Similarities, Limitation of sources, Bibliography

Similarities between the Iliad and Troy

Since the film Troy is based off the Iliad, obviously there are many similarities between these texts. The major ones include

• Agamemnon using Helen as an excuse to attack Troy when his real motives are power and money.
• Menelaus’ motivation for war being honour/revenge.
• Achilles respecting Priam’s wish to give Hector proper burial rites.
• The Trojan Horse allowing the Greeks to win the war
• The romance between Paris and Helen
• The Greeks winning the war
• The locations and names of characters

The list could go on for several pages. The only reason for these similarities is because the director has chosen to make a film based off the Iliad and ancient Greek myth, as he must have believed the story as a whole was interesting and entertaining enough to make an enjoyable and profitable film, and has changed certain aspects where he saw fit to do so.

Limitations of sources and evidence

When it comes to discussing the reasons for why the director has done something when making the film, only the director and those he has told know his motives, therefore my opinion is exactly that – an opinion, unless I spoke to the director himself, my sources are limited to what can be analysed from the film and how it differs from the Iliad. The Iliad too has its limitations as a source of evidence, as it is thousands of years old and could have easily been changed as it was passed on through generation verbally, before a written copy was ever made, and the written version too could have been changed and edited over thousands of year. On top of that, there are several different translations of the Iliad, I have used and quoted the version translated by Richard Lattimore. I have used evidence such as ancient Greek vases  to validate translations of the Iliad, as several depict scenes described in the Iliad.

Bibliography

• theoi.com
• tohistation.com/troy
• clifsfnotes.com
• pantheon.org
• ancienthistory.about.com
• athome.harvard.edu/programs/nagy/threads/concept_of_hero.html

Cultural Expectations in the Iliad and Troy – Burial Rites

In both the Iliad and Troy, when Achilles defeats and kills Hector in battle, he proceeds to tie Hector’s body to his chariot, and to the horror of Priam (Hector’s father), he proceeds to drag Hector’s body around the outskirts of Troy, dirtying and mutilating the corpse. To do this shows an incredible amount of disrespect towards Priam. However burials are so important to Priam that in desperation he sneaks into the Greek camp, putting his own life at risk, and pleads to Achilles:

“Do you really think death frightens me now? I watched my eldest son die, watched you drag his body behind your chariot. Give him back to me. He deserves a proper burial, you know that. Give him to me.“

And in the Iliad:

“If thou indeed art willing that I accomplish for goodly Hector his burial, then in doing on this wise, O Achilles, wilt thou do according to my wish”

In both cases Hector is granted a proper burial and his body is burnt upon a funeral pyre. In the film the burial is so important to Priam that he kisses Achilles hand, saying:

“I have endured what no one on earth has endured before. I kissed the hands of the man who killed my son. “


A vase depicting Achilles fighting Hector


This emphasizes the importance of burial rites for the dead as a cultural expectation and expected code of behaviour in the ancient world, as the father a Troy’s greatest warrior pleads with the greatest warrior of the Greeks to give Hector a burial, and Achilles obliges, despite Hector having killed Patroclus(in the film he is cousin of Achilles, in the Iliad he is his closest friend).

Kleos – Glory earned in battle

One major similarity in the Iliad and Troy is that they both share the theme of Kleos. Kleos is the idea of earning glory though heroic battle, and is clearly expressed through Achilles in both texts. In Troy, Achilles quest for Kleos is demonstrated when his mother Thetis says

"If you go to Troy, glory will be yours. They will write stories about your victories in thousands of years! And the world will remember your name”

 and it is also demonstrated in the Iliad, when Achilles says

“Either, if I stay here and fight beside the city of the Trojans, my return home is gone, but my glory shall be everlasting; but if I return home to the beloved land of my fathers, the excellence of my glory is gone, but there will be a long life left for me, and my end in death will not come to me quickly”





Achilles in the film Troy

In both cases Achilles has been told that if he chooses to fight in the Trojan War he will earn the glory he seeks, however he will be killed, and in both cases Achillles decides to choose glory over a long life. The pursuit of Kleos by Achilles even though he knows it will lead to his downfall conveys a message of personal sacrifice, as Achilles knows to earn glory will cost him his life, yet he still carries own on his destructive quest. Achilles character blurs the line between bravery and stupidity in this situation, however the message of personal sacrifice for a greater reward remains. In the film Troy, Achilles achieves Kleos, but it came it the cost of his life, and Achilles is shown to question whether or not the glory was worth it, and after being mortally wounded by Paris, he says to Briseis (a Trojan priestess whom he fell in love with)

“You gave me peace, in a lifetime of war”

Which indicates that perhaps Achilles would rather have spent his life with Briseis than earn kleos.

The death of Achilles also presents the idea of fate, i.e. Achilles fate was told by his mother that he would die should he fight in this war, and no matter how much Achilles tried to change this fate, in the end he did indeed die. His fate was set from the beginning and there was nothing anyone could have done about it, even the gods themselves.

Differences in Mythology/the Gods in the Iliad and Troy

One of the main differences between Troy and the Iliad is the involvement or observable involvement of the gods in the siege of Troy. In the Iliad, many gods are physically involved in the war, fighting alongside the mortal humans, however in Troy, the gods are not even shown to exist, they are just the subject of prayer and praises, with the most tangible example being a statue of Apollo. Although the lack of action by the gods in Troy is a very large difference, this has little influence on the plot overall, as in both texts the Greeks defeat the Trojans. However in the ancient Greek myth, texts such as the Iliad provide insight into the context of many situations, such as The Judgement of Paris being the reason for Helen falling in love with Paris, and the reference to the Achilles heel. The following is a quote from the Iliad clealy showing the involvement of the gods.

