Like many people, I’ll be off to watch Troy when it opens this weekend. For a while I’ve been thinking that it would be a good idea to re-read the Iliad so I’d know what I was talking about when I was comparing the film with the book, but I was surprised to find that we didn’t have a copy in our immense collection of books (well we had a book that contained abridged copies of the Iliad and the Aeneid but that wasn’t really what I wanted).
A quick trip to the local second hand bookshop put that right tho’. I returned with full copies of the Iliad and the Aeneid together with a copy of Ovid’s Metamorphoses (just because I like to buy books in threes).
So the plan is to read the Iliad followed by the Aeneid. The Aeneid tells how some of the Trojans escaped from the sacking of Troy (sorry if that’s a spoiler for anyone) and ended up founding Rome. Or something like that. I’ll probably follow that with Geoffrey of Monmouth’s History of the Kings of Britain as that tells how some of the descendents of Aeneus (the Trojan who founded Rome) carried on their exploration and found an island north of the European mainland which way inhabited by giants. They killed the giants an took over the island which they named after their leader. Their leader’s name was Brutus and they called the island Britain. So not only Rome, but also Britain claims a descent from Troy.
It’s important to have roots. Even if they’re completely fictional.
I’ll not spoil it for you, but buying the Illiad is a much wiser investment than the movie as they removed all the interesting parts of the story and replaced them with Brad Pitt’s ass. Robert Fagles’ translation of the Illiad is considered the best these days and his translation of the Odyssey is also quite an excellent read. If you’re really ambitious, add Herodotus’ “The Histories” to your stack to read. :)
I don’t think you’d be spoiling anything. An article I read recently said that they had removed all of the “Greek” bits from the film. By which they mean all the Gods and homosexuality :)
For proper comparison, be sure to read Shakespeare “Troilus and Cressida” after the Iliad; where all Greek heroes are turned into ridiculous figures.