The Movie Troy

First and most disappointing, was the absence of the Gods in the movie Troy. Divine intervention was a major variable in Homer's Iliad. The Gods affected every aspect of this poem. While the Gods were mentioned and the viewers were made well aware that the characters believe in the Gods, the only God that was physically seen was Thetis, Goddess of the Sea and Achilles' mother. One memorable quote from the movie was in a conversation between Achilles and Briseis.

Briseis states, "All the Gods are to be feared and respected" (Troy 2004). Achilles answers by saying: Can I tell you a secret, something they don't teach you in your temple? The Gods envy us. They envy us because we're mortal, because any moment might be our last. Everything is more beautiful because we'redoomed. You will never be lovelier than you are right now.

We will never be here again (Troy 2004).The suspected start of the war- over the abduction of Helen, Queen of Sparta- was caused entirely by a godly conflict over who was the most beautiful- Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite. Paris, son of King Priam of Troy, was selected to judge. He chose Aphrodite, who in turn gave him Helen, who was her equivalent in beauty amongst humans. In both versions, Paris is portrayed as a wife stealing, thief in the night. His brother Hector and he were on a peace mission in Sparta on behalf of Troy visiting the king, Menelaus, when Paris ran off with Menelaus' wife, Helen.

This action divides the Gods who constantly meddle with the mortal's lives. Naturally, Aphrodite is on the Trojans' side, as was her lover and God of War, Ares, and Apollo. Although Zeus, King of Gods, tried to be neutral, he was pro-Trojan. Hera, Queen of Gods, and Athena help the Greeks because they were mad that Paris chose Aphrodite. Poseidon, God of the Sea and Zeus' brother, also sided with the Greeks whenever Zeus was not looking. An example of this constant intrusiveness of the Gods in the Iliad was when King "Menelaus hurls his spear, lightly wounding Paris. Paris' helmet strap becomes caught at his chin and Menelaus has nearly dragged him away before Aphrodite intervenes, breaking the strap. She then wraps Paris in a mist, sets him in his own perfumed bedchamber, and hurries to catch Helen" (Bloom 13).

Of course, in the movie version, when Paris becomes wounded he crawls to Hector's ankles. King Menelaus becomes angered and says Paris is not worthy of royalty nor his wife Helen. Hector is then forced to defend his little brother and kills Menelaus. The elimination of the Gods from Troy, although unsatisfactory, does simplify the movie compared to the complicated plot of the Iliad. Wolfgang Petersen may have had motivation to remove the Gods because it may have been difficult for most Americans to imagine the actions and motivations of the Gods since a Christian or modern God doesn't normally take such an involved position in a person's daily life. Therefore, this absence gave the movie a more humanized feel while taking some of the mystique out of this legend.

Next, the characters and the plot in Troy are weakly developed in comparison to the Iliad. The Iliad is completely the opposite. All of the characters and the plot are very descriptively illustrated for the reader. Nothing is left to the imagination. On the other hand, Troy leaves much to the imagination. The entire war is downplayed by being portrayed as having taken place in just a few short weeks.

As for the characters, Achilles, although brave, just does not quite live up to his hero status. Hector is depicted as more of a hero than Achilles, another contradiction from the original. It seemed clear in the Iliad that Achilles was the protagonist, but in the movie, it seemed Hector took much of the hero factor. "One of the Iliad's outstanding contributions to human civilization, for good and for evil, is its concept of the hero" (Nardo 90). This concept of a