By G. Allen Johnson, Staff Writer July 20, 2026
Gift Article (SFChronicle.com)
Matt Damon stars as Odysseus in Christopher Nolan’s “The Odyssey.”Melinda Sue Gordon/Universal Pictures
Phil Cousineau has been obsessed with Homer’s “The Odyssey” since he was a child growing up in Michigan, which makes perfect sense for someone who became a mythologist.
The prolific author, now a longtime North Beach resident, has written a new book, “The Wisdom of the Odyssey: Twenty-Four Life Lessons From Homer’s Epic” that aims to help readers — or listeners to the audiobook — connect with the 2,800-year-old epic poem that is suddenly enjoying widespread renewed interest.
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The Wisdom of the Odyssey: Twenty-Four Life Lessons From Homer’s Epic
By Phil Cousineau
(New World Library; 272 pages; $19.95)
Phil Cousineau in conversation: 7 p.m. Friday, July 24. Copperfield’s Bookstore, 138 N. Main St., Sebastopol. www.copperfieldsbooks.com. • 6:30 p.m. Saturday, July 25. Telegraph Hill Books, 1501 Grant Ave., S.F. www.telegraphhillbooks.com. • 5:30 p.m. Aug. 25. Commonwealth Club, 110 The Embarcadero, S.F. www.commonwealthclub.org. For more events, go to www.philcousineau.net.
The book was timed to coincide with the opening of Christopher Nolan’s massive version of “The Odyssey,” which hit theaters on Friday, July 17, and pulled in $264 million at the global box office — including $124 million in North America — on its first weekend of release.
Since its publication on July 1, Cousineau’s book has leaped to No. 4 on the Chronicle’s Bay Area nonfiction paperback bestseller list, while Emily Wilson’s acclaimed 2017 translation of Homer’s original, which Nolan referred to while writing his screenplay, is No. 4 on the paperback fiction list.
Cousineau was a protégé of mythologist Joseph Campbell and, in the 1980s, worked on both the film and book about Campbell’s life and work, “The Hero’s Journey.”
“He loved ‘The Odyssey,’” Cousineau told the Chronicle of Campbell. “He thought it was the template for the so-called hero’s journey.”
In the 40 years since, Cousineau has led tours to Homeric locations in Greece, with the next beginning in September; has written more than 40 books, including the bestselling “The Art of Pilgrimage: The Seeker’s Guide to Making Travel Sacred”; has been a regular mythology and story consultant for movie studios, including Pixar, Lucasfilm and Warner Bros.; and hosted the PBS series “Global Spirit” (2007-18).
The Chronicle caught up with Cousineau by phone after the author finally saw Nolan’s film in 70 mm at the Alamo Drafthouse New Mission theater.
This conversation was edited for length and clarity.
Q: What did you think of the film?
A: One of my literary heroes, Albert Camus, once said, when asked about why he would bother to write about Sisyphus (the Greek mythological king who serves as the jumping-off point for Camus’ 1942 philosophical work “The Myth of Sisyphus”), “Every era has to breathe new life into the old stories.”
“The Odyssey” is a 3,000-year-old story, but the early bards kept breathing new life into it. New life was breathed into it all through the Middle Ages and now through film. It’s a universal story.
What I saw last night was a tremendous spectacle in the hands and eyes of Nolan.
But remember the word spectacle can be both good and bad. This is one of the most spectacular technical displays ever in the history of moviemaking, but it’s mostly appearances.
It’s a spectacular story of one guy (Odysseus, played by Matt Damon) wandering home after 10 savage years of war, and he’s waylaid for many reasons. Nolan pins it down to guilt. Guilt over the Trojan Horse, over war. This is a man who lost his home through war, and he’s looking for his soul again. He encounters a kind of projections of the mind, it’s Jungian in that way.
(Nolan’s) spectacle is wondrous. We will be talking about these images for several hundred years, but there’s also something missing in the heart of it.
Q: What specifically is Nolan missing?
A: My belief is that (the poem) is the world’s first great, deep love story. (Odysseus) is pulled back because of the love of Penelope, but also the love of his unmet son and the love of the land of Ithaca itself. Somehow this is missing in the way that Nolan’s version of the story is resolved.
