We saw “The Odyssey” yesterday and I’m catching up on some of the commentaries. The right-wing is outraged by the casting of non-whites, as if the Greeks of 3000 years ago must have looked like modern-day Europeans. And, I realized as I saw the film, for its outright invocation of something called Zeus’ law, which is about treating strangers kindly because, in those days with dozens of gods running around micromanaging human affairs, any stranger might be a god. And if you offend a god, you risk its wrath.
(I last read The Odyssey in the 9th grade or so, and remembered the broad outline of the story, and its many incidents. But not Zeus’ Law.)
Let’s just note this one piece for now.
NY Times, opinion by Ezra Klein, today: Christopher Nolan’s Trojan Horse
Among other points, Klein says that Nolan’s Trojan Horse was to cite Zeus’ Law only superficially.
This “Odyssey” ostensibly hinges on Zeus’ law: Treat the beggar and the stranger as you would want to be treated. But as a horde of classicists have pointed out, that is not the law of Zeus, which is narrower: It demands hospitality toward the guest or the stranger, recognizing that anyone could be a god in disguise. It is not an ethic of compassion or even reciprocity.
And here we find Nolan’s central trick: Nolan has smuggled the core of Judeo-Christian ethics into “The Odyssey.” Zeus’ law, in Nolan’s “Odyssey,” echoes Leviticus 19:34: “The foreigner residing among you must be treated as your native born. Love them as yourself, for you were foreigners in Egypt.” It echoes Rabbi Hillel, who said: “What is hateful to you, do not do to your fellow. That is the whole Torah; the rest is commentary.” It echoes Matthew 7:12, when Jesus says, “In everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the law and the prophets.”
Such an ethic is demanding. Few of us live up to it. But the problem with adherents of the modern right is not just that they don’t live up to it; the issue is that they detest it. To treat the foreigner residing among us as well as we treat our native born is derided as suicidal empathy. The Trump administration glorifies cruelty toward the immigrant, the stranger, the weak and the poor. It takes money from Medicaid to cut taxes for the rich. It threatens the destruction of whole civilizations.
The modern right is built on the logic of tribute and dominance. “We live in a world, in the real world, Jake, that is governed by strength, that is governed by force, that is governed by power,” Stephen Miller, a top White House adviser, told CNN’s Jake Tapper. “These are the iron laws of the world since the beginning of time.”
But weren’t those iron laws replaced by the Golden Rule?
The essay goes on, brilliantly. One reason The Odyssey is a classic is that there are so many ways to read it, and see how your own society is reflected in it.
But my thought about Zeus’ Law is: that was a different world. Travelers were few and far between. Travelers made much effort to travel; most people in that era, even up to the 18th century or so, rarely traveled more than a mile from home. In that era, it made sense to give travelers the benefit of the doubt.
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Briefly noted.
- Trivial, but significant.
- Boing Boing, Jason Weisberger, 31 Jul 2026: DOJ admits the Reflecting Pool “vandal” was the contractor
- This was obvious from the beginning.
- Also: The Atlantic, Matt Viser, 31 Jul 2026: How the Reflecting Pool Vandalism Case Fell Apart, subtitled “Federal prosecutors searched for evidence and found that ‘a botched installation’ was to blame.”
- And: CNN, 1 Aug 2026: Trump’s Reflecting Pool debacle takes a predictably scandalous turn
- And yet, I still see today news that Trump is doubling down about vandals.
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- Karma.
- Friendly Atheist, Hemant Mehta, yesterday: Annoying “Sky Evangelist” kicked off airline after scaring everyone with her preaching
- Subtitled: “Days after getting media attention for her on-flight bursts of Christian gibberish, Whitney Lynn was temporarily banned from flying Alaska Air.”
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More at JMG today.
- Demented Senior Goes On Another AI Slop Spree
- Burgum Rages: The Reflecting Pool Was “Intentionally Damaged, We Won’t Back Down To Deranged People” (Then show us the camera evidence.)
- Education Department Will Stop Tracking Bullying, Harassment, Assaults Of Nonbinary/Trans Students. (Of course they will.)
- TN Gov Candidate: Execute Women For Abortion. (Tennessee!)
- Court: Arkansas Can Criminally Charge Librarians
- Kansas AG Demands Cities Repeal Ex-Gay Torture Bans. (They want to torture gays.)
- Benny Johnson: Defunding USAID Killed Rap Music (What world is he living in?)
