Cover Every major piece of jewellery in Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey was written into the story, not just the wardrobe and drives the plot (Photo: courtesy of Universal Pictures)
Every major piece of jewellery in Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey was written into the story, not just the wardrobe and drives the plot (Photo: courtesy of Universal Pictures)
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Four pieces of jewellery, worn by four different characters, do the work that gods and prophecy once did in Homer’s original: recognising a husband, convicting a sorceress and announcing a queen’s scars in The Odyssey
Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey, released on July 17, 2026 with an ensemble led by Matt Damon, Anne Hathaway, Zendaya, Charlize Theron, Robert Pattinson, Samantha Morton and Lupita Nyong’o, is built on a US$250 million budget and shot entirely on IMAX cameras. Costume designer Ellen Mirojnick created more than 5,300 costumes for the production, researching Mycenaean Greece and the late Bronze Age Mediterranean rather than any single historical period.
Within The Odyssey’s world, jewellery does more than dress the cast. It identifies, and it incriminates, and it signals rank. Several pieces are built specifically as plot devices, and none of them exist in Homer’s original text at all.
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Penelope and the Athena Pin
Above The Athena Pin (Photo: courtesy of Universal Pictures)
The Athena Pin (Photo: courtesy of Universal Pictures)
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Of the women he encounters across the film, Penelope played by Anne Hathaway is the only one documented handing Odysseus a piece of jewellery. When they say their goodbyes, Penelope gives Odysseus a pin, dubbed the Athena Pin, as a token of remembrance and, crucially, as the object she says she will use to identify him when he finally returns. It replaces Homer’s original recognition device, the bed built from a living olive tree, with something an IMAX audience can actually watch Odysseus hold up to Penelope at the moment of reunion. It also fits Nolan’s habit of giving his protagonists a single signature object, in the way the character of Dom Cobb played by Leonardo DiCaprio has his spinning top in Inception.
Antinous: a ring with no job but vanity
Above Robert Pattinson as Antinous (Photo: courtesy of Universal Pictures)
Robert Pattinson as Antinous (Photo: courtesy of Universal Pictures)
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Antinous, the suitors’ ringleader, wears a pinky ring that carries no plot function at all. He breaks xenia more than anyone else in the palace, the ancient code that made a host responsible for any stranger at the door, since the gods themselves were believed to travel in disguise. It exists purely as characterisation and a visual match for his silver-plated, ornamented court dress, the shortest skirt of anyone in the cast and a flash of cheetah fur at the collar, Mirojnick’s nod to the cheetah-print underwear Robert Pattinson himself pitched to Nolan.
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Helen and Clytemnestra: armour dressed as jewellery
Above Lupita Nyong’o plays both twin sisters, Helen and Clytemnestra (Photo: courtesy of Universal Pictures)
Lupita Nyong’o plays both twin sisters, Helen and Clytemnestra (Photo: courtesy of Universal Pictures)
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Lupita Nyong’o plays both twin sisters, Helen and Clytemnestra, and Mirojnick used jewellery to carry Helen’s rank and the broken statue quality she wanted the character to have. Nyong’o recommended artist and Pakistani fashion designer Misha Japanwala, who created a bronze, asymmetrical neck and shoulder plate that Mirojnick has said reads like a broken statue, worn as a capelet over a draped, luminescent gown. In her final scene, Helen wears a gold choker, also by Japanwala, with a chainmail-like metal-woven gown sourced in Spain and weighing approximately 13 kgs, which Nyong’o wore despite the weight.
Eurylochus: the ring that gives Circe away
Above Eurylochus’s ring was found on Circe’s dining table, a plot device in the movie (Photo: courtesy of Universal Pictures)
Eurylochus’s ring was found on Circe’s dining table, a plot device in the movie (Photo: courtesy of Universal Pictures)
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The Odyssey’s other major jewellery plot device belongs to a man, but it is worth including for what it does to the story. Eurylochus played by British actor Himesh Patel takes a ring from his fallen comrade Elpenor and wears it as a memorial. Odysseus later spots that same ring among Circe’s belongings, and its presence there, nowhere near Eurylochus himself, is what first tips him off that she’s done something to his men.
As the Regional Editor for Watches and Jewellery and Editorial Content Lead for Tatler GMT, Amrita Katara specialises in luxury watch and jewellery coverage across Asia, with expertise in editorial strategy, feature writing and interviews with industry leaders. Her past roles span luxury lifestyle media and client partnerships. Based in Mumbai, Amrita’s work bridges global trends and Asian market insights.
