Alabama football as characters from ‘The Odyssey’

When Homer wrote his “Odyssey” 3,000 years ago, it was all about Bama, right?If you’re on your 20-year quest home and you’ve somehow missed seeing Christopher Nolan’s adaptation “The Odyssey,” you’ve missed not just the movie of the year, but with stronger parallels to Alabama football than any of us could have expected.Maybe we’ve had too much lotus flower, but this is mythology, after all. We see Bama everywhere, even in the ancient texts.But between the wrath of Zeus and the College Football Playoff committee, we can’t tell them apart anymore. So we had to run through the main characters from “The Odyssey” and find their Crimson Tide counterpart. Read them below.Nick Saban on the sideline during Alabama's football game against The Citadel in 2018. (Ben Flanagan / AL.com)Odysseus (Nick Saban)The king of Ithaca. Hero of the Trojan War. Purveyor of Joyless Murderball. A cunning strategist, Odysseus also does whatever he must to survive, similar to Saban’s 17-year evolution in an ever-changing college football landscape. You see a cyclops, you adapt. You see the rise of spread offense and RPOs, you hire Lane Kiffin. Saban built a second Bronze Age at Bama, taking a couple of decades to finish his coaching career like Odysseus did to come home. What’s the ancient Greek version of becoming an ESPN analyst on “College GameDay?” Seven years on an island with Calypso? Sailing into the sunset with Penelope? With Saban gone, is it too much to ask for civilization to rise again? And that our mistakes will once again be forgotten, as Alabama wins championship No. 19?Alabama head coach Kalen DeBoer during his team's College Football Playoffs Quarterfinal game against Indiana at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, Calif., on Jan. 1, 2026.Wesley Sinor | AL.comTelemachus (Kalen DeBoer)The heir, but there are questions about the future in Ithaca, er, Tuscaloosa. Like Telemachus, DeBoer is noble. He wants to achieve greatness in a position previously occupied by a proven commodity. Hard standard to live up to. But he does all the right things. He sets sail to meet with Menelaus, to learn more about his missing father. DeBoer has recruited well in the land of the SEC, seeing success many did not expect. DeBoer has big wins. He has defeated Kirby Smart twice. He reached the College Football Playoff and SEC Championship. But can he close the deal? This uncertainty is why other suitors might believe Saban’s throne can still be had. But when Telemachus wears the crown, he has a chance to lead Ithaca back to glory.Miss Terry hearts a fan. Nick Saban, Pat McAfee, Kalen DeBoer, Kirk Herbstreit and the rest of the ESPN "College GameDay" gang hit the University of Alabama quad ahead of the Crimson Tide's game against Vanderbilt Saturday, Oct. 4, 2025. (Ben Flanagan / AL.com)Ben FlanaganPenelope (Miss Terry)Odysseus’ wife waited 20 years for his return. Terry Saban stood by the legendary coach for 17 in Tuscaloosa before he retired, but that doesn’t count the decades of coaching prior to his arrival. So all things considered, the king and queen of Ithaca ain’t got nothing on the Crimson Tide’s former first couple. And instead of sailing west and chasing the escaping sun to honor the dead, Nick and Terry moved to Florida.Georgia head coach Kirby Smart, left, and Alabama head coach Kalen DeBoer meet at midfield before an NCAA college football game, Saturday, Sept. 28, 2024, in Tuscaloosa, Ala. (AP Photo/Vasha Hunt)APAgamemnon (Kirby Smart)No doubt the king of the SEC now, with two national titles on his resume, the former Saban assistant is widely considered one of (if not the) best coaches in college football. When Agamemnon walks through the gates of Troy, you know it’s over. A similar feeling felt by most of his SEC counterparts, not counting Kalen DeBoer, who has two wins against the reigning conference king. But now a few years since he last won it all, some wonder if Kirby’s ‘Dawgs will reach the pinnacle again. He’s wandering Hades, perhaps awaiting a prophecy that sets him forth on his own odyssey back home.Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin. The Alabama Crimson Tide host the Ole Miss Rebels in Bryant-Denny Stadium Saturday, Oct. 2, 2021. (Ben Flanagan / AL.com)Antinous (Lane Kiffin)A clear suitor of the empty throne of Ithaca, Kiffin’s parallels with Antinous don’t stop there. Now the head coach at LSU, Kiffin has never said he wanted to succeed Saban at Alabama, despite a waterfall of speculation that he wanted the job. And look, Ole Miss has never had a “destination job” feel, especially for anyone born outside Oxford. So no one blames Kiffin for leaving for greener (or swampier) pastures. Same as Antinous. The guy wanted to marry the beautiful Penelope and assume a throne that’s been empty for 20 years. That’s called ambition, y’all. But it’s the way you do things. Kiffin ditching Oxford in the middle of a playoff run? Tough look. Plotting against Telemachus and ordering his father’s demise? Simply untrustworthy.Alabama head coach Nick Saban and Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney talk before Alabama's College Football Playoff National Championship football game with Clemson, Monday, Jan. 11, 2016, at University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Ariz. (Vasha Hunt)APCyclops (Dabo Swinney)Named Polyphemus, the one-eyed son of Poseidon certainly gives these all they can handle, not unlike Dabo Swinney’s Clemson run that cost Alabama a couple of titles. But consider the Tigers’ coach a little shortsighted as the rest of college football evolved without him. The Alabama alum’s comments on the modern era are well-documented, and while Clemson has reached a playoff in the 12-team era, few take them as seriously as they did during their mid-2010s dominance. When their lives were on the line, Odysseus outsmarted the giant.Orange Bowl 2018 Media Day at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami. (Ben Flanagan / AL.com)Sirens (Rat poison)“All that stuff you write about how good we are, all that stuff they hear on ESPN, it’s like poison. It’s like taking poison. Like rat poison,” Saban told the media after a win over Texas A&M in 2017, in one of his most famous rants. Odysseus must have felt the same way, because Saban would have loved his monologue after enduring the Sirens’ song. “All the things you want it to be,” Odysseus tells Eurylochus. “Then, all the things you wish you’d never wish for. It was the delicious itch you go to scratch but find it’s under the skin, you can’t reach it. So the delicious itch becomes unbearable.” If that ain’t rat poison, what is? If only Saban had beeswax to stuffed into his players’ ears. The five coaches with multiple wins each versus Nick Saban in his time as Alabama head coach: (from left to right) Urban Meyer, Dabo Swinney, Gus Malzahn, Les Miles, and Hugh Freeze. (AL.com)AL.comScylla (Gus, Les, Dabo, Urban, Hugh)A six-headed, man-eating monster that lives on one side of a narrow channel of water? Let’s go with the five SEC coaches who somehow amassed multiple wins each against Nick Saban in his time as the Alabama coach, as he ran through the tumultuous annual gauntlet on his way to many titles. Gus Malzahn and Les Miles got three off of the GOAT, while Dabo Swinney, Urban Meyer, and Hugh Freeze each caught him twice. Only Dabo remains, but you’d rather try your luck with the Charybdis than make it through that narrow pass, because like it or not, you’re taking a few L’s.Auburn fans storm the field as they celebrate their 26-14 win over Alabama in the Iron Bowl Saturday, Nov. 25, 2017, at Jordan-Hare Stadium in Auburn, Ala. (Julie Bennett/jbennett@al.com)AL.comCirce (Jordan-Hare Stadium)A witch and goddess on the island of Aeaea, Circe turns Odysseus’ men into pigs and warns their leader of a similar fate. Odd things happen as soon as the soldiers reach the island’s shores. They see uncommon calmness during encounters with dangerous beasts including, yes, a tiger. Do not offend her, for she will permanently transform you for life, lest your leader turn the tables on her with a miraculous Gravedigger play or Heisman-clinching touchdown drive. Aeaea, Auburn -- who can tell the difference? We investigated, and strange occurrences (the Kick Six, the Prayer at Jordan-Hare) happen all the time. You see exactly who you are in that stadium, and if you’re lucky enough to leave, you can go back to your disguises.Football coach Paul "Bear" Bryant gets carried off the field by players after the University of Alabama won an SEC championship in Baton Rouge, La., in 1977.