The task of taking parts of the oldest book copy of The Odyssey to the US for the stars of Christopher Nolan’s cinematic retelling of the epic to view was “like being on the set of Mission Impossible”, the librarian who took it has said.
Part of a 1,700-year-old copy of Homer’s poem, kept at Manchester’s John Rylands Library, was taken to New York in a bespoke case for the viewing.
Prof Christopher Pressler said it felt like a mission, as “we knew what was in this case but nobody else did”, adding “It was a huge responsibility carrying something of global importance through JFK.”
He said it led to “some mind-blowing moments” for the cast, with Nolan being “very moved” by holding the fragments.
The fragments, written in ancient Greek by what was thought to be an Egyptian scribe and his teacher, are the oldest existing version of the poem arranged into a book.
Nolan’s film, which was adapted from Homer’s epic, stars Matt Damon as Odysseus, with Tom Holland playing his son, Telemachus, and Anne Hathaway as his wife, Penelope.
It also features Robert Pattinson as one of Penelope’s suitors, Antinous, and Lupita Nyong’o as both Helen of Troy and her sister Clytemnestra.
