On the absence of Greeks from Hollywood's Odyssey movie
In a column for The Guardian, Chris Cotonou comments on the omission of Greek actors from the otherwise multicultural cast of Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey. Chris notes:
An honourable intention [to have a multicultural cast]. But for us Greeks, it makes our absence even more glaring – especially in the year’s blockbuster event. If your film sets out to represent the world, wouldn’t it be obvious to fill one space at this large, wonderfully multicultural table with the people who are most authentically connected to the source?
Sure, it would be nice. Though I personally do not see any problem in the absence of Greeks. This is a story. We are meant to take it lightly: it is make-belief. We are not supposed to treat it as a living continuation of antiquity, nor as an accurate depiction of Greekness (assuming we can even define and capture “Greekness”). If we do watch the movie, then we set our expectations accordingly. Or we simply ignore it and move on with our lives.
The Greeks who care about expressing themselves—and their cultural depth by extension—are doing their part on a daily basis. We would not put our faith in the moneymen who run Hollywood to do the work in our stead. Their values are not our values.
That Helen of Troy is a black woman (Lupita Nyong’o), for example, is testament to the power of art to make us think of what is being represented through an idol, rather than emphasise the idol itself. Besides, Helen was famed for her beauty: Lupita passes that test with flying colours.
Human expression relies on simplification, symbolism, and metaphor to communicate profound teachings in a manner than has mnemonic value. This we know for millennia from the Greek religion in how we anthropomorphise the divine for our needs as people. God is perfect: it does not need us to believe in anything or help it in some way. We are the ones in need of faith. Gods do not have the frailties of the human character. But we have to imagine them as remarkable yet fallible people who are still somewhat close to us. We do so in order to have role models that we can aspire towards. The average person seeks a hero to mimic. God cannot just be the sort of abstraction that only few wise people throughout history may grasp.
Athena, for example, is a proxy for wisdom. Our artistic genius imagined the goddess in a certain way, but we would never think of wisdom as a quality that is fully expressed through any given artefact. God cannot be limited to the deeds of a human, nor to a textual or pictorial representation of any kind. Only idolaters believe as much.
Part of what acculturation is about is to make people understand that whatever idol is a mental shortcut for something else; something that can never be exhausted. As such, the idol is a useful tool at best though must never be the focus of our attention and worship.
Those who only recognise the idol, which in this case are the actors qua non-Greek actors, tell us that they have more growing to do. They still operate at a level of conscience that misunderstands symbolism: they do not appreciate what is being represented through the artistic medium. Such people will miss the point even if the most stereotypically Greek-looking artists take on the various roles.
My suggestion if you really care about the Odyssey is to read the ancient epic and think for yourself. Greek culture is ecumenical. Your looks and your ancestry are irrelevant in this regard. Do not watch the movie either. Hollywood is the cultural equivalent of junk food: it will eventually harm you.
And to my fellow Greeks: if you are proud of your heritage, then do your part in contributing to the commons without fanfare and without a misplaced sense of exceptionalism. Nobody respects those who complain and play the victim the whole time, nor those who think they are special. Our culture has always been one of continuous struggle and excellence, not feeblemindedness (i.e. malakia (μαλακία)), anyway, starting with our holy festival of the Olympic Games—again, a proxy for the attitude of a champion one must have in the face of life’s challenges.