A conclusion of sorts

So far I’ve blogged about intentions, I’ve blogged about money, and I’ve blogged about religion – romance – violence – culture - social mores.

So now I come to wrap up this little venture – I only have one small point left to mention.

Limitation of Sources. It’s a curious thing to discuss because we’re only comparing two texts – we’re pretty much as ‘limited’ as we can possibly get – but one thing I haven’t mentioned is the reliability of the Iliad itself, as Troy is basically a watered down dramatization of The Iliad and The Aeneid. The Iliad is an ‘epic poem’ something told orally that lasted perhaps thirty hours, with only rhythm to aid the teller in recalling it, called a dactylic hexameter. The fact is, The Iliad is probably very far off what ‘actually’ happened at the battle of troy – especially considering just about no one on earth believes that the gods of Mt. Olympus actually exist, and considering one was Achilles mother, Apollo plagued the Greek troops, Aphrodite saved Paris, Achilles even battles the river god – if none of these gods existed, then there are some gaping holes in the ‘historical’ record of the battle of Troy.

Like I’ve mentioned in the past, It may have been that the rape of Helen was used by the Greeks as an opportunity to justify them uniting and attacking Troy to reap the territorial rewards. The location of Troy in relation to Greece barred Greece from access to particularly fertile land surrounding the black sea – defeating Troy would not only gain them access to that, but establish their military dominance and secure more land for themselves.

As Yale university said on the Iliad, ‘The story combines the history, legends, and religion of the ancient Greeks with the imagination, invention, and lively story-telling abilities of a great poet.’ It seems the most likely argument is the Trojan war was taken advantage of by poets and entertainers for its size and scale, and dramatized, molded to excite their audience, curiously, just as Petersen did again with the Iliad itself.

That’s all from me folks, hope you’re not dead yet.

Bibliography:

www.toshistation.com/troy/
classics.mit.edu/Homer/iliad.html
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iliad

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troy_(film)

www.imdb.com/title/tt0332452/
www.imdb.com/title/tt0332452/quotes
www.bookrags.com/essay-2004/8/21/21632/5877/
www.yale.edu/ynhti/curriculum/units/1984/2/84.02.09.x.html
http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/iliad/summary.html
http://www.theoi.com/ (What's wrong..?)
http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/classtud/troy/keen-troy.htm)
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080427135521AADfrh2
http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20040514/REVIEWS/405140304/1023