‘THE ODYSSEY,’ CONT.

Re “This One’s Rated BC” (by David Gritten, Feb. 16):

It is dismaying to read Andrei Konchalovsky say that my screenplay for “The Odyssey” “was so much story, it left no room for emotions,” when in the next breath you go on to report that Konchalovsky has seen fit to include Achilles dragging Hector before the walls of Troy, an episode lifted from “The Iliad.” Konchalovsky’s “Odyssey” also includes the birth of Telemachus, still more “story” and not to be found in either Homer epic!

I am sorry, as well, to read Robert Halmi say that people who say they read “The Odyssey” in school are “lying.” I read it, loved it and tried to be faithful to it in my adaptation. Your article makes it sound as though the people involved in the miniseries were not particularly interested in Homer and his “boring” story.

I will not be surprised to find in the finished piece that Odysseus never beds Circe and Calypso as that would be politically incorrect--or does he have to believe his wife is dead in order to make that “story” point tolerable?

NICHOLAS MEYER

Hollywood

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Perhaps David Gritten, Andrei Konchalovsky or Robert Halmi Sr. could tell us where in “The Odyssey” the tale of the Trojan horse appears? If the tale is not there, why is it in the TV production?

SAMUEL F. RINDGE

South Pasadena

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Armand Assante believes that “The Odyssey” “will strike a chord with people because at its core, it’s about lost family values and people trying to hold on to them. . . . Today’s audience can relate to that.” How true. If you think about it, that’s exactly why millions of Americans--both young and old--are lining up week after week to see “Star Wars,” a 20-year-old movie with the very same traits Assante sees in “The Odyssey.”

Like Odysseus, we are a nation that’s lost its way and is trying to find its way back. Whenever this happens, all cultures go back to their myths and traditions. This explains why everything old is new again and why nostalgia is in.

GEORGE H. KUBOTA

Los Angeles