Aristeia of Achilles:

From Book to Big Screen

Brent Cooper

#92114073

CLST 313 – Carl Johnson

 April 17th, 2010

“Men are haunted by the vastness of eternity” narrates Odysseus during the opening of

the film Troy, setting the stage for a Greek immortality quest that would echo across time. In his

commentary, Odysseus asks if strangers will remember “how bravely we fought” as well as

“how fiercely we loved,” hinting at the entanglement between war and love and foreshadowing

both the cause of the Trojan War and the dilemma of the protagonist, Achilles. In the film, the

story’s hero differs in several ways from his poem doppelganger, namely in his atheism and his

explicit love interest (Briseis). The 2004 film by Wolfgang Petersen drew wide criticism for

being too realistic, unfaithful to the source material, and anachronistic, among other faults.

However, I intend to challenge the critics on Troy by drawing parallels between the text of The

Iliad and the film. This essay focuses on the adaptation of Achilles from book to blockbuster and

the representation of his love, moira (fate), kleos (glory), and aristeia (excellence/ heroic virtue).

Moreover, while the point may be lost on some audiences (and critics), the film stresses the

unique dike (irreconcilable rights) of Achilles to illustrate the futility of war.

Screenwriter David Benioff, having already established himself as a writer of both the

novel and script, is in a good position to appreciate the challenges of adapting story to screen,

from multiple sources no less. As Benioff admits, he “ransacks ideas” from the various re-

tellings of the Trojan War. He says he is “not worried about desecrating a classic – Homer will

survive Hollywood,”1 and he is right, Homer will survive. What is important, when creating a

film that is “inspired”2 by Homer and other authors of the Trojan War stories, is not only that the

important themes are reflected, but that they are innovated upon. To make a cohesive whole out

1
David Benioff, "David Benioff Web Access" BBC - Films.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/films/webaccess/david_benioff_1.shtml
2
Jaochim Latacz, "From Homer's Troy to Petersen's Troy." In Troy: From Homer's Iliad to Hollywood Epic.
Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell, 2006. 27. (Also see end credits, Troy)

1
of so many puzzle pieces is a daunting task, but Troy is designed to be a standalone work. This

also means that audiences must accept dramatic modifications to well known characters. And to

appease critics it is necessary that these changes compliment the themes of the poem; that they

address what the Greek poets sought to problematize: questions of love, war, fate, and the tragic

conditions of human nature and society.

There is a paradoxical relationship between love and war represented in The Iliad and

Troy. The given pretext for the war (Helen’s eloping, of course – although not the true motive) is

one tenuous link. From the Trojan perspective defensive wars (as in the Trojan case) are

tolerable because of the love of one’s country. In Troy, Hector scolds Paris for valuing his

personal love for Helen over his platonic love and duty to his oikos (family) and country.3 But as

Hector explains, Paris is naïve to the realities of both love and war. Mendelsohn writes that “if

Achilles is a kind of existentialist rock star, Hector is a stoical family man.”4But for Achilles too,

on the other hand, love conquers his rage temporarily until his love for Patroclus is violated and

he returns to a remorseless path of vengeance and kleos.

David Edelstein of Slate and David Denby of The New Yorker both gave Troy positive

reviews. Edelstein interprets Troy to hit the major themes of The Iliad and demonstrate to

audiences that the Trojan War was a "grotesque waste" of lives, despite its glorious heroics.

Denby echoes the sentiments, and calls the film "both exhilarating and tragic." Daniel

Mendelsohn of the NY Times Book Review refutes them both, arguing that war is paradoxically

both "beautiful" and "terrible" to the archaic Greeks. He claims they are eager for violence, in

order to gain kleos, and be commemorated in song; this makes the horror of war bearable (read

3
Troy: Director's Cut. DVD. Directed by Wolfgang Petersen. Burbank: Warner Home Video, 2007.
4
Daniel Mendelsohn, "A Little Iliad" The New York Review of Books.
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2004/jun/24/a-little-iliad/

2
worthwhile), he writes.5 This point has some merit, but it is merely a highpoint in his critique,

before he returns to debasing the film for lesser grievances. Surely there can be a middle ground:

both Homer and Troy do glorify war but they are still anti-war.

