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| Wednesday, 9 June 2004 |
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Hollywood movie springs from Homer's epics by Firoze Sameer Troy, the Hollywood movie, springs from Homer's grand Greek epics written sometime in 800-BC: The Iliad and The Odyssey, and Virgil's The Aeneid. Homer's works inspired Virgil, taking him 12 years to almost finish his work in Latin in 19-BC. Not apparently taken into account in the movie is Quintus of Smyrna's Greek classic written sometime in AD-360, (titled by the publishers as The War at Troy), a masterpiece in filling the hiatus where Homer leaves us in The Iliad. These classics give the reader a fair exposure on the fantastically fabled Trojan saga transformed into celluloid in this 21st century. May 14 saw Director Wolfgang Petersen's 160-min. movie Troy, reportedly superseding Warner Bros' budget of US$ 175-million to a quarter billion dollars, opening in some 3,500-locations. Peterson's precusors are In the Line of Fire. Air Force One and The Perfect Storm. TIME magazine (May 17) devotes six pages of extensive illustrative reporting on this adaptation of Homer's Iliad which stars Brad Pitt (Achilles), Eric Bana (Hector), Orlando Bloom (Paris), Peter O'Toole (Priam), Julie Christie (Thetis), Brian Cox (Agamemnon), Brendan Gleeson (Menelaus), Sean Bean (Odysseus) and the German newcomer Diane Kruger landing the role of Helen in novelist cum screen-writer David Benioff's 140-page script, reportedly selling his idea to Warner Bros for US$150,000. Shooting of the movie reportedly was partly in Malta covering the scenes within the Trojan walls, and owing to a terrorist scare vis-a-vis the war in Iraq, the location was shifted from Morocco to the fantastic Mexican beach near Cabo san Lucas, where the battle scenes required some 1,500-extras. The Trojan War It all began when Prince Paris made that landmark judgement on Mount Ida naming Aphrodite over Here and Pallas Athene as the most beautiful amongst them. Aphrodite rewarded Paris with her promise of the most beautiful woman in the world, Helen, who unfortunately happened to be married to King Menelaus of Sparta, brother to King Agamemnon. Herodotus in The Histories (circa-446BC) learned during his extensive travels in Egypt, Africa and other parts of the Greek world, that Paris abducted Helen with substantial stolen Greek gold on his way home from Sparta but a storm drifted the vessel to Egypt, where King Proteus held Helen and the treasure captive and ordered Paris to depart within three days. Hence, when a Greek embassy comprising of Menelaus and Odysseus arrived at Ilium, the Trojans were unable to return Helen or the stolen treasure. Although Homer was familiar with this story, he appears to have rejected and modified it to suit his epic poetry. Thus began the launch of the armada of 1,206 black, crimson, and blue-prowed ships across Homer's wine-red sea toward Troy. The Iliad Homer's poems rank foremost in Greek literature to-date. The original epics translated into English prose, take the reader through the twenty-four books on the real ten-year tragedy of war in The Iliad, the Story of Achilles. The tragic theatres of war are all seriously laid out on the arid plains abutting the seashores of ill-fated Troy. Troy is identified with Hissarlik in the north-west corner of Asia Minor, a point on the western Turkish border, reportedly an archaeological site where explorers dig for artifacts of a buried city of a bygone era. After Philip of Macedonia was assassinated in 336-BC, his son Alexander at 20 years of age ascended the throne, and hardly had time to continue with his studies under Aristotle. Alexander the Great reportedly carried with him The Iliad as a bedside book on his extensively remarkable adventurous campaigns. The Odyssey The Odyssey covers in its twenty-four books the ten-year travails of Laertes' son Odysseus of the nimble wits on his homecoming from the cindering citadel of Troy to the splendid shores of Ithaca in Greece. His wife the virtuous Penelope, son Telemachus, father Laertes and his dog Argus pine for his return, while being subject to harassment from a host of stubborn suitors living off the king's estate. The Aeneid The Aeneid by Virgil (Publius Vergilius Maro) in his 12 books portrays the peregrinations of Prince Aeneas, illustrious son of Anchises, departing from the devastated city of Troy with his son Ascanius and father and a group of Trojan nobles to experience a hazardous voyage of varied amazing encounters at sea, eventually reaching Lavinium in Italy to establish the foundations of the future Roman Empire. Virgil reportedly met his friend Augustus Caesar at Athens while on a trip to Greece, and returned with him, but fell ill at Megara, and on reaching Brindisi, died in 19-BC at age 51. In view of not being able to finish this monumental work, Virgil left instructions for it to be burned, which instructions were, fortunately, countermanded by Augustus. Quintus of Smyrna Quintus of Smyrna, living in the Byzantine Empire sometime in AD-360, in the Homeric style successfully fills in several lacunae left in The Iliad, splendidly serving as its sequel in