 " And flashing-eyed Athene took furious Ares by the hand and spake to him, saying: "Ares, Ares, thou bane of mortals, thou blood-stained stormer of walls, shall we not now leave the Trojans and Achaeans to fight, to whichsoever of the two it be that father Zeus shall vouchsafe glory? But for us twain, let us give place, and avoid the wrath of Zeus."

The reason for the lack of gods in Troy is not economic like the major plot differences, in fact seeing gods battle each other and humans would be considered quite entertaining in an action film and would proabably go down quite well with the average viewer. This leads me to believe that the director has chosen not to include visible involvements of the gods in Troy to further develop the characters, such as Achilles, Hektor and Paris. Achilles displays rebellion against the gods when he cuts off the head of a statue of Apollo and later suggests that the gods envy humans

“The Gods envy us. They envy us because we're mortal, because any moment might be our last. Everything is more beautiful because we're doomed.”

 which makes sense when the gods aren’t visible, but it probably wouldn’t have had the same effect had the viewers witnessed powerful immortal gods fighting on the battlefield next the regular mortals.

Also when a priest of Troy concludes the appearance of birds to be a good omen/sign from the gods indicating they should attack, Hektor says

“Bird signs? You want to plan out strategy based on bird signs?” 

indicating his lack of faith in these omens, and making him seem like a down to earth man who doesn’t want to rely on the gods to plan his battles. This down to earth effect would be lost if the gods were seen slaughtering dozens of mortals on the battlefield in an almighty and divine manner.

And lastly in the critical point of the film where the Trojan Horse is discovered the priest believes it to be a gift from the gods and that it would be disrespectful to reject it. Paris strongly suggests that they should burn it, however Priam, Paris’s father (King of Troy), decides to bring it within the walls of Troy, ultimately leading to the downfall of Troy.

 

The Trojan horse in the film Troy

In this situation, Paris is made too seem right in an I told you so kind of way, however in the case of the Iliad, where the gods take sides and fight amongst the mortals, Paris would have been seen as crazy to doubt the Trojan Horse as being a gift from the gods, as the gods have been seen to exist many soldiers, however in the film his viewpoint seems logical and rational due to the lack of divine activity.

Because the gods do not fight among the men in Troy, and are not even shown to exist, the characters Achilles, Hektor, and Paris are all made more memorable due to their nonconformist views appearing logical and distinguishing them from those who mindlessly follow the gods. This is potentially why the director has made this difference, to create better and more memorable characters thus improving the quality of the film (at least from the perspective of a modern audience).

Major Differences between the Homer’s Iliad and the film Troy.

It is very apparent that the film Troy, directed by Wolfgang Peterson, has been heavily influenced by the epic poem, the Iliad, a work commonly credited to the Ancient Greek poet Homer. Both the film and the poem have the same overall plots, such as the siege of Troy by the Greeks, the feud between the warrior Achilles and the king Agamemnon, and these events being triggered due to the Trojan prince Paris “stealing” Helen of Sparta from king Menelaus to be his wife. However there are many major differences regarding many factors of these plots. These include several major characters dying in the Iliad and surviving in the film troy, the time of the death of characters, and the relationships between characters. The reason for the differences in the film Troy from the Iliad are mostly for the sake of convenience to the director and for entertainment, however the film was relatively censored compared to the poem, which was very graphic in the portrayal of violence. If the film remained true to the poem then it would most likely have received more restricted ratings and thus decrease the size of the audience it would be available to, subsequently earning less money for the publishing company/director. Some of the major differences between the film and the poem are:

 

• In the Iliad the war took 10 years (quote: "Already have nine years of great Zeus gone by"), whereas in the film Troy it only took 17 days.
• In the Iliad, Patroclus was not the cousin of Achilles, only a friend
• Achilles was dead before the Trojan Horse was built (described in Vergil's Aeneid, no mention of the horse in the Iliad)
• In the Iliad, Paris is killed, Hector’s baby is killed, and Hector’s wife is enslaved, however in the film Troy they escape safely.
• Ajax doesn’t die by the hand of Hector, he kills himself due to the shame of not receiving Achilles armour (this occurs in the poem Metamorphoses by Ovid)
• Agamemnon was killed by his wife, Clytemnestra, back in Greece, immediately after the war, not Briseies who kills him in the film
• Hector was too scared of Achilles to fight him, and so he ran away and ran round the walls of troy several times

 

A ancient Greek vase depicting Ajax preparing to commit suicide

The reason for these differences between the Iliad and the film Troy are nearly 100% economic as when looking at each individual example of the differences all of them are either due to lowering expenses/complexity of making the film Troy (i.e. 17 day war instead of 10 years), or due to the director attempting to make the film more likable to increase the size of the audience appeal and therefore earn more revenue from the film (i.e. making the film a more feel good experience by letting Paris, Hector’s wife, and Hector’s baby escape with citizens of Troy creating an atmosphere of hopes lives on/light at the end of the tunnel for Troy). The film would appeal to a significantly lower amount of people had Paris ,and Hector’s wife and baby been killed, many people would likely be frustrated by the ‘well this is just stupid everyone dies’ atmosphere that would be present had the director remained true to the Iliad, as in the Iliad there is truly no hope left Troy. There is really no other reason the director has made these differences in the film Troy apart from money, and as all the major and small differences are observed it becomes clear that the film was moulded and catered to appeal to a modern day audience with modern day expectations of films.