Themes

The main theme of the movie Troy

In the film, the major theme is the theme of love. In particular, the major idea behind the theme of love is that love transcends all. Paris and Helen are the two major characters to exhibit this idea as their forbidden love is the instigator to the battle of Troy. In the film, Paris and Helen are shown to live in their own world, not caring for the consequences. This ignorance to the consequences gives way to the beginning of the battle of Troy. Even while the battle rages on Paris and Helen overcome all the odds, and eventually at the end of the film, the two of them escape the ruined city of Troy, saved by their love. This greatly contrasts the poem, The Iliad as Helen did not escape the city of Troy with Paris, but was instead taken back by Menelaus. This shows how much Wolfgang Petersen changes a major point in the story to cater for the drama and romance for the modern audience.

The main theme in the epic Iliad

death is glory. This relates to the major theme in The Iliad. Throughout the film, Achilles is shown to be wanting the ultimate glory on the battlefield. Achilles believes that utlimate glory is achieved through his eventual death through battle. In the poem Achilles is torn between chosing fame through his homecoming from a successful battle and achieving fame and glory then and there on the battle field. "Two fates bear me on to the day of death. If I hold out here and I lay siege to Troy My journey home is gone, but my glory never dies. If I voyage back to the fatherland I love, My pride, my glory dies... True, but the life that's left me will be long, The stroke of death will not come on me quickly." Book IX Iliad, This shows how he wishes to achieve true glory on the battlefield, and die with his name 'engraved' into history instead of leaving for home and only gaining a short lived glory

Bibliography

http://ancienthistory.about.com/od/trojanwarinlit/a/IliadXXII.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paris_(mythology)

http://www.imdb.com/character/ch0035276/quotes

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iliad#External_links
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20090105181156AAfpXMN
http://www.articlemyriad.com/masculinity-warrior-culture-iliad-homer/

A limitation would be the fact that the Iliad was made by Homer somewhat hundreds of years after the actual      event which could led to untruths and may have poisoned the truth in the movie Troy

The 'love' affair between Helen and Paris

Iliad

Helen and Paris in the Iliad did not 'fall' in love,but merely Helen was a prize given to Paris by Aphrodite, who was chosen by Paris in a beauty competition between Aphrodite, Athena and Hera,' Aphrodite offered the love of the most beautiful woman on Earth, Helen of Sparta. Paris chose Aphrodite— and, therefore, Helen, Athena offered skill in battle, wisdom and the abilities of the greatest warriors,Hera offered ownership of all of Europe and Asia, but he chose Aphrodite and that led to Paris having to capture Helen from Menelaus, because she was already married to him. 
This triggered the war because Helen was famous for her beauty throughout Achaea, and had many suitors of extraordinary ability. Therefore, following Odysseus's advice, her father Tyndareus made all suitors promise to defend Helen's marriage to the man he chose for her. When she disappeared to Troy, Menelaus followed the oath. Helen's other suitors (who between them represented the lion's share of Achaea's strength, wealth and military prowess)were obligated to help bring her back. And for this reason the whole of Greece was there to fight for Helen of Sparta.

Troy

Helen and Paris in Troy is far different, where Helen was taken by Paris in the Iliad, Helen actually Falls in love with Paris,

Troy (2004)
Paris: Pearls from the sea of Propontus. Helen: They're beautiful, but I could never wear them, Menelaus would kill us both. Paris: Don't be afraid of him. Helen: I'm not afraid of dying, I'm afraid of tomorrow. I'm afraid of watching you sail away and knowing you'll never come back. Before you came to Sparta, I was a ghost. I walked and I ate and I swam in the sea... I was just a ghost. Paris: You don't have to fear tomorrow... come with me! Helen: Don't play with me, don't play. Paris: If you come, we'll never be safe. Men will hunt us, the gods will curse us, but I'll love you. Until the day they burn my body, I'll love you.
She leaves with Paris knowingly and in love 

The aftermath of the Battle between Paris and Menelaus
After the fight between the two Helen is thankful that the fight had not end between the two and was joyful almost at the fact that Paris chose love over honor and for her, a true love scene which may have been added because Wolfgang wants to appeal to all audiences including women men and children to earn more money with more people interested instead of just one group of audiences eg just a male audience due to only warfare.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paris_(mythology)

http://www.imdb.com/character/ch0035276/quotes

Achilles VS Hector

               Achilles vs. Hector

 The fight between Hector and Achilles is told in different ways with the Iliad and Troy. The differences consisting of Hector running away from Achilles in the Iliad and a long and glorious battle between them both in the movie Troy. In this blog I’m going to show the differences of the battle between the great fighters.

