The Iliad and Troy are not the same!

So, I want to explain how the Iliad is different to the movie Troy, but first you may want to know what these things are altogether. Homer’s Iliad is an epic poem whose words have echoed through thousands of years to this present day. Homer is dated to have lived in circa 850B.C His poem was written in Homeric Greek and then translated into English in later days and is used as evidence to determine classical culture to this day. Troy is a 2004 film directed by Wolfgang Peterson starring Brad Pitt, Eric Bana and Orlando Bloom. This was produced with quite different intentions to the Iliad as such is required to appeal to a modern audience, in contrast to the Iliad which was a poem written in ancient times where audiences expect much different things in order for themselves to be entertained. This inspired many controversial changes in the movie compared to the Iliad, the most prominent being the lack of godly assistance as was prominent in the Iliad.
So, the Iliad is an ancient text written for ancient people, and the movie Troy is a Hollywood targeted film set to appeal to a more modern audience? Yep, Troy is a modern film intended to entertain and please the modern person and the Iliad is an ancient text written for unknown reasons passed down for generations.

That is that. Now you might wonder who Homer was. Well, this is a topic commonly debated. Homer has been estimated to live in circa 850B.C seeing as Herodotus estimated Homer to of lived 400 years before his time. However it is not known whether Homer was a name of a man or rather simply a Profession/Type of poet. This is strange, since modern dating dates the war to have taken place in circa 1240B.C which means that Homer wrote the story 400 years after the war.
Wolfgang Peterson on the other hand, is a german director who is the author of movies such as Poseidon and In the line of fire. He has no known classical background in his life and simply wrote his film as a means to gain fame and money.
We can easily distinguish clear differences between the mysterious case of “Homer” and the hollywood director Wolfgand Peterson, and therefore it can be understood how Peterson may want to make changes to the Iliad.

And there you have it! Until next time 😀