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Troy . Adoni Maropis as 's Directed by Wolfgang Petersen officer. . Jacob Smith as Messenger boy. Cast . Retxed Karpintero as Old Spartan Greeks fisherman. . Lucie Barat as Helen's handmaiden. . Brad Pitt as - Son of Peleus and Thetis. Leader of the Trojans Myrmidons. . Diane Kruger as Helen - Queen of . Eric Bana as - Prince of and wife of . Lover of and the best warrior among the Trojans. . Eldest son of , brother of Paris and . Sean Bean as - King of husband of . Ithaca and friend of Achilles. Considered . Orlando Bloom as Paris - Prince of the wisest among the Greeks. Troy. Youngest son of Priam, brother of . Brendan Gleeson as Menelaus - King of Hector and lover of Helen. Sparta and husband of Helen. Brother of . Peter O'Toole as Priam - King of Troy Agamemnon. and father of Hector and Paris. . Brian Cox as Agamemnon - King of . Rose Byrne as - Priestess of Mycenae. Brother of Menelaus. Apollo and cousin of Hector and Paris. . Garrett Hedlund as - Cousin Lover of Achilles. and student of Achilles. . Saffron Burrows as Andromache - . Tyler Mane as Ajax - King of Salamis. Princess of Troy and wife of Hector. Second to Achilles among the Greeks in . James Cosmo as Glaucus - terms of fighting skills. Commanding general of the Trojan army. . John Shrapnel as - Adviser of . Nigel Terry as Archeptolemus - Trojan Agamemnon. high priest and adviser of Priam. . Vincent Regan as Eudoros - Captain of . Trevor Eve as Velior - Trojan priest. the Myrmidons. . Mark Lewis Jones as Tecton - Captain . Julie Christie as Thetis - Mother of of the Apollonian Guard. Achilles. . Owain Yeoman as Lysander - Captain . Ken Bones as Hippasus - Adviser of of the Trojan army. Menelaus. . Frankie Fitzgerald as - Trojan . Julian Glover as Triopas - King of youth. Thessaly. . Nathan Jones as Boagrius - Thessalian

champion. Plot . Siri Svegler as Polydora - Spartan entertainer. In Sparta, Prince Hector (Eric Bana) and his tries to kill Achilles, but realizes that she young brother Paris (Orlando Bloom) loves Achilles and the two have sex. The negotiate peace between Troy and Sparta. next day Achilles is readying his men to Paris has fallen in love with Helen (Diane leave, much to Patroclus' indignation. Kruger), Menelaus' (Brendan Gleeson) wife. The Trojans launch a surprise attack. As the He smuggles her back to Troy with him. Greeks seem to be on the verge of defeat, Infuriated, Menelaus vows revenge. Achilles appears with the Myrmidons and Meanwhile, Agamemnon (Menelaus' brother), joins the battle, eventually fighting against who had for years harbored plans for Hector. All are shocked when Achilles is conquering Troy (which would give him beaten by Hector. However, Hector kneels control of the Aegean Sea), uses this as a and pulls Achilles' helmet off revealing it was justification to invade Troy. really Patroclus whom he has mortally General Nestor (John Shrapnel) asks him to wounded. Both armies agree to end fighting take Achilles (Brad Pitt), to rally troops to the for the day, and Odysseus informs Hector cause. who he had killed. Achilles, who had slept Odysseus (Sean Bean) visits Phtia to through the battle, is told by Eudorus of his persuade Achilles to fight, and finds him cousin's death. The Greeks had also training withPatroclus (Garrett Hedlund), his mistaken Patroclus for Achilles, since he had cousin. put on the same armour, and moved the same: Achilles furiously vows revenge. Later The Greeks land at Troy and take control of that night, Achilles lights Patroclus's funeral the beach, landing their ships. Achilles and pyre. theMyrmidons kill many Trojans and desecrate the temple of Apollo. Briseis (Rose The next day, Achilles approaches the gates Byrne), a member of the Trojan royal family, of Troy alone and demands Hector to come is captured and taken as a prize to the out and face him. The two fight an evenly Greeks, despite Achilles' claim to her. matched duel at the start, but Achilles soon takes the advantage. In the end Achilles kills Achilles and his Myrmidons do not fight the Hector. He then ties the body to the back of next day because of Agamemnon's unfair his chariot, dragging it back to the Greek claim to Briseis. With Greeks surrounding camp, leaving all the Trojans shocked. That Troy, Paris challenges Menelaus to a duel to night, (Peter O'Toole) visits the settle things. Menelaus agrees. Paris is easily Greek army's camp to retrieve Hector's defeated, and wounded, but not killed. body. After the King makes his plea Achilles Hector intervenes and kills Menelaus. The acquiesces to his request and allows him to Greeks charge the Trojan lines but are forced take his son to be buried, promising him the to fall back. 12 days for funerary rites. Achilles lets Priam Agamemnon gives Briseis to his men, but take Briseis back as well. He later gives Achilles rescues her. He carries her back to Eudorus one last order: to take the his tent and tends her wounds. Briseis then Myrmidons home. Briseis to join Paris as they escape the city. Achilles watches the others flee, then dies of Maquette , used in Troy film, a his wounds. The soldiers arrive to see the gift from Brad Pitt to the Turkish fallen Achilles with only a single arrow townCanakkale. through his heel, as he had removed all the

