Coming to Cyprus too, from next week, the 16th of July, Christopher Nolan’s “The Odyssey.”
Highly discussed, mainly due to the participation of Kenyan actress Lupita Nyong’o in the role of beautiful Helen (as well as Clytemnestra).
The discussion, or heated disagreements, rather, have to do with the fact that a Greek princess could not have been Black. They forget, or refuse to accept, that Nolan’s adaptation is fiction, not a historical documentary, like Homer’s epic certainly was. The ancient Mycenaeans and other Greek allies did not need a supposed aggravation, like the abduction of Helen by a mythical Trojan prince to go forward with their expansionist plans.
The issue for staunch defenders of blood purity like some… absolutely “genuine” Greeks, is that in the back of their minds lives the possibility that Helen, like other “participants of Greek culture,” was of a foreign race, even Black. Clearly, what bothers Cypriots among them is the possibility that, since the Mycenaeans were among the first settlers of the island, they also transferred some pesky “black genes” to the local population, all the more so, since the people in question seem to boast about their Greek origin. I would advise them to calm themselves a bit. Still, let’s not forget that we are who we want to be, our blood doesn’t matter. So let’s enjoy Nolan’s film without distressing thoughts. And together, of course, beautiful Lupita.
