TROY: In the realm of History?

The Trojan War fought between the Trojans of Anatolia and the Greeks around 1200 BC was

referred to by Homer in his Iliad as the greatest war in history. It was initiated as the Spartan

queen Helen ran away with the Trojan prince Paris infuriating her husband Menelaus.

Agamemnon, the supreme leader of all Greeks and the king of Mycenae agreed to help his

brother to fight for Helen and attacked Troy with a vast militia. The war spanned for ten years

finally ending with the victory of the Greeks and was a way to emphasize on the idea of a

unified and collective Greek homeland.i

Over the last decade it has been a popular phenomenon to adapt the historical account of the

Trojan War into a number of movies and television shows. These include Helen of Troy, The

Trojan Horse and Troy, but it is a common incidence that these adaptations deviate from the

actual known history in a number of ways. Now one thing that needs to be clarified is the fact

that recent researches, in the endeavour to pick out the historical actuality of the Trojan War,

has generated some controversies regarding the veracity of Homer’s claims in the Iliad and

Odyssey. However despite such emergent complexities here I subscribe to Homer’s works as

the genuine historical narrative (i.e. the actual known history) since the entire project of

revealing the history of Troy has been founded from the basic textual premise of his

compositions.

In this paper, therefore I focus on how the movie Troy directed by Wolfgang Peterson in

2004, removes the presence of Gods and changes portrayal of different characters in

connection to it, in order to establish the divergence of this historical adaptation from the

actual known history.

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 The prominence of Gods in writings was a feature of the Bronze Age civilization

where divine will was the sole concern of everyday life. In the Trojan War too, alongside all

the heroic warriors, the Gods had a separate role to play. The abduction of Helen by Paris

was considered in the Bronze Age society as a violation of the Gods. Barry Strauss states that

the Bronze Age society believed, “Paris had violated the laws of Zeus himself, the god of

hospitality and strangers”iiwhich justifies the doom that came upon the Trojans immediately

afterwards.

But, Peterson in his movie completely ignores the existence of supernatural beings as

according to him “people of the present world would laugh if they saw Gods enter the scene

to fight and help out.”iiiTherefore, the Goddess of Love, Aphrodite, plays no role in his

movie, instead he emphasises on Helen’s own desire to be with Paris and to escape with him

due to her unhappy marriage. She states in Troy, that she was not afraid to be killed by

Menelaus but more afraid of the thought that Paris would sail away from Sparta and never

return, indicating her affection towards Paris.

Both the Greeks and Hittites revered their Gods to be significant part of their military

campaigns as well. Paris was saved in the battlefield from Menelaus during a duel, by

Goddess Aphrodite and Goddess Athena persuaded a Trojan commander to shoot an arrow to

wound Menelaus.iv Mention was also found of Greeks wounding the Trojan God, Ares, v but

the movie totally disregards their presence. The fatal combat between Achilles and Hector in

the Iliad by Homer ended when Goddess Athena handed Achilles back his spear, with which

he dealt a deadly blow to Hector. In the film the climax of their combat shows Hector

charging Achilles with a broken-off spear which Achilles manages to seize and then fatally

stab Hector.viAlso most of the Olympian Gods like Zeus hardly finds mention in Troy. The

Trojan God Apollois represented by both verbal and visual references portraying him as the

guardian of Troy which is evident from Trojan King Priam’s statement “Apollo watches over

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us”. Also Apollo’s priestess, Princess Briseis, is a much more vital figure in the plot of Troy

than she was in Homer. But, regardless of all this, Troy shows no temple of Apollo within the

city walls which is in turn located on the beach unprotected. vii Also even though the Greeks

ransacked Apollo’s temple murdering his priests, the Sun god never strikes back at them

further proving his absence. The Greek hero Achilles is seen to neglect the Gods by

continuously questioning their presence and Hector’s declaration that “the Gods will not fight

the war for us”, demonstrate their nonexistence in the picture. The dismissal of Gods is

highlighted throughout the movie by Peterson who attempts to diminish their reputation in

both Greek and Trojan societies. He shifts focus to the concept of the power lying within

each individual by painting them in his own unique way.