During the twelve days while Troy mourns others from his chest, fulfilling the myth that Hector's death, the Greeks plan to enter the Achilles was killed by a single arrow to the city using a hollowed-out wooden horse, heel. Funeral rituals are performed for him in devised by Odysseus, desperate to stem the the ruins of Troy the next day. The film ends slaughter of his own men at the hands of the with a speech from Odysseus; "If they ever Trojans. The Greeks leave the horse at their tell my story, let them say I walked with camp, then depart, hiding their ships in a giants. Men rise and fall like the winter nearby cove. Priam believes his priests that wheat, but these names will never die. Let the horse is an offering to Poseidonand a gift. them say I lived in the time of Hector, tamer Assuming victory, the Trojans take the horse of horses. Let them say I lived in the time of into the city and celebrate. A band of Greeks Achilles." come out of the horse at night, opening the gates to the city, allowing the main army to enter. The unprepared Trojans are overwhelmed. As the city burns, Agamemmnon and Odysseus fight their way with their army to the palace, killing Glaucus and Priam in the onslaught.

While Troy is sacked, Paris sees Aeneas together with Andromache and Helen and many others escaping Troy through a secret passage and hands him the sword of Troy, saying, "As long as it remains in the hands of a Trojan, our people have a future. Protect them Aeneas; find them a new home."

Achilles searches desperately for Briseis, who is being threatened by Agamemnon. She kills him with a concealed knife, and is saved from his guards by Achilles. While Achilles is helping Briseis to her feet, Paris shoots Achilles in his vulnerable heel, and then several times in the torso. Briseis runs to Achilles, surprising Paris. Achilles urges are Greek epic poems, conventionally attributed to a singularly talented poet named , who lived in the east Greek region of Ionia in the 8th century B.C.E. Most scholars today, however, question the idea that one singer-poet composed either or both poems, at least not as we would imagine a poet composing today. Further, a growing number of scholars contest the 8thcentury date of composition. There were multiple story traditions developing at that time; homeric epic is not the earliest nor did it emerge as especially influential or important until the 6th century B.C.E. That much said, in classical antiquity the songs that became our andOdyssey did eventually achieve a unique and honorific status, which lived on in western European culture and literature.

People today know the Iliad as a book, usually printed as lines of poetry and translated from the ancient Greek into English or another modern language. They experience it in the silence and solitude of reading. The first lines plunge most contemporary readers into the middle of an unfamiliar story populated by dozens of equally unfamiliar characters. The modern-day encounter with the Iliad however, is unlike that of most Greeks in the ancient world, especially before the time of Alexander the Great at the end of the 4th century B.C.E. Outside of a lettered elite in the historical period, most ancient Greeks would have read Homer rarely if at all. Instead, from childhood, they would have heard Trojan War poetry, including precursors to our Iliad, sung by poet- singers in feasting halls and during regional athletic festivals or musical competitions. The basic plot and the cast of characters were not only common knowledge, they were woven into the fabric of Greek social and cultural life.

