And then there were three.

What!? Still going? Surely not –

Well, of course we are. Romance is not a simple affair – perhaps in ‘fifty shades of grey’, but not for the greeks – we haven’t even touched on Patroclus or Patroklos, depending on which you prefer.

‘What!?’ you may be saying, again – ‘I thought we were talking about romance?’ - well, put your homophobia aside for a second because, yes, we are. In many ways the Greeks were more liberal than we are today. This brings us to another thing Petersen transformed heavily to fit into his mainstream film Troy – the character of Patroclus. In the film Patroclus is the Minnie-me of Achilles – the doted on younger cousin who looks like him, talks like him, fights like him, but just isn’t quite him. This is highlighted in the scene where Odysseus attempts to recruit Achilles for the war, where Achilles manages a whole conversation with Odysseus while easily fending off Patroclus in a sparring match. This clip in the movie can be seen here:

 

 

This is odd considering in the Iliad, Patroclus is not only older than Achilles himself but isn’t his cousin at all. What’s odder is that Patroclus’ appearance in the Iliad is actually very similar to his appearance In Troy, at least during the war – In both Troy and the Iliad, Patroclus dons Achilles’ armour and leads the myrmidons into battle with the Greeks, although in Troy he does this without Achilles’ knowledge or permission, and in both texts he is subsequently killed by Hektor – although in the Iliad Hektor is helped by Apollo.

So why is Patroclus altered in this way by Petersen? Well for one it adds an emotional pull to the audience – mostly those unfamiliar with Patroclus’ relationship prior to the war with Achilles – the fact that he is Achilles’ young cousin allows Petersen to cast Achilles in a doting mentor light, or even a father son relationship, something easily related to the audience. The other, more controversial reason, is something called Pederasty – mostly due to Achilles’ tendency to change his persona around Patroclus as opposed to his other men – described as ‘tender’ on Wikipedia – Classical commentators have generally considered Achilles and Patroclus’ relationship to be paederastic.

Pederasty is, essentially, a homoerotic relationship, usually between males differing in ages. Obviously such a thing is not so accepted in today’s society – but Greek law did not recognise such things as age of consent or sexual orientation, and the phenomenon was mostly accepted. Petersen’s changing of Patroclus to Achilles’ cousin, and the relationship becoming more of a father/son than that of two equal friends helps the audience to lose the erotic undertone and makes the relationship appear platonic.