Christopher Nolan’s adaptation of The Odyssey, an epic poem composed nearly 2,800 years ago, has drawn a flood of criticism — starting even before audiences had seen a single frame.
“He wants the awards,” Musk wrote, suggesting that Nolan’s decision was tied to awards-season politics and the Oscars’ inclusion standards.
Homer never explicitly calls Helen “the most beautiful woman in the world” in either the Iliad or the Odyssey.
But again, some scholars challenged these criticisms, noting that The Odyssey was a mythological work, not a historical treatise.
Unhappy in GreeceSome in Greece were also unhappy that a foundational work of Greek literature had no Greek actors involved.
Controversy has centred largely on casting, but it also reflects broader debates about who gets to retell this epic story.
Christopher Nolan’s adaptation of The Odyssey, an epic poem composed nearly 2,800 years ago, has drawn a flood of criticism — starting even before audiences had seen a single frame.
The controversy has centred largely on casting, but it also reflects broader debates about historical authenticity, identity and who gets to retell one of humanity’s oldest stories.
Here’s a look at some of the more heated conversations that the film has evoked:
Black Helen of Troy
When Nolan, the director, announced that the character of Helen of Troy — described by Homer as “white-armed” and “godlike” — would be played by Oscar-winning Lupita Nyong’o, it triggered a torrent of criticism.
Some felt that picking a Black woman for the role was evidence of over-the-top “wokeness”.
The backlash quickly spilled into politics. Elon Musk, owner of X, accused the director of “pissing on Homer’s grave”, referring to him as an “anti-White racist”.
“He wants the awards,” Musk wrote, suggesting that Nolan’s decision was tied to awards-season politics and the Oscars’ inclusion standards.
“Not one person on the planet actually thinks that Lupita Nyong’o is ‘the most beautiful woman in the world’,” right-wing political commentator Matt Walsh said, referring to Helen’s reputation in later mythology.
Scholars, however, pointed out that the argument itself rests on a misconception. Homer never explicitly calls Helen “the most beautiful woman in the world” in either the Iliad or the Odyssey. Instead, he describes her with recurring epithets such as “white-armed”, “lovely-haired”, “daughter of Zeus” and “godlike”.
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The idea that Helen was the world’s most beautiful woman became firmly established in later Greek mythology through the story of the Judgement of Paris, in which Aphrodite promises Paris the most beautiful woman alive as his reward.
Others who defended Nolan’s choice, such as American author and classical scholar Daniel Mendelsohn, said Matt Damon does not look like a Greek at all, yet that never set off controversy.
Mendelsohn, whose translation of The Odyssey was published in 2017, also said it is “silly” to complain about authenticity when speaking about mythological figures. “Helen, after all, was hatched from a swan’s egg, so how literal can we really be,” he wrote.
Other controversies
The choice of transgender man Elliot Page (previously Ellen Page – he played the female lead in Juno and Inception) to play a role in the movie also led to controversy.
While he ended up playing a Greek soldier involved in the Trojan Horse deception, rumours had suggested that he was being considered for the mythological hero Achilles. That had Rob Finnerty, anchor of far-right network Newsmax, snapping at the prospect. “We’ve gone from Brad Pitt to a girl who dresses as a guy, who’s 5’1”, 118 pounds,” Finnerty said in May, referring to Pitt’s role in Troy, another movie. “That’s the person who is going to be playing the greatest warrior in history because, to the left, that is normal.”
Some viewers also questioned Nolan’s decision to cast rapper Travis Scott as a bard. The filmmaker has, however, explained that the decision was a “nod towards the idea that this story has been handed down as oral poetry, which is analogous to rap”.
There was also criticism about the costumes. Some viewers online pointed out that the armour worn by Agamemnon resembled Batman’s costume, and that Odysseus’s boat looked like a “Viking ship”. But again, some scholars challenged these criticisms, noting that The Odyssey was a mythological work, not a historical treatise.
And finally, even the dialogues went under scrutiny. When the main character, Tom Holland, dared to say “My dad is coming home”, some users snapped back at how the tone was too casual and the words too modern for an epic conversation.
Unhappy in Greece
Some in Greece were also unhappy that a foundational work of Greek literature had no Greek actors involved.
Greeks had been “left out by Hollywood, again and with no explanation, from our foundational mythologies and epics”, wrote Greek-British journalist Chris Cotonou. “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?”
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But that should not have surprised fans since Hollywood’s track record of hiring Greek actors is pretty poor. On top of that, Homer’s work has been reimagined for centuries across countless cultures, languages and artistic traditions, making reinterpretation a core part of the epic’s legacy.
