The Illiad Has Been Hollywoodized In TROY
I have seen the movie Troy and really enjoyed it. (Yes, there are some inappropriate parts -- I closed my eyes.) It reminded me of how much I loved Greek mythology, but I certainly didn't remember some of the things in the movie happening in The Iliad. Rather than slog through Homer again, someone recommended Rosemary Sutcliff's Black Ships Before Troy (see my website for a review) and I finished it the other day. As I suspected, Troy was Hollywoodized. Some of the most notable differences between the movie and the "real" myths are:

The siege of Troy went on for over ten years. In that time, Helen grew disgusted with Paris (and can we blame her???), and wanted to go back to her husband and daughter.

Instead of Paris acting like a wimp during single combat with Menelaus, the goddess Aphrodite actually snatched him away from the fight and transported him to safety in the palace. But when Hector came in from the battlefield to find him, he found Paris all clean and refreshed and relaxing instead of rushing back to the battle, so he really was a self-centered jerk after all. MUCH moreso than the movie depicted.

The tension between Achilles and Agamemnon was real enough. And it actually was over a female temple servant. But she wasn't related to the King Priam - she was a slave. After a while Agamemnon apologized to Achilles and offered to give her back, and Achilles didn't want her anymore. After a LONG time when he did take her back (but only to appease Agamemnon and so his honor could be upheld and he could get back to the fighting), he ignored her. She was one of the women who ended up taking care of his dead body.

Ajax (the great big Greek warrior) played a much bigger role than the movie showed. He was as active as Achilles and Odysseus.

Hector did NOT kill Menelaus. In fact, Menelaus actually was one of the survivors, and Helen ended up going back to him very happily when Troy fell. She and Odysseus were friends from way back. It almost sounded like she became more of a captive inside Troy than a refugee.

This is sad. When Troy fell, Hector's wife was taken as a slave of one of the Myrmidons (Achilles' group), and his baby son was thrown off the ramparts and killed. In fact, ALL of Troy was taken or destroyed, and only Helen escaped.

Achilles actually sent Patroclus out in his armor to lead his men! Hector did kill him, and then stripped his armor and took it back to Troy. And Achilles had Patroclus' ashes put in a golden cup and buried it in a shrine, and left orders that when he died the cup should be dug up and his ashes mingled with Patroclus. (Hmmmm. And now we know why he didn't want the slave girl back.)

Paris did kill Achilles, but it was with an arrow shot from atop the battlements during a battle when Achilles was fighting down below. So he wasn't inside the horse at all.

And then the Greeks went and hired their own archer, who shot Paris with a poisoned arrow. And it grazed his hand and he got sick and died of arrow-poisoning. And the woman he had deserted to go kidnap Helen could have saved him, but she was still ticked off at him so she didn't help him. (And it serves him right, if you ask me.)

The movie left out the Amazon women, who came to help Troy. But they all got killed by the Greeks.

The movie left out all the intervention of the gods and goddesses, but there was a lot.

Thought you might be interested in the REAL story! (Uh, so to speak!)

What did you think of the movie? Leave a comment!