"Of Homer I leave the last word with Alexander Kinglake who in 1834, standing on the Trojan plain, fondly recalled his childhood teaching 'that The Iliad was all in all to the human race -- that it was history -- poetry -- revelation, that the works of men's hands were folly and vanity, and would pass away like the dreams of a child, but that the Kingdom of Homer would endure for ever and ever'" -- Michael Wood, In Search of the Trojan War

astrological data on the stars of Troy

This page explores the 12 signs of the Zodiac using characters from the movie Troy and features CDs about the Sun Signs prepared by astrologer Brian Hill. If you prefer a good introduction to astrology before you get a full reading, this is the place to start!

LOOK UP YOUR SUN SIGN

aries | taurus | gemini | cancer | leo | virgo

libra | scorpio | sagittarius | capricorn | aquarius | pisces

CHARACTERS [alpha sort]:

achilles | agamemnon | andromache | briseis | eudorus | hector

helen | nestor | odysseus | patroclus | king priam | thetis

This page uses the movie Troy to illustrate characters that personify the 12 different signs of the zodiac. Also included are:

OTHER FEATURES

download music | discrepancies between Iliad and Troy | maps

how the trojan war began | study guide | achilles' shield ] did it really happen?

ulysses and the trojan war | which troy hero are you? | the bronze age

ajax and odysseus fight over achilles' armor | books to read for all ages

LISTEN TO MUSIC FROM TROY

Achilles leads the Myrmidons

Hector leads the Trojans

Briseis and Achilles love music

WHICH TROY HERO ARE YOU? (GUYS ONLY)

Just for fun and variety in learning more about your Sun Signs, I'm describing each of them using characters from the movie Troy. Let's begin with Aries and ... Achilles!

Achilles is a typical Aries

ARIES

ORDER

Great Aries roles are Russell Crowe in Gladiator and Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World. Brad Pitt plays a great Aries role in Troy, the role of Achilles.

Here are some great Aries lines spoken by Achilles in Troy:

• "We men are brutish things."
  
  
• Hector killed Achilles' cousin and now Achilles has killed Hector, Briseis' cousin. Briseis asks, "When does it end?" Achilles replies, "It never ends". He is sharpening his sword with a flint, a scraping sound.
  
  
• "These men [the Myrmidons] have bled for me."
  
  
• "Let me tell you a secret, something they don't teach you in your temple. The Gods envy us. They envy us because we're mortal, because any moment may be our last. Everything is more beautiful because we're doomed. You will never be more lovely than you are now. We will never be here again."
  
  
• "And do you worship Aries, the god of war, who blankets his bed with the skin of the men he's killed?"
  
  
• "Trojan soldiers died protecting you today. Maybe you should do more than pity them."
  
  
• [removing helmet] "Now you know who you're fighting."
  
  
• "You gave me peace in a lifetime of war."
  
  
• "They are waiting for me at the River Styx. They say 'Welcome, brother'"
  
  
• Briseis: "Why did you choose this life?"
  Achilles: "What life?"
  Briseis: "To be a great warrior."
  Achilles: "I chose nothing. I was born and this is what I am."
  
  
• "You won't have eyes tonight, you won't have ears or a tongue. You will wander the underworld blind, deaf, and dumb, and all the dead will know, 'This is Hector, the fool who thought he killed Achilles.'"

Listen to "ACHILLES LEADS THE MYRMIDONS" from the soundtrack

SEE BRAD PITT'S CHART

Aeacus of Phthia, father of Peleus, the father of Achilles, dreams that ants turn into men to populate his land and turn to him as ruler. Hence the name MYRMIDONS, from myrmi for ants - see Bullfinch's Mythology on MYRMIDONS. In The Iliad Achilles took 50 ships with 50 Myrmidons each to Troy.

Keyword Aries qualities I love ... action oriented, get the ball rolling, cut to the chase, make it happen, vividly alive and in the moment, fast forward, not a moment's hesitation, courageous, plain spoken winners!

There's not much I don't like about Aries.

