Why does the oldest surviving work of Western literature continue to inspire new adaptations? As Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey arrives in theaters, a Tel Aviv University classicist explains how the epic has been reinventing itself for nearly 3,000 years.

Nearly three thousand years after it was composed, The Odyssey continues to find new audiences.

Christopher Nolan’s upcoming film is only the latest chapter in a long history of reinterpretation that began long before the epic was ever written down. For generations, the story was passed from one storyteller to another, changing with each performance and adapting to each new audience.

To understand why artists continue to return to The Odyssey, we first need to understand how it came into being: as a work that was never meant to exist in just one definitive version.

Why Has The Odyssey Endured?

The Odyssey, traditionally attributed to Homer, was composed sometime in the late eighth or early seventh century BCE. While The Iliad tells the story of the Trojan War, The Odyssey follows Odysseus’ long journey home to Ithaca after the war.

According to Dr. Teddy Fassberg of the Department of Classical Studies – Greece and Rome at the Lester and Sally Entin Faculty of Humanities, this may be one reason the epic continues to resonate today.

“Perhaps it has survived because it deals with more universal themes—home, and the attempt to return to it.”

Dr. Fassberg also notes that The Odyssey presents “a much more diverse world—a world that includes women and people from lower social classes. It’s not a world populated only by heroes,” making it easier for modern readers and creators to discover new points of connection.

Zendaya as Athena and Matt Damon as Odysseus in The Odyssey (Courtesy of Tulip Entertainment)

A Story Meant to Be Told

One of the most important things to remember, says Dr. Fassberg, is that The Odyssey was never intended to be silently read from a book.

For generations it was performed aloud before audiences, with storytellers adapting it as they went—expanding dramatic moments, shortening lengthy passages, and occasionally changing details to keep listeners engaged.

According to Dr. Fassberg, Homer himself was already “adapting and reshaping a story that goes much further back.”

In that sense, Odysseus is himself a master storyteller. Throughout the epic, he knows how to shape his narrative for different audiences, when to pause at the height of suspense, and when to reveal the next crucial detail.

Dr. Fassberg even jokingly calls him “a marketer.”

“Within the story, Odysseus stops his tale at the height of the suspense—a cliffhanger—to persuade his audience to give him more gifts.”

Modern adaptations, then, are not departures from the original—they are the continuation of a tradition that began in antiquity.

The Trojans bring the Trojan Horse into the city, following Odysseus’ ingenious plan (Courtesy of Tulip Entertainment)

Reinventing The Odyssey

Over the past several decades, The Odyssey has inspired countless reinterpretations across literature, cinema, and translation.

The Coen Brothers relocated Odysseus’ journey to Depression-era America in O Brother, Where Art Thou? Margaret Atwood retold the story from Penelope’s perspective in The Penelopiad. In 2017, Emily Wilson published the first English translation of the epic by a woman.

Now Christopher Nolan joins that tradition with his own cinematic adaptation, set to be released in Israel on July 16, 2026.

Even before its release, however, the film has generated debate over its casting choices and interpretation.

One of the most discussed decisions was Nolan’s casting of rapper Travis Scott as the bard in Odysseus’ palace—a relatively minor figure in the epic. Nolan explained that the choice was intended to evoke the poem’s origins as an oral performance, drawing a parallel between ancient epic recitation and modern rap.

Discussion has also centered on Nolan’s decision to give the characters American accents—even when portrayed by British actors such as Tom Holland (Telemachus) and Robert Pattinson (Antinous).

Particular attention was drawn to a trailer in which Telemachus refers to Odysseus as “Dad,” while Antinous mockingly calls him “Daddy.” Some viewers argued that the modern American slang felt out of place in ancient Greece.

Nolan defended the choice, explaining that he wanted to find “a language that carries emotional meaning, not just intellectual meaning, for the audience.” Rather than using elevated or theatrical dialogue, he preferred contemporary speech.

“Maybe I was naïve, and maybe it’ll come back to haunt me,” he said. “But I wanted a story that felt earthy and human. To me, it was the obvious choice.”

Robert Pattinson as Antinous, one of Penelope’s suitors (Courtesy of Tulip Entertainment)

A Story That Invites Reinvention

For Dr. Fassberg, these debates are exactly what has kept The Odyssey alive for nearly three millennia.

“If there is one work that justifies adaptations that take creative liberties, it’s The Odyssey.”

He adds:

“I think Homer would have identified with Christopher Nolan. We see Odysseus using exactly the same storytelling devices that people criticize Nolan for using today.”

