The Myth of 'Troy'

Those who ordinarily could care less about Greek mythology may
find themselves showing a bit of interest on Friday.

Wolfgang Petersen’s much anticipated blockbuster,
“Troy,” is based on Homer’s “Iliad,”
the epic story of the Trojan War. With Brad Pitt as Achilles,
Orlando Bloom as Paris, and Diane Kruger as Helen, the players in
this piece have never been so gorgeous.

The “Iliad” recounts the mythical battle between the
Greeks and the Trojans. The fight is over Helen, whom Trojan Prince
Paris kidnapped from Agamemnon, the leader of Greece. The epic
explores the consequences of broken honor and a breach of social
code during the course of the war through its tragic hero,
Achilles, the world’s greatest warrior.

While the film will undoubtedly leave an imprint in the minds of
audiences, its impact on society’s understanding of the
actual story may be less profound. According to classics Professor
Katherine King, most films based on classical material in the past
have been poorly done and fail to capture the traditional epic
successfully .

“Troy,” with all its star power, may be no
different. The synopsis on the film’s Web site claims to
follow the “Iliad” as closely as possible, but some
classics professors scoffed at what the Web site had to say. Being
the Hollywood production that it is, Petersen’s version will
most likely exaggerate the social institutions that 21st century
Americans hold dear while downplaying those reflecting ancient
Greece.

For example, although divine intervention plays a central role
in all Greek mythology and is omnipresent in the
“Iliad,” there is a good chance that “Troy”
will not address it. This may be a problem, as the lives of the
Greeks were dependent on the divine personalities of gods and
goddesses such as Zeus, Athena and Aphrodite.

“An epic needs the supernatural,” King said.
“You can do a tragedy without the gods, but you can’t
do an epic. There really needs to be this larger-than-life human
being striving against mortal limitations.”

King attributes this deviation to modern-day human pride.

“Generally, the population (now) is not religious in the
sense that there are gods and then there’s us, and
we’re just human,” she explained. “The (ancient)
Greeks would say that our culture constitutes hubris.”

According to classics Professor Kathryn Morgan, audiences today
do not have an interest in themes that aren’t prevalent in
today’s society.

“It would be understandable if the film leaves out the
idea of divine apparatus,” Morgan said, “because
we’re more about power versus love. But what we will lose is
the sense of men being at the mercy of complicated divine
forces.”

Another deviation from the “Iliad” could be the
portrayal of Achilles, whose character could be easily distorted by
the film. The film’s synopsis describes Achilles as a warrior
who “has allegiance to nothing and no one, save his own
glory,” and “it is his insatiable hunger for eternal
renown that leads him to attack the gates of Troy.”

This interpretation of Achilles is not entirely accurate,
according to King. Invoked by the hypocrisy and betrayal of
Agamemnon and later by the death of his best friend, Achilles
fights to restore meaning to his life. The gods had prophesied that
he would either live a long and lackluster life or a short but
glorious one. Achilles knows his fate is the latter.

“With the breach in the social code and in communal honor,
what is there for Achilles to live for?” King questioned.
“Where is the glory? He has to fight.”

Despite these potential differences between Petersen’s
version of the Trojan War and that of Homer’s, the Greek myth
should ultimately remain unaffected.

“The wonderful thing about myths is that they’re
flexible stories that exist in so many different versions that they
can be remade in every age to express what is important to any
given society,” Morgan said. “There isn’t really
one true version of the story. Myths are relevant because they
continue to move us. But the question to be asked is, “˜Does
this film move me as much as Homer moves me?'”

Regardless of whether “Troy” succeeds in moving
today’s audiences as the “Iliad” still does,
movie-goers at least can count on being enticed by the characters
on the big screen.

“I imagine that (“˜Troy’) will have a great
effect with Brad Pitt and Orlando Bloom (in it),” King said.
“Orlando Bloom will be good, and I really do think that Brad
Pitt will make a great Achilles.”