I must point out that any parallels drawn by critics between the Iraq War and Troy are not

insights, they are superfluous, as the connection is made explicitly by Petersen himself: “Just as

King Agamemnon (did)... President George W. Bush concealed his true motives for the invasion

of Iraq.”6 And this is true; Troy successfully drew attention to the hypocrisies of war, especially

Iraq. But any anti-war film does this. Beyond Petersen’s simple allusion the film itself bares no

similarity to the current realities of war, no less the occupation in Iraq. Moreover, there is no

place for rogue soldiers like Achilles in the modern rigid chain-of-command. So Troy is able to

depart from traditional anti-war films by employing a rock star as Achilles to create a romantic

and mythical ethos. That is the tragedy; that there is glory in war but that it is futile. For example,

although Hector’s execution is tragic, the scene no doubt beautifies and glamorizes the violence

to denote the glory and excellence. And perhaps even while the simple life is preferable, war

may be necessary (or unavoidable) at times. Regardless, it is also evident from these quarrels that

the film, like the poem, will (and should, as art) be interpreted differently by different audiences.

For a film that condenses such a sprawling narrative into three hours, the filmmakers not

only excelled at the challenge of adapting the classic tales of the Trojan War into a contemporary

anti-war epic, but they boldly innovated on certain elements, such as developing the character of

Briseis, and Achilles expressing his reservations and pragmatism about war to Patroclus.

5
Ibid.
6
Casey Due, "Learning Lessons from the Trojan War: Briseis and the Theme of Force." College Literature 34, no. 2
(2007): 248

3
Meanwhile, key scenes in The Iliad, such as Priam kissing the hands of Achilles7 and Achilles

subsequently crying, remain remarkably authentic and true to the source in the film.

Nevertheless, several of Troy’s critics also accuse that Achilles’ beach assault was

“shamelessly lifted” from the equivalent scene in Saving Private Ryan.8 This could not be a more

fallacious parallel. First, I ask, how many different ways can a beach assault look? Moreover, in

direct comparison the scenes are remarkably dissimilar in pacing, strategy, weaponry, direction

style, context, etc... One reviewer reveals his ignorance of the subject matter when he derides the

film’s dialogue, in particular Achilles insult to Agamemnon: “You sack of wine.” This exact

phrase can be found in The Iliad: “You wine sack...”9 This bias against the film is illustrated in a

more pertinent example when two other reviewers both attribute reference to Stalin’s jab at the

pope,10 in Hector’s retort to Priam: “And how many battalions does the Sun God command?”11

The two quotes have distinct connotations and contexts. One particular passage from The Iliad

that made its way to the screen partially reflects Hector’s rationalism. Although the film quote is

in a more indignant tone – “Bird signs! You want to plan our strategy based on bird signs?”12 –

the passage from The Iliad more or less reflects the same attitude, but defers to Zeus still: “But

you: you tell me to put my trust in birds, who spread wide their wings. I care nothing for these, I

think nothing of them...No let us put out trust in the counsel of great Zeus...”13

Benioff purposefully extrapolated these sentiments to their logical modern conclusion –

atheism – but the critics contemptuously label it as cold realism. On the Greek side, Achilles
7
Richmond Lattimore, The Iliad of Homer (translated and introduction by Richmond Lattimore. (Chicago:
University Of Chicago Press, 1961) 24.506
8
Stuart Price, "Displacing the Gods? Agency and Power in Adaptations of Ancient History and Myth." Journal of
Adaptation in Film & Performance 1, no. 2 (2008): 123
9
Lattimore, 1.225
10
Peter Green, "Heroic Hype, New Style: Hollywood Pitted against Homer." Arion, Third Series 12, no. 1 (2004):
182
11
Troy, time: 0:41:35-40
12
Troy, time: 1:14:55-1:15:00
13
Lattimore, 12.237-238, 241

4
mirrors Hector’s secular outlook, but takes it to a deeper existential level. In my viewing of the

film, Achilles’ source of power is his staunch atheism and nihilism. It allows him to transcend

the social and psychological boundaries that circumscribe the will of others (or surrender their

will to the gods) and this makes him revered by his cohorts. In Troy, Achilles existentialism is

reflected when he encourages Briseis to kill him in the night: “Do it! We all die, today or fifty

years from now, what does it matter?”14 He utters analogous statements in several lines in The

Iliad as well: “Fate is the same for the man who holds back, the same if he fights hard. We are all

held in a single honour, the brave with the weaklings. A man dies still if he has done nothing, as

one who has done much.15

As scholar Dean Hammer writes, Achilles does not care about the gifts offered to him by

