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O sinners let's go down,
Let's go down, come on down,
O sinners let's go down,
Down in the river to pray.

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The similarities between O Brother, Where Art Thou? and Homer's Odyssey are numerous, ranging from the obvious to the obscure. While the Coens did not originally intend to base the film on Homer's epic, Joel Coen has been quoted as saying:
“ It just sort of occurred to us after we’d gotten into it somewhat that it was a story about someone going home, and sort of episodic in nature and it kind of evolved into that. It’s very loosely and very sort of unseriously based on The Odyssey. ”

While the overall plot is only vaguely similar to that of the Odyssey, there are certain "episodes" which closely mirror the film's classical influence.
[edit] References

The only direct reference is the line of text shown at the beginning of the film, "O Muse! Sing in me, and through me tell the story...", which is one translation of the first line of the Odyssey. In addition to this, there are a few characters in the film that share names with similar characters in the Odyssey:

* Ulysses, the Latin form of the Greek name Odysseus, is the first name of the film's protagonist, Ulysses Everett McGill.
* Menelaus 'Pappy' O'Daniel, who pardons the Soggy Bottom Boys at the end of the film, shares his first name with the King of Sparta who fought alongside Odysseus at Troy.
* Pappy O'Daniel's challenger in the election is Homer Stokes, who shares his first name with the author of the classical text.
* Odysseus's wife was named Penelope. Penny, a shortened version of Penelope, is the name of Everett’s wife.
* The soundtrack song of the Soggy Bottom Boys is named 'Man of Constant Sorrow.' Homer described Odysseus through epithets as the man of many sorrows.

[edit] References to Homer

* When we see Pappy O'Daniel discussing the upcoming campaign in the restaurant, over his shoulder we can see a bust of Homer.

Many other characters are related without literal translation. The Sirens (washing women) that seduce the Heroes are the Sirens that attempt to seduce Odysseus and his crew. Vernon symbolizes the suitors waiting to marry Penelope. The Blind Seer (railroad hobo) is Tiresias, the blind ghost prophet. There are many other character relations. Daniel 'Big Dan' Teague (John Goodman) is obviously the Cyclops.

[edit] Character parallels

[edit] Parallels between Odysseus and Everett

Besides the obvious reference from Everett's name being Ulysses (the Roman name of Odysseus). Odysseus is an expert dissembler and loquacious talker, as is Everett. Everett uses his cleverness to escape situations, similar to Odysseus. One of Odysseus's most important epithets is polutropos sometimes translated as "the man of many turns" or "the tactician" Ody.1.1. Everett once mentions the importance of tactics, and another time refers to himself as a tactician. Odysseus frequently suffers misfortune when he falls asleep on his journeys, as does Everett, often awaking quickly and murmuring, "My Hair!" Also, towards the end of the film, Everett reveals that he really just wants to see his family again, just like Odysseus.

[edit] Parallels between Penelope and Penny

* Odysseus tested Penelope’s faith by first appearing before her in disguise, and Penelope does not recognize him, until he later reveals himself. Everett appears in disguise on stage when they sing "Man of Constant Sorrow." Penny likewise does not recognize him until he reveals himself to her. Also, suitors come to try to marry Penelope and a "suitor" comes to try to marry Penny. Oddly, Penny shows traits opposite from Penelope. Unlike Penelope, Penny was not excited for Ulysses to come home. When he finally finds her she demands that he leave her alone because her suitor has the money and a job.

[edit] Parallels with monsters and others met by Odysseus

* Big Dan Teague (with an eye patch) corresponds to Polyphemus the Cyclops, most especially in that he pretends to preach the word of God as a Bible salesmen, then mugs them - the Cyclops as a species were descended from Poseidon and built thunderbolts for Zeus. In the Odyssey, the cyclops falls asleep and has his eye put out by Odysseus and his crew with a sharpened smoldering log. In the film, Big Dan is almost blinded by the sharpened stake of the Confederate flag but catches it, only to be crushed underneath the flaming cross that Everett cuts loose. Also, Odysseus hides under sheep, which the blinded Cyclops examines with his hands before letting them out of the cave. The parallel here is that the men dress in the Ku Klux Klan's white robes to enter the ritual and save Tommy Johnson.
* Sirens lure Odysseus and his men with their singing. In the film, they do the same, and hypnotize Everett, Delmar and Pete, and compel them to drink corn liquor until they pass out. They also correspond to the witch Circe, who turned some of Odysseus's men into animals; Delmar thinks the women are witches who have turned Pete into a toad after he sees a toad emerge from Pete's abandoned clothes. There is also an allusion here to Nausicaa, a maiden whom Ulysses encountered (and seduced) on a beach as she was doing laundry.
* The blind radio station owner who records "Man of Constant Sorrow" corresponds to Aeolus. He also could correspond to the Greek poet Homer, as he, too, is blind, and to a certain extent spreads the story of Everett through their song "Man of Constant Sorrow"
* The manic-depressive George Nelson corresponds to the shape-changing Proteus.