OF COURSE THE QUINTESSENTIAL ARIES MOMENT IN THE FILM was when Hector, played by Eric Bana who is a Leo with SATURN IN ARIES) butts his head against Ajax to get free during their terrific hand to hand combat early in the film.

ALSO VISIT:

Aries Meditation - INSPIRING

Aries from Hell - HUMOROUS

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Achilles almost kills Agamemnon when Agamemnon takes Briseis away
(in The Iliad it is Athena who stops him)
painting by Peter Paul Rubens
click to see full size image

TAURUS

ORDER

The immovable object. Whoever said "No man is an island" never met a typical Taurus.

The Taurus role in Troy was Andromache, steadfast, long suffering, a little confused and overwhelmed. In Homer and in later Greek plays, she was a tragic heroine, along with Hecuba, Cassandra and others . In Troy, she is one dimensional. Wolfgang Peterson gave the lion's share to Briseis. At least half the time in the movie, you can tell she's not holding a real baby :-) like here.

FANLISTING FOR ANDROMACHE

A close contender for the Taurus role is Ajax.

ALSO VISIT:

Taurus Meditation - INSPIRING

Taurus from Hell - HUMOROUS

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Andromache with Hector's body (and son)
click to see full size image

GEMINI

ORDER

Geminis are more fun than a barrel full of monkeys. Quick witted, sophisticated, sly, humorous and wicked (!), Gemini keeps the conversational ball rolling at all times. A good Gemini hero is Odysseus, played by Sean Bean in Troy. [Sean Bean played Boromir in Lord of the Rings.] Odysseus has some great Gemini lines ...

• "Your trouble [Achilles] is you don't fear anyone. Fear ... is useful."
  
  
• "You have your sword. I have my wits. We play with the toys the gods give us."
  
  
• "War is young men dying and old men talking. You know this. Ignore the politics."
  
  
• "The men thought we were fighting for Menelaus' wife. He won't be needing her now.... To say a dead man is dead is not an insult."
  
  
• "Then fight for me. My wife will feel much better knowing you're fighting beside me. I'll feel much better."
  
  
• "It doesn't matter if I miss the beginning [of the fight] as long as I'm there at the end."
  
  
• photo of Odysseus, Achilles and Patroclus CLICK HERE
  
  
• photo of Odysseus, King Nestor of Pylos and King Triopas of Thessaly CLICK HERE
  
  
• Agamemnon: "Achilles is one man!"
  Odysseus: "Hector is one man! Look what he did to us today!"
  Agamemnon: "Hector fights for his country! Achilles fights only for himself!"
  Odysseus: "I do not care where a man's allegiance lies as long as he wins battles!"
  
  
• "If they ever tell my story, let them say that I walked with giants.... Men rise and fall like the winter wheat, but these names will never die. Let them say I lived in the time of Hector, Tamer of Horses. Let them say I lived in the time of Achilles."
  

THE ARGUMENT BETWEEN AJAX AND ODYSSEUS FOR ACHILLES' ARMOR
A CLASSIC BETWEEN BRAINS AND BRAWN

eyword Gemini qualities I love ... innovative, quick witted, clever, mercurial, fascinating, up to date, up to the minute, changeable, quixotic, fashionable, magical.

Keyword Gemini qualities I have trouble with ... information overload.

ALSO VISIT:

Gemini Meditation - INSPIRING

Gemini from Hell - HUMOROUS

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CANCER

ORDER

Mother, Mommie, Ma, Mama, Mom, etc. Scratch a Cancer and under there somewhere is an inordinate love for the mother archetype.

For American men, the Cancer woman is probably the ideal, including the big breasts that American men prefer. So let's feature Diane Kruger here, who played Helen of Troy in Troy. She is a Cancer by birth. She has a Cancerian look of vulnerability in her eyes.

Tidbit from the movie. Wolfgang Peterson didn't want to show Helen in the movie because he didn't think anyone could live up to the audience's expectations. His producers insisted so he chose an "unknown" for the same reason.

