Maybe. Kenya seems a long way to wiggle from Greece.
It's probably closer than America
It's probably closer than America
Only geographicly.
Not so far that Africans didn't show up in Ancient Greek art and literature. Including the OdysseyMaybe. Kenya seems a long way to wiggle from Greece.
No doubt - Nubia, south of Egypt, was a great civilization and probably traded far and wide. The med was widely traveled by wonderfully diverse peoples from all around it (There are, occasionally, some very interesting personal travel stories from past millennia in Archeology Magazine, taken from preserved clay tablets). But we're speaking specifically of Helen, a character specifically said to have been born of a Spartan mother and a Greek god.
Who is to say if a Greek god, one who regularly morphed into animals to seduce human women, wouldn't sire Black children?
And remember, this particular offspring was one for four (half mortal, half immortal) who were all birthed at the same time with two different fathers.
I direct you to Memnon, King of Ethiopia and the son of the Goddess Eos and Tithonus a prince of Troy.
That only makes sense if the audience is actually remotely qualified to accurately judge whether what they're looking at is historically correct or not. And to be clear, 99.99999% of the time they most definitely aren't.
My understanding, maybe from the Empires podcast (?), is that the Mediterranean diaspora traded widely including with African societies and that the population was ethnically diverse including people of African descent.
No question about it. As I said above, I'm sure the Med was a wonderfully diverse area. IDIC for sure.
But again, we're only questioning Helen's appearance, as a daughter of Greece.
How is she described in the original works? A quick Google comes up with "Lovely haired" and "white-armed."
Don’t confuse the issue with facts, John.
Wouldn't be the first time, nor the last time, a character’s race is changed. As long as the content of character remains the same, what's the issue?
I'm curious how close translations are to the earlier texts. I'm not arguing--it is curious that Nolan claims he's done all this research to make this movie so I'm wondering if there was a reason he cast Nyong'o (other than her being a great actress).
Ten Danson, his face painted black, at Tenagra when the walls fell on Whoopi and He
You're joking, right?Maybe. Kenya seems a long way to wiggle from Greece.
He;s fictional for the most part. So it's a bit like asking if Clark Kent works for the Daily Star or Daily Planet. Both are "true."