[edit] Plot parallels

[edit] Parallels with the journey of Odysseus

* The black man on the railroad handcar may be a parallel to Nestor, oldest of the Trojan War heroes, who is consulted by Odysseus's son Telemachus. He is repeatedly and formally described by Homer as the 'Gerenian charioteer': the railroad handcar may represent Nestor’s chariot. As another parallel Homer himself was according to tradition blind and bearded. However, it is more likely an allusion to Tiresias, who prophesied the trials and tribulations of Odysseus's route home when Odysseus visited him in the underworld.
* The merciless sheriff is analogous to the god Poseidon who torments Odysseus and prolongs his journey home. A link between Satan and Poseidon may be being made when Everett mentions that Satan carries "a giant hay fork" (a trident); both figures are often depicted with just such an instrument. In the penultimate scene of the film, the sheriff's dog and his hired men are killed in a surprise flood (though we do not know if the sheriff himself is dead, as no body appears), while Everett and his friends save themselves; Poseidon, god of the waters, destroyed all who had manned a ship sent to aid Odysseus, turning them into a rock in retaliation for the blinding of his son Polyphemus, and also plagued Odysseus himself constantly with floods. The sheriff may also reference the god Hades who, as ruler of the underworld, is sometimes compared to Satan; the sheriff's hound echoes Cerberus, the three-headed watchdog of the underworld.
* The travelers's siege in the Hogwallop barn parallels Odysseus's dangerous course between Scylla and Charybdis when Everett helplessly cries "Damn! We're in a tight spot!" several times. This also could have paralleled Odysseus's peril in Polyphemus's cave.
* There is a trance-like progression of worshipers seeking to be baptized. Their glassy eyed placidity draws a parallel with the Lotus-Eaters of the Odyssey.
* At one point George Nelson shoots at a herd of cattle. Odysseus and his fellow travelers slaughter the cows of the sun god Helios. Odysseus warns his men against killing the sacred oxen. Delmar warns Nelson, "Oh, George, not the livestock!" In addition to this, in the Odyssey, Odysseus's ship is struck by a thunderbolt — killing all but him. In the film, George is sent to be executed in the electric chair. During the parade to the execution, someone leading a cow behind the mob yells, "Cow killer!!!"
* Everett has to enter the dinner party in a disguise to avoid detection. This parallels when Odysseus had to enter his own palace disguised as a beggar.
* Odysseus did not reveal himself before his wife's suitors until having strung his own bow and shot through twelve axes, a feat which only he could perform; similarly, the Soggy Bottom Boys' anonymous recording of "A Man Of Constant Sorrow" becomes a smash hit, a fact which they remain unaware of until they perform the song again at the dinner party.

[edit] Parallels with the underworld

* The scene in the theater, when Pete tries to warn Everett and Delmar, parallels Odysseus's descent into the underworld, Hades. Delmar, believing that Pete had died, mistakes him (and thus also the other people in the theater) for a ghost. In this scene Pete parallels Tiresias in the underworld.
* Following Everett's beating by Waldrip, Everett warns Delmar of the treachery of women. This is much like how Agamemnon, who had been betrayed by his wife and killed by her new husband, warns Odysseus not to trust women.

[edit] Miscellaneous parallels

* The dialogue in a scene between Everett and his daughters also gives a nod to its ancient influence. Using Latin terms, one of the girls says that Waldrip is bona fide, and Everett responds that he is the pater familias. The girls also use the word "suitor" at least twice.
* In the scene where the trio and George Nelson are sitting around the fire after the robbery at Itta Bena, there are Greek columns in the background. (The columns could possibly be meant to be Windsor Ruins, located outside of Port Gibson, MS.)
* Everett also comes back to stop the marriage and fight Vernon, much as Odysseus comes back to kill the suitors. Everett, however, is badly beaten by Vernon, perhaps creating a parallel with Telemachus's inability to discharge his mother's suitors.
* When Everett, Pete, Delmar, and Tommy encounter the sheriff at the cabin, the sheriff remarks, "End of the road, boys. It's had its twists and turns". The opening line of "The Odyssey" is "Sing to me of the man, Muse, the man of twists and turns".

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