Zeus’s law, invoked several times in Christopher Nolan’s 2026 adaptation of Homer’s Odyssey, refers to xenia, the ancient Greek custom of hospitality. Hosts were required to offer food, shelter, and protection to guests, travelers, and strangers, who had a reciprocal duty to treat their hosts with courtesy. Violating xenia was to risk the wrath of Zeus, who was believed to be the divine enforcer of the code. In The Odyssey film, Zeus’s law prevents Telemachus (played by Tom Holland) from evicting the suitors of his mother, Penelope (Anne Hathaway), who were depleting the household in the absence of his father, Odysseus (Matt Damon). There are also mentions of the threat posed by the “people of the sea,” who do not respect Zeus’s law.
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