Agamemnon’s embassy in book IX, “suggesting that his honour is no longer mediated through

social structures.”16 Achilles defines his own honour. Achilles’ ‘enlightened’ view, for lack of a

better word, permits him full autonomy and is revealed in scene between him and Briseis added

for the film. In The Iliad, Briseis speaks only once in the whole poem, in lamentation for the

death of Patroclus,17 and in the film her character is adapted in part from Polyxena. In Troy,

Achilles shares a “secret” with her and the audience; that that “the gods envy us” because we are

mortal and we will “never be here again,”18 suggestive of Sartrean existentialism, that is both a

condemnation and a liberation of the will. A parallel can be drawn here between Achilles and

Hector: In The Iliad, Hector’s rationale for pursing glory is related to his existentialism.

“Man, supposing you and I, escaping this battle, would be able to live on forever,

ageless, immortal... (we would not fight in the front) but now, seeing that the spirits of
14
Troy, time: 1:52:40-1:53:00
15
Lattimore, 9.318-320
16
Dean Hammer, The Iliad As Politics: The Performance of Political Thought. (Norman: University of Oklahoma
Press, 2002), 98
17
Lattimore, 19.282-302
18
Troy, time: 1:51:30-1:52:10

5
 death stand close about us in their thousands, no man can turn aside nor escape them, let

us go on and win glory for ourselves, or yield it to others.”19

Some critics have scoffed at the irreligious tone of the film, but again I argue that this is

subtlety faithful to Homeric artistic values. Benioff rebuts that the influence and “presence” of

the gods is profound, albeit off screen.20 To be sure, for those who doubt the film’s adaptation of

the imaginary pantheon, Benioff’s script has the word “gods” spoken a total of 41 times. A

classics professor, Steve Wiggins, blogged that “the (physical) absence of the gods, distressing as

it may be to purists, gave the movie an angst that is generally reserved for more cerebral

subjects.”21 Much scholarly debate exists over nature of the Homeric ‘gods’: Edwards –

“artistic”; Redfield - “literary” devices ; Havelock – “shorthand” for inexplicable events; Pucci –

“narrative” device; and Barnes – “metaphors” for agency of the characters.22 None of which

seem to consider them as real, so why should we? Thus, the purpose of the gods in Troy is

arguably to act as a reference point to measure the extent to which the protagonist (and

secondary main characters) can exercise their own free will; it is Achilles’ transcendence of ‘the

gods’ that makes him a demigod.

Most people cannot withstand the implications of this existential worldview, whether in

ancient or modern society, but Achilles knows better. It is “because we are doomed” that

everything is more beautiful and we must seize the moment.23 It is also this moment that

solidifies the romance between him and Briseis, and allows Achilles to change his moira (fate).

His prior moira is a very Nietzschean amor fati (love of fate), exemplified in the film quote “I

19
Lattimore, 12.326-328
20
Benioff
21
Steve A. Wiggins, "Iliad" Sects and Violence in the Ancient World. http://sawiggins.wordpress.com/tag/iliad/
22
Hammer, 55
23
Troy, time: 1:51:30-1:52:10

6
chose nothing. I was born, and this is what I am.”24 But for the time being, thanks to Briseis,

Achilles is able to make a choice to redefine (or forfeit) his kleos for a life of peace and

anonymity over war and glory. This is confirmed in Achilles’ last breath: “You gave me peace...

in a lifetime of war.”25

And so the dike – the tragic conflict of rights – may be seen to be more clearly revealed

in Troy as Achilles constantly lives on the knife’s edge, driven towards his moira, despite his

efforts to transcend it. The dike is further indicated by Achilles’ rejection of Hector’s pact offer

both in the poem and film: “...no trustworthy oaths between men and lions.”26 In the film, the

irony is more explicit, because in an earlier scene Achilles exalts himself and his Myrmidons as

being “menacing... lions.”27 Where Achilles and Hector may have once shared some

commonalities, now their destinies must meet head on to restore their time (honour) and to gain

kleos. When Hector trips on a rock during the fatal duel, Achilles commands: “Get up Prince of