Cancerian lines:

• "You challenged a famous warrior. That took courage."
• "I don't want a hero. I want a man I can grow old with."
• "Before you came to Sparta, I was a ghost. I walked and I ate and I swam in the sea... I was just a ghost."

Keyword Cancer qualities I love ... sweet, kind, sympathetic, motherly, nurturing.

Keyword Cancer qualities I have trouble with ... there's more to life than home ... and whining.

ALSO VISIT:

Cancer Meditation - INSPIRING

Cancer from Hell - HUMOROUS

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LEO

ORDER

Eric Bana (who plays Hector) is actually a Leo in real life but plays a Capricorn role in the film. His Saturn is in Aries so it probably helped him develop his Aries characteristics to play the great warrior Hector. The first time he holds his baby Scamandrius in his arms, he looks like a proud Leo father. When he butts heads with Ajax in a great fight scene, he is showing the ultimate Aries quality ... Aries almost always have a head wound.

The role of Patroclus is Leolike. CLICK HERE for a photo of Garrett Hedlund who played the young hero-worshipper, Patroclus. CLICK HERE for rendering from Bullfinch's Mythology.

Keyword Leo qualities I love ... brave, reaching out, charismatic, coming from the heart, dramatic (not melodramatic), big warm smile, heroic, dignified, regal, confident and true, romantic.

Keyword Leo qualities I have trouble with ... upstaging and melodrama.

ALSO VISIT:

Leo Meditation - INSPIRING

Leo from Hell - HUMOROUS

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VIRGO

ORDER

Every Virgo really, really needs to hear good things about himself or herself. Give this tape a try! There's so much more to Virgo than being neat and clean. Also check out the Virgo Meditation below.

Eudorus, Achilles' second in command (of the Myrmidons) in Troy was the faithful servant. He is played by Vincent Regan, an actor with translucent blue eyes and a very expressive face. Often in the movie, it is Eudorus who makes the feeling reaction plain. Here is a FANLIST for Eudorus.

• "Fighting for you has been my life's honor, my Lord."
  
  
• "I hope I never disappoint you again."

Keyword Virgo qualities I love ... neat, clean, orderly, systematic, into serving, discrete, integrity, aplomb, centered, wise.

Keyword Virgo qualities I have trouble with ... critical and picky.

ALSO VISIT:

Virgo Meditation - INSPIRING

Virgo from Hell - HUMOROUS

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LIBRA

ORDER

If you've ever done something you really hate and suddenly realize someone else got you to do it without remembering how much you hate it, you've been handled by a Libra.

King Nestor of Pylos, played by John Schrapnel, is a very Libran role. Nestor gave advice to King Agamemnon throughout the war. He did so in a detached, diplomatic manner.

• "The man was born to end lives."
  
  
• "How many battles have we won off the edge of his sword?"
  
  
• "We don't need to control him [Achilles]. We need to unleash him."
  
  
• "He'll want the girl back."
  
  
• "You can still save Troy, young Prince."
  
  
• "Look at the men, Achilles. You can save hundreds of them with a blow of your sword. Let them go home to their wives."
  
  

Keyword Libra qualities I love ... diplomatic, take charge, strategist, clear thinking, considers other viewpoints, balance, harmony, justice (not mercy).

Keyword Libra qualities I have issues with ... Libra is the most extreme sign in the zodiac. I don't like extremes.

ALSO VISIT:

Libra Meditation - INSPIRING

Libra from Hell - HUMOROUS

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SCORPIO

ORDER

Scorpios rule. Scorpios heal. They're compassionate. They never give up. They never cave in. They will not be victims. They rule.

My favorite Scorpio type is the role Robert de Niro played in Men of Honor, Master Chief Billy Sunday. There is a scene where one legged Carl Brashear (played brilliantly by Cuba Gooding, Jr.) has to get up and walk across the courtroom with full diving gear on, an impossible feat. Watch carefully as de Niro actually gives the man the will to do it. Watch how de Niro merges energy with Gooding. This is Scorpio power at its very best. Every good Scorpio knows, the power is to give, not to keep.

