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11 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 23 AUGUST 2026 FEATURE Bastion Nights Under the Stars Jazz Nights every Wednesday evening and a specially curated à la carte dining experience. Mediterranean Barbecue every Tuesday & Thursday evening accompanied by live entertainment. +356 2122 5241 Bastion Restaurant - The Phoenicia Malta | Scan to learn more Where Malta fits into The Odyssey been drugging Odysseus with lotus flowers to keep him from remembering the numerous shit- shows that led him to Ogygia. Lotus flowers were considered psychedelic at the time. Think of them as a sort of mix of MDMA and mushrooms. Very popular in ancient Egypt. Please do not take this as a sign to eat a bunch of lo- tus flowers. Again, none of this happens in the epic, in which Odysseus ap- pears to have been held captive and repeatedly raped by Calypso for seven years while she offered him immortality, all as he sobbed hysterically over his wife. I guess Nolan went with more of a roofie approach. However, I have to admit that the lotus flower rework is rem- iniscent of dealers promoting Blue Punishers to prospective tourists on social media, so the situation isn't all that different on the ground, even three thousand years later. Maybe Nolan did do his research! That being said, what I found significantly more resonant than the descriptions of olive trees and wild parsley was the isolation, and Nolan does a good job of capturing it. While his version of Ogygia felt physically unfamiliar to me, the feeling was there. Even in Homer, Ogygia is de- fined as much by its isolation as by its beauty. Everything is set up for the island to be Odys- seus' paradise, but, instead, it is a prison. The gods stop in awe of its seashores, but our hero sits sobbing on its cliffs, dreaming of the home he can no longer re- member. That idea of an island you have to dope yourself up on lotus flowers to tolerate staying on al- so felt real to me. I see that in people here. High, drunk, and dreaming of escape; Maltese people sit by the seashore trying to forget whatever it is we have left to fight for. I felt that while reading the ep- ic, and I felt it while watching the film. As I sat in that freez- ing classroom and that boiling cinema, I realised that Homer's Ogygia simply no longer exists. And while Odysseus does find his way back home, even after two decades lost at sea, can we? Some historians believe Malta was actually the three-pointed island of Helios, where Odys- seus' men slaughtered a herd of cattle despite being warned by the gods not to touch them. He- lios demanded punishment for their impiety, and Zeus even- tually killed all of them, except Odysseus. As I said, Helios' Island is widely considered to be mod- ern-day Sicily, famous for its three points of Capo Peloro, Capo Passero, and Capo Lilibeo. Even its symbol, the Trinacria, depicts the Greek mythological monstress Medusa, surrounded by three legs. That being said, I can see how Malta might have a claim to the story. Much of our coastline has been slaughtered by sunbeds owned by overpriced restaurants, while our pines and poplars have long since ceased to be a home for sea-owls. I mean, I personally don't even know what a sea- owl is. Calypso's Cave has been closed to the public, and the sea belting our island is contaminat- ed with faeces and carved up by private yacht marinas. Would the gods still stop in awe? Maybe I'm doing too much with all that. But here's my conclusion: Read the epic to re- member what Ogygia was, and watch the movie to feel what it is. And while you're at it, sa- vour a caramel latte spiked with whiskey. Odysseus on his journey