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