In Troy, Brian Cox (a Taurus) plays the King of Kings, Agamemnon. Agamemnon is the gross inheritor of the Scorpionic curse on the House of Atreus if you remember your Greek mythology. [This part is not portrayed in the movie.] For heaven's sake, he started the war off by sacrificing his own daughter Iphigenia before setting sale for Troy. Pretty dark.

Here are some Scorpio lines:

• "Then all the sons of Troy ... shall die."
  
  
• "My army has never lost a battle."
  
  
• "A brave offer ... but not enough."
  
  
• I created Greece, Nestor, I, Agamemnon ... out of fire worshippers and snake eaters ..." [paraphrased]
  
  
• .. with his hand on Briseis' throat ... "I almost lost this war thanks to your little romance."
  
  
• "I will carve Agamemnon in stone."
  
  
• "Careful who you insult, Old King."
  
  
• "Not yet brother!"
  
  
• "Careful, boy, there are limits to my mercy."
  
  

IN THE ILIAD ... when he got back home, he was murdered by his wife, Clytemnestra, and her lover. This is part of the curse of the House of Atreus.

From Book 10 of The Iliad: "Even as when the lord of fair-haired Hera lighteneth, what time he maketh ready either a mighty rain unspeakable or hail or snow, when the snow-flakes sprinkle the fields, or haply the wide mouth of bitter war; even so often did Agamemnon groan from the deep of his breast, and his heart trembled within him. So often as he gazed toward the Trojan plain, he marveled at the many fires that burned before the face of Ilios, and at the sound of flutes and pipes, and the din of men; but whensoever he looked toward the ships and the host of the Achaeans, then many were the hairs that he pulled from his head by the very roots in appeal to Zeus that is above, and in his noble heart he groaned mightily."

Keyword Scorpio qualities I love ... compassionate, powerful, perceptive, committed, thorough, incisive, do or die.

Keyword Scorpio qualities I have issues with ... none.

ALSO VISIT:

Scorpio Meditation - INSPIRING

Scorpio from Hell - HUMOROUS

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SAGITTARIUS

ORDER

Brad Pitt is a Sagittarian in real life but he really has a lot Capricorn qualities, too. His face is very Capricorn. There is a shy reserved look in his eyes despite his physical prowess and good looks. The role of Achilles is Aries like.

Thetis, played by Julie Christie, is an immortal goddess and a seer. She is Achilles' mother. It is her marriage to Achilles' father, Peleus, that causes the events which lead to the Trojan War. In Homer's poem, Thetis, the daughter of the sea-god Poseidon, brings luck to the Greeks. She constantly watches out for Achilles, who is something of a mama's boy in the epic poem.

The role of the seer or see-er is Sagittarian. These are people who can see into the future, predict things, know the truth about things. This is what Thetis says when Achilles is deciding whether or not to go to Troy.

• "If you stay in Larissa, you will find peace. You will find a wonderful woman, and you will have sons and daughters, who will have children. And they'll all love you and remember your name. But when your children are dead, and their children after them, your name will be forgotten... If you go to Troy, glory will be yours. They will write stories about your victories in thousands of years! And the world will remember your name. But if you go to Troy, you will never come back... for your glory walks hand-in-hand with your doom. And I shall never see you again."

It is because of Thetis that Achilles is half-god, half-mortal. When he was born, she dipped him in the River Styx to give him immortality but where she held him by his heel, he remained mortal ... this is his "Achilles heel". That is why he could be mortally wounded in his heel. He is shot by Paris in the heel at the end of the movie.

In The Iliad, Achilles more or less ran to his mother with his problems or pouted until she helped him.

During the filming of Troy, Brad Pitt sustained a heel injury (yes) that kept him from performing the final fight with "Hector" for three months.

Keyword Sagittarius qualities I love ... freedom loving, outdoors, open minded, humanitarian, jovial, lucky, pal-sy, love animals, big thinker, philosophical, prophetic, brutally honest (foot in mouth disease), can laugh at themselves.

Keyword Sagittarius qualities I have trouble with ... arrogance, knows it all, sometimes too familiar in social distance.

