As a storyteller of Greek descent — specifically Spartan descent — who’s studied Ancient Greek history at the graduate level, I feel uniquely qualified to add my two drachmas to the discussion surrounding Christopher Nolan’s upcoming The Odyssey film.
The controversy surrounding this film has liberals and conservatives tied up in knots, and given our hyper-political climate, this comes as no surprise. The main issue, of course, involves race and gender, the casting of Lupito Nyong’o as Helen of Troy, and, to a lesser degree, trans-person Eliott Page as Achilles. Manosphere influencers are stumbling all over themselves, crying “woke!” while liberals claim that the casting shouldn’t matter because Helen was not a real historical person. Then there are the moderates caught in between, accused of racism for preferring people of Greek ancestry to look as if they could be Greek.
For all I know, Helen of Troy (originally from Sparta) may be my great ancestor. She is no more or less historical than Jesus, yet she is being talked about as if she were Spider-Man. Yes, Homer’s epic tale features many fantastical elements, like giant Cyclopes and bloodthirsty mermaids. But it also involves many real-world locations (Sparta, Ithaca, Troy) based on a real-world culture (my own). The fact that my culture is so often dismissed when it comes to matters of representation, treated as an exception to appropriation, has long annoyed me. Liberals are outraged when white people don kimonos, but never bat an eye when a non-Greek person parades around in a chiton or peplos.
As a student of history, I can tell you that history is far muddier than most people realize. It’s like trying to piece together a 1,000-piece jigsaw puzzle with only 100 pieces. So while we may never know for certain whether Helen was a real person or not (though I do believe she was based on a real historical person), we can know with certainty that she was not black, mainly because the ancient Spartans were the MAGA of Greece: conservative, racist, and violently territorial. No Spartan would ever have accepted a black woman as their queen.
That being said, I am not raging over Nolan’s casting choices, since The Odyssey, if the trailer is an indication, is rife with inaccuracies. For me, the biggest flaw is the director’s use of a Viking longboat in place of a Greek penteconter. Given the enormous budget of a film like this, I simply don’t see why he couldn’t have paid a shipbuilder to recreate this ancient vessel. The real reason, I think, is that Nolan couldn’t tell the difference and figured his audience wouldn’t either.
Would I have preferred a lighter-skinned Helen? Sure, but only because I prefer to see my ancestors represented faithfully, or at least the way the Greeks imagined the mythical heroes and heroines who defined their civilization. But Homer’s Odyssey is not the story of Helen; it’s the story of a man on a boat. So when right-wingers, taking a sudden interest in history, ignore the boat to complain about the actors’ skin tone, we can only assume their real motive has nothing to do with yesterday’s history and everything to do with scoring political points for today.
The Art of Storytelling 
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