In early Greek settlements and cities, largely isolated by their location on islands or in the mountainous terrain of the southern Balkan peninsula, a rich variety of local versions grew up around the basic plot of the Trojan War story. The names of Trojan War heroes were figured into the genealogies of local elites and memorialized on civic ritual occasions. The visual world was richly imbued with images of The Trojan War Story told in the Iliad the Trojan War. In their cities and in regional sanctuaries, ancient Greeks could have looked The Iliad (meaning a song about ) and up at Trojan War scenes sculpted into temple The Iliad day-by-day pediments. They poured wine from ceramic vessels depicting the war's events, sometimes The Iliad begins, famously, in medias even identifying characters by name. Further, res, announcing the theme of the song as the those fortunate enough to boast a hero's grave rage of Achilles resulting from a quarrel with in their locale believed they enjoyed his special Agamemnon, a quarrel that occurred in the beneficence and they responded with rituals of 10th and final year of the Trojan War. It worship at his tomb. concludes not with the end of the war but the end of Achilles' rage and a return to normalcy, In the 7th and 6th centuries B.C.E. the symbolized by the funeral rites for Hektor. development of regional sanctuaries, such as Although the action takes place over a period Olympia and Delphi, occasioned a new of only 45 days, the poem uses allusion to direction in Trojan War epic song; the earlier events and foreshadowing of later ones development is commonly referred to as to encompass the entire duration of the war. panhellenism ('all Greek'). Regional festivals brought together Greek singers and audiences Day 1 from different cities and districts who nonethless shared a language and many social, Book 1: The Iliad opens with the narrator's cultural, and mythic traditions. The need for appeal to the Muse ('Goddess') to sing the singers to perform for audiences gathered from wrath of Achilles and its dire consequences for many regions gave rise to a Trojan War epic thousands of Achaeans (one of the Homeric tradition marked less by local allusions and terms for the invading forces, which the poem heroes than by those with wide recognition and never refers to as 'Greeks'). The Muse, now appeal. The result was a broadly diffuse and implicitly the narrator, begins the song with a increasingly invariable tradition, which became quarrel that erupts between Agamemnon and over time our Iliad andOdyssey. Although the Achilles after Chryses, a priest of Apollo, had panhellenic homeric epics eventually come to the Greek camp to his captive dominated in literature, local traditions lived daughter . When Agamemnon on, as is evinced in both poetry and art. dismissed the priest out of hand, Chryses appealed to Apollo, who avenged the insult by In sum, for generations of ancient Greeks, the sending a plague into the camp. encounter with the Iliad was aural and iconographic, public, variant, resonant with On the 10th day of the plague, day 1 of the vibrant local traditions and, in time, also poem's action, Achilles convenes an assembly panhellenic. How those living oral traditions to discern why Apollo is angry and what must evolved into the paperback you hold in your be done to appease him. The seer Kalchas hand has been the subject of much debate; so pronounces Agamemnon the cause of the much so that is is usually referred to as the plague and prescribes returning the girl as the . Before we take up that very only remedy. Angry over the loss of his war- important question, however, we turn to the prize and the prestige she represents, the Trojan War story told in the Iliad. commander agrees to give her up only if the Achaean kings replace her with one of their captive women. Achilles denounces Agamemnon's military leadership as a charade rooted in greed and his demand for a replacement prize as outrageous, considering that the armies had come to Troy to help him and to pile up booty for themselves. Moreover, all the plunder had already been distributed; it would not be right to take it back. Not one to brook a public challenge, Agamemnon tells Achilles that he can go home now, but without his war-prize Briseis, whom Agamemnon claims for his own. Achilles draws his sword with intent to take the other man's life, but is restrained by Athene, who promises that and Menelaos to determine the outcome of the waiting will pay off in prizes worth three times war. The narrative shifts to Troy, where Helen, what Agamemnon is taking away. When summoned to a vantage point on the wall, Achilles finally concedes, Chryseis is returned points out the to Priam and to her father, Briseis is taken from Achilles' the elders of the city. Back on the battlefield, shelter, and the offended hero goes to the Menelaos is decisively winning the single seashore to call upon his mother Thetis for combat when Aphrodite sweeps Paris safely help. He persuades her to ask Zeus to help the back to his bedroom, where he is joined by Trojans drive the Achaeans back among their Helen. While they make love, Menelaos claims ships until they recognize the madness of victory in the duel by default, and a truce is dishonoring the best of the Achaeans. called.