Some of the early scenes with Penelope (Anne Hathaway) are really breathtaking in the way that art should be. But (the resolution), suddenly, we’re going back to John Wayne (movies) and “Shane.” It’s one man against the world. The Western hero is one man against everybody, one man against evil. Homer is taking on the source of evil.
This version is heavily influenced by American Western movies to appeal to as many people as possible. I get, on one level, that it’s a $250 million movie, so in order to get that back, you’ve got to go wide.
But the audience was laughing, crying, gasping. It’s wonderful for me to have it visualized like this. The image of the Trojan Horse, half buried in the water and half in the sand, oh, I will never forget that. That is the beauty, the power, the spectacle of cinema.
The wisdom of “The Odyssey” in the epic poem is when Odysseus is asked by his wife Penelope, “Tell me of your ordeal. What did you experience the last 20 years?” After they’ve made love, there’s a reconciliation. It’s not just yearning and longing; it’s consummated in the best sense of the word. They are in bed, but what happens, which is so glorious: The two of them tell stories until dawn.
Then he asks her, something male authors forgot: “What was it like for you to deal with all these suitors? What was it like to raise our son all alone?” This is one of the great endings to any story. It’s romantic, but it’s also mythic, and it completes the story, it comes full circle.
Q: Like Nolan’s film, “The Wisdom of the Odyssey” is also trying to bring new readers to the original. What are some of the life lessons you found?
A: Before Telemachus (Tom Holland in the film) searches for his father, the man that trains him and helps him get on the ship and goes with him is named Mentor (Ryan Hurst). This is where we get our word mentor. In Greek, it means “mind maker.”
So one of my life lessons from the book is, when you are at a crossroads, especially when you’re young, get outside of yourself, be humble enough to seek a mentor. Find a coach, an uncle, a grandfather, somebody wise somewhere and be humble enough to take some advice.
Another one is the idea of conflating stories. Odysseus heals himself by telling stories. He has forgotten so much because of the trauma of war and he needs to retrieve the memories. He does this in the poem on a magical island, where he tells his story to the king and the queen and all the aristocrats around. He has everyone in the palace under his thumb.
So I use this as a lesson to say, “If you don’t tell your own story, you are a victim of somebody else’s story and they will tell it for you.” At Thanksgiving dinner, ask other people what you were like when you were a kid. Everybody will have a different version.
The life lesson that I love so much — and frankly, I’m disappointed that it’s missing in Nolan’s version — is, as I said, when Odysseus and Penelope are in bed, they don’t just tell each other stories; they listen to each other.
That’s a beautiful circle. It’s not just us talking to each other; it’s also listening. Fifty percent of the book is in dialogue. Homer is telling us a great, great lesson.
Q: I take it that, other than Odysseus, Penelope is your favorite character?
A: She is not just sentimental devotion waiting for her husband to return. She is every bit his equal. She is shrewd. She’s tough and tender. That is astonishing. It’s 2,000-plus years ahead of its time. You won’t find another completely well-rounded three-dimensional woman in literature for a long time.
That’s why I love the rise of all these women (who are translating and interpreting “The Odyssey”) — Emily Wilson; Madeline Miller, who wrote “Circe” (2018); Margaret Atwood (“The Penelopiad,” 2005).
Q: What is something you’ve discovered about “The Odyssey” during the course of studying it for so many years?
That “The Odyssey” is the bridge between ancient Greek mythology and Greek philosophy. They are no longer just relying on all the gods. “Don’t have your own opinion, just trust the gods. We’re in the hands of the gods.”
James Joyce (author of the 1922 “Odyssey”-inspired classic novel “Ulysses”) once said, “Odysseus is the world’s first complete human being.” All the gamut of human emotions is in this one character. He begins to speak for himself. And what is that? That’s a version of philosophy.
I also think it’s one of the instigations for the rise of Greek drama — Euripides, Aeschylus, Sophocles.
Q: What’s the most underrated theme in “The Odyssey”?
A: We are in a world where so many of us are pitted against each other with the sense that the stranger is evil. Be careful about our borders, right? This is a story about hospitality, and the violation of it, Zeus’ law.
Staff Writer
G. Allen Johnson is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer.
We cannot easily correct our defects and weak points as they are dyed deeply within us… To give a person one’s opinion and correct his faults is an important thing. It is compassionate and comes first in matters of service. But the way of doing this is extremely difficult.
