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Last night on the Metro, I finished Homer’s Illiad, the story of the warrior Achilles and his involvment with the Trojan war.

I was inspired to read this book after seeing the recent blockbuster (bust is the keyword) “Troy” after noticing many inconsitancies with the story. The movie was pretty far from being an adaptation, since it lacked interaction with the gods and included events from other stories besides the Illiad. Without the gods included in the story, there were holes in the plot which were filled with Hollywood.

Here are some important inconsistancies which effect the mood and theme of the story:

• Helen was kidnapped. As a gift from a previous story, Aphrodite gave Paris the most beautiful woman in the world. There were feelings for Paris by Helen (but cultural circumstances induced this), but she did not “fall in love and leave Menelaus”.
• Hector and Paris were not close and loving brothers as in the movie. Hector despised Paris for bringing Helen and war to Troy
• Agamemnon was not the cruel and harsh leader portrayed in the movie. He was significantly younger, fought in battles and was an intelligent leader.
• Though Menelaus was upset about Helen leaving he didnt want to “kill her with his bare hands”. Following the fall of Troy, Helen returns to Greece with Menelaus as his wife.
• The situation with Brises, Achilles and Agamemnon was incorrect in the movie. Two women were prizes from the sack, Agamemnon had to give his back in order to appease Apollo, and in anger stole Brises from Achilles.
• Patroclus and Achilles were most likely lovers. Homosexuality was an accepted form of relationship in ancient Greece, and so it wasnt literally mentioned. In the greek translation of the story, certain words for love and friendship are used which indicate a relationship stronger than friendship.
• The Trojan war lasted ten years. The Illiad only focuses on the last few weeks of battle.
• The movie also lacks focus on Aeneas who was a very important Trojan character.

I could go on and on, and normally I would just recommend reading the book. I wont do that here because reading the Illiad (or any other classical text for that matter) isnt for everyone. For one, its fairly long, and the type of language may be distracting and the required background knowledge to make sense of references may leave you feeling lost. If you do want something interesting to read, I would actually suggest reading the Odyssey which is broken down in to smaller events and is more entertaining to read.

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