 The Battle

In the Iliad the battle between Achilles and Hector is described in a completely different view ‘As Achilles bear down on Hector, Hector begins to lose his nerve. Hector runs towards the Scamander River (Xanthus). The two warrior’s race three times around Troy’ Iliad book XXII, This is an example of the differences between the two because as this clip describes Hector actually stays and fights to his death with honor.

Wolfgang may have added the battle with Achilles and Hector to add more action for the audience and to have Hector portrayed as a heroic man (possibly because he is trying to make out that he his on both sides Greek and Trojan) where in the Iliad Hector is considered a coward possibly due to the fact that Homer was a Greek and his audience, all Greek, which may have led to Hector running away in fear of Achilles (the god who could not be killed) in the Iliad and running three times around the city of Troy to emphasize the fact that all Trojans where cowards in the face of ‘the great and powerful Greeks’

Alas! the gods have lured me on to my destruction. ... death is now indeed exceedingly near at hand and there is no way out of it- for so Zeus and his son Apollo the far-darter have willed it, though heretofore they have been ever ready to protect me. My doom has come upon me; let me not then die ingloriously and without a struggle, but let me first do some great thing that shall be told among men hereafter.

”

Spoken by Hector facing Achilles, after a missed spear-throw, The Iliad Book XXII

This shows how Homer uses Hector as a symbol for weakness by pleading for his honor to be restored by Achilles, a Greek,meaning to Homer that the Greeks are more stronger and far Superior than the Trojans.

After the battle

In both the Iliad and the movie Troy Achilles kills Hector, but after Hector has been dragged, Achilles in the movie Troy takes the body of Hector back to the Greek camp but in the Iliad the body of Hector is 'left for the dogs'.Wolfgang Peterson may have chosen to do this to try to show Achilles as less of a barbarian than the Iliad tells us and also how Achilles in the movie Troy Achilles sulks in his tent where as the Iliad dose no such thing, this may have happens to try and make the audience feel something for Achilles than just a brute beast of a killer but try to find something in Achilles that is not just brutality but more of a human being.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iliad#External_links

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20090105181156AAfpXMN

The Trojan Story intro and cultures behind the Iliad and Troy

 

The Intro

The blog you are about to enter is about the differences behind the epic poem,The Iliad made by the great poet Homer and the movie Troy Directed by Wolfgang Peterson. The two are similar in the fact that they are about the same story but written in different times making the two have differences due to the time in which they were made and the differences in culture. This blog will explain these differences and the cultures behind them both.In the next few posts I will describe the differences between the battle of Hector and Achilles, The love affair between Paris and Helen and I'll also describe a few of the main characters of the Ilaid and the movie Troy. Also i will explain messages conveyed between the Iliad and the movie Troy.

The cultures behind the storys

               The Iliad and Troy the cultural differences

The Iliad was written by the great poet of ancient Greece, Homer, who wrote about the battle of troy in circa 9^th to 8^th century B.C.E were as the Battle of Troy actually occurred around circa 1250 B.C.E a few hundred years after the actual battle of Troy. Homers audience who would have read his books were people who believed heavily on the god’s divine interventions and the view on society was much evolved around the warfare, duty, honour and bravery of men who had to have these qualities’ to be a true man.

 Masculinity of men in ancient Greece compared to the 21st century

The masculinity of men was described as being brave, having honour, doing his duty towards the state, and going to war to earn these traits was a must and having traits such as ‘a great lover’ & a ‘gallant sight’ were thought as unmanly  which is what Homer describes Paris in the Iliad. The bow was considered cowardly because you were fighting away from battle and not confronting his enemy head first which may have been the reason for Paris to have fought with a bow and arrow in the Iliad. ‘There is no greater glory for a man to die in the heat of battle’, this is what the Greeks taught and thought about a man,as depicted by this video from Troy.

 were as in the 21^st century we now think of battle as a tad barbaric and war as an insight into evil, and many people think that a man does not need to be  a warrior and having a trait, for instance, gallant sight or great lover as great qualities and we also see that no one has to abide by this types of stereotypical ways of thinking, many if not all have the right to be their own person. These qualities are what lead to the many differences between the Iliad and the 21^st century Troy.

With the differences in the cultures the audiences want to hear different things such as Homers Iliad the Greeks would have wanted to hear a story about how great the Greeks are and how the Trojans are cowards and how the Greeks were favoured by the Gods more than the Trojans, Book III Iliad, ‘Zeus wonders if there is still a way to get Helen back to Menelaos without utterly destroying the city of Troy. Hera expresses her displeasure at this idea and Zeus backs off, Hera asserts her own ancestry and suggests a compromise: the war will go on but the Trojans will be the first to break the truce’ this is written by Homer to symbolise that the god’s were in favour of the Greeks rather than the Trojans.

http://www.articlemyriad.com/masculinity-warrior-culture-iliad-homer/