Troy. I won’t let a stone take my glory.”28And in failing to restrain his ate (anger; self-

destruction), the best Achilles can do is to exercise his aristeia. In this most essential feature of

the story, Troy excels, with an Achilles rich in aristeia. Starting from the opening scene when we

are introduced to the protagonist, Achilles swiftly executes his opponent with one precise thrust

of his sword. The specific action invoked in the film is reflected in a passage in Book XXI of

The Iliad: “but Achilleus drawing his sharp sword struck him beside the neck at the collar-bone,

and the double-edged sword plunged full length inside. He dropped to the ground, face

downward, and lay at length, and the black blood flowed...”29

24
Troy, time: 1:50:30-35
25
Troy, time: 3:00:45-52
26
Lattimore, 22.262
27
Troy, time: 52:13-17
28
Troy, time: 2:25:05-15
29
Lattimore, 21.116-119

7
 This martial prowess continues unremittingly throughout the film, with multiple parallels.

But reviewer Peter Green argues that while Homer emphasizes the aristeia of the individual, in

Troy Achilles and Hector get lost in the “egalitarian melee.”30 While he notes the exception of

the duel between Hector and Achilles, this claim is still weak, as Achilles’ presence is never

subtle. The major Greek battles were fought with Achilles suspended from the action, in both

versions, but in the film the time on the sidelines is used to romanticize and intellectualize

Achilles. Similarly, Mendelsohn derides Petersen for stuffing too much into the film, in general;

for being too epic. Despite the narratives of multiple characters, the film is still primarily about

Achilles, just as The Iliad is the story of Achilles.31 The film opens with Achilles, and it closes

with him, burning on a funeral pyre.

In conclusion, this essay praises the filmmakers for their Homer inspired adaptation of

the Trojan War myth. The essential themes of moira, kleos, and aristeia are represented in

Achilles in a way that modern audiences can appreciate, but still based on a close and considered

reading of Homer. The both the glory and tragedy of Achilles is his constant temptation of fate,

and paradoxically the tragedy of war itself. To the chagrin of some critics, Achilles is expectedly

played by one of the most powerful and anatomically perfect actors in Hollywood, but this adds

to the notions of aristeia and tragedy. And while the plot is imbued with a sense of realpolitik

that is deemed anachronistic to the poems, we can scarcely criticize it due to the complex nature

of war. Although The Iliad ends with Hector on a funeral pyre, the film ends as it had begun;

Odysseus’ narration bookends the film saluting the aristeia of ‘brilliant’ Achilles: “Let them say

I walked with giants... Let them say I lived in the time of Hector, breaker of horses. Let them say

I lived in the time of Achilles.”32

30
Green, 180
31
Lattimore, 17
32
Troy, time: 3:04:40-3:05:10

8
 Works Cited

Benioff, David. "David Benioff Web Access ." BBC - Films.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/films/webaccess/david_benioff_1.shtml (accessed April 17, 2010).

Due, Casey . "Learning Lessons from the Trojan War: Briseis and the Theme of Force." College

Literature 34, no. 2 (2007): 229-262.

Green, Peter. "Heroic Hype, New Style: Hollywood Pitted against Homer." Arion, Third Series

12, no. 1 (2004): 171-187.

Hammer, Dean. The Iliad as Politics: The Performance of Political Thought (Oklahoma Series

in Classical Culture). Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2002.

Latacz, Jaochim. "From Homer's Troy to Petersen's Troy." In Troy: From Homer's Iliad to

Hollywood Epic. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell, 2006. 27-42.

Lattimore, Richmond. The Iliad of Homer (translated and introduction by Richmond Lattimore.

Chicago: University Of Chicago Press, 1961.

Mendelsohn, Daniel . "A Little Iliad ." The New York Review of Books .

http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2004/jun/24/a-little-iliad/ (accessed April 17,

2010).

Price, Stuart. "Displacing the Gods? Agency and Power in Adaptations of Ancient History and

Myth." Journal of Adaptation in Film & Performance 1, no. 2 (2008): 117-132.

Troy: Director's Cut. DVD. Directed by Wolfgang Petersen. Burbank: Warner Home Video,

2007.

Wiggins, Steve A.. "Iliad" Sects and Violence in the Ancient World.

http://sawiggins.wordpress.com/tag/iliad/ (accessed April 17, 2010).

9
Winkler, Martin M.. "The Iliad and the Cinema." In Troy: From Homer's Iliad to Hollywood

Epic. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell, 2006. 43-44.

10