ALSO VISIT:

Sagittarius Meditation - INSPIRING

Sagittarius from Hell - HUMOROUS

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CAPRICORN

ORDER

A very good Capricorn role is Hector in Troy, played by Eric Bana. Some great Capricorn lines:

• "If I die, [do this and that] .... I'm telling you this because I want you to be ready."
  
  
• "All of my life I have lived by a code and the code is simple: honor the gods, love your woman and defend your country. Troy is mother to us all. Fight for her!"
  
  
• "It's all a game to you isn't it? You roam from town to town, bedding merchants' wives and temple maids and you think you know something about love. What about your father's love? You spat on him when you brought her [Helen] onto this ship! What about the love for your country? You'd let Troy burn for this woman? I won't let you start a war for her."
  
  
• "You say you're willing to die for love but you know nothing about dying and you know nothing about love!"
  
  
  
• To Menelaus, "The fight is over... and later ... He's my brother!"

Listen to "HECTOR LEADING THE TROJANS TO BATTLE" from the soundtrack

FROM THE ILIAD ... In Book VI, Hector says about his son, Scamandrius also called Astanyax, "O Zeus and all immortals, may this child, my son, become like me a prince among the Trojans. Let him be strong and brave and rule in power at Ilion [Troy]; then someday men will say 'this fellow is far better than his father!' seeing him home from war, and in his arms the bloodstained gear of some tall warrior slain -- making his mother proud."

In The Iliad, King Priam had fifty sons and 12 daughters. Hector was the eldest, followed by Paris, also called Alexandros. Their mother was Hecuba, a major character in subsequent Greek plays. At the end of The Iliad, baby Scamandrius is thrown from the walls by the conquering Greeks and Andromache is taken captive by Achilles' son, Neoptolemus.

Keyword qualities about Capricorn I love ... reliable, steady, family oriented, serious, dedicated, mind on the bigger picture, good with resources, shy, quiet and respectable.

Keyword qualities about Capricorn I have issues with ... too serious? There's more to life than family.

ALSO VISIT:

Capricorn Meditation - INSPIRING

Capricorn from Hell - HUMOROUS

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Paris reaches for his helmet, with Hector (l) and Helen
painting by Claude Delrome (19th century)
click to see full size image

Hector's farewell

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AQUARIUS

ORDER

This is one where I couldn't at first think of a role from Troy that was Aquarian. Probably a good Aquarian role in a movie is Rhett Butler in Gone with the Wind, played by the quintessential Aquarian, Clark Gable. Another good role is Paul Newman as Michael Colin Gallagher in Absence of Malice.

Good Aquarian line:

• "Everyone else is going south. I think I'll go north."

As far as Troy, I think the slave girl / aristocrat / cousin of Hector and Paris / and in Homer sometimes the daughter of King Priam, Briseis, is a good example of an Aquarian. She is strong willed, matter of act, unemotional, detached, not married, alternates between "slave girl" to the Greeks and "priestess to Apollo" and "aristocratic Trojan" with aplomb. She easily stands up to Achilles, shows no fear, fights for herself and leaves Achilles when the time comes without looking back.

Listen to "BRISEIS AND ACHILLES" from the soundtrack

Great Aquarian lines by Briseis:

• "Do you enjoy provoking me?"
  
  
• "I thought you were a dumb brute. I could have forgiven a dumb brute."
  
  
• "If all you can do is fight, then that is your curse."
  
  
• "You didn't come here for the Spartan queen."
  
  

Keyword Aquarius qualities I love ... open minded, genius, unpredictable, cannot be controlled, give permission to be yourself, to be unique.

Keyword Aquarius qualities I have trouble with ... I'm a Leo and they're the opposite sign. What can I say?

ALSO VISIT:

Aquarius Meditation - INSPIRING

Aquarius from Hell - HUMOROUS

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Wall painting from Pompeii, Patroclus separates Achilles and Briseis
click to see full size image

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PISCES

ORDER

Peter O'Toole plays King Priam in a very Piscean role for Troy. O'Toole himself is a Leo. Priam's eyes are very "watery" like a Pisces. There are many times as he looks down on the battles that his eyes are magical with Piscean pain.

