Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey isn't merely an adaptation. The film adapts an epic poem that was written almost 3,000 years ago and orally narrated from a time even before that. With time, the way people interpret the epic poem has changed, and in his adaptation, Nolan makes use of many things, namely xenia. The theme of xenia is established early on in the film and leaves its mark throughout. Christopher Nolan, in his recent interview with the political philosophy lecturer Zhong Shu, has discussed how 'Xenia' shaped The Odyssey.What is xenia and how did Christopher Nolan use it throughout The Odyssey?A distinct characteristic of modern adaptations is that they might affect the cultural tone of the original story. When one watches Christopher's Nolan's The Odyssey, they might notice that the film subtly portrays the concept of atonement, something that wasn't part of the Greek culture when Homer came up with the story. When Zhong Shu asked Nolan if he was trying to add a Christian tone to the film through the theme of atonement, he responded by saying how it is xenia that might bring forward the concept of atonement to the viewers' mind. He began his answer by saying:“I wasn’t too conscious of how I was approaching it philosophically, other than that I really honed in on the idea of what’s termed xenia."Nolan then talked about how the Greeks believed in xenia, which, in the film is explained as Zeus' Law. This law states that one should always welcome guests into their house with kindness and generosity, as a guest you turn away could be a god in disguise. According to the same law, guests in return shouldn't overstay their welcome. In The Odyssey, while Penelope and Telemachus follow Zeus' Law and let the suitors stay in Odysseus' absence, the suitors don't return the same respect. They overstay their welcome. Nolan stated how in The Odyssey, he broke xenia/Zeus' law into something simple: one should treat others as they wish to be treated. He then went on to explain how that while the Christian idea of atonement did not exist among the Greeks, the responsibility of Zeus' law did. This law, in a way, was their way of making sure they never mistreated one another. In The Odyssey, Nolan uses xenia to show how the suitors bring about their own doom by not giving back the respect they received.But Nolan also uses xenia to show how Odysseus and his soldiers become the seafaring men after they enter Troy hidden inside the Trojan Horse, breaking Zeus' law. They entered Troy disguised as a symbol of truce, and their 'atonement,' or facing consequences, was by becoming the Sea Peoples, who had to spend years at sea trying to get home. As Nolan said,"I started to realize that, for me, a lot of what’s interesting about the interaction of history and mythology is this idea of the ‘Sea Peoples’—the people from the sea who were thought to have precipitated the Bronze Age collapse. It’s one of the great mysteries of history: who were they?”He continued,“The idea that a violation of xenia—a violation of Zeus’s Law, which is what the suitors are doing in the palace—is what causes this difficulty and damage. I think the idea of atonement, in a way, is what we bring as viewers to the story." View this post on Instagram Instagram PostNolan then also stated how he doesn't know if there is really any atonement in the film or whether viewers think there is because after orchestrating and executing the destruction of Troy, Odysseus spends years at sea and loses all his men. At the end, when he returns to Ithaca and to Penelope, it might seem like a moment of catharsis to viewers. Nolan concludes his answer by saying, "In that sense, we may be bringing our more modern sensibility to it. Insofar as it’s there, it’s not a deliberate attempt to Christianize it, but rather an outgrowth or a natural conclusion of burrowing in on this philosophical idea of what happens when you break Zeus’s Law.”Thus, the xenia drives the story of The Odyssey and in a way, can be seen as a different image of 'atonement' if there is any.The Odyssey is playing in theaters. For more articles like this, follow Soapcentral.