RICH LOWRY: Does it matter what Helen of Troy looked like?

It’s the contention that has launched a 1000 X posts.

Elon Musk, who is simply a instrumentality of Homer, has kicked up a fuss by objecting to filmmaker Christopher Nolan casting the achromatic histrion Lupita Nyong’o arsenic Helen of Troy successful his forthcoming movie mentation of “The Odyssey.”

The epic accumulation presumably won’t emergence oregon autumn based connected its depiction of Helen, the legendary quality who precipitated the Trojan War. That struggle is portrayed successful “The Iliad,” portion “The Odyssey” follows the Greek warrior Odysseus connected his instrumentality location aft the war, a communicative that doesn’t diagnostic Helen prominently.

The casting of Nyong’o, though, has raised the perennial question of what Helen looked like, arsenic good arsenic the much pedestrian substance of what the modular should beryllium for actors playing radical of a antithetic contention oregon ethnicity (or, these days, gender).

Helen was a Spartan, joined to Menelaus, the king of Sparta. When she near him for Paris of Troy, it started the agelong conflict betwixt the Greeks and Trojans.

Everyone who saw her instantly understood wherefore a years-long warfare implicit her was worthy it: “No wonderment the Trojans and well-greaved Achaeans person suffered agelong for specified a pistillate — she is terribly similar an immortal goddess to look at.”

The genius of Homer’s statement of Helen is that helium leaves it vague, and truthful up to the imagination. We know, though, that she was not black.

Ancient Greece was Indo-European successful origin; radical who lived successful the country backmost past looked, by and large, similar radical who unrecorded determination now. Homer says that Helen was “white-armed,” suggesting that she was fair-skinned, and different past sources tin beryllium interpreted arsenic saying that she had airy hairsbreadth and bluish eyes, though there’s statement astir this.

Certainly, depictions connected movie person favored this interpretation. The 2004 movie “Troy” formed the gorgeous, blonde-haired, blue-eyed German histrion Diane Kruger arsenic Helen.

All that said, what the relation astir requires is luminous beauty, and there’s thing inherently incorrect with casting actors successful roles that don’t lucifer their ethnicity. Macbeth wasn’t African-American, but Denzel Washington played him compellingly successful a movie version.

The occupation is that specified casting decisions tin beryllium distracting, oregon adjacent parodic. The Churchill movie “Darkest Hour” had the war-time premier curate taking a random travel connected the London Underground and getting a pep speech from a achromatic laborer. Why insult everyone’s quality with pandering?

Also, determination should beryllium a azygous standard. Whenever a achromatic histrion oregon histrion is formed successful different taste relation it is condemned arsenic “whitewashing.” There was a furor erstwhile Scarlett Johansson played Motoko Kusanagi successful the movie mentation of the Japanese manga bid “Ghost successful the Shell,” adjacent though the quality is simply a cyborg. Johansson had to backmost retired of different task wherever she was formed arsenic a trans antheral contempt herself being a cis woman.

A header successful Allure mag astatine the clip read, “Scarlett Johansson Is Facing Major Backlash for Saying She ‘Should Be Allowed to Play’ Anyone.”

What’s bully for Lupita Nyong’o should beryllium bully for Scarlett Johansson, and vice versa. But Hollywood wants to enactment its digit connected the scale; it has preposterous, bean-counting standards for what films tin beryllium considered for Oscars based connected the inclusion of “underrepresented groups” connected surface and successful different ways.

If Nolan has done his job, this contention volition beryllium overwhelmed by the powerfulness of Homer’s work, possibly the second-greatest communicative ever told.

Rich Lowry is connected X @RichLowry