Homers Odyssey and O Brother Where Art Thou

The Odyssey, by Homer is a grand epic poem that tells the story of the Greek hero, Odysseus, and his journey home to Ithaca following the fall of Troy. This oft told epic journey is a common and popular literary plot; one around which many films have been fashioned. The movie O Brother Where Art Thou?, directed by Joel and Ethan Coen, exhibits many similarities to Homer’s epic tale, beginning with a translation of the first line, which is displayed during the opening credits:

“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 …”1

The brothers Coen go on to actually give credit to Homer’s Odyssey, but is one really based on the other? The Coen brothers themselves have at times variously denied ever having read the Odyssey or admitted to borrowing heavily from it.2 Janice Segal, in her article comparing the similarities between the works, points out that the “tweaking… [of the usual] translation of the poem’s opening line… hints of further liberties to come in the Coens’ adaptation.”2 By looking closely at O Brother where Art Thou? we will consider Homer’s Odyssey and compare the two.

The film begins with Ulysses McGill Everett and his two cohorts, Delbert O’Donnell and Pete Hogwallup, escaping from a chain gang. The setting is rural Mississippi during the Great Depression of the 1930s. Everett has enticed Pete and Delbert to escape with him by promising them each a share in a $1.2 million treasure that he has stashed away. Supposedly, Everett stole the money from an armored car and buried it in a valley that is now due to be flooded as part of a TWA hydroelectric project. The trio’s quest is to retrieve the treasure before the valley is flooded in a just few days time. Odysseus, our hero in Homer’s Odyssey, begins his ten year journey home after the war with Troy with a break-out, as well. Odysseus, after being blown off course and ship wrecked on his journey back to Ithaca, winds up being held on Calypso’s island, against his will. With the help and intervention of the gods, Athena and Zeus, Calypso finally allows Odysseus to escape his captivity.4

We find out later in the film that Everett’s true quest is to return home and prevent his beloved Penny (typically a nickname for Penelope), who has divorced Everett during his incarceration, from marrying a bona fide suitor, Vernon T. Waldrop. Penny, it seems, has told everyone, including Everett’s own daughters, that he has been hit by a train and is dead. The tale of the treasure was just a ruse to convince Delmar and Pete, who were chained to Everett, to escape with him. Similarly, Odysseus is also trying to get home to his own beloved Penelope. She has been besieged by suitors of her own, who believe, because of Odysseus’ lengthy absence, that he too, must surly be dead.

There appear to be references to the Odyssey in the Coens’ use of names, as well. Everett is trying to return home to Ithaca, Mississippi, while Odysseus is trying to make his way home to Ithaca, Greece. In addition to the similarity of Penny and Penelope’s names, Everett’s own first name, Ulysses also bears a connection to Odysseus. In Virgil’s’ Aeneid, Odysseus’s name takes on the Latin form, Ulysses.5

Unable to hop aboard a freight train to make their escape, the trio hitches a ride with an old blind man working a hand car down the track. Everett, Pete and Delmar are enthralled as he begins to prophesize about their journey and the obstacles they will encounter along the way.

“You seek a great fortune, you three who are now in chains. . . . And you will find a fortune-though it will not be the fortune you seek. . . . But first, you

must travel-a long and difficult road-a road fraught with peril.”6

The allusion here, of course, is to Teiresias, the old blind seer in the Odyssey. Odysseus seeks out Teiresias when he visits the underworld. Teiresias prophesizes to Odysseus about his journey, and warns him of the perils that he and his crew will face in much the same way.

“Glorious Odysseus, what you are after is sweet homecoming, but the god will make it hard for you. I think you will not escape the Shaker of the Earth, who holds a grudge against you in his heart… still you might come back, after much suffering… if you contain your own desire and… keep your mind on homecoming.”7

The constant adversary Poseidon or the gods/ the Sherriff

Along the way, the trio comes across a group of white clad Baptists, chanting and walking trance-like towards the river. As they watch the congregation being immersed in the water and baptized one by one, both Delmar and Pete are overcome with emotion and rush into the water to do the same. Believing that the good Lord has “warshed” all their sins away, Pete and Delmar emerge from the river with slightly soggy bottoms, but lighter hearts at peace. Everett is derisive of the pair and tells them that the state of Mississippi will be “a bit more hard nosed” on the issue of forgiveness.8 The reference here, is to the Lotus-Eaters that Odysseus and his crew come upon during their travels. Once a few men from his crew have eaten from the white lotus blossom, a plant that grows with its roots in the water, they feel at peace and want to stay with The Lotus Eaters, forgetting about their journey. Odysseus has to force his men to return to their ship and continue the journey.9 Neither Everett or Odysseus partake of the sweet “salvation” of the river or the lotus blossom, and both must urge their crew members to on with their continue their quest.

