Iliad Movie Essay

An Epic Love Triangle
For years, Greek literature has transitioned from ancient scrolls, to school textbooks, and oftentimes to the big screen. Stories about Oedipus, Hercules, and the Titans have been told throughout the years captivating generation after generation. These classics never go out of style.
Greek mythological characters make for perfect movie stars; however, Hollywood doesn’t always stick to the script when portraying these legendary figures or their glorified stories. The tale of the Trojan War, is one of the most profound works of art, written by Homer, in his poem the Iliad. In 2004 this monumental story was transformed into a feature film under the direction of Wolfgang Petersen.
Troy, the movie, is a very inaccurate depiction of the Homeric epic, The Iliad; especially, when it comes to the romantic relationship involving Helen, Pairs and Menelaus. Sure, the characters and the outcome of the war are the same, but the way in which the story is told happens to be dramatically different. The plot of the movie differentiates so much from the original poem that the film is ultimately a lackluster version of the Iliad. The movie makes so many changes to the twisted tale of love between

In the poem the Iliad, Aphrodite helps Paris kidnap Helen by offering Helen’s hand to Paris, during his judgment. Although the Judgment of Paris happens prior to the Iliad, there is no mention of Aphrodite in the movie, Troy at all. Excluding the Goddess of Love from the movie, takes away the intensity of the love connection between Paris and Helen. Stephen Scully (in Winkler, p. 120) cites “the absence of divine machinery is one of the reasons (together with the film’s mundane dialogue) why Troy fails to achieve epic greatness.” This union was created by a Goddess, making it supernatural, they loved each other so much, that the young lovers started a