Should have been Gilroy Part 1 of 3 the Iliad

Introduction: A Hollywood animal who burns books for a living

The title is above as much a praise for one Hollywood screen writer named Tony Gilroy as it’s a dig towards another named David Benioff. Mr. Benioff’s started his career as one rather lucky bastard. The man first wrote a novel that allegedly captured the voices of New Yorkers well. Got to hand it to the lad, he seemed to have a bright future in Hollywood with the novel opening with a “save the cat” bit only the saved there is a canine.

Then the book got turned into A Spike Lee Joint, or Edward Norton pet project depends on where you look. After that he became one hell of a Hollywood book burner, from a Greek epic poem written down centuries before Common Era to 3 Chinese science fiction novels of the 21st century, this man has no boundary when it comes to book burning.

The reason why Mr. Gilroy’s name got dragged into this conservation is of course Andor. After Disney’s decade long poor management of the Star Wars brand, somehow this prequel to a prequel with pretty tacky premise merged as the most lively and well-made in the bunch. In stark contrast to Mr. Benioff cutting gods out of myth and ripping science out of sci-fi with a gang, Gilroy and crew managed to add so much texture and personality to a stale space opera universe we thought we saw all in. It’s just tempting to imagine him and crew bringing the mythical Trojan War to life or depicting homo sapiens infighting even with an alien invasion over their heads.

But this planned trilogy is not about speculation, it’s about those things Mr. Benioff ruined all in the name of making some product Hollywood executives willing to fund. While I am not confident in my reading of more versions of Homer than Benioff, with the 2 translations below, I certainly read more versions of Liu Cixin’s novels as a native Chinese speaker.

Translation comparison: dirty deeds done dirt cheap against bring out the poetic

These brave and thoughtful servicemen and servicewomen often say that The Iliad, more than modern popular representation of warfare in film, video game, or fiction, strikes them as true to their own complex experiences, although the military terrain and technology evoked in the poem is entirely different from those of modern conflict.

---Emily Wilson, Translator’s Note for the Iliad

While they were published 85 years apart from each other, the 2 translations of the Iliad I’ve read can be said to be out in similarly troubled times. Maybe fittingly so since both times were long wars’ respective second years.

Mr. Rouse’s translation was out in year 2 out of eventual 8 for the Second Sino-Japanese War (Or one major unnamed part of World War Two’s Pacific Theater.), while Ms. Wilson’s came out during the second year of the seemingly endless war between Russia and Ukraine (Still not ended as I am posting during July, 2025). Why say “fittingly”? Well, the Iliad is about how life is shitty even for fighting men cable of atrocities during war time after all.

While the 2023 translation was brought to my attention by Guardians’ Hades 2 review, the reason I got the Rouse translation is simpler: it’s real cheap, even cheaper than getting Simplified Chinese translation. On Fuzhou Road in the city of Shanghai (AKA Where miHoYo global headquarters is at.), there is a foreign (to Chinese) language book store, which closes shop too soon every day at 6:30 p.m. (No way I can go there after work. Too often). On its first floor, Signet Classics and Bantam Classics paperback are sold dirt cheap, usually between 3 and 4 us dollars while aforementioned Chinese would usually come in hard-cover and cost 7.

So, on a closer to summer September day in 2022, I picked up Rouse’ translation of both Iliad and Odyssey then read them through rather leisurely over the course of a month. I enjoyed those more than I expected. Rouse’s goal as a translator was to bring out the sense of Iliad being “an adventure story for boys”. I think he did so indeed, as the more novel like tight text arrangement does make paragraphs during battle scenes feel like panels on comic book all about character A strikes character B in what body part thus the latter died or darkness covered their eyes as the poetic expression goes.

Ms. Wilson wrote that translating Iliad took a better half of a decade for her after her translation of Odyssey (Something I planned to read in 2026 around the release window of that Nolan flick) came out during the first Trump admiration. One major challenge was of course the amount of named characters. Another thing is how she preferred to present the epic poem as well, a poem with line numbers. It’s not as fun read if you ask but the lament over those slain in battle can be felt more clearly.

While Rouse tried to present Iliad as the entertainment it was for those listening to a blind bard, Wilson’s volume is one more fitting for the classroom. Yours truly almost gave up on writing this after reading her deeper and more through Introduction at the beginning of the book. My amateur ass just cannot compete with someone who lived and breathed the poem. The newer volume also includes Translator’s Note I quoted above, cliff note to further clarify the narrative and a glossary that is just so useful if a reader wants to dive into pronouns of the Greek Myth.

