Troy vs. the Iliad Essay

In almost all instances of war the cause has been related to greed, or the gaining of land and possessions. Greed is presented in the very first book of Homer’s “The Iliad.” It isn’t displayed by the cowards, but the “heroes” of the war such as Agamemnon, Achilles, and Pandarus. The entire cause of the Trojan War is the result of the greedy and cowardly behavior of Paris. There are many factors that had sparked the war, including the interference of the gods; however, the main factor to be blamed for the war is greed.

Homer’s interpretation of The Trojan War stated that the war was provoked solely by Paris, who stole Helen from Greece. Prince Paris was invited to a dinner where the Greeks and the Trojans were celebrating their alliance with one another. Paris caught eyes with Helen and they were immediately in love with one another, and Paris abducted her and brought her back to Troy to become her husband. By describing the story in this manner, Homer writes to the conventions of the Bronze Age Era, prioritizing romanticism over political objectives.

At the beginning of the story, the gods are debating what to do with the Greeks after they pillaged Troy, but more specifically, violated Athena’s shrine. Athena asks for help and says to Poseidon, “I want to help the Trojans who were my enemies, and make the Greek army’s homecoming a bitter one.” (Euripides 63). To which Poseidon replies, “You’re so fickle. Your mind leaps here and there: now you hate, and now you love, and both in excess.” (Euripides 65). Even Poseidon admits to the “fickleness” of the goddess since her allies during the war were the Greeks. This lends itself to show that Helen could be telling the truth about the goddesses having an argument about the beauty of each other and Aphrodite forcing Helen to run away with Paris. Helen also helps her argument by pointing out that the fight was preordained by the gods based on the prophecy about Paris, and then blames Paris’s mother and father for letting Paris live, rather than slaying Paris and trying to stop the prophecy from coming true. Through the many effective arguments, Helen shows that she did not ask to be carried away by Paris and that she liked Menelaus. Menelaus seems very weak compared to Helen, especially since he seems to not be able to make up his mind whether to kill her or not. In the end, Menelaus seems to decide on letting her live, though he still tells

Each of the goddesses promised to give Paris something in return for giving her the apple. Hera offered Paris power and the richest kingdom on earth. Athena promised to make him a great hero and to give him wealth. Finally, Aphrodite promised a marriage to the most beautiful woman in the world, Helen of Sparta (Joe "Trojan War"). Paris immediately chose Aphrodite to be the fairest, causing much discord for the others. He quickly set off to Sparta to fetch Helen; however, she was the wife of the Spartan king, Menelaus. When Paris reached Sparta, he saw that Menelaus was not there and he proceeded to abduct Helen. Menelaus was infuriated by this deviousness. He called upon all of Helen’s old suitors who had promised to keep her honor. These suitors did not truly want to go to war, in fact, Odysseus feigned insanity and

The gods were more involved in the Iliad than in the movie Troy. In the Iliad they manipulated people’s emotions, the weather, the outcomes of battle; they would disguise themselves to trick the characters into the move they wanted them to make, physically trip them up to give the opponent a better standing. In the movie the gods had no visible role they were more of a believe system and a thought process. The characters believed that there were signs from the gods letting them know how to proceed. An example of this is when determining wither to go into battles after a farmer saw a sparrow with a snake

As the last scene of movie Troy fades, we see the words “inspired by Homer’s “The Iliad””. There is no doubt that the Iliad is one of the greatest poems of all time and, therefore, it has inspired multiple works of art over almost three thousand years of its existence. One of these works is the film Troy, which attempts to make an adaptation that reflects the Greek culture and appeals to the modern audience at the same time. In this essay Troy will be compared with the Iliad through examination of time spans, intended audiences, portrayals of Helen, Achilles and Hector, main themes of both sources and conveyed messages.