Day 14 The scene shifts again, this time to Olympos, where the gods conspire to restart the war, in True to her word, after Zeus's return to which all now have a stake, by inciting the Olympos twelve days later, Thetis goes to him Trojan archer Pandaros to break the truce. His with Achilles' request and gains his consent. arrow grazes Menelaos and the two armies join When Hera takes Zeus to task for plotting with battle. The narrative first follows the exploits the sea- against the Trojans, a quarrel (known as anaristeia) of on the ensues. Distracted, however, by Hephaestos's battlefield. When Aphrodite tries to sweep antics, Hera, Zeus, and the rest of the gods Aineias out of his path, Diomedes wounds her, end the day with laughter, feasting, music, and sending her crying to her mother. Hektor, with finally, sleep. Ares at his side, gains temporary advantage, but Athene takes charge of Diomedes' chariot Book 2: That night, Zeus sends a deceitful and urges him to attack the war-god himself. dream to Agamemnon, projecting victory for Ares complains to Zeus and the gods retire the Greeks on the next day if he will marshal from the battlefield. When the tide of battle them for battle. again turns in favor of the Greeks, Hektor slips back into the city to instruct the women to Day 15: First day of battle appeal to Athene, their patron goddess, for help. While there he finds and seems to say Books 2-7: In the morning Agamemnon his farewells to his wife Andromache and their summons the kings who form his council and young son . tells them about the dream. He declares his purpose to test the morale of the troops in a Hektor returns to the plain of Troy to find the public assembly by reporting that the war is a battle still raging. On the prompting of lost cause instead of revealing the hopeful Helenos, he calls for another duel to decide the message of the dream. If the leader of the war, this time between him and a champion of Greek forces was hoping to rally the troops to the Greeks' choosing. Telamonian Ajax, known the war effort by using reverse psychology, he as the bulwark of the Achaeans and famous was sorely disappointed. Upon his for defensiive war craft, is chosen by lot and announcement in the assembly the men make the duel commences. Nightfall brings it to an for the ships and must be forcibly reassembled indeterminate end. Returning to their by Odysseus. Urged by members of his respective dwellings, the Achaeans are council, who now share the blame in the event counseled to dig a trench and construct an of failureâ to stay the course, Agamemnon associated palisade to protect the ships, while relents and sends the Achaians to eat and the Trojans debate returning Helen to her prepare for battle. The poet invokes the Muse husband. again and embarks on a lengthy catalog, first of the Greek leaders and contingents and then Day 16 (truce) of the Trojan and allied leaders. Early in the morning, the Trojans propose a The two armies take the field, but instead of truce, to which the Greeks agree, so that each engaging they consent to a duel between Paris side may bury their dead. evinced when he concludes that he will not leave but will also not take up arms until the Day 17 (truce) Trojans threaten to set his own vessels ablaze. The embassy reports disingenuously that The Greeks take advantage of the ceasefire to Achilles will leave for home the next day and dig a trench and build a palisade between their he advises others to do the same. Dismayed, ships, drawn up on the shore, and the plain of the council nonetheless approves Diomedes' Troy. Angered that they had built the wall flawed plan to carry on the war without their without first offering sacrifice, Poseidon best combatant. Odysseus and Diomedes, protested that its memory would outlast that of clad in animal skins, set out on a noctural the wall he and Apollo had built around the spying mission in hopes of discovering the city. Zeus assures his brother that when the designs of the Trojans, whose campfires flicker Achaeans depart Troy he may wipe out every ominously on the plain. trace of the makeshift fortifications. Day 19 Third day of battle Day 18 Second Day of Battle Books 11-18: Agamemnon leads the armies out Books 8-10: Zeus orders the gods to stay out of and himself kills a number of Trojans, allowing the battle and himself watches the action from the Greek forces to gain the upper hand the vantage point of Mt. Ida. The scale he uses temporarily. When he is wounded and carried to weigh the fates of the two armies indicates in a chariot back to the ships, Hektor that the Trojans will win the day. Following a recognizes it as a sign that Zeus will now favor Trojan advance the Greeks enjoy a brief the Trojans. Diomedes and Odysseus also resurgence, but Hektor is unstoppable