fourteen books, intensely improving on many a lead found in The Odyssey, and rendering to the reader a complete sense of satisfaction in one's erudition of the entirety of the Trojan saga. Quintus picks up from where Homer ends The Iliad. He includes, inter alia, the arrival and death of Queen Penthesileia, Memnon and Eurypylus at various stages in support of the Trojans, the death of Achilles, Priam and his son Paris and wife Oenone, the tragic suicide of Telamonian Ajax the Great, the arrival of Achilles' son, Neoptolemus, the return of Philoctetes to the Greek army, the construction of the Wooden Horse, and the sacking of Troy followed by the departure for home. The battle at Troy Homer painstakingly describes the deaths of over 200 of the Argive (Greek) and Trojan nobles and their respective allies, taking great care to mention to name of the victor and the vanquished in each incident in The Iliad, and on how they came about to bite the dust at Troy. The Troy movie is reported to portray the dramatic man-to-man duels: Paris vs Menelaus, Hector vs Ajax the Great, Achilles vs Hector, and probably for want of time may leave out some of Homer's lesser episodes of gallantry: Sarpendon vs Tlepolemus, Diomedes vs Glaucus, Patroclus vs Sarpedon and Hector vs Patroclus. The poignant centre-point in the entire epic is toward the end, after the climactic Hector vs Achilles duel, when old King Priam meets with Achilles in his tent seeking for his son, Hector's body, after so many heroes on both sides lay slain. Achaeans or Greeks Homer and Quintus describe several brief battles in which Greek kings and princes participate. They include the Boeotian commanders: Peneleos, Archsilaus, Prothoenor, Clonius and Leitus, the last being the only survivor; Ascalaphus and Lalmenus; Schedius and Epistrophes leading the Phocians; Oileus Ajax the Lesser as leader of the Locrians, shipwrecked on his return from Troy by Poseidon driving him onto the great cliff of Gyrae in which he perished; Prince Elephenor leader of the fiery Abantes falling early in battle to the spear of Agenor; Menestheus, son of Peteos, the Athenian expert on horses and infantry second only to wise old Nestor; Sthenelus and Euryalus, deputies to Diomedes, surviving the war with their leader and returning home safely; King Agapenor, leading the Arcadians adept at hand-to-hand fighting but ignorant of sea-faring; Amphimachus, Diores, Thalpius, and Polyxeinus all from Buprasion, the first two falling to Prince Hector and the Thracian ally Peiros; the able charioteer Meges from Dulichium; Andraemon's son, Thoas, leading the Aetolians from the land of the mighty red-haired Meleager; the spearman Idomeneus from the isle of Crete and Meriones the archer; Heracles' son Tlepolemus from Rhodes who falls early in battle to the spear of the Lycian commander Sarpedon; grandsons of Heracles: Phedippus and Antiphus, the latter and the handsome Nireus, second only to Achilles in looks, from Syme, falling under the spear of Eurypylus; Podarces, successor to his brother the great-hearted Protesilaus who was the first to fall on Trojan soil; Admetus' son Eumelus the finest charioteer; the archer Philoctetes, and Medon who falls under Aeneas' spear; the brother-physicians Podaleirius and Machaon, the latter succumbing to the Trojan ally Eurypylus; Euamon's highborn son, Eurypylus, who does some significant fighting, the dauntless Polypoetes and Leonteus from Argissa; Gouneus from Cyphus leading the Enienes and Peraebians; Prothous commanding the Magnetes.... Trojans and allies On the Trojan side we witness Antenor's son, Archelochus and Acamas both succumbing to Ajax the Great and Philoctetes; Pandarus the skilled bowman from Zeleia falling to the doughty Diomedes; Adrestus and Amphius meeting their predicted doom, the former to King Agamemnon; lordly Asius, son of Hyrtacus, falling under the spear of Idomeneus; Hippothous and Pylaeus leading the Pelasgian spearmen; the Thracians: Acamas and Peiros both falling under the spears of Ajax the Great and Thoas; Euphemus leading the Circones; Pyraechmes commanding the Paeonian bowmen; and Pylaemenes the Paphlagonians, both falling to Patroclus and red-haired Menelaus; Odius and Epistrophes leading the Alizones from silver-rich Alybe, the former falling to Agamemnon; Chromius and Ennomus the augur commanding the Mysians: the latter fated to fall under the great runner Achilles; Phorcys and Ascanius leading the Phyrigians, the former falling to Ajax the Great while the latter succumbs to Neoptolemus; Sons of Talaemenes, Mestles and Antiphus leading the Maeonians; Nastes commanding the Carians with Amphimachus who, decked in gold, is fated fall under Achilles' spear; Deiphobus, son of Priam, who marries Helen after Paris' death, defeated in a deadly duel with Menelaus; King Priam falling under Neoptolemus' sword.... Odysseus and Ajax the Great Descriptions of the contest for the armour of Achilles are found in Sophocles' work on Ajax and Ovid's Demosthenes and in The Metamorphoses completed at Rome in AD-8. Quintus vividly describes the contest for Achilles' armour between Ajax the Great and Odysseus, in which each contestant delivers a grand oration on why such