Some Piscean words:

• "I have endured what no one on earth has endured. I have kissed the hands of the man who killed my son."
  
  
• Achilles: "He killed my cousin!"
  Priam: "He thought it was you. How many cousins have you killed? How many fathers and brothers and sons and husbands, how many, brave Achilles?"
  
  
• "I cannot change it. It is the will of the gods."
  
  
• "Hector! ... No father ever had a better son."
  
  

FROM THE ILIAD ... Priam entered in, and coming close to Achilles, clasped in his hands his knees, and kissed his hands, the terrible, man-slaying hands that had slain his many sons .... But Priam made entreaty, and spake to him, saying: “Remember thy father, O Achilles like to the gods, whose years are even as mine, on the grievous threshold of old age.... Of these, many as they were, furious Aries hath loosed the knees, and he that alone was left me, that by himself guarded the city and the men, him thou slewest but now as he fought for his country, even Hector. For his sake am I now come to the ships of the Achaeans to win him back from thee, and I bear with me ransom past counting. Nay, have thou awe of the gods, Achilles, and take pity on me, remembering thine own father. Lo, I am more piteous far than he, and have endured what no other mortal on the face of earth hath yet endured, to reach forth my hand to the face of him that hath slain my sons.” This last line was directly spoken by O'Toole in the movie.

Keyword Pisces qualities I love ... dreamy, drifting, in tune, mystical, lost in time and space, connected, feeling, knowing and sensing everything.

Keyword Pisces qualities I have trouble with ... can't be relied on, any port in a storm.

ALSO VISIT:

Pisces Meditation - INSPIRING

Pisces from Hell - HUMOROUS

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DOWNLOAD MUSIC FROM TROY

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Discrepancies from Homer's Iliad and Greek tradition:

• In the movie Troy was sacked after about a month. In Homer's Iliad, it took over ten years.
  
  
• In The Iliad, Menelaus was not slain. He survived the war, was reunited with Helen (he forgave her when he saw how beautiful she still was) and returned with her to where they lived happily ever after (!)
  
  
• Agamemnon was not killed by Briseis. He returned home to be killed by his wife Clytaemnestra and her lover Aegisthus.
  
  
• In The Iliad, Aeneas was one of Priam's fifty sons.
  
  
• Patroclus was not Achilles' cousin he was just a close friend or lover depending on how you read Homer on this. The Greeks were comfortable with homosexuality and most military men were bisexual (culturally).
  
  
• Achilles was killed by a single arrow shot by Paris but it was earlier in the war. Achilles was not one of the Greeks in the Trojan horse.
  
  
• Priam was not killed by Agamemnon. He was killed by Neoptolemos, son of Achilles, who also took Andromache, Hector's wife, as his captive slave.
  
  
• Patroclus was mortally wounded by Euphorbos and Hector then cut his throat. (More are involved in other versions.)
  
  
• Ajax was not killed by Hector. Much later in the war, he went insane because he vied for dead Achilles' armor with Odysseus and lost. Then he committed suicide. Odysseus says in Book 6 of The Odyssey, his trip to the underworld ...
  
  "Alone of them all the spirit of Ajax, son of Telamon, stood apart, still full of wrath for the victory that I had won over him in the contest by the ships for the arms of Achilles... Would to god I had never won such a prize, the arms that brought Ajax to his grave, the heroic Ajax, who next to Achilles was the finest of all in looks and the noblest in action." [Odysseus. Homer, Odyssey 11.544]
  
  
• Paris died during the war of a poisoned arrow shot by Philoket.
  
  
• Hector's baby Astyanax, also called Scamandrius in the movie, was thrown to his death from the walls of Troy by the victorious Greeks.
  
  
• In The Iliad Greeks kings joined forces with one another to fight against Troy because they had all been suitors of Helen (!) and had sworn an oath after she married Menelaus to bring her back if someone took her away.
  
