Elliot Page plays Sinon in The Odyssey, standing in for the legendary Achilles in one major scene. As always, Oppenheimer director Christopher Nolan has assembled an all-star, A-list cast for his adaptation of Homer's Ancient Greek poem, The Odyssey. That cast includes talent such as Matt Damon, Anne Hathaway, Tom Holland, Robert Pattinson, and Elliot Page, who is playing Sinon.
Elliot Page, best known for starring in Juno and The Umbrella Academy, previously worked with Nolan on Inception, where he played a graduate student brought into aid in Dom Cobb's (Leonardo DiCaprio) schemes. His casting in The Odyssey (which has opened to almost universal praise) drew backlash after online rumors falsely claimed that the transgender actor had been cast as Achilles, who is widely regarded as one of the greatest warriors of the Trojan War.
What Is Sinon’s Role In Greek Mythology?
Elliott Page's Sinon hails from Greek mythology, but he isn't featured in Homer's The Odyssey, on which Christopher Nolan's blockbuster is based. However, Sinon and his heroic actions are featured in Virgil's Aeneid, another ancient poem.
Sinon isn't a real historical figure; he was created by Virgil for the Aeneid around 750 to 800 years after Homer composed The Odyssey. Still, he was the cousin of Odysseus and a Greek warrior who was undeniably crucial in winning the Trojan War and the success of the infamous Trojan Horse strategy.
The scheme rode on Sinon convincing the Trojans that he was a deserter and that his fellow Greek soldiers, including Odysseus, had sailed away. He stood beside a giant wooden horse and told his enemies how his fellows left it behind as an offering to the goddess Athena to ensure their safe travels.
And the rest is widely known, even by those less familiar with mythology, as the Trojans pulled the wooden horse into their walls, not knowing that Greek soldiers were hiding within. Those soldiers would jump out of the Trojan Horse in the fight, opening the gates of Troy and securing Greek victory in the war.
As Sinon's major role is in the Fall of Troy and the infamous wooden horse ploy, he is omitted from The Odyssey, which follows the war's aftermath and Odysseus' journey home rather than the conflict itself. But when it came to adapting Homer's poem for modern theaters, Nolan recounted certain events in flashbacks.
What Is Sinon’s Role In The Odyssey Movie?
Interestingly, the ancient poem from which Sinon hails, Virgil's Aeneid, is told through a Trojan prince, Aeneas, who journeys to Italy. As such, Sinon was traditionally a symbol of deception or treachery, while Christopher Nolan's Greek-centered The Odyssey transforms him into an emblem of loyalty and bravery.
Unlike in Aeneid, where Sinon's deception sold the Trojan Horse trickery, the version in The Odyssey is none the wiser to Odysseus' plan. Instead, Odysseus and his men hide away from Sinon, who legitimately believes he was abandoned when the Trojans arrive and take the horse to Athena's temple, and kill him.
Later, as part of his journey home to Ithica, Odysseus is sent to the Underworld under instruction from the sorceress Circe (Samantha Morton) to hear from the blind prophet Tiresias (James Remar). It is in the Underworld that Odysseus offers a blood sacrifice, leading him to speak with Sinon's soul.
It is there that Odysseus explains why Sinon wasn't let in on his true master plan with the horse, saying, "Dying men tell the truth, I needed you to believe." However, the game-changing revelation came from Sinon's soul regarding the true nature of one of Penelope's (Anne Hathaway) suitors, Antinous (Robert Pattinson).
When Agamemnon (Benny Safdie) came to Ithica to recruit soldiers for the Trojan War, they were chosen by a lottery. After Antinous, who was born to a wealthy family, was selected at random, he promised money to Sinon's servant family to take his place, although the aristocrats never held up their end of the deal, and Sinon's father died suffering in poverty, "begging for scraps."
What Does Achilles Do In Homer’s The Odyssey?
Achilles is renowned as the greatest warrior of the Trojan War in Greek mythology, and was famously played by Brad Pitt in the 2004 epic Troy. However, as Achilles dies some time before the end of the Trojan War, and Homer's The Odyssey follows the aftermath, he doesn't appear as a living character in Homer's poem.
But when Odysseus visits the Land of the Dead in Book 11, he crosses paths with Achilles, whom he fought beside before his death in the Trojan War. His presence offers a great contrast to the King of Ithica, as Achilles valued brute strength and glory, while Odysseus prioritized strategy and intelligence.
The Greek warrior delivers one of the most famous lines in The Odyssey as he challenges the ancient ideal of a glorious death in battle, which he achieved when an arrow from the Trojan prince Paris struck him in the heel. Achilles declares that he would "rather slave on Earth for another man" than rule over the dead:
"By god, I’d rather slave on earth for another man – some dirt-poor tenant farmer who scrapes to keep alive – than rule down here over all the breathless dead."
Does Sinon Replace Achilles In The Odyssey Movie?
Despite prior expectations that Achilles would appear in Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey and viral, controversial rumors that Elliott Page had been cast as one of the greatest Greek warriors of the Trojan War, he is absent from the adaptation.
When Odysseus travels to the Underworld, he no longer reunites with Achilles, who was killed shortly before the end of the Trojan War. Instead, Odysseus is confronted by Sinon, who expresses his anger for intentionally sacrificing him and transforms him into the personification of a guilty conscience.
Ultimately, Sinon is largely his own character, with a crucial role in mythology and in the Greek victory over the Trojans, leading into The Odyssey. That said, to some extent, Sinon does replace Achilles during the Underworld sequence, fulfilling a similar purpose of underscoring the true cost of the Trojan War.
