In the excerpt of The Cattle of the Sun God, Odysseus tells his men not to touch the cattle because of what Teiresias said to him in the underworld. The men, however, choose not to listen and anger the gods, resulting in their death at sea. A modernization of this epic moment in the story could be our marine advising wayward teenagers not to steal gum from a store, but they do it anyways and it results in them being taken away by security.

In the excerpt from The Land of the Dead, Odysseus sacrifices a black lamb in order to be told his destiny. There could be a theme hidden here; one must give in order to receive. That, however, is open to interpretation. This moment in Odysseus’ journey can be modernized easily; Oliver could get his palm read. The palm reader would simply tell him that his flight would be safe, but he’d have a little trouble at the airport.

Let’s say our mighty marine walks into the airport and is minding his own business in line when a 6’9 pro wrestler (formidable opponent) decides he has a bone to pick with him. He starts to mouth off about how apparently our armed forces aren’t doing a good job of keeping our country safe, and Oliver needs to come up with a plan to get this giant to leave him alone before they cause a scene. Oliver threatens to call security, but of course Mr. Pro Wrestler doesn’t care, since he thinks he could beat them up anyway (The Cyclops not being afraid of the gods). Oliver then comes up with the ingenious plan of slipping a metal coin in the man’s pocket before he puts himself through the metal detector, and when Mr. Wrestler tries to walk through, guess what? Security decides he’s not going anywhere, and our mighty marine is safe.

The one-eyed monster Odysseus faces is a pretty important symbol for us to understand. The Cyclops symbolizes the brute forces any hero must overcome to reach his goal, whatever it may be. Modernization of this epic moment in the Odyssey must be done carefully; we must capture not only the fact that the opponent our marine faces is a formidable opponent, but also the fact that our offender is a bit cocky. After all, the Cyclops did say he wasn’t afraid of the gods. So what should we decide our modernization should be?

So how would you modernize a nymph who entices a bunch of men into her island and turns them into pigs, while keeping one of them human for her own pleasure? Well, think of it this way; in Odysseus’ journey, Calypso stands for temptation and desire. Say Oliver, our marine modernization of Odysseus, is on his way to the airport to fly home and see his wonderful wife and kids, but during his stop for gas, he comes across a massage parlor. Outside of this massage parlor is a gorgeous masseuse on her lunch break, singing along to the radio (This woman is Calypso, if you didn’t catch on). Our poor oblivious Oliver stops by to say hello, and boom! The enchanting Calypso (We can call her Carly) lures him in for a free massage since he’s worked so hard to protect his country.