Christopher Nolan’s new blockbuster film version of the Odyssey is leading the summer box office and renewing international interest in Odysseus, one of the main heroes of the legendary Trojan War. In Homer’s two epic poems, the Iliad and the Odyssey, Odysseus famously deceives the Trojans with a wooden horse in order to conquer their city, before then suffering ten years of trials on his long journey home.
Despite being written nearly three thousand years ago, the story of Odysseus continues to resonate with modern audiences. It is shaped by timeless values of military ingenuity, righteous justice, and a longing for one’s homeland that offer ancient echoes of modern-day Ukraine’s fight against Russia’s ongoing invasion.
Stay updated
As the world watches the Russian invasion of Ukraine unfold, UkraineAlert delivers the best Atlantic Council expert insight and analysis on Ukraine twice a week directly to your inbox.
In Homer’s story, the Greeks go to war against Troy to avenge the kidnapping of Helen, the wife of the Spartan king. After a decade-long siege of Troy, the Greeks are unable to conquer the walled city. It is then that Odysseus orders the creation of a large wooden horse as a ruse to penetrate the Trojan defenses. Once this apparent tribute is moved inside Troy, Greek warriors descend from inside the horse to open the gates and allow a Greek army to enter the city.
The wooden horse ploy is one of the most celebrated military deceptions in literary history. It is the act that Odysseus is most closely associated with. Indeed, unlike other famous Greek heroes such as Hercules and Achilles, Odysseus is known primarily for his brains rather than his brawn.
This offers obvious parallels with today’s Ukrainian army. Since 2014, Ukraine has been forced to rely on innovation and ingenuity rather than conventional military strength in order to counter the often overwhelming manpower and firepower advantages enjoyed by the invading Russians. While nobody would question the courage of Ukraine’s defenders, they have consistently depended on smart solutions in order to fight back asymmetrically against their far larger enemy.
In summer 2025, Ukraine even employed its own equivalent of the Trojan Horse. Operation Cobweb was an ingenious and inventive scheme that saw Ukraine conceal large quantities of attack drones inside wooden containers that were then shipped across Russia by unsuspecting lorry drivers. Once in position, these remote-controlled drones were activated and used to target Russian airbases, resulting in the destruction of dozens of military aircraft.
Ukraine’s creative use of heavy goods vehicles as “Trojan horses” was widely hailed as one of the most innovative military tactics of the modern era. Some analysts labeled the simultaneous stealth attack on multiple enemy airbases as a game-changer. Odysseus would almost certainly have recognized the tactic and approved.
Operation Cobweb helped transform international perceptions of Ukraine and underlined the country’s status as a world leader in drone warfare. Just over one year later, Ukrainian experts are now providing security for a number of Gulf states and training NATO troops in the use of drones.
Eurasia Center events
The Trojan War is said to have lasted ten years. It then took Odysseus a further decade to finally return to his family on the island of Ithaca. Twenty years is a long absence by any standards. Unsurprisingly, one of the overriding themes of the Odyssey is Odysseus’s desire to come home.
This sentiment would strike a chord with the millions of Ukrainians who have been forced to leave their homeland due to Russia’s invasion. In the twelve years since the war began with the seizure of Crimea, millions of Ukrainians have been displaced. More than five million currently remain abroad, many longing like Odysseus to return.
When Odysseus finally completes his epic journey and reaches Ithaca, he finds his kingdom in disarray with one hundred suitors competing to marry his wife Penelope and become the new king of the island. Disguised as a beggar, Odysseus kills them all. This part of Homer’s tale is regarded by some as controversial because Odysseus is seen as merciless, but the legendary Greek would likely receive a sympathetic hearing in today’s Ukraine.
Odysseus’s actions upon his return to Ithaca reflect a righteous sense of justice that would be immediately familiar to many Ukrainians as they fight for their country’s right to exist. While Odysseus is driven by a desire to reclaim his family from those who seek to steal his rightful place, Ukrainians are motivated by their love of homeland and sense of justice amid Russian efforts to erase Ukraine as a state and as a nation.
Homer wrote in the Iliad that “the will of Zeus always prevails over men.” If today’s Ukrainians continue to channel the cleverness and determination of Odysseus, they may win favor from the heavens and write their own epic history of victory against the odds.
Brian Mefford is a senior nonresident fellow at the Atlantic Council who has lived and worked in Ukraine since 1999. He is the founder and director of Wooden Horse Strategies LLC, a governmental relations and public affairs company based in Kyiv.
Further reading
The views expressed in UkraineAlert are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Atlantic Council, its staff, or its supporters.
The Eurasia Center’s mission is to enhance transatlantic cooperation in promoting stability, democratic values, and prosperity in Eurasia, from Eastern Europe and Turkey in the West to the Caucasus, Russia, and Central Asia in the East.
Follow us on social media
and support our work
Image: A promotional poster for 'The Odyssey' movie directed by Christopher Nolan is seen at IMAX cinema in Krakow, Poland on August 5th, 2026. (Photo by Beata Zawrzel/NurPhoto)