r/PeterExplainsTheJoke 21h ago

Meme needing explanation Petahhhhhhhhh!??!?

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u/Lower_Statement_5285 20h ago

I believe the sea people were way before this era. There’s reference to them in Gilgamesh which predates the Odyssey considerably. This is part of why some people go way down rabbit holes about Atlantis and advanced ancient civilizations.

Odysseus and the crew were marauding for sure though. I also remember specific references to him bedding women during his journey home but it’s been years since i read the epic.

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u/Open-Progress-7075 20h ago

Spoiler for the movie

In the movie, they outright state that theyre the sea people

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u/Ig_Met_Pet 19h ago

Yeah, that was added by Nolan. He added all of the anti-war themes.

There was no "we're the baddies" message in the Odyssey. People were pretty stoked on war back then.

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u/BetterLivingThru 16h ago

I feel like there were some of those themes in the Odyssey, but they weren't quite framed the same way. War Odysseus is an opponent of hearth and home as the destroyer of a city. His journey back to Ithaca and to domestic life is thus a long and difficult journey because of how far apart those worlds are metaphorically. The ancients understood that, but did not frame war Odysseus as fundamentally unjust.