What Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey teaches us about welcoming strangers

SOAS academic Rachel Harrison draws on her expertise in cinema, literature, cultural studies to explore what Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey teaches us about treating strangers. 

Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey has become immensely popular not only because of its star-studded cast, special effects and cutting-edge use of IMAX film camera technology, but because of the contemporary relevance of the ancient story it reinvents. 

Strangers and travellers may expect welcome and hospitality, while hosts may expect respect and civility in return. 

Throughout Nolan’s retelling of Homer, we hear repeated references to Zeus’s Law and the moral code of xenia that governs encounters between strangers and hosts in a society shaped by travel. At its heart is reciprocity.  

Strangers and travellers may expect welcome and hospitality, while hosts may expect respect and civility in return. 

What is Zeus’s Law in The Odyssey? 

Multiple episodes show what happens when this sacred code is broken. 

Polyphemus, the one-eyed giant son of Poseidon, attacks and consumes some of the marauding visitors to his cave. His uninvited guests retaliate with violent self-defence. 

Multiple episodes show what happens when this sacred code is broken. 

Because neither side upholds Zeus’ Law, the cyclops dies and the resulting wrath of the sea throws Odysseus’s return to Ithaca drastically off course. 

During Odysseus’s long absence from his palace and his wife, Penelope, the laws of hospitality fall into further chaos. A flood of unwanted suitors take advantage of his cellar and kitchens night after night and threaten the safety of his son, Telemachus. 

How does Zeus’s Law connect with other cultures? 

In a BBC Radio 4 interview on 17 July 2026, Nolan describes the story as exploring the Judaeo-Christian belief of “treat others as you would be treated”. 

Yet this principle has resounding equivalents and predecessors in many cultures of Asia, Africa and the Middle East. 

The African belief in Ubuntu, often translated as “I am because you are”, derives from the Zulu term Umuntu ngamuntu ngabantu, “a person is a person through other people”. Through its focus on shared humanity, Ubuntu fosters empathy, understanding, consideration and mutual responsibility. 

This principle has resounding equivalents and predecessors in many cultures of Asia, Africa and the Middle East

Its emphasis on human interconnectedness echoes Buddhist belief and practices across Asia. Examples include the teachings of Vietnamese Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh in Interbeing: Fourteen Guidelines for Engaged Buddhism (1987), and the writings of Tsoknyi Rinpoche in Open Heart, Open Mind (2012) and Why We Meditate (2022), co-authored with neuroscientist Daniel Goleman. 

The practice of welcoming the Other as one would welcome oneself is also central to Arab culture across the Middle East. The immediate offer of food and drink to guests is known as karam, or generosity.  

Why does The Odyssey matter now? 

The cultures and religions of Asia, Africa and the Middle East offer important lessons about human interconnection, welcome and respect. Nolan’s contemporary exploration of Zeus’s Law reiterates similar values. 

If we reject these fundamental human values, we do so at our peril. 

If we reject these fundamental human values, we do so at our peril. 

This lesson is timely for audiences living in an intimately interconnected world marked by the difficulty of accepting Others as ourselves, recognising our mutual interconnectedness and embracing this oldest truth. 

Without intercultural awareness, understanding and welcome, we might well be set on a path to global catastrophe.

Header image credit: Stefano via Adobe Stock