Introduction To Troy v Iliad

The Film Troy was directed by Wolf gang Peterson, and was inspired by the classic epic poem, The Iliad Which was written by Greek poet Homer. Wolf Gang use the Iliad to base his movie on. But only uses some aspects of the Iliad. Take the start of the film Troy. At the start of the film Troy. Agamemnon has his army on Triopases land and will not move. Then Agamemnon suggest Triopas best fighter against Agamemnon best fighter. And if Triopas man wins Agamemnon will leave for good. Triopas calls out “Boagrius” . Agamemnon calls out “Achilles” but Achilles does not appear. A messenger boy goes to Achilles and says “  The Thessalonian you’re fighting – he is the biggest man I have ever seen. I wouldn’t want to fight him”. Achilles says “ that’s why no one will remember you”. Then Achilles jumps on his horse and goes to battle Boagrius. Achilles arrives and defeats Boagrius. Then Agamemnon says” Tomorrow we will batter down the gates of Troy. Achilles then says “Be careful, King of Kings. First you need the victory”.

However then start of the Iliad is very different then the start of the film, The Iliad begins with the poet calling on the Muse to sing of the wrath of Achillues and its consequences. Apollo’s priest Chryses goes to the Achaian camp and ask for his daughter Chryseis.Who had been captured. Later Kalchas secures Achillues’ promise that he will protect him from reprisals, Agamemnon angrily denounces Kalchas. But Agamemnon agrees to give up Chryseis, But he wants a “prize” to replace her. Achilleus ansewrs that another prize will come when Troy is destroyed. Further in book 1 Thetis meets with Zeus and explains the situation. So he agrees to give glory to the Trojans on the Achilleus behalf. Hera, who strongly likes the Greeks, does not like this plan, but Zeus silences her and soon all the gods are at peace again.

Already this shows that there are major differences in the start of the film Troy and the start of the book the Iliad. For one thing the Iliad does not start with Agamemnon and his army on Triopases land the Iliad starts with Muse singing the warth of Achillues. This maybe because Peterson wanted to have an impact at the start of the film with Achilles killing Boagruis to show that Achilles is dominate and the Film will be based more about him.