There are many things that were left out of the Movie, things that, I'm guessing, were deemed a little too awful to include. Here, through a journal entry sort of thing, Odysseus reflects on how history will see them, and what will be forgotten. As I have not finished reading the Iliad, this is mostly bassed on the mini-series that came out in 2003 called 'Helen of Troy'.
This isn't meant to be a critisim of the movie 'Troy' because I absolutely LOVED it, it just got me to thinking on all the different versions of the story have been presented and how history is written by the victors, etc.
See my profile for disclaimer.
Looking back at these past ten years, so full of tears and blood, shame and glory, I can almost see how history will remember them. The hideous acts we have committed will slip through the cracks of memory, leaving only the glory of victory to echo through the void of time.
Achilles will go down as a man of strength, a warrior of great deeds. They will not mention the men he killed in cold blood, or Prince Hector's bloody and pointless death at his hands. He was fuelled not by vengeance, or hate, but by his need for glory. He cared for nothing, and no one, and even though history might remember him as a lover, the only love he knew was the passing love of whores who later forgot him, just as he forgot them.
Helen... the face that brought a thousand ships to the shores of Troy. She betrayed her husband, and that will be that. Naught will be said of how he forced her to walk naked through his great hall, to be laughed and jeered at by kings and commoners alike. They will not mention her bravery as she attempted to bring the war to an end by walking alone into our camp in surrender.
They will not speak of the nobility of Troy, only their foolishness. History will not remember their bravery- Hector, who proudly fought for his brother's life and love. Who refused to shoot Achilles in the back- a fatal show of honour. Paris, who did his best to make the world happy, even though it might have meant his death, or Helen's. Cassandra, who was kept locked away for her prophesies of the fall of Troy.
And us? Why, we are the heroes of this tale, are we not? We fought the barbaric Trojans, and we won! We will not pass on the tales of slaughter, of rape and betrayal. We will not say that we wandered the streets of Troy, killing unarmed citizens as they slept, exhausted from the day's festivities, raping the women as their children were murdered in their horror-filled stupor. Surely the victory had been more honourable than that!
Menelaus, the weak link. All he wanted was his wife back, who, despite all his transgressions, he may even have loved. He did not want the death, not in the end. He would have given it all up had she just returned to him... but his brother would not have been so forgiving.
No, Agamemnon- our great, fearless king, he would have watched every last one of his soldiers die before he surrendered to Troy. They might remember his tragic death at the hands of an angry widow, or perhaps they will make it more dramatic. Perhaps his end will have come in battle. It doesn't matter. They will not, however, spread the word of how he raped his brother's wife, the beautiful Helen as his spoils after our victory, or how he so rarely lifted his sword to fight for himself, making Achilles do it for him. They will not gossip on how he sacrificed his own, eight year old daughter in order to have the gods bless their journey to Troy.
And I? I will be remembered only as a king, who fought little and did less. I will be lost in the folds of these great heroes with whom I walked the earth. This doesn't bother me. I would rather be lost than be remembered for something that I was not. History, you see, is written by the victors, and by the time it is, indeed, history, there is no one left to contradict the stories.
I am Odysseus, and I can only pray that my name does not become shadowed with lies that mean nothing. Let my comrades tell their tales, but they had better leave me out of it.