  
• Achilles was not the first to land on the shores of Troy. It was Protesilaus, a Thessalian king. The Delphic Oracle predicted that the first to land would be slain by Hector and so it was. Protesilaus' widow Laodamia is also famous for the intensity of her bereavement. She made an image of her husband after his death and consorted with it 'til the gods took pity on her and let him visit from the Underworld. [See Wordsworth's famous poem, Laodamia.]
  
  
• Perhaps the biggest overall discrepancy is that Troy removed the role of the Greek gods and goddesses in the Trojan War from the epic story as told by Homer.

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UNIVERSITY OF ARKANSAS, Professor David Frederick offers these RESOURCES and VASE PAINTINGS in support of the Trojan War (see below)

MAPS - click here
MAP where each hero comes from

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HOW THE TROJAN WAR BEGAN

The Trojan War really beings when it is foretold that the sea goddess Thetis, daughter of Poseidon, will give birth to a son who is greater than his father. Zeus wants to mate with Thetis but can't because of the prophecy, so he allows Peleus to rape her.

Thetis and Peleus are married. All the gods and goddesses are invited to the wedding except one, Strife. Strife throws a golden apple into the festivities labeled "for the fairest". Hera, Athena and Aphrodite immediately claim it.

The Judgment of Paris: Paris is forced to choose between the three goddesses as to who is the "fairest". Hera holds up a mirror. Athena is holding a sword. Aphrodite starts to remove her garment. Guess who wins?

In these vase paintings, hundreds of years after the event, the story is told and retold with embellishment. Many of the details migrate through the years. It is unjust to accuse Wolfgang Peterson of changing the story. Every time a myth is told, the story changes. That is the way of the world.

In Homer's Iliad, the gods and goddesses take an active part in the war. Hera hates Troy because the Trojan prince Ganymede was wooed by Zeus for homoerotic pleasures, not unusual in Greek society.

Below, Hector on the left is supported by Apollo and Ajax on the right is supported by Athena.

From an interview with Brad Pitt by Louis Hobson of the Calgary Sun:

Pitt also understands there is no real art to wearing a dress.

He wears a series of long and short skirts in Troy.

“I didn’t call up Mel (Gibson) or Russell (Crowe) for advice.

“The thing about wearing a skirt or dress is that you just put it on and go with it.

“You can’t think about it.

“The Greeks and Trojans certainly weren’t self-conscious. It’s just how they dressed.”

Pitt stops and corrects himself.

“Actually, the way they dressed and the way I dressed was different. They didn’t wear any underwear.

“It’s something I still can’t get my head around after having worn those costumes for seven months.

“They wore all this heavy bronze armour to protect every other part of their bodies and then left themselves vulnerable where it really counts.”

Patroclus' dies at the hands of Apollo, Euphorbus, and Hector. His body is fought over until it is finally claimed by Achilles.

Achilles kills Hector in retribution. Here he is with Hector's body tied to his chariot.

Having killed Hector, Achilles pokes holes through his ankles and drags him across the battlefield to the Greek camp. He drags Hector around and around Patroclus' body or a monument to him, depending on the version.

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Learn more about the BRONZE AGE in Greece and the Aegean area. This includes the Hittite Empire which likely encompassed Troy or the area called The Troiad.

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DID IT REALLY HAPPEN?
If interested in the reality of the Trojan War ... here's a good place to start. The answer ... yes, it probably did. Also it was generic in nature.

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COMPARES REPRODUCTION TO ORIGINAL

INTERESTING TIDBIT ABOUT THE MOVIE TROY

Brad Pitt and Eric Bana both did their own fighting scenes. They also made an agreement that they would pay for every hit they accidentally made. The costs were $50 for a lighter blow and $100 for a hard blow. Brad Pitt ended up paying $750 to Eric Bana, who didn't have to pay Brad Pitt anything.

TROJAN WAR STUDY GUIDE - if you're ready

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ACHILLES SHIELD - a Harvard paper

Achilles’ terrible non-destiny radiates from the shield, and it is a thing too painful to look on for all but himself, whose young death is now certain, as he knows.... READ MORE.

