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ATHENS<\/strong> \u2013 Christopher Nolan\u2019s \u201cThe Odyssey\u201d<\/a> opens Friday, to global anticipation and some controversy over his casting choices \u2014 but what do Greeks think?<\/p>\n Conversation about adaptations often revolves around how closely they follow a source text. But in a country where Homer\u2019s story is taught and retold at all schools, many point to how the epic has been kept alive for nearly 3,000 years: not despite reinvention, but because of it.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat we want children to understand is that every new creation is exactly that \u2014 a new creation,” Filippos Mantzaris, who teaches \u201cThe Odyssey\u201d to seventh graders, told The Associated Press. <\/p>\n The film, starring Matt Damon as King Odysseus and a number of Hollywood stars,<\/a> follows Homer\u2019s outline: The king’s return home from war through gods and monsters to find a palace overrun by rivals.<\/p>\n Students grow up interpreting Homer<\/p>\n In seventh grade, \u201cThe Odyssey\u201d is taught in all Greek classrooms.<\/p>\n In Mantzaris\u2019 class, students eagerly debate Odysseus\u2019 encounters with monsters and other adventures. They are taught to compare the hero\u2019s intelligence with his strength, ask whether revenge is moral, whether the battle-hardened king is truly a role model, and whether his killing of his wife\u2019s suitors is justified. Role-playing exercises encourage children to imagine what they would do in Odysseus\u2019 place.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s an amazing literary text, with which children can identify, perhaps see Odysseus in themselves, but also see their own homeland,\u201d Mantzaris said.<\/p>\n Kyriakos Agapiou, 12, said reading the poem in Mantzaris\u2019 class taught him: \u201cThat everything is possible and we should never give up.\u201d<\/p>\n Farm scientist Nikos Varelas attended a stage adaptation with his 4-year-old son, after the pair read youth versions of both \u201cThe Iliad\u201d and \u201cThe Odyssey\u201d together.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is our duty as parents, as Greeks,\u201d Varelas said.<\/p>\n Interpreting the story as theater, said actor Manos Pintzis, who portrayed Odysseus in the local production, helps children discover mythology in a way books alone cannot.<\/p>\n \u201cYou don\u2019t tell a child, \u2018Just read the story because you have to,\u2019 because the child will resist when something is forced on them,\u201d Pintzis said. \u201cWhen the child sees all of this unfolding before their eyes \u2014 that becomes a valuable step toward learning, to willingly learn what they\u2019re expected to study.\u201d<\/p>\n Greeks are used to foreigners playing their heroes<\/p>\n In conservative circles in the U.S., much of the attention has focused on Nolan\u2019s casting choices rather than his adaptation of Homer\u2019s story.<\/p>\n Elon Musk claimed Nolan had desecrated \u201cThe Odyssey\u201d after Black actor Lupita Nyong\u2019o<\/a> was picked as Helen of Troy \u2014 despite not having seen the movie. Conservative commentators including Matt Walsh argued the film prioritized identity politics, echoing past fan criticisms of sci-fi and fantasy reboots that cast Black and Latino actors as beloved characters of a different race or ethnicity.<\/p>\n In an interview with The Telegraph, Nolan said backlash \u201ccomes with the territory,\u201d adding \u201cthese conversations that happen before people see the film \u2014 they\u2019re always irrelevant, because no one having them knows what the film actually is yet.\u201d<\/p>\n Nolan told the AP he wanted to make the film accessible and relatable, and \u201cnot look back to sort of past Hollywood versions of how to take on the ancient world.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYou want to question people\u2019s assumptions about how things should be portrayed in movies and what those are based on,” he said of his overall approach to the film. “There\u2019s a challenge to that and a risk to that. But my hope is that by creating a cohesive world, people understand the world as they watch the movie and they feel they understand it.\u201d <\/p>\n The controversy hasn’t found much purchase in Greece, where people are used to foreigners playing ancient Greeks.<\/p>\n Scotsman Gerard Butler bellowed \u201cThis is Sparta!\u201d as King Leonidas in \u201c300.\u201d Oklahoma-born Brad Pitt<\/a> played Achilles in \u201cTroy.\u201d Ireland\u2019s Colin Farrell starred as Alexander the Great alongside Angelina Jolie as his mother.<\/p>\n Anthony Quinn\u2019s performance in \u201cZorba the Greek\u201d way back in 1964 remains one of Greece\u2019s most beloved screen portrayals of a Greek character.<\/p>\n