Troy (2004): Homer's Iliad as Epic Cinematic Myth

Homer's Iliad and the Legend of Troy

Thousands of years after the blind Greek poet Homer supposedly composed his two great epic poems — the Iliad and the Odyssey — the world remains fascinated with the mythical Greek and Trojan warriors and wanderers he described: Achilles, Hector, Paris, Helen of Troy, Aeneas, Odysseus, Menelaus, Agamemnon, Priam, and many others. The film Troy (2004), based loosely on Homer's Iliad (and, admittedly, a few other loosely juxtaposed stories), brings these mythical, ever-fascinating heroes and villains to life in a story reminiscent enough of Homer's poem that it is still well worth watching.

The Iliad, and this loose cinematic representation of it, ranks among the greatest tales ever told of love, war, loyalty, deception, treachery, honor, victory, and defeat — the very stuff of which myths, and human life itself, are made. At the heart of both is the love story between the beautiful Helen of Troy, originally the wife of King Menelaus of Sparta, and Prince Paris of Troy. Paris secretly brings Helen home to Troy after visiting King Menelaus in Sparta — a visit intended, ironically, to celebrate a long-sought peace between Mycenaean Greece and Troy, a peace that collapses quickly once Menelaus discovers that his wife has been taken by a younger, more handsome rival. The Iliad itself is a long, vivid, and colorful poem about war and peace, and about human pride, desire, and folly. The film Troy is true, in that sense, to the spirit if not the letter of Homer's epic.

Historical and Mythological Background

The factuality of the events recounted in the Iliad remains a matter of debate. Historians still do not know whether there was truly a great Trojan War of the kind described in the poem, or, if such a war did occur, whether it was really fought over love, jealousy, and revenge — or whether its true cause was more likely commercial rivalry. The Trojan War, if it happened at all, may have simply used the pretext of Helen's and Paris's illicit love affair to reignite the same enduring conflict between Troy and Mycenaean Greece after a brief period of peace. Based on historical, anthropological, and archaeological research, there does appear to have been some form of Trojan-Greek conflict during this era. The Trojan War, as we know it through the Iliad, was therefore not simply a figment of a blind poet's rich imagination.

Plot Overview and Key Characters

The basic plot of the film unfolds as follows: the Mycenaean Greeks — representing both Greece and Sparta — and the Trojans have finally reached peace after many years of conflict. Two handsome young Trojan princes, Hector and Paris, sons of King Priam, are in Sparta celebrating this accord with Menelaus, King of Sparta, whose brother Agamemnon rules Greece. The princes are soon to set sail back to Troy. Before they do, however, the film cuts to a scene of Paris in bed with Helen, the beautiful young wife of King Menelaus — the woman famously described as possessing "the face that launched a thousand ships." The impetuous Paris, far less measured and thoughtful than his careful older brother Hector, decides to smuggle Helen back to Troy.

When Menelaus discovers that Helen is gone, he calls upon his brother Agamemnon to help him avenge her abduction. This demand for vengeance sets in motion the war between the two kingdoms of Mycenaean Greece and Troy — the conflict known to history as the Trojan War. The two dominant figures on opposing sides are the handsome Achilles of Greece — who despises Agamemnon yet fights for Greece regardless, fulfilling the destiny his demigoddess mother foretold, that of a warrior of mythic greatness — and the measured, rational Hector of Troy, Paris's far more sensible elder brother. In Homer's Iliad, as in this film, Achilles represents the great hope of Greece, and Hector the greatest hope of Troy.