There has been a ruckus about the role of Helen in The Odyssey, the hit movie of the summer. A Black actress, Lupita Nyong’o, plays Helen, and online gossips are shocked out of their minds.
There has been a storm on X, with many posters expressing indignation about a Black Helen. One went so far as to say that no one will believe she is the most beautiful woman in the world.
Mind you, I’ve always pictured Helen as tall and blonde, though there is no evidence for this, and artists often paint her with red-gold or auburn hair. (Of course it’s black on the vase paintings.)
Helen is not described at all in Homer’s Odyssey, so all this is fantasy.
Here’s the real reason to be indignant: Helen has a minimal role, unless the screenwriters have changed this. Why not cast the Black actress in one of the main roles? Why not Circe, the witty, brilliant witch with the power to turn men into pigs? Or Calypso, the nymph who kept Odysseus for seven years? (His poor wife, Penelope!) Even Princess Nausicaa has a bigger role than Helen.
And no one would have batted an eye if Nyong’o had stolen the show in one of these important parts. No, it’s this absurd idea of beauty that triggers the prejudice.
I haven’t seen the movie – I still haven’t seen Gladiator, so I’m way behind – but I’m amazed by how upset people are because of their personal version of Helen.
Anyway, would this have been an issue without the internet? Probably not.
By the way, tell me if the movie is good. I did like the trailer!
I’m watching it this afternoon – I’ll let you know what I think. sent from Symon\’s yPhone07912 398000symonvegro.comhttps://symonvegro.substack.com“Beauty will save the world”
Everyone seems to love it! I hope it’s greqt.
In the 1950s Orson Welles wanted to cast Eartha Kitt as Helen.
Sounds great! I love the idea of a singing Helen, too.
I did see the film … and was hugely disappointed. Don’t go out of your way to watch it. sent from Symon\’s yPhone07912 398000symonvegro.comhttps://symonvegro.substack.com“Beauty will save the world”
Oh, that’s too bad!
There are a series of great novels by women in which these patriarchal enslaving women women works which resee the stories from a major woman character’s POV. I can’t list them all with authors. With author’s Atwood’s Penelopiad, Wolff’s Cassandra & Medea, Eurpides’ Iphigenia. There is a great Circe ( I’m told Samantha Morton stole the scenes she was in) and Lavinia — she was made central in the later 17th century, Purcell, in “Remember me, and Virgil gave her her due.
Those are excellent retellings of myths. For a couple of years there were tables of them at Barnes and Noble, all written by women!
I also went to see it. I was underwhelmed. It was realistic, not much of a fantasy at all. I did not feel moved by the story at all and a few things seemed ridiculous to me, like the way the Trojan horse was constructed. I think the Armand Assante miniseries from 1997 preferable. Matt Damon gave a good performance, but I would not bother to watch it again. The 1960s Jason and the Argonauts is far more my cup of tea.
It is such a strange movie, a Greek epic mixed with horror and realism. I found the Trojan horse terrifying actually. The actors were so good, though, that some of the special effects seemed superfluous. I was seasick, and claustrophobic in the Cyclops’ cave, even though I didn’t see the IMAX version.