Perhaps that is why, nearly 3,000 years after it was first told, The Odyssey continues to spark debate, inspire reinterpretation, and find new audiences. Precisely because it has never had a single definitive version, it has never stopped evolving.

Science to power performance in the new state-of-the-art center

Elite athletes often speak about chasing fractions of a second or a few extra centimeters. At Tel Aviv University, those margins are becoming the focus of cutting-edge research.

This week, TAU officially inaugurated the Sylvan Adams Sport Science Institute, a landmark new center that brings together researchers, physicians, engineers, physiologists, data scientists, and AI experts to transform scientific discoveries into practical tools for athletic performance. Established through an approximately $35 million philanthropic gift from businessman and philanthropist Sylvan Adams, the Institute positions Tel Aviv University at the forefront of sport science research while strengthening Israel’s competitive edge on the international stage.

More than a state-of-the-art training center, the institute is designed as a living laboratory where science and elite sport meet. Researchers will investigate everything from exercise physiology and biomechanics to nutrition, injury prevention, environmental adaptation, and performance optimization, translating academic research into personalized programs for athletes.

“The Institute at TAU is unique and will do groundbreaking research. It lays the scientific, technological, and research foundation that will help Israeli athletes achieve new levels of sporting excellence and I believe that bringing together research, innovation, and professional excellence will help develop Israel’s next generation of champions,” said Mr. Sylvan Adams at the inauguration ceremony.

Mr. Sylvan Adams talking about his vision for the Institute (photo: Yael Tzur)

The Institute houses one of Israel’s and the world’s most advanced sport science facilities. Its laboratories—developed in collaboration with TAU’s Gray Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences and the Fleischman Faculty of Engineering—include an advanced scientific gym, motion analysis systems with high-speed video technology, a swimming flume, comprehensive fitness assessment facilities, and a climate chamber capable of recreating the temperature and humidity conditions athletes encounter at competitions around the world. A hypoxic hotel can even simulate training at altitudes of up to 5,000 meters, allowing researchers to study and enhance performance under extreme conditions.

Athletes will receive individualized physiological testing, nutrition guidance, mental performance support, and data-driven training recommendations. At the same time, researchers will use these facilities to conduct world-class applied research aimed at improving athletic performance, reducing injury risk, and advancing our understanding of human physiology.

“We are proud to inaugurate the Sylvan Adams Sport Science Institute, a project that would not have come into being without Sylvan’s extraordinary vision and generosity,” said TAU President Prof. Ariel Porat.

Canadian-Israeli philanthropist Sylvan Adams has played a transformative role in advancing Tel Aviv University’s vision, building on his family’s longstanding commitment to the institution. Through major philanthropic support, he established the Sylvan Adams Sport Science Institute as well as the Sports Center, helping position TAU as a national leader in sports science, athletic performance, and Olympic athlete development. A Vice-Chair of TAU’s Board of Governors and second-generation benefactor, Adams has also strengthened the University through scholarships, research initiatives, and global advocacy on its behalf.

The Olympic Partnership

A major milestone announced during the inauguration was a new strategic partnership between the institute and the Olympic Committee of Israel. Under the collaboration, selected Olympic athletes will receive ongoing scientific assessments and personalized support as they prepare for the Los Angeles 2028 and Brisbane 2032 Olympic Games, creating a direct pipeline between university research and international competition.

Trying the advanced gym equipment with Olympic cyclist Mikhail Yakovlev (photo: Yael Tzur)

Prof. Irad Ben-Gal, who heads the Institute, emphasized that its greatest strength lies in bridging the gap between research and practice. “What makes the Institute unique is its ability to transform scientific data into practical recommendations,” he said. “Every athlete will receive an individualized performance plan designed to improve results, optimize training, reduce injury risk, and monitor progress over time.”

While elite competitors will be among its primary beneficiaries, the Institute’s impact will extend well beyond Olympic sport. Its expertise and services will also support sports clubs, coaches, recreational athletes, and researchers, creating new opportunities for collaboration and innovation while advancing Tel Aviv University’s leadership in health, performance science, and interdisciplinary research.

At Tel Aviv University, theater students learn to live, listen, and create across Israel’s deepest divides.

On any given evening at Tel Aviv University (TAU), the lights go up on a stage that is more than a performance space. It is a laboratory, a classroom, and, perhaps most importantly in today’s reality, a rare meeting ground for students from profoundly different backgrounds.

Jewish and Arab students, religious and secular, immigrants and native-born Israelis—all rehearse, argue, solve problems, and perform together. Theater demands a level of closeness few other academic disciplines require.

“When you’re rehearsing six hours a day with someone, you can’t stay in slogans,” says fourth-year acting student Mayar Sakran, from Nazareth.