and the retreat from the battlefield wounded, while Greeks are soon driven back behind the wall. Ajax holds the Trojans at bay. The three Nightfall finds the Achaeans dispirited and the injured leaders are shortly followed by Trojans camped on the plain, eager to force Machaon the physician, who is struck by an their way among the Greek ships at morning's arrow and carried back to the camp in Nestor's light. chariot. Achilles, watching the wounded come in, suggests to Patroklos that perhaps now the Agamemnon summons the Greek generals to Achaeans' situation is dire enough that they private council and, now with utter will come to him on bended knee. He sends seriousness, advises abandoning Troy that his friend off to Nestor's shelter to inquire night in order to escape with their lives. about the injured man (and perhaps to give the Diomedes rashly advocates staying the course. old king opportunity to counsel the leaders to Nestor, however, gently urges Agamemnon to do what is right by Achilles). placate Achilles with gifts and conciliatory words, knowing that Diomedes' plan is doomed With Hektor pressing ever nearer to the to fail apart from the fighting power of the palisade, Patroklos chafes to ask his question offended king. In a thinly veiled effort to of Nestor and hurry back to Achilles. But the obligate and subordinate Achilles, Agamemnon old man indulges in a long speech, urging his sends Odysseus, Ajax, and Phoinix to his young guest to persuade Achilles either to join shelter with a rich offer of ransom. The battle or, failing that, to send Patroklos out in embassy attempts to effect his return by Achilles' armor at the head of the Myrmidons recasting Agamemnon's ransom as a generous to frighten the Trojans and buy the Greeks gift, by enticing Achilles with the possibility of some breathing space. Patroklos is further killing Hektor and winning glory, and by delayed in returning to Achilles' shclter when exploiting their bonds of friendship and filial he comes across a wounded companion, duty, but to no avail. Asserting that he must Eurypylos, and stops to tend him. Meanwhile choose between a long but inglorious life in his Ajax manages to defend the wall surrounding native Phthia and death at Troy, which would the ship until Hektor comes close enough to bring him undying fame, Achilles declares his smash one of the gates with a stone, allowing intent to set sail for home the next day. That the Trojans to pour through the breach. At this his only choice, however, is to die at Troy is moment, Zeus is temporarily distracted, perhaps by Hera's seduction, as we will see, Day 20 Fourth Day of Battle and Poseidon takes advantage of his inattention to join the battle and rally the Books 19-22: Achilles receives his new armor Greeks. The three wounded leaders, and summons the Achaeans to assembly in Agamemnon, Diomedes, and Odysseus also preparation for combat. He announces the end make an appearance and urge on their troops of his anger, regretting the day he had fighting among the ships. With renewed vigor, captured the woman Briseis who became the the Achaeans turn the Trojans in flight back object of such a ruinous quarrel, and urges the across the ditch. Ajax hurls a huge stone at men to marshal for battle at once. He is Hektor and sends him reeling; his companions delayed, however, first by Agamemnon who manage to haul him to safety where he lies on denies personal responsibility for the quarrel the ground in a daze. And all the while Zeus is and extends the same offer of ransom as he oblivious, having fallen into a deep sleep after had the night before, and by Odysseus, who being seduced by his wife. insists on taking a common meal before going into combat. Achilles brushes aside both The king of the gods awakens to find that his symbols of reconciliation with Agamemnon, plan to help the Trojans, and thus fulfil his vowing to neither eat nor drink until he promise to Thetis, has been derailed: Hektor is avenges Patroklos' death. While the men eat, on the ground vomiting blood and the Greeks Athene fortifies him with nectar and ambrosia; are streaming out through the walls in hot he then arms himself for war. pursuit. Zeus quickly orders the gods helping the Achaeans to leave the battlefield and Zeus assembles the gods on Olympos and sends Apollo to revive Hektor and help the gives them leave to rejoin the fighting, in part Trojans recover the ground lost while he was to keep Achilles from storming the city walls sleeping. With Apollo's help, the palisade is contrary to his destiny. Achilles nearly kills breached a second time so that the Trojans are Aineias, who is fated to survive the war, but able to cross it in waves. The Achaeans fall Poseidon sweeps him out of danger. He back and the fighting rages among the