What the lotus flower reveals about veteran PTSD in Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey

By Ben Cartlidge, Lecturer in Greek Culture and Classical Receptions, University of Liverpool

Warning: this article contains spoilers for Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey.

In Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey, Odysseus (played by Matt Damon) is lost not only at sea, but within his own memories. On the island of the nymph Calypso (Charlize Theron), eating lotus flowers offers him relief from the trauma of Troy, allowing him to forget the war, his comrades – and eventually even his wife and son.

While it’s a point of focus in Nolan’s film, the episode of the so-called “Lotus eaters” is, in the scheme of Homer’s Odyssey,…

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