Thetis brings new armor to her son Achilles who mourns the death of Patroclus
painting by B. West (1738-1820)
click to see full size image

HEPHAESTUS STARTS ACHILLES' SHIELD

in Iliad XVIII: 508, Lombardo translation
Hephaestus...went to his bellows,
Turned them toward the fire, and ordered them to work.
And the bellows, all twenty, blew on the crucibles,
Blasting out waves of heat...
He cast durable bronze onto the fire, and tin,
Precious gold and silver. Then he positioned
His enormous anvil up on its block
And grasped his mighty hammer
In one hand, and in the other his tongs.
He made a shield first, heavy and huge,
Every inch of it intricately designed.
He threw a triple rim around it, glittering
Like lightning, and he made the strap silver.

The shield itself was five layers thick, and he
Crafted its surface with all of his genius.
On it he made the earth, the sky, the sea,
The unwearied sun, and the moon near full,
And all the signs that garland the sky,
Pleiades, Hyades, mighty Orion,
and the Gear they also call the Wagon....
On it it he made two cities, peopled
And beautiful.

THE THREE FOUR CONSTELLATIONS ON ACHILLES' SHIELD - click to learn more.

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The Shield of Achilles by W. H. Auden

She looked over his shoulder
For vines and olive trees,
Marble well-governed cities
And ships upon untamed seas,
But there on the shining metal
His hands had put instead
An artificial wilderness
And a sky like lead.

A plain without a feature, bare and brown,
No blade of grass, no sign of neighborhood,
Nothing to eat and nowhere to sit down,
Yet, congregated on its blankness, stood
An unintelligible multitude,
A million eyes, a million boots in line,
Without expression, waiting for a sign.

Out of the air a voice without a face
Proved by statistics that some cause was just
In tones as dry and level as the place:
No one was cheered and nothing was discussed;
Column by column in a cloud of dust
They marched away enduring a belief
Whose logic brought them, somewhere else, to grief.

She looked over his shoulder
For ritual pieties,
White flower-garlanded heifers,
Libation and sacrifice,
But there on the shining metal
Where the altar should have been,
She saw by his flickering forge-light
Quite another scene.

Barbed wire enclosed an arbitrary spot
Where bored officials lounged (one cracked a joke)
And sentries sweated for the day was hot:
A crowd of ordinary decent folk
Watched from without and neither moved nor spoke
As three pale figures were led forth and bound
To three posts driven upright in the ground.

The mass and majesty of this world, all
That carries weight and always weighs the same
Lay in the hands of others; they were small
And could not hope for help and no help came:
What their foes like to do was done, their shame
Was all the worst could wish; they lost their pride
And died as men before their bodies died.

She looked over his shoulder
For athletes at their games,
Men and women in a dance
Moving their sweet limbs
Quick, quick, to music,
But there on the shining shield
His hands had set no dancing-floor
But a weed-choked field.

A ragged urchin, aimless and alone,
Loitered about that vacancy; a bird
Flew up to safety from his well-aimed stone:
That girls are raped, that two boys knife a third,
Were axioms to him, who'd never heard
Of any world where promises were kept,
Or one could weep because another wept.

The thin-lipped armorer,
Hephaestos, hobbled away,
Thetis of the shining breasts
Cried out in dismay
At what the god had wrought
To please her son, the strong
Iron-hearted man-slaying Achilles
Who would not live long.

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BOOKS TO READ FOR ALL AGES
keeping the story alive ...

for children	written as a young adult novel

 
the one, the only, the incomparable

NOVELS AND ARCHAEOLOGY

novel about Briseis	archaeological explorations explore the question: Did the Trojan War really take place?

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This page was last touched 4.15.2008.

Nancy R. Fenn

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WHAT NANCY'S READERS HAVE SAID:

5.26.2005 To make films more cintematic, films are altared from what play or book that they're based of off, but Troy was too inaccuarate, making the cure worse than the disease. Too much that was important wasn't put in the film.