After watching the movie, it seems that O Brother, Where Art Thou truly was loosely based on Homer's Odyssey. From the very beginning, after sprung from their chain gang and trying to reach Everett's cabin to recover a buried treasure of a bank heist, they are confronted by a series of strange characters and many odd obstacles that impede their journey.
             Right from the opening credits the directors clues you in to an obvious connection, when the narrator quotes the Odyssey by saying "O Muse..." which was how Homer had opened his epic poem. From there Everet, Pete, and Delmar take trying to escape the tracking dogs. Winding up at a set of railroad tracks, the three convicts ended up catching a ride on a hand-pumped rail cart after clumsily missing the passing freight train. The cart was oddly enough operated by a blind colored man, who seemed to be a prophet. He told the three men that they will not find the treasure they seek. The prophet in the Odyssey was Teiresias, who Odysseus talked to when needing insight on how to get home. I also think the role of the blind prophet might be a symbolization of Athena, and how she took another form to disguise herself, but yet help lead Odysseus in the correct direction.
             Observing the characters, one could easily assume that George Clooney's character, Ulysses Everett McGill, seems to be the representation of Odysseus, on a journey to return home to his wife, whom is at risk of remarrying. Time and time again Everett displayed Odysseus-like quality. Even in the end when returned to his hometown town in after finding out his wife was preparing to remarry, he disguised himself as an old man. Odysseus had also disguised himself as an old man upon his arrival home. The role of Everett's wife seems to be a representation of Penelope, even down to her fitting name "Penny". In the Odyssey, Penelope was the one thing that fueled Odysseus's journey home, t...