Homer’s The Odyssey has long been held up as a powerful example of “the hero’s journey” – a narrative structure that has dominated storytelling for millennia.

The epic poem follows the story of Odysseus, a hero celebrated for his intelligence, determination and cunning, while also being deceitful, hubristic and, at times, murderous. He is a flawed hero; one we might even view as problematic in a modern context.

Today, the hero’s journey appears across popular texts, films and media franchises, including Star Wars, Harry Potter and The Lord of the Rings. It’s also the basis for basically every superhero movie, including Christopher Nolan’s 2005 film Batman Begins. But not all of these stories are equal – and most struggle to live up to Homer’s foundational example in The Odyssey.

Does Nolan’s retelling do justice to Homer’s original text, and its nuanced exploration of heroism?

The traditional hero’s journey

The hero’s journey as it’s generally known today was first described by American writer and professor of literature Joseph Campbell. In his book The Hero with a Thousand Faces (1949), Campbell refers to this structure as both the hero’s journey and the “monomyth” – essentially the “one myth” or story that underpins all others.

The journey consists of a series of........

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