‘Family Guy’ Had More Accurate Greek Armor Than Christopher Nolan’s ‘The Odyssey’
It seems today that all you see is violence in movies with inaccuracies.
When blockbuster filmmaker Christopher Nolan announced his intention to shoot a feature film adaptation of the ancient Greek epic poem The Odyssey, nobody expected the Dark Knight and Inception director to suddenly turn into a meticulous classicist – but the history nerds did hope that the illusion of period accuracy would last longer than literally the first promotional picture. While filmmakers have been adapting and bastardizing the foundational text of Western storytelling since before movies had sound, given that the mega-budget epic from the Oppenheimer architect will likely be the closest multiple generations of moviegoers ever get to actually reading The Odyssey, students of the classics are disappointed to find that Nolan is a worse Greek teacher for pop-culture than Peter Griffin.
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Thankfully, the Matt-Damon-starred Odyssey movie is slated to premiere on July 17, 2026, which will give history buffs ample time to brush up on more accurate depictions of Ancient Greece and its aesthetic from secondary sources like Family Guy:
As Trey the Explainer appropriately expounded, a movie adaptation of a story that takes place in the Bronze Age should probably show its warrior leads wearing – well, bronze. If Nolan's costume designers can't turn the very specific description of Odysseus' outfit from the original text into an aesthetically pleasing and cinematically photogenic fit that doesn't hide Damon's face from the camera, they could have at least made him look more authentically ancient than a random extra who got his throat ripped out by a CGI baboon in Gladiator 2.
The Family Guy depiction of appropriate Greek battle wear comes from the Season 17 episode “Heartburn,” which saw Peter retelling three classic love stories from literature and movie history in the parodical Family Guy style. These tales included a ridiculous adaptation of Romeo and Juliet, the curious inclusion of Fatal Attraction and, of course, the impossibly faithful depiction of the love between Paris and Helen of Troy as told in The Odyssey's prequel poem The Iliad.
This means that one-third of a Family Guy episode is somehow more attentive to the aesthetics of Greek history than a Hollywood film with an estimated budget of $250 million. Just imagine the scale of the Odyssey parody that Seth Macfarlane could make with that much money – it would make his satirical Star Wars trilogy look like a kids' puppet show.