“You have to listen. You have to trust each other. That changes something.”

A Microcosm of Israeli Society

Unlike other university programs, theater cannot be learned at a distance. At TAU Theater, actors, directors, and designers train together throughout an intensive four-year integrated BA–MFA program, while productions themselves are part of the curriculum rather than extracurricular activities.

“We believe that cultural and intellectual knowledge enrich artistic creation,” says Prof. Yair Lipshitz, TAU Department Chair of Theatre Arts. “Our students don’t just channel emotion—they analyze, contextualize, and interpret. Theory and practice feed each other.”

That shared creative process often results in something increasingly rare: understanding.

For Mayar the experience transformed not only her artistic development, but her personal life. “It was much more diverse than anything I’d experienced before,” she says. “I had never really engaged with Hebrew-speaking people or people from so many different backgrounds. It made my circle bigger.”

Over four years, she says, those encounters fundamentally changed the way she sees people. “Seeing how other people think about difficult topics really changed a lot of things for me. I’m not the same person I was four years ago.”

One of the most unexpected experiences came when she was cast in The Dybbuk, the classic Yiddish play, portraying Amalia—a young Jewish woman from an Eastern European shtetl. “It was something extremely far away from me,” she says. “I was excited to learn another language and research a world that wasn’t part of my own.” Today, Mayar still finds herself quoting lines in Yiddish.

War Enters the Rehearsal Room

After October 7 and during the ongoing wars, tensions inevitably surfaced. Some students were coping with unimaginable loss; some disappeared for weeks or months to serve in the reserves. Others were facing entirely different fears and realities. Political disagreements that had once remained in the background suddenly became impossible to ignore. And theater offered no easy way to avoid each other.

“We are so much a melding of one another,” says second-year acting student Gil Daniels, an American immigrant and a combat soldier in the IDF. Gil played a girlfriend of Amalia’s in The Dybbuk.  “Our work is about being fully present.” This sort of intensity in rehearsals forced difficult conversations.

Mayar and Gil on stage at The Dybbuk performance

Gil admits there were times he didn’t feel comfortable expressing his views, and some disagreements strained even close friendships.

“There were moments when my classmates and I, we really took space from each other,” he recalls.

But the nature of theater made permanent distance impossible, and the students had to find a way to move forward. “We had to readjust and re-understand how to progress … and still appreciate each other as people, colleagues, and fellow students,” Gil reflects. For him, that change was reflected in his relationships with Arab classmates, including students from Nazareth. Conversations that initially felt impossible gradually gave way to simple acts of concern, such as asking how one’s doing or visiting a sick classmate.

Learning to Disagree

Prof. Lipshitz knew his students arrived with vastly different personal and political perspectives. Rather than trying to erase disagreement, he focused on creating an environment where difficult conversations could happen without overwhelming the class.

“There were tensions, of course. Some classes decided together that the classroom should remain a protected learning space and not become overwhelmed by outside politics,” Lipshitz says. 

“The challenge is creating a space where people feel they belong without turning every class into a political argument.

I try to present the material as fully and honestly as possible, knowing I’ll still miss things and people from all sides may disagree with me.” His goal, he explains, is not consensus. “None of us are entirely comfortable, and that’s okay.”

Interestingly, the debates that proved most heated were often the least expected. “I’d think the class on Palestinian theater would provoke the biggest debate,” Prof. Lipshitz says. “Instead, a discussion about Mizrahi representation in theater would generate the strongest reactions.” Not every discussion ended neatly. Some students chose to continue conversations privately after class rather than speaking publicly. But they kept returning—to class, to rehearsals, and to one another. “And in this, I think, we succeeded in building trust,” Prof. Lipshitz reflects.

For Mayar, that trust was built just as much through everyday life as through performances. “We’re a close-knit group, and we’re here every day, morning till night. Over the years we became a family.” The friendships she formed crossed linguistic, cultural, and political lines. “I don’t like to categorize people and choose my friends based on the category they’re in,” she says. “I like to look at the person for who they are.”

Even misunderstandings became opportunities to grow. “Sometimes people accidentally hurt each other,” Mayar reflects. “But we talk about things together. We solve problems together. And when it works out, it’s beautiful.”

Lipshitz is careful not to describe the department as a utopia. Disagreements remain. So does discomfort. But after years of watching students creating together, he has come to believe that coexistence is not a defined set of rules:

“If students believe we’re here to learn from each other rather than erase one another,” he says, “then meaningful dialogue becomes possible.”

A Work in Progress

For many students, returning to rehearsals also became part of recovering from the trauma of war. The theater offered not only a place to create, but a place to reconnect—with themselves and with one another.