Homer’s, The Iliad, is an ancient Greek poem that opens up ten years into the Trojan War. The protagonist is Akhilleus, the greatest warrior of the Achaean army. His rage and quarrel with Agamemnon, the king of Mycenae, condemns the Achaean army to catastrophe. The epic poem preludes to the origins of the Trojan War as Paris, prince of Troy, was lured by Aphrodite and broke the Greek Alliance by seducing Helen, wife of King Menelaus, and abducting her to Troy. The book, “Literature of the Western World, Volume I, The Ancient World: Through the Renaissance,” portrays the Greek gods loftier to human beings through their power, beauty and immortality. Contradictory to Yahveh, the Hebrew God, they did not follow a set of principles which

Over the thousands of years that the epic story the Iliad has survived, there has no doubt been some form of alteration to Homer’s original. Last May, Wolfgang Petersen directed a movie based on the Iliad. This movie, Troy, has proven to be a very loose adaptation of Homer’s original, as are almost all stories that are made into movies, unfortunately. With its timeless storyline, amazing scenery, gorgeous actors/actresses and most of all, its reported two hundred million dollar budget, it is easy to see why Troy was hyped up to be a box office hit. However, the film critics were harsh on this movie, as they had every right to be, and it ended up being a total flop. Compared to Homer’s Iliad, Troy is rather

Wolfgang Peterson tackles the job of bringing the epic of Homer's The Iliad to the big screen in his film Troy. Iliad being a lengthy text, it is impossible to include every detail in a movie. Therefore, there are obvious deviations from the book such as the length of the Trojan War, and the absence of celestial participation in the war. There is also an absence of mortal female characters such as Chryseis, Hecuba, and Cassandra in the movie. In contrast, though, the female characters who are included in the film are developed more elaborately than they are in the book.

While this circumstance may be easy enough to understand, such setting or background in the plot actually entails more history: Even before Paris was born, a prophecy was carried out that the handsome prince would cause the destruction of Troy; thus, King Priam and his queen banished the baby to be raised in the wilderness. Later on, as a shepherd, he encountered the three goddesses, Hera, Pallas Athene, and Aphrodite, and set the motion of what would be the war that extinguished the Trojan line—Paris was to decide who is the most beautiful of the goddesses. Each goddess tried to bribe him with promises of power, riches, fame, and glory, but it was Aphrodite who succeeded in the end as she promised Paris that he can have the most beautiful mortal, Helen. This simple arrangement would then serve as the catalyst of a war that would kill thousands of Trojans and Greeks as soon it is revealed that Paris has stolen Helen and the gods and goddesses of Olympus have each taken sides on the war which would further complicate the lives of the people of Troy and Greece. (Buck Jr. , 11-12)

The film Troy did not show us the true meaning of The Iliad. Troy was a good movie, but it didn’t show the audience the important events from the book. Many people would argue that the book was descriptive and really caught their attention, but the movie was a very vague representation of the The Iliad . Troy was a poor representation of The Iliad because it didn’t portray intense characters, a good setting, or a powerful message.

Throughout The Iliad and The Odyssey, both Achilles and Odysseus go through intense acts of heroism, internal and external hardships, and fluctuations in confidence. During the epic, The Odyssey, the main character, Odysseus, has to endure many hardships which show. He has to show tremendous amounts of heroism and confidence just to keep his crew and himself alive. He has to rival and face many gods that despise him along with many humans. This theme can also be reflected from Homer’s The Iliad, where the main character, Achilles, is pitted against many of his own hardships, acts of heroism, and excursion of confidence. He may not have faced as many external conflicts as Odysseus, but he goes through a long internal evolution. Nearing the

The Iliad is an epic tale of war and hero’s within the Greek way of life. A

Helen, the fairest woman on earth, was already married. Her husband, Menealus, was the king of Sparta. Paris, under Aphrodite's protection, sailed to Sparta, won Helen's love, and carried her off to Troy. Menelaus had to go to battle against Troy to defend his honor and retake Helen as his wife. Thus a combination of Eris's temper; Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite's jealousy; and Helen's beauty caused the war.

This short essay will identify five traditional epic characteristics that are evident in both the Iliad and the Odyssey.