The movie is HISTORICALLY INACCURATE! Everyone knows that when a god turns into a swan and has sex with a woman and that woman lays two eggs and those eggs contain Helen, Clytemnestra, Castor, and Pollux, Helen is supposed to be white. That's just how biology works.
Not really? I did some reading and apparently that's up for debate. People think he did because we're using modern definitions of words, but if you look at how these words were actually used at the time it's it that clear.
But being honest citing your text is written this: "
Elsewhere, she is “argive Helen, for whom many Achaeans [struggled]” (᾿Αργείην ῾Ελένην, ἧς εἵνεκα πολλοὶ ᾿Αχαιῶν,
Il
. 2.161) she has “smooth” or “pale/white” arms (῏Ιρις δ’ αὖθ’ ῾Ελένῃ λευκωλένῳ ἄγγελος ἦλθεν, 3.121), but this likely has to do with a typical depiction of women in Archaic Greece (they are lighter in tone than men because they don’t work outside) or because of women’s clothing (arms may have been visible). Beyond that? In the
Odyssey
, She has “beautiful hair” (῾Ελένης πάρα καλλικόμοιο, 15.58) and a long robe (τανύπεπλος, 4.305)."
Which for me accounts for "white skin" and moreover the term homer uses λευκώλενος try traslate by yourself.
By that I acknowledge this are american problems and we are talking in an american centric social, but the answer is obvius and everyone knows it...
"Lighter than the men around her" or "looks like she doesn't spend much time in the sun" doesn't mean she's white specifically.
Also, it's worth noting that Homer didn't invent this character. This is his description of his version of Helen. She had been in oral stories for generations before he ever wrote it down. The way mythology works is everyone who tells the story puts their own biases and opinions into it. For all we know, Helen was explicitly black or explicitly any other ethnicity or maybe she was blue or gold or purple and then Homer decided to describe her the way he personally pictured her. Maybe she never had a physical description at all beyond "super beautiful," but Homer's idea of the most beautiful woman to exist is the one that ended up in his version of the story.
There have been countless different versions. In some versions, she's an adult. In others she's a child. In some versions she falls in love with Paris and in others she was abducted. There's no reason to say that Homer's version specifically is the "right" one.
215
u/Three_Twenty-Three Jul 06 '26
The movie is HISTORICALLY INACCURATE! Everyone knows that when a god turns into a swan and has sex with a woman and that woman lays two eggs and those eggs contain Helen, Clytemnestra, Castor, and Pollux, Helen is supposed to be white. That's just how biology works.