This attention on human agency is justified by Peterson in the presentation of the major

characters in his film. The foremost among them was Achilles, the invincible and greatest

warlord of the Greeks. In the persona of Achilles, Homer had illustrated his wrath and

heroismrepresentinghim as a lonely brutal killer who joined the war in search of glory even

though he disregarded King Agamemnon’s leadership.viii Troy captures Achilles’ violent,

aggressive and masculine nature in the intense war scenes, by his appearance covered in

blood and in the conflicts initiated by his rage.ix But Peterson’s concentration on him as a

mere mortal in the movie is noticed when a young boy says that the stories declare Achilles is

immortal to which he replies “I wouldn’t be bothering with the shield then, would I?”

disregarding the presence of divine powers within him. Achilles in Troy is without doubt a

brutal killer but regrets his actions yearning to find peace in a lifetime of war. Troy draws

attention to his emotional side when Achillesweeps beside the body of Hector or at the end

where he attempts to save Briseis instead of engaging in battlesupporting his change of

nature. He asserts that the Gods admire humans for their mortality as “any moment could be

our last”, which makes human life more beautiful than that of the Gods. Peterson in Troy

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centres more on Achilles’ transformation to a loving and emotional individual which happens

insidehim without the aid of any external force.

The Trojan hero was their crown prince Hector, the chief warrior of their army who fought

courageously to defend his country. Homerdescribed him as a tall, handsome, strong, agile

and valiant combatant but also as a self-centred mediocre husband. xBut Hector in Troy is

represented as a caregiver and his father like attitude becomes visible in the treatment of his

wife, Andromache,along with his motherland. This is expressedby his speech in the movie,

“all my life I have lived by a code, honour the Gods, love your women and defend your

country” revealing his allegiance to both. Peterson relates Hector to the security of the city

which falls in the hands of the Greeks immediately after he is killed by Achilles. xiHector

protects his brother Paris and gives up his own life in order to save his country and family. As

stated before, according to Iliad Paris was saved from Menelaus by Goddess Aphrodite, but

Troy projects Hector as his rescuer. Petersen specifically removes the godstoemphasize on

the human element by presenting Hector as the defender of the city andalso through the close

affectionate relationship between the two brothers Hector and Paris.xii

Helen, Queen of Sparta andthe wife of Menelaus, was apassionate and intelligent woman

whose act of defying her husband and running awayinitiated the Trojan War.In Iliad, Helen’s

love for Paris was theoutcome of an external force exerted by Goddess Aphrodite.

ThoughHelen mocked Paris as a coward who fled from the battlefield during his duel with

Menelaus, she was drawn to him by the power of love, exercised by supernatural forces. xiii

Troy in contrast depicts Helen’s love for Paris to be a cause of her own desire and passion.

Peterson offers a Hollywood fantasy of love, which happens at the first sight and is absolute

with no inner doubts. Contrary to the Iliad, Helen in Troy flees with Paris on her own

wish,backing theleaving out of Gods in the movie. Helen’s adultery in Troy is presented not

as the will of Gods but a result of her unhappy marriage which becomes apparent by the

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negative portrayal of Menelaus. Peterson counters the immorality of adultery by an

individual’s inalienable right to happiness in the form of true love that Helen receives from

Paris, rejecting the role of Gods in their relation.xiv According to Bronze Age literature,Helen

was a royal princess, daughter of King Tyndareus of Sparta or of Zeus himself. xv Her beauty

resembling the Goddesses was a result of her relation to Zeus which confirmed her divine

descent. Troy overlooks any such mythical connections in an attempt to represent Helen as a

human beingwho is accountable for her own deeds.Peterson replaces the divine agencyby

fixing the main concern not onany mystic strength or Helen’s resemblance to the beautiful

goddesses but on the power of her love towards Paris that makes her violate the laws of

society and equates her to the ordinary individual.

