, finding herself focusing solely on the film’s departures from its ancient source material. But as she continued reflecting and talking about the film in the weeks that followed, her perspective began to change.
That reconsideration ultimately became “The Poet Still Sings: Christopher Nolan and the Homeric Tradition,” an essay that earned Blosser recognition in a contest hosted by Epic Threads, an undergraduate journal at the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada. She entered the contest at the encouragement of Christendom Classics professor Dr. William Farris, with her essay subsequently published by the journal, marking her first published work related to her study of Classics at Christendom.
The contest invited students and scholars to assess how thoughtfully Nolan reflected on ancient sources and the scholarly tradition, how creatively he engaged with them, and how successfully his adaptation conveyed Homer’s old lore and fresh ideas to a 21st-century audience. Crucially, the contest emphasized that art should not be assessed through a list of discrepancies with the source material, but rather on the basis of what the creator has achieved for his or her audience — an emphasis that unlocked the film for Blosser.
“There is much to say about Christopher Nolan’s film The Odyssey, but setting aside all politics and partisan debates about casting and accuracy, it is a well-told adaptation of Homer’s poem,” writes Blosser. “Again, it is Nolan’s Odyssey, not Homer’s, but it utilizes the source material well to create a version of the story that is understandable to modern viewers. Just as Homer told the ancient story of Troy through the eyes of his own age to viewers who understood the world in which he lived, Nolan tells us the same story through the eyes of our own age.”
For Blosser, the review provided an opportunity to draw on not only her knowledge of Homer’s texts and the ancient world, but the breadth of her liberal arts education at Christendom as well.
“Studying Classics at Christendom has given me the ability to synthesize material from a variety of fields when writing or researching Classical or Ancient topics,” says Blosser. “Each class I have taken, whether in Latin or Greek or any other subject, utilizes sources and authors from across the liberal arts tradition. So, when I approached writing a review of Nolan’s Odyssey, I felt confident applying my knowledge of Classical authors to a modern adaption that in and of itself was a synthesis of both ancient and modern sources.”
For Blosser, having her essay published also represents a milestone as she enters the final year of her undergraduate education at Christendom. After years spent studying Latin, Greek, and the broader liberal arts, the contest offered an opportunity to apply that education to a major contemporary engagement with the classical world.
“This is the first Classics-related piece I have had published,” says Blosser. “It really affirms the fact that I have come far enough in my education and my major to be able to write something that is worthy of recognition.”
The achievement also emphasized for Blosser the value of the liberal arts education she has received at Christendom over the course of the last four years.
“It is also a testament to the well-rounded education we receive at Christendom, as it demonstrates the skills we are taught in both the liberal arts tradition as well as in practical areas such as written expression,” says Blosser. “I’ve also never received an award for my writing, so I’m honored that the editors at Epic Threads have given me this recognition.”
Read Blosser’s award-winning essay here.