Gil believes that Israeli society needs more spaces where people can genuinely interact across differences. “There has to be more than just war,” he says. “There has to be more than a military culture.” Theater, he believes, offers one possible path.

Mayar shares that sentiment. “I think if people open their minds and see the beauty that’s out there [in each person], they really could live together,” she says. “It is possible.”

The 2026 Coller Dolittle Prize was awarded to Dr. Julie E. Elie for research showing that zebra finches classify calls by meaning rather than sound.

The Jeremy Coller Foundation and Tel Aviv University have announced the winner of the 2026 Coller Dolittle Challenge for Two-Way Interspecies Communication. This year’s US$100,000 prize was awarded to Dr. Julie E. Elie, of the Theunissen Lab at the University of California, Berkeley, for her discovery that zebra finches classify their calls according to meaning more so than acoustics.

Building a Dictionary of Bird Calls

Using AI machine learning and detailed observations of animal behavior, Dr. Julie Elie and her team investigated the acoustic features of zebra finches’ vocalizations and created a “dictionary” classifying zebra finches’ vocalizations into 11 categories or call-types, with meanings such as aggression, hunger or bonding. Elie took her research one step further, carrying out an experiment that tested whether the birds agreed with her classification. She trained zebra finches to press buttons which played her categorized call-types, each day rewarding only one of the call-types with seeds. The birds rapidly learned which call-type was being rewarded, waiting for their reward at the end of the playback, and interrupted non-rewarded call-types.

The Discovery Came from the Birds’ Mistakes

But the truly remarkable scientific advancement was discovered after the categorization exercise, when Elie and her team investigated the errors that birds made when seeking the rewarded call-type. Zebra finches made classification mistakes on calls with shared meaning that could not be explained by how similar-sounding these call-types were. For instance, the birds mistook long-distance contact calls and short-distance contact calls, which are acoustically very different. But, they never mistook a short contact call with a short alarm call, which have very similar acoustic patterns but entirely distinct meanings. As such, the study reveals that call perception elicits a mental imagery of the meaning of call-types, rather than triggering a reflexive response.

AI Brings Scientists Closer to Animal Communication

The prize was presented during an event on 25th June with four shortlisted teams of researchers from the US, France and Switzerland presenting their remarkable discoveries on communication with African striped mice, chimpanzees and bonobos. AI tools were central to the finalists’ studies, enabling them to analyze larger data sets at greater speed, and to decode bioacoustic patterns which are inaudible to human hearing.

A pair of zebra finches

Dr. Julie Elie said: 

“Our research shows that exciting scientific discoveries come from mistakes. It’s been a fascinating collaborative exercise to ask the zebra finches questions about their vocalizations. The fact that, sometimes, the birds get the classification of their own calls wrong has enabled us to gain huge insight into their perceptions and mental imagery. 

“But, there is so much more to be done. Beyond developing the right algorithm to interpret animal vocalizations, we must coordinate the acoustic with the visual. I am excited for the development of robots to mimic the movements and posture of the species we’re interested in. But in the meantime, I’m delighted that I have been recognized by the Coller Dolittle Committee for our team’s contributions to the goal of two-way interspecies communication. I am really grateful to all the people that contributed to this project and to the Jeremy Coller Foundation for making this recognition possible.”

From Animal “Words” to Animal “Sentences”

Professor Yossi Yovel, Tel Aviv University and Chair of the Coller Dolittle Challenge, said: “This year’s finalists have raised the scientific bar of the Coller Dolittle Challenge even further. We have seen a clear transition from studying individual animal “words” to the study of “sentences”. Dr. Julie Elie’s research excelled in all domains. Her study has gone beyond decoding zebra finch’s communication and has begun to answer whether these patterns identified by scientists are actually relevant and meaningful to the birds. On this trajectory, we are accelerating at pace towards two-way interspecies communication.”

Jeremy Coller said: “Congratulations to Dr. Julie Elie, a well-deserved winner of this year’s Prize. From primates to rodents, from jungles to deserts, down on the ground and up in the sky, today’s finalists are all pushing the frontiers of animal communication. While the ultimate goal of achieving genuine two-way communication remains tantalizingly out of reach, scientists are bringing us all one step closer to what I am convinced is now inevitable.

AI is accelerating so fast, I have absolute conviction we’ll crack the code by 2030 – a breakthrough that will benefit humans and our fellow animals the world over and give a long overdue voice to the voiceless.”

The 2025 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences laureate visited campus for three days of lectures, discussions, and special events celebrating his achievements and longstanding ties to the University.

