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Homer's Odyssey vs. 21st-century barbarians

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You may have heard about the controversy surrounding the casting of Lupita Nyong'o, an actress of African descent raised in Kenya, as Helen of Troy in Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey.

The controversy has nothing to do with "racism," a word that confuses and derails everything it touches and which we ought to stop using.

We all know Jim Carrey would not be cast as Barack Obama, and if (per impossibile) a major motion picture were to be made about Clarence Thomas, the lead role would not be played by Ryan Gosling. Everyone knows this.

The reason these race-inappropriate castings are wrong is that they destroy the suspension of disbelief that makes the drama work in the first place. Instead of transporting the viewer to another place and time, the viewer remains firmly anchored to the present, because the obviously absurd casting is a constant reminder: I am in 2026 America, where racial bean-counting is the primary virtue.

But much worse than this is the boneheaded answer Nyong'o gave when asked what she would say to Homer if she were to speak to him.

Before I even tell you her answer, can we agree that we know with complete certainty that despite ostensibly having immersed herself in one of Homer's great works, a story that is still told thousands of years later, instead of asking him something profound she will instead hector him (yes, I see the pun) about some 21st-century obsession?

Your instincts on matters like these are infallible, dear reader, because 21st-century superficiality is so drearily predictable.

She said: 

“Well, Homer, how do you feel about the amount of time that is spent with these women in the film, considering how little time you spent with them?”

Now I could respond with what a juvenile thing that is to say to the author of works as lasting as Homer's, but I don't even need to, because the claim itself is nonsense.

Who constitutes the emotional and structural core of The Odyssey if not Penelope? She is intelligent, her cunning matches that of her husband, and the story's tension and resolution are driven by their ultimate culmination in the final recognition scene between the two.

After Odysseus himself, who in the story is more active than Athena -- a goddess, to be sure, but no less a female figure for all that. She appears repeatedly, disguises herself and others, advises, intervenes in councils of the gods, and orchestrates much of the action.

Scholars have noted the psychological depth of Homer's female characters, unusual for so ancient a story, and we see that in Helen herself. In her scene during Telemachus' visit to Sparta she recognizes him, reminisces about the Trojan War, and offers gifts. We discover a complex woman -- beautiful, regretful, and politically astute -- rather than a cardboard villain.

And this isn't to mention Circe and Calypso (both of whom are powerful, seductive figures who detain the hero and force choices), Nausicaa (whose innocence and hospitality advance the plot), and Arete (a queen who wields real influence).

I might add, even though off our immediate topic, that in Homer's The Iliad, Andromache's farewell to Hector is one of the epic's most emotionally devastating passages, a portion of which follows (it is very difficult for a translator to be faithful while also maintaining a rhyme scheme, but this one does):
 

His tender Wife stood weeping by, the while:

Prest in her own, his Warlike hand she took,

Then sigh’d, and thus Prophetically spoke.

Thy dauntless Heart (which I foresee too late,)

Too daring Man, will urge thee to thy Fate:

Nor dost thou pity, with a Parent’s mind,

This helpless Orphan whom thou leav’st behind;

Nor me, th’ unhappy Partner of thy Bed;

Who must in Triumph by the Greeks be led:

They seek thy Life; and, in unequal Fight,

With many will oppress thy single Might:

Better it were for miserable me

To die, before the Fate which I foresee.

For ah what comfort can the World bequeath

To Hector’s Widow, after Hector’s death?

Eternal Sorrow and perpetual Tears

Began my Youth, and will conclude my Years:

I have no Parents, Friends, nor Brothers left;

By stern Achilles all of Life bereft.

Then when the Walls of Thebes he o’rethrew,

His fatal Hand my Royal Father slew;

He slew Aëtion, but despoil’d him not;

Nor in his hate the Funeral Rites forgot;

Arm’d as he was he sent him whole below,

And reverenc’d thus the Manes of his Foe:

A Tomb he rais’d; the Mountain Nymphs around

Enclos’d with planted Elms the Holy Ground.

My sev’n brave Brothers in one fatal Day

To Death’s dark Mansions took the mournful way;

Slain by the same Achilles, while they keep

The bellowing Oxen and the bleating Sheep.

My Mother, who the Royal Scepter sway’d,

Was Captive to the cruel Victor made,

And hither led; but hence redeem’d with Gold,

Her Native Country did again behold,

And but beheld: for soon Diana’s Dart

In an unhappy Chace transfix’d her Heart.

But thou, my Hector, art thy self alone

My Parents, Brothers, and my Lord in one

O kill not all my Kindred o’re again,

Nor tempt the Dangers of the dusty Plain;

But in this Tow’r, for our Defence, remain.

Thy Wife and Son are in thy Ruin lost:

This is a Husband’s and a Father’s Post.


And finally: The Odyssey is an epic focused on one man’s trials, wanderings, and return, not an ensemble drama or domestic novel. Expanding the "female perspective" equally would transform it into something else. If critics would like to write their own story, nobody is stopping them.

Needless to say, at my Liberty Classroom -- the on-the-go, listen-whenever-you-want, dashboard university I created 14 years ago for adult enrichment for people who know they were victims of educational malpractice, Homer is honored, not lectured to:
 
And in the self-taught, K-12 Ron Paul homeschool curriculum, I teach Homer to your (high school level) students myself. Join through this link and get my juicy bonuses, available only from me:
 
 
Tom Woods






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Tom Woods · PO Box 701447 · Saint Cloud, FL 34770 · USA

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Bryan, were you a 2008 grad?

Your past just resurfaced
 

 
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