(The Birmingham News file photo/Bernard Troncale)Athena (Bear Bryant)The goddess of wisdom and warfare looms large on Nolan’s adaptation, guiding Odysseus on his treacherous journey home. For any Alabama coach, the cloud Bryant and all that he accomplished as the face of that program would hang heavily, feeling his presence and judgment at every turn. Like the gods and goddesses who permeate Homer’s tale, Bryant has always resembled a mythological figure, less of imposing and more of a standard to light the way for any coach trying to reach the same heights and bring a title home.Alabama Crimson Tide wide receiver Isaiah Horton (1) completes a pass for a touchdown against Auburn Tigers safety A'Mon Lane-Ganus (26) at Jordan-Hare Stadium in Auburn, Ala., Saturday, Nov. 29, 2025. (Will McLelland | AL.com)Will McLellandCalypso (The Transfer Portal)Who can blame Odysseus for washing ashore on the island of Ogygia, where for seven years he’s fed the amnesia-inducing lotus flowers by the infatuated nymph Calypso. Sounds a bit like the transfer portal, doesn’t it? A college football purgatory where a blue-chip player will spend what feels like an eternity being feted with gifts and adoration by scouts and boosters helping him forget any reason he should go back home where he signed that original NLI. Julio Jones answers questions with the media during a press conference Wednesday, Feb. 6, 2008 at Foley High School in Foley, Ala. (Chip English / The Press-Register)Press-RegisterHelen of Troy (Julio Jones)The recruit that launched a thousand ships, Julio Jones (Son of Foley), the wide receiver prospect that would ultimately define a legacy and Bama’s own Bronze Age, once Nick Saban signed him to the legendary 2008 class that would help to re-establish the Crimson Tide as a full-on dynasty. This isn’t to say Jones, a likely NFL Hall of Fame inductee, wrecked the home of college football’s would-be Menelaus equivalent, but there’s no doubt his talent ignited wars between the most elite of the sport’s bluest bloods.Tua Tagovailoa (left) and Jalen Hurts, pictured at Fan Day 2018 in Bryant-Denny Stadium, had a quarterback battle for the ages. (Ben Flanagan / AL.com)Ben FlanaganSinon (Jalen Hurts)“Sacrifice” is a strong word for what went down the night Saban benched Hurts for freshman quarterback Tua Tagovailoa in order for Alabama to win the battle of Troy, aka the College Football Playoff final against Georgia in Atlanta. But Hurts did make sacrifices after losing the starting job. He stuck around. He pushed Tua. And the future Super Bowl MVP saved his bacon the very next year against the very same opponent to make the Tide SEC victors once again, before departing to the college football underworld -- that is, outside the SEC. In Virgil’s “Aeneid,” Sinon misleads Trojans to bring the “gifted” horse inside the city walls; hardly a parallel meant for the current Philadelphia Eagles QB1. But in Nolan’s film, Sinon symbolizes much more, a brave soldier tragically taken for granted.Paul Finebaum on set, as Alabama and Tennessee fans show up for "SEC Nation" before the Crimson Tide host the Volunteers in Tuscaloosa on Saturday, Oct. 18, 2025. (Ben Flanagan / AL.com)Ben FlanaganTiresias (Paul Finebaum)A blind prophet of the Greek underworld, Tiresias calls it like he sees it, much like his college football comp, aka “The Mouth of the South.” During an encounter in Hades, he tells Odysseus only he will make it home, while his men will fall at the hands of the gods. Does that remind anyone else of Finebaum forecasting the firings of SEC coaches? Like him or not, Finebaum gives it to you straight, and no, it doesn’t always go down smoothly. He’s your best friend when your team rides high, and you hear him kicking you while you’re down when you can’t make a bowl game. That’s the job of the man with the microphone. Go ahead, defy the gods and prove him wrong.Alabama football fans cheer from the Bryant-Denny Stadium stands and other sights from the Crimson Tide's 56-7 win over Middle Tennessee State in Tuscaloosa Saturday, Sept. 2, 2023. (Ben Flanagan / AL.com)Argos (Alabama fans)Odysseus’ loyal hunting dog should stand in for the entire Alabama fan base. No matter the coach, the quarterback, or the defensive scheme, Alabama fans will wait it out, no matter the length of time between championships. In the most heartbreaking moment of Nolan’s film, we see Argos old and withered, lying on a dung heap, and waiting to see his master one last time. As he catches a glance of the king of Ithaca, he wags his tail, draws his final breath and dies peacefully. Now picture Alabama fans who held on to that 1992 national title win over Miami for 17 long years before Nick Saban delivered title No. 13, a win in the Rose Bowl, only a few miles away from where the Trojans play. For some, it was one more wag of the tail. For others, their own odyssey may have just begun.Follow Ben Flanagan on X/Twitter. Find his Alabama football podcast “Beat Everyone” on YouTube, Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.