ships; captures 12 Trojans and sends them to the Hektor reaches for one of the prows and camp to die on Patroklos' funeral pyre. prepares to torch it. Lykaon, whom he had sold into slavery before, he now hews down as the Trojan warrior begs Patroklos, hearing the noise of battle coming for his life. Achilles' savage slaughter of nearer, leaves Eurypolos and carries Nestor's enemy warriors intensifies until he literally message to Achilles. Achilles consents to let chokes the River Skamandros with their his friend lead the Myrmidons out in his armor corpses and the river rises up against him, on the condition that Patroklos not pursue the enraged. Up to now the gods have left Trojans all the way to the city wall. The ruse Achilles on his own, but when he calls out for works for a time, and Patroklos slaughters help against this elemental force of nature, Trojans until he is stopped by Apollo, who Hera sends Hephaistos to overcome the knocks off his helmet, and Hektor, who deals flooding river with fire. The gods return to him a death blow. A tug-of-war ensues over comic skirmishes among themselves while the the corpse, by now stripped of its marvelous berserk mortal hero cuts down the Trojans, armor. When Achilles hears of his friend's who are now retreating in panic. Apollo death, he steps to the wall and utters a distracts Achilles momentarily, allowing the terrifying war cry, a flame emerging from his last of the Trojans to escape to safety behind head; this frightens the Trojans so that the the city walls, except Hektor who alone Achaeans recover Patroklos' body. Achilles remains outside. Gripped by fear, Hektor mourns, lying in the dust, but also steels takes flight and Achilles chases him in a grim himself to return to battle with one goal: to kill life or death race around the circuit of the city. Hektor. Soon afterward, he will meet his own When Athene appears near Hektor in the form end. Hektor now wears Achilles' arms, so of his brother, he takes courage, thinking he is Thetis asks Hephaistos to make a new set for not alone, and turns to face his dread her son. opponent. He asks for an agreement that whoever is victor will return the corpse of his victim to the family for burial, but Achilles disavows any such settlement. As Priam and Hekabe look on in horror, Achilles rushes upon Hektor and drives the spear though the soft part of his neck, the only spot left vulnerable by his own glorious armor. Refusing the offer of ransom gasped out by the dying man, the raging hero counters that if he could he would powerful man by the knees, a gesture of hack Hektor's flesh away and eat it raw; as it supplication, and kisses his hands. Achilles is is, he will leave that messy work to dogs and moved to pity by the reminder of his own birds. With that, Achilles lashes the dead elderly father. The two men weep together for man's feet to his chariot and drags him back to their respective losses and Achilles agrees to the Achaean camp. accept the fabrics and other precious objects Priam has brought as ransom and to send the Book 23: That night, after the Greeks share a old man back to Troy with his sonâÄôs body. funeral meal, the ghost of Patroklos visits A meal is shared and Achilles agrees to Achilles in a dream and requests a swift burial. restrain the Greeks for the 12 days needed to complete the funeral rites. Day 21 Days 35-43 The Greeks burn Patroklos on a funeral pyre, together with offerings and the 12 captured Before dawn, Priam is roused early to return to Trojans. Troy, carrying his dead son on the cart previously loaded down with treasure. Hektor Day 22 is lamented first by his wife Andromache, then by his mother Hekabe, and finally by Helen. Patroklos' bones are gathered and buried For nine days the Trojans gather wood for the under a mound of earth. Achilles announces funeral pyre. funeral gamesâ including a chariot race, boxing, wrestling, and a footraceâ where he Day 44 presides, distributes the prizes, and settles quarrels but does not participate. Hektor is burned on the funeral pyre.

Days 23-33 Day 45

Book 24: Achilles is still mourning his friend The Trojans gather Hektor's bones for burial, and daily for 12 days drags Hektor's corpse with which the Iliad ends. around the funeral mound.

Day 34

The gods meet in council and debate stealing the corpse in order to put an end to Achilles' senseless abuse and allow Hektor's family to perform funeral rites. Zeus, however, arranges for a settlement that Achilles had earlier disavowed: he sends instructions to Priam to take ransom to Achilles for the release of his son's body and instructions to Achilles to accept the ransom. That night with Hermes as guide, the king of Troy makes his way into the Achaean camp and slips unnoticed into Achilles' shelter. He takes hold of the