Briseis was the princess of Troy who adopted the life of a priestess serving the Trojan God

Apollo. She appeared in the Iliad as a prize of war for Achilles when he captured the temple

of the Sun God but was taken away by King Agamemnon resulting in a clash among them

and Achilles’ withdrawal from the war.xvi Bronze Age writings on the Trojan Waremphasized

on the plight of all women suffering the consequences of war through Briseis who herself lost

loved ones in the hands of Achilles. xvii But even though AchilleslovedBriseis and she

remained the chief cause of dissention in the Greek camp her appearance in Bronze Age

literature was limited. In Troy, Briseis is made the principle heroine of the film through

visual prominence and narrative importance. Peterson combines the character of Briseis with

other female characters from the Greek tradition to make her the foremost female protagonist

in the movie.Her appearance in the opening scenes of Troy in white virgin robes as the server

of Apollo evokes the memory of Cassandra and Polyxena, the daughters of King Priam and

Queen Hecuba.xviiiBriseis’ regal and priestly status, her courage under attack, and her beauty

all educememories of both princesses. Briseis in Troy is defiant and she commands Achilles’

attention leading to development of a relationship between them. Her self-confidence is

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reflected in the way she questions Achilles’ actions dismissing him as a killer. She is also

seen to stop Achilles from killing Agamemnon’s men during their quarrel which in Iliad was

done by Goddess Athena. By assuming the role of a goddess who can control a hero like

Achilles,Briseis takes over Athena’s function in Troy.xixDuring the fall of the city at the end

of the film, Briseis assumes her final role change when Agamemnon threatens her she

assumes the role of Agamemnon’s vengeful wife Clytemnestra and stabs him as she did

according to Homer.xxBriseis is presented as a combination of a number of mortal characters

along with the divine powers of Goddess Athena to control Achilles thus emphasising on the

individual more than the Supreme Being.

The above analysis illustrates how in the film Troy the divine agency is removed and the plot

is domesticizeddirecting the motivation of war more on true love and imperialism. Cinema,

being a form of entertainment adopts a number of ways to change the actual story to make it

gripping and exciting for the viewers. But even though some alterations areacceptable in the

depiction of a historical epic, we see thatradical changes in the plot can lead the movie to

deviate from the actual known history. Peterson adapts a strategy of nonconformityby

rationalizing divine motivations of the Trojan War as human emotions and psychology in

Troy. The elimination of gods in the picture leaves the individuals with full responsibility of

all their behaviour thus they are made responsible for their right or wrong decisions. The

choices made by the characters as the movie progresses are taken freely without the

intervention of any supernatural being. But historical epics demand the presence of some

form of divine agency which is lacking in Peterson’s work.

Also Peterson’s attempt to modify the epic by removal of the divine being is a considerable

setback for his movie because it reflects the Bronze Age period where Gods remained the

predominant characters rather than the individuals. His stress on personalcapacity of the

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characters without any guidancefrom the deities in Troy, repudiates the divine theme of both

the Bronze Age and the Trojan War turning his movie into a contemporary drama.

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ENDNOTES

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i
Susan Sherratt, ‘The Trojan War: History or Bricolage’, Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies, Vol.
53, No. 2(2010) p. 7

ii
Barry Strauss, The Trojan War: A New History( New York: Simon and Schuster, 2006), pp. 119-120

iii
Kim Shahabudin, ‘From Greek Myth to Hollywood Story: Explanatory Narrative in Troy’ in Martin M.
Winkler (edited), Troy From Homer’s Iliad to Hollywood Epic ( USA: Blackwell Publishing Ltd, 2007) p.
114

iv
Georg Danek, ‘The Story of Troy Through the Centuries’ in Martin M. Winkler (edited), Troy From
Homer’s Iliad to Hollywood Epic ( USA: Blackwell Publishing Ltd, 2007) p.79

v
Barry Strauss, The Trojan War: A New History, p. 133

vi
Kim Shahabudin, ‘From Greek Myth to Hollywood Story’ in M.Winkler (ed.), Troy From Homer’s Iliad to
Hollywood Epic, p. 115