splendid armour should be awarded to him. But when the decision to award the prize is taken by the sons of Troy to Odysseus, Quintus has the Greek army giving a groan. Notwithstanding Homer describing Odysseus killing a total of 17-nobles; Diomedes an equal number plus the slaughter of King Rhesus and twelve of his companions while in their sleep, Ovid's metamorphoses has Odysseus, in his speech, cunningly attributing these thirteen slaughters to himself! Homer has only a total of 14-killings of Trojan leaders to Ajax the Great. Quintus gives prominence to the mighty Ajax the Great by crediting him with a dozen killings. He credits Odysseus, Diomedes and Meriones each with only half that number. Quintus notoriously keeps the illustrious Odysseus completely out of his funeral games owing to the wound inflicted by Alcon whom he kills in the terrible fighting around the body of Achilles. Quintus has Ajax the Great winning uncontested in the event of fighting with hands and feet at his funeral games vis-a-vis Homer placing him as second best in all his events. Clytaemnestra and Penelope Homer contrasts between the wives of Agamemnon and Odysseus viz. Clytaemnestra (sister to Helen) and Penelope: one wayward; the other virtuous. The former, with the aid of her lover Aeigisthus, plots the butchering of her husband and his brave entourage at a grand banquet on their return to Mycenae from Troy. The latter keeps suitors at bay until she finishes her work of weaving a large shroud for Laertes. She works by day only to stealthily undo her work by night for three years after being given away by one of her women, and thereafter forced to complete her work in the fourth by which time the return of her husband is near. Diomedes and Glaucus The character of Diomedes, son of the mighty Tydeus, is seen as a soldier and gentleman similar to godlike Hector, Sarpedon and Glaucus as against Achilles who rides rough and shoddy, almost all brawn, somewhat like his cousin Ajax the Great and to a lesser extent King Agamemnon. Odysseus on the other hand is crafty, clever and guile, and even of almost equal in strength to Ajax the Great but excels in using his superior brilliance of intelligence, his well-poised sophistries, his wisdom and wit to steal a march on his peers. Diomedes' dialogue with Glaucus on their respective ancestries, in the midst of duelling with each other, eventually leads to a private truce between them in the battle field and an exchange of gold armour for bronze, a hundred oxen's price for the price of nine. In this act, Glaucus is not seen as the victim of an injustice as endorsed by Aristotle in teaching his Ethics at the Lyceum to his students, a few years before his death in 322-BC at age 63. Although Homer is careful to spare him, Quintus has Glaucus falling under the mighty Ajax the Great's spear. Funeral games The funeral games described by Homer, Virgil and Quintus respectively are all a treat. Consequent on the death of his squire and friend Patroclus, Achilles holds funeral games amongst the Greek army. Quintus has Thetis doing so in honour of her dead son Achilles. Virgil has Prince Aeneas conducting funeral games amongst the Trojans, after Queen Dido's poignant suicide subsequent to his departure from Carthage in modern Tunisia, in honour of his father Anchises buried in Libya. Chariot-racing, boxing wrestling, foot-racing, sword-fighting, throwing the discus, archery, broad-jump, fighting with hands and feet, racing of ships, mock battle on horses, with grand prizes for the participants, cover the heroic events. The wooden horse Quintus has 30-Greek heroes hiding inside the Wooden Horse with courageous Sinon sitting outside it. A device, contrived by the resourceful Odysseus and built by Epeius, left on the Trojan shores with Sinon to guard it, while the ships depart ostensibly for home commanded by Nestor and Agamemnon, but nevertheless docking in the nearby island of Tenedos, awaiting the signal for the desired torch to shine. The Trojans approach the Wooden Horse cautiously at first, and meet Sinon sitting outside it. They cut his ears and nose off, painfully torture him with fire, and force him to speak. He bluffs them into believing that the monument was built to appease Athena's wrath and the Greeks had planned to sacrifice him by the roaring ocean, but he had escaped and had thrown himself at the feet of the Horse. Laocoon suggests that they set fire to it, but the Trojans decide against it and draw the Horse and Sinon through the gates of Troy and to their eventual destruction, notwithstanding the repeated cries within the portals of the palace of King Priam's daughter, the prophetess of Doom, the intelligent and lovely Cassandra. India's Trojan India's Congress party secured a victory in the General Elections ended May 10, qualifying Sonia Maino Gandhi to become prime Minister of India over a population topping one billion. Perhaps the Muses of Olympus, Daughters of aegis-bearing Zeus, may tell us about the origins of this full-blooded Roman lady hailing from the sunny village of Orbassano near Turin, probably tracing her roots to ancient Troy! **** Back **** |
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