Everett, Pete and Delmar pick up a young black musician, Tommy Johnson, who tells them that he is on his way to “sing in the can” of a radio disc jockey for money. Enticed by the idea of easy money, they accompany him to the station and form an impromptu singing group, the Soggy Bottom Boys. They hide their true identities by giving false names and when the old, blind disc jockey asks if they can sing that old-timey music, Everett says that is exactly what they specialize in. The disc jockey likes their sound and they record a song called “Man of Constant Sorrow.” This man of constant sorrow is certainly a reference to Homer’s Odysseus. In the Odyssey, Homer repeatedly refers to Odysseus as a “man of woe”10 or “full of sorrow”11 or “long suffering”12, particularly when Demodokos, the blind bard, sings of the exploits of Odysseus, who has kept his own identity a secret from the inhabitants of the island Scheria. When Odysseus cannot keep from weeping at the retelling of his own story, those assembled begin to wonder just who this stranger is in their midst. As Odysseus finally reveals his true identity to the Phaiakians assembled at the palace of King Alkinoös, he laments “many are the sorrows the gods of the sky have given me.”13

The three sirens washing in the river that our three heroes meet up with in the film could be a combination of Circe and the Sirens that Odysseus and his crew must sail past. First Pete, then Delmar and Everett are lured off the road and into the forest by the sound of the sirens sitting on the smooth stony flats of a nearby river, and singing as they wash their clothes. The women enchant the trio with their singing and encourage them to drink liquor from their jugs. When Delmar and Everett awake the next morning, to their horror, they discover nothing is left of Pete, but his clothes. When a toad hops out of Pete’s shirt, Delmar is convinced the sirens have turned Pete into a toad. Everett is skeptical, but nevertheless, allows Delmar to carry the toad along with them in a shoebox. Circe, the daughter of Helios, the sun god, was a witch known for her magical powers and use of potions. When Odysseus’ crew went up to explore Circe’s island, Aiaia, they came upon her home, made of smooth stones. She invited them in to a meal, and laced their drink with one of her magical drugs. As they eat and drink she turns them all into swine. One of the crew, Eurylochos, did not enter with the others, so that he was able to return to Odysseus and warn him. Again, with the help from a god (this time Hermes) Odysseus is able to return to Circe, avoid her magical powers, and secure the release of his men.14 Everett and Delmar eventually find out that Pete was not, in fact, turned into a toad. The sirens had turned Pete in to the authorities in exchange for the reward money. Eventually Everett and Delmar, like Odysseus, were able to secure their friend’s release.

Big Dan Teague, the one eyed bible salesman is encountered by the trio in a restaurant (a bust of Homer appears in the background) along the way. Big Dan is a very large man, seen eating at a table alone. He introduces himself to Everett, Pete and Delmar and proposes an enticing business proposition and suggests that they move to “more private environs” out in the country to discuss it. Big Dan’s character is a reference to the Cyclops, Polyphemus, in whose cave Odysseus and his men become trapped. Polyphemus is a solitary shepherd who tends a flock of sheep. He becomes enraged when he finds that Odysseus’s men have been eating his stores of meat and cheeses and he begins to dine on Odysseus’s men.15 Big Dan, too, is a shepherd of sorts, who provides his “sheep” with “answers from the book that’s got ’em” the Holy Bible. When Big Dan finishes his meal, he reaches up and effortlessly pulls of a giant tree branch and begins to beat poor Delmar with it. Everett, not quite comprehending, asks “What’s going on big Dan?” According to Toscana, there is a parallel theme of expected xenia on the part of both our heroes. “Hospitality for the ancient and modern wanderers is central. The bible-selling Cyclops betrays them, echoing a similar concern in Homer.”16 Scott Belsky agrees in his article “Odysseus works on an egotistical and faulty belief that the greater world works in alignment with his own worldview [and] he expects the sort of treatment he would afford his own guests.”17

King of Sparta and Pappy O’Daniel’s first name is Menelaus

The scene in the theatre is like Odysseus descending into the underworld.

Everett calls himself “the old campaigner or the old tactician like Odysseus

Everett’s Dapper Dan pomade is a reference to Odysseus’s pride.

Everett is glib and deceptive like Odysseus

Everett returns home in disguise as an old man

flood and water themes

Ulysses and Odysseus both cling to wood during a flood.

Everett vanquishes his wife’s suitors, but still must pass a “test” by his wife

End Notes

1. O Brother, Where Art Thou? 2000. DVD. Directed by Joel Coen. Written by Ethan Coen. Produced by Ethan Coen and Joel Coen. Music by T Bone Burnett. Touchstone Pictures.

2. Robson, Eddie. Coen Brothers. London: Virgin, 2003. Print. (204)

3. Siegel, Janice. “The Coens’ O Brother, Where Art Thou? and Homer’s Odyssey.” Mouseion: Journal of the Classical Association of Canada 7.3 (2007): 213-245. Project MUSE. 17 Aug. 2010 <http://muse.jhu.edu/>. (213)

4. Homer. The Odyssey of Homer. Trans. Richmond Alexander Lattimore. New York: Harper Perennial Modern Classics, 2007. Print. (Book V)

5. Cotterell, Arthur & Rachel Storm, Ed. The Ultimate Encyclopedia of Mythology. (2006) Print. (66)

6. Ruppersburg, Hugh. “”Oh, so many startlements…”: History, Race, and Myth in O Brother, Where Art Thou?.” Southern Cultures 9.4 (2003): 5-26. Project MUSE. 21 Sep. 2010 <http://muse.jhu.edu/>. (10)

7. Homer. (90-135)

8. O Brother, Where Art Thou?

9. Homer. (IX, 90-135)

10. Homer. (VI, 217)

12. Homer. (VI, 1,133,177; VIII, 446)

13. Homer. (IX, 15)

14. Homer. (X, 135-574)

15. Homer

16. Toscano, Margaret M. “Homer Meets the Coen Brothers: Memory as Artistic Pastiche in O Brother, Where Art Thou?.” Film & History: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Film and Television Studies 39.2 (2009): 49-62. Project MUSE. 21 Sep. 2010 <http://muse.jhu.edu/>. (50)

17. Belsky, Scott A. “The Poet Who Sings Through Us: Homer’s Influence in Contemporary Western Culture” College Literature 34.2 (6/1/2007) 216. Web. 11 Nov. 2010.