This week, Tel Aviv University welcomed back Prof. Joel Mokyr, winner of the 2025 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences and Visiting Professor at TAU’s Eitan Berglas School of Economics, for a three-day campus visit celebrating both his academic achievements and his longstanding connection to the university.

The three-day visit included an interdisciplinary discussion on economic history, a public lecture titled “What Drives Economic Growth?”, a ceremony dedicating the Economics Student Plaza in his honor, participation in a conference at the Porter School of Environmental and Earth Sciences, and a special reunion with his former high school classmates, who gathered on campus to celebrate his Nobel Prize.

Prof. Mokyr, an Israeli-American economic historian and professor at Northwestern University, received the 2025 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences for his pioneering research on innovation, technological change, and the forces that drive long-term economic growth. His work has fundamentally reshaped the understanding of how scientific knowledge, institutions, and ideas contribute to prosperity over time.

Exploring the Origins of Economic Growth

One of the highlights of the visit was a public lecture, hosted by Tel Aviv University President Prof. Ariel Porat and Vice President for International Affairs Prof. Milette Shamir, which brought together students, faculty members, and members of the public to explore one of the central questions that has shaped Prof. Mokyr’s career: What enables societies to innovate and grow over the long term?

Prof. Joel Mokyr delivering his lecture at Bar-Shira Hall during his visit to Tel Aviv University

Prof. Mokyr began teaching at Northwestern University in 1974 and was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1996. Throughout his career, he has served as President of the Economic History Association and developed the concept of the Industrial Enlightenment, which links ideas from the Enlightenment to the processes that drove the Industrial Revolution.

His books include A Culture of Growth: The Origins of the Modern Economy (2016) and Two Paths to Prosperity: Culture and Institutions in Europe and China (2025).

The visit also included an interdisciplinary discussion on economic history with researchers from across the University and Prof. Mokyr’s participation in a conference at the Porter School of Environmental and Earth Sciences. On Monday, classmates from his high school years gathered on campus for a special reunion celebrating his Nobel Prize, marking another memorable moment during his visit.

Prof. Joel Mokyr

Honoring a Longstanding Member of the TAU Community

As part of the visit, Tel Aviv University dedicated its Economics Student Plaza in honor of Prof. Mokyr, recognizing both his groundbreaking scholarship and his many years of teaching and mentoring students at the Eitan Berglas School of Economics.

Prof. Joel Mokyr with Tel Aviv University President Prof. Ariel Porat

Reflecting on his connection to Israel and Tel Aviv University, Prof. Mokyr said:

“No matter where you live, Israel remains stuck deep in your soul. I especially love teaching Israeli students—they are always highly involved and ready to share their ideas. I can’t wait for what comes next…I’m only getting started.”

On AI, Innovation, and the Future of Universities

Prof. Mokyr’s research has long explored how the creation and dissemination of what he calls “useful knowledge” helped drive the Industrial Revolution and laid the foundations for modern economic growth. During his visit, we asked him how he sees these ideas applying to one of today’s most transformative technologies: artificial intelligence.

If innovation depends not only on new inventions but also on the spread of knowledge, what role might AI play? Could it expand this body of knowledge, or reshape the conditions that make innovation possible?

“My sense it could go either way,” Prof. Mokyr said.

“AI clearly will expand the body of knowledge and make it even more accessible. Yet if the entire world will use two or three sources of AI, say ChatGPT and Claude and Gemini, then we may all be bleating the same tones.”

At the same time, he noted that if the entire world were to rely on only a handful of AI systems, diversity of thought could suffer. Drawing on lessons from economic history, however, he believes competition will continue to challenge dominant technologies and encourage new ideas.

“I expect the number of companies providing AI and other sources will expand, and they may use very different algorithms and ways to process information, and in that world they can avoid the loss of diversity—and could even expand it. It’s hard to predict, but the past teaches us that monopolies are always contestable and in the long run even IBM and Google and Amazon have had to face new entrants and competition—the essence of creative destruction.”

He concluded:

“AI is a malleable tool and I would not be surprised if it actually led to MORE intellectual diversity.”

Prof. Joel Mokyr

Prof. Mokyr also reflected on the role universities play in sustaining the international exchange of ideas at a time of increasing political polarization and geopolitical competition.

” Universities are a major pillar of the global intellectual community—they make an explicit effort to promote international connections, of students, faculty, and even staff.”

He added:

“The campuses are full of foreign students, postdocs, academic visitors. They run seminars and conferences that attract scholars from all over. Many Universities have overseas campus and have ‘semester abroad’ and similar program, fostering cosmopolitan attitudes and supporting worldwide connections. In short, they are one of the main drivers of the global intellectual community—how could they not?”