History YMMV / TheOdyssey

** Furthermore, Zachary Mason's ''The Lost Books Of The Odyssey'' is ''full'' of AlternativeCharacterInterpretation, such as the story from the POV of a solitary, gentle Cyclops, one where Odysseus [[UnreliableNarrator actually crafted most of the story up in his life as a bard]], and one that posits that [[WildMassGuessing both]] ''[[WildMassGuessing The Iliad]]'' [[WildMassGuessing and]] ''[[WildMassGuessing The Odyssey]]'' [[WildMassGuessing are an extremely elaborate description of a chess game]].

* {{Narm}}: In one of the live-action adaptations, Odysseus' mother being DrivenToSuicide involves a shouting match between her and Penelope and a servant rolling around on the ground doing... something. It's very hard to take the scene seriously with all that.

** Given Penelope's canon lack of reaction to Odysseus's killing of the suitors and maids, people have been fighting over how to interpret her character. Is she shocked and angry with Odysseus for the bloodshed, further highlighting the tragedy of Odysseus being irreparably changed by the Trojan war? Or does she actually feel relief, making her just as bloodthirsty as Odysseus and further hightlighting their BirdOfAFeather relationship?

** Nowadays, Odysseus and Telemaches executing the handmaidens who slept with the suitors (who likely wouldn't have had a choice in the matter) and the goatherd who allied himself with them seems rather... unnecessary, and are cut from most retellings. The ones that do leave it in (like the TV miniseries) usually cut it down to a single handmaiden who is unintentionally killed in the crossfire [[LaserGuidedKarma trying to aid the suitors]]. This is a major focus of Creator/MargaretAtwood's ''The Penelopiad'', which naturally depicts Odysseus' actions in a negative light.

** Creator/MargaretAtwood's ''The Penelopiad'' retells the story from the point of view of the women left behind on Ithaca, Penelope and the maids of hers that Telemachus hangs in ''The Odyssey''.
** Some have taken note of the fact that many of Odysseus' adventures are not seen directly, but recounted to the Phaeacians after the fact. Because of this, there have been plenty of people who speculate that Odysseus was embellishing the story -- or even outright making things up.

* FridgeBrilliance: Odysseus has been away from Ithaca for twenty years, and Telemachos is just beginning to take control of his family in the last six months or so. So who's been ruling Ithaca? That's right: Penelope.
** As detailed below, Odysseus' famous bow is actually a recurve bow, that has to be strung in a completely different way from a straight bow, looks like one when unstrung, and was a new technological development in the time of the ''Odyssey''. All of this explains why the suitors couldn't string it: they had no idea what they were dealing with.
** Speaking of the bow, one would wonder why it was left home - likely because the Achaeans expected the expedition to Troy to be solved with Priam taking a good look at just how many ships had arrived and turn over Paris (who had also broken SacredHospitality), Helen, and the stolen treasure, so Odysseus didn't bother - and when that didn't happen he had to make do with something found there. Luckily, it was easier to find recurve bows there.
* FridgeHorror: It's said that human flesh tastes like pork, hence the euphemism of "long pork" and the trope TheSecretOfLongPorkPies. ''The Odyssey'' may well be one of the earliest instances of recorded recognition of this, since Circe turns Odysseus' crewmates into pigs, in some versions with [[IAmAHumanitarian the intention of eating them]].

* BigLippedAlligatorMoment: The story of Ares and Aphrodite's love told by Demodocus. It's quite long and irrelevant. Many think this part is an interpolation.