New York City — The success of Christopher Nolan’s film The Odyssey reveals an irony as bitter as any Greek tragedy. An ancient story about honor, piety, and devotion to family is being celebrated at a cultural moment when those ideals — and the civilization they helped to create — have been largely rejected in educated circles.
Outside of Columbia University, for example, where all undergraduates are required to read The Odyssey, most elite institutions have excised Homer from the curricula. Indeed, a study by the National Association of Scholars found that none of America’s top colleges and universities had a required course in Western civilization. The degradation of the humanities in American higher education coincides with the secular, leftist rage against “the West” that matches the fury of Achilles.
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