Suddenly, we are awash with classical references and those blank-eyed marble statues are talking through the millennia.

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A controversial film version of the Odyssey is one catalyst even as its timeless themes elude those who need them most.

But Christopher Nolan's version of Homer's epic is only part of it - a response to the political, moral and terrestrial mess of modernity.

Somehow, we missed the irony that in our enlightened rejection of mystical realms, we assumed godly powers only to visit a more comprehensive version of chaos on our world.

New gods were subbed in for those of antiquity - markets, technology, consumption, and the fatal illusion of mastering the planet itself.

The ancients saw the capricious hand of the Gods in natural phenomena. Zeus, the King of Gods fired lightning bolts from Mount Olympus and unleashed tempests.

We ditched the name but took the job global making it infinitely more destructive.

And so, the planet bakes and stressed ecosystems succumb to viruses, extinctions, algal blooms.

In the northern hemisphere, countries including the UK, swelter in their warmest summer on record, replacing last year.

Nuclear power stations are taken offline as the mighty Danube runs so low it cannot keep them cool. Europe's second-longest river becomes unnavigable. Ditto the Rhine. Wildfires rage in leafy England, Europe and beyond.

Clueless, we cast about for explanations as to why the rational world feels dangerously loose, unruly. We sense doom but struggle to see it clearly, this terrible fraying.

The great Barry Jones - turning 94 in a matter of weeks - defies his own entropy to pen a typically adroit piece in yesterday's Saturday Paper. Musing about democracy, he cites the role of the........

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