In Kenneth Branagh’s superhero film Thor, Chris Hemsworth plays the titular immortal god of thunder, who is exiled to Earth and must find a way back to his home of Asgard. This is not unlike the quest of Odysseus in Homer’s Odyssey. In this paper, we will compare and contrast the two works (particularly Thor and Odysseus as characters), and examine the similarities in their journeys. In both works, the main characters are headstrong soldiers who learn patience and temperance during their time away from home, fighting giants in order to get back to their loved ones, particularly their fathers.
Thor sees the titular character as one of two sons of the god Odin (Anthony Hopkins), and heir to the kingdom of Asgard. He is a brash, arrogant and headstrong boy, who prefers to resort to violence before using wisdom. When his mortal enemies, the Frost Giants, invade Asgard, he decides to travel to their land (Jotunheim) without his father’s permission, in order to exact revenge on this attack. For breaking the peace between their peoples, Odin banishes him to Earth and strips him of his power. Thor must then go on a hero’s journey to regain his power and return home before his brother Loki (Tom Hiddleston) enacts a plan that will ruin both kingdoms.
In The Odyssey, Odysseus leaves his homeland voluntarily in order to fight in the Trojan War. This is somewhat similar to Thor’s circumstances, in which he leaves for the purposes of conflict (leaving to attack the Frost Giants). However, unlike Odysseus, Thor is cast out by Odin due to his headstrong mistake; Odysseus merely has not returned from his victory in the Trojan War yet.
The journey back for both characters is fraught with peril, but both in different ways. In Thor’s case, he is banished to Earth and stripped of his powers. For the most part, he has an easy time of it; he is barely ever in danger, mostly attempting to regain his weapon, the hammer Mjolnir, spending most of his time with Jane Foster (Natalie Portman) and her friends. Most of the conflict in his time of exile comes from the organization SHIELD, a military group who holds Mjolnir, which he needs to get back. His climactic battle on Earth is against a creature called The Destroyer, which would not look out of place as one of Odysseus’ enemies. In fact, he bears striking resemblance to Polyphemus the Cyclops, a gargantuan creature of extraordinary power (Branagh, 2011).
Odysseus, on the other hand, has a variety of struggles that he must endure. First, he had to deal with the Lotus Eaters, then defeat the Cyclops and Scylla. After that, the must escape the island where Calypso has imprisoned him. Then, Poseidon attempts to sink his ship, only to land in Scheria, where he is seconded to Ithaca (Homer, 1998). Like Thor, the true conflict lies when he gets back; he must defeat the suitors who seek to take his wife Penelope for their own. Thor, on the other hand, must find a way back to Asgard to prevent his brother from ascending to the throne and letting the Frost Giants destroy his realm.
Thor and Odysseus are not without help in their journeys. Thor is aided not only by Jane and her friends, as well as SHIELD near the end, but by his Asgardian friends Sif and the Warriors Three. They arrive to bring him back to Asgard and help him in the final battle with the Destroyer. Odysseus is helped by the crew of his ship coming back from Troy, as well as his son Telemachus and the gods themselves (Hermes, Athena, etc.)
Over the course of their journey, Odysseus and Thor both learn something about themselves. Both characters are arrogant and glory-seeking; Odysseus allows his pride to reveal himself and his reputation to both the Cyclops and the royalty of Scheria, while Thor believes he can simply solve any problem by literally beating it with a hammer. They are headstrong and quick to action, not really taking the time to think and strategize (though they have the intelligence to).
These attributes are called into question by the events of each work. Odysseus sees the cost of his arrogance in the body count that he leaves behind (i.e. his crew to the Cyclops), and he almost gets killed by Poseidon because of the things he has done; this makes him a little more patient and willing to use cunning instead of brute strength (Thornton, 1970). For example, he masks himself as a beggar in order to sneak into the home with the suitors instead of merely barging in and killing everyone, instead letting his own trap fall into place.
Thor, meanwhile, learns his lessons about being headstrong and arrogant due to his punishment by Odin, and the tempering presences of Jane and her friends. Through them, and the claim by Loki that his actions led to his father’s death, Thor realizes the consequences of his actions. As a result, he calms down somewhat, learning a bit more patience and virtue. His ultimate emotional arc comes to a head when he offers himself to the Destroyer, opting to sacrifice himself instead of continue fighting, believing that will end the attack. In fact, it is this show of emotional character and wisdom that allows Mjolnir to be returned to him, and therefore his powers (Branagh, 2011).
Thor’s and Odysseus’ rewards are slightly different, though both win out in the end. Odysseus manages to kill all of the suitors and get back what he always wanted – Penelope and Telemachus. Thor manages to successfully return to Asgard, and he presumably is given the mantle of king (which is what he wanted all along), but the victory is bittersweet. Over the course of the journey, he falls in love with Jane, who is forever separated from him due to his decision to destroy the path to Earth (which was necessary to stop Loki). Furthermore, he loses his brother, who had revealed himself to be evil in Thor’s absence.
At the same time, both Thor and Odysseus reconcile with their fathers; Laertes is seen at the end of the book as a frail old man, but he helps Odysseus fight off the families of the suitors he has killed (Homer, 1998). Odin comes back from his deathlike sleep to rescue Thor, now seeing his virtue and the lessons he learned while on Earth. With their parental relationships repaired, their journeys are now complete.
Both Thor and Odysseus share a similar journey, but there are distinct differences. The journey itself was more the goal of The Odyssey, whereas Thor’s time on Earth was all about getting back to Asgard, with few substantial obstacles in the way during his exile. All of his problems were thematic, whereas Odysseus embarked on a series of episodic, unrelated adventures, guided by the gods to stall his return to Ithaca. Either way, their heroic journeys carry a similar weight and importance, as well as an epic scope worthy of the gods.
Works Cited
Homer. The Odyssey. London: Farrar, Straus and Giroux , 1998. Print.
Thor. Dir. Kenneth Branagh. Perf. Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman. Paramount Pictures, 2011. Film.
Thornton, Agathe. People and themes in Homer's Odyssey . Dunedin: University of Otago Press in association with Methuen, London, 1970. Print.