vii
Martin M. Winkler, ‘Neo-Mythologism: Apollo and the Muses on the Screen’, International Journal of the
Classical Tradition, Vol. 11, No. 3 (2005), pp. 418-419

viii
Robert J. Rabel, ‘Review of Troy, Directed by Wolfgang Peterson(2004)’, The Classical Outlook, Vol. 81,
No.4 (2004), p. 140

ix
Javier Franco Lopez, ‘ Representation of Masculinities in Troy’, Faculty of Letters and Education,
University of La Rioja, (2017) p. 13
x

Barry Strauss, The Trojan War: A New History, p. 94

xi
Carolyn Jess, ‘Achilles vs. Jason (and the Argonauts): Review of Troy(Peterson,2004)’, Literature/Film
Quarterly, Vol. 33, No. 1(2005) p. 80
xii

Jon Solomon, ‘Viewing Troy: Authenticity, Criticism, Interpretation’ in Martin M. Winkler (edited), Troy
From Homer’s Iliad to Hollywood Epic (USA: Blackwell Publishing Ltd, 2007) p.98

xiii
Hanna M. Roisman, ‘Helen and the Power of Erotic Love: From Homeric Contemplation to Hollywood
Fantasy’, College Literature, Vol. 35, No. 4(2008) p. 130

xiv
Ibid, p. 140- 141
xv
Barry Strauss, The Trojan War: A New History, p. 48
xvi

Ibid, p. 31
xvii

Alena Allen, ‘Briseis in Homer, Ovid and Troy’ in Martin M. Winkler (edited), Troy From Homer’s Iliad to
Hollywood Epic (USA: Blackwell Publishing Ltd, 2007) p. 151

xviii
Ibid, p. 149
xix
Ibid, p. 158
xx
Ibid, p.161

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Allen, Alena. ‘Briseis in Homer, Ovid and Troy’ in Martin M. Winkler (edited), Troy From Homer’s Iliad to
Hollywood Epic (USA: Blackwell Publishing Ltd, 2007)

Danek, Georg. ‘The Story of Troy Through the Centuries’ in Martin M. Winkler (edited), Troy From
Homer’s Iliad to Hollywood Epic ( USA: Blackwell Publishing Ltd, 2007)
Jess, Carolyn. ‘Achilles vs. Jason (and the Argonauts): Review of Troy(Peterson,2004)’, Literature/Film
Quarterly, Vol. 33, No. 1(2005) pp.79-80

Lopez, Javier Franco. ‘ Representation of Masculinities in Troy’, Faculty of Letters and Education,
University of La Rioja, (2017) pp.1-36

Rabel, Robert J. ‘Review of Troy, Directed by Wolfgang Peterson(2004)’, The Classical Outlook, Vol. 81,
No.4 (2004) pp. 140-141

Roisman, Hanna M. ‘Helen and the Power of Erotic Love: From Homeric Contemplation to Hollywood
Fantasy’, College Literature, Vol. 35, No. 4(2008) pp. 127-150

Shahabudin, Kim. ‘From Greek Myth to Hollywood Story: Explanatory Narrative in Troy’ in Martin M.
Winkler (edited), Troy From Homer’s Iliad to Hollywood Epic ( USA: Blackwell Publishing Ltd, 2007)

Sherratt, Susan. ‘The Trojan War: History or Bricolage’, Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies, Vol.
53, No. 2(2010) pp. 1-18

Solomon, Jon. ‘Viewing Troy: Authenticity, Criticism, Interpretation’ in Martin M. Winkler (edited), Troy
From Homer’s Iliad to Hollywood Epic (USA: Blackwell Publishing Ltd, 2007)

Strauss, Barry. The Trojan War: A New History( New York: Simon and Schuster, 2006)

Winkler, Martin M. ‘Neo-Mythologism: Apollo and the Muses on the Screen’, International Journal of the
Classical Tradition, Vol. 11, No. 3 (2005) pp.383-423