A slightly gamer brained summary

Craving for food and sex is just human nature.

------Confucius. Yes, the one lived during Bronze Age collapse in China and named it “Spring and Autumn”

The Iliad does not cover the entirety of 10 years long Trojan War. It merely covers the several days of back and forth skirmishes between Greeks and Trojan outside the city wall during the final year. While people nowadays might have the impression of back and forth lasting for one whole decade, it’s far from the tales told.

Soon after the Greeks first landed and set up their camp, they suddenly came to the realization that “Men got to eat!” as the Trojan hid behind their wall and closed their gates. So, putting Troy to torch and sell its wenches into slavery is just main quest while the side raids of less well-defended towns or cities are required for the Greeks’ long-term survival.

The Iliad likely started shortly after one of such raids for food to eat and girls for sex. The Greek leader Agamemnon had to return one of those lasses he took as her priest father prayed to Appollo for a plague on the Greeks. To cover his losses, Agamemnon take one named Briseis from Achilles. Needless to say, Achilles was pissed, went on strike and prayed to Zeus through his mother Thetis that the Greeks shall never win without his involvement.

With a cocktail of Not knowing Achilles’ curse, gods urging and the feeling the moment of “There is no fucking money” approaching, Agamemnon took a head count of his warriors and resume the task of branching the Trojan Wall. After two undecisive duals, days of battle and one night raid, the number of wounded just kept going up on the Greek side. Achilles’ battle partner Patroclus could not stand on the sideline anymore after being asked to care for some injured. So, Patty went to war and got killed by Trojan’s finest named Hector after doing relatively well.

With his better half killed, Achilles was finally back in action wearing a new suit of armor. The 3 Books (One whole scroll back then could only contain what we consider chapter in a volume now.) of Achilles at war can feel a classic action game level, with regular combat as Achilles cutting through Trojan hosts, something closer to platforming as Achilles crossing a flooded rive and eventually a dual between Achilles and Hector as the end of level boss fight. Though the dual plays out more like taking a powerful piece off the borad within a turn in a Fire Emblem game than the long climatic fight scene between Brad Pitt and Bruce Bana in the movie.

The poem still has 2 more Books after Achilles killed Hector and they are not without action. Penultimate chapter is a funeral game for Patroclus, with chariot race, foot race, spear dual, boxing and wrestling. The final chapter is Trojan King Priam asked Achilles to release the body of his son, Hector. With the feeling that mortal cannot have everything in life, Achilles granted the old man his wish, The poem then ends with the laments of 3 Trojan women, Hector’s wife Amedore, mother Hecuba and still sister-in-law Helen, foreshadowing that Troy will fall to a gift from the Greeks.

When people run circle around one in your own town

Let’s start with something 2004’s Troy got right. Namely the casting of Brain Cox as Agamemnon and Brad Pitt as Achilles. Yours truly could not stop seeing those 2 faces reading Iliad.

I actually watched that Amazon Bond themed game show because of Brain Cox hosting for calling out loud. Not to mention I can hear his character Logan Roy in Succession yelling “Bezos!” within me whenever I made a Kindle purchase, Wilson’s translation of Iliad included. Mr. Cox sure chewed the scenery as the leader of Greek Alliance in all his awe and vice.

2020’s Hades presents the ghost of Achilles with the only rosy cheeks Jee Zee designed and Logan Cunningham at his most seething, all to say that he is not that guy in the Iliad anymore (On the other hand, Supergiant’s Greek Myth themed roguelite and its sequel both have not-get-whacked as the best way to survive, quite fitting Achilles’ “swift-footed” reputation. Homeric combat is more about speed and accuracy on the basis of deadly strength after all.). The ever sweaty and pissed Brad Pitt, on the other hand, is totally “that guy in the Iliad”. However, the arc of this character is still butchered as only Benioff could.

Or maybe Benioff is not alone in the blame since he was not a producer on that flick. Then the question would be what the actual fuck was director-producer Wolfgang Peterson thinking when he decided to cut gods out along with all the mythical elements from the story? Worse still, if you want to see the melodramatic side of Iliad done in Hollywood fashion, you might as well put on the following 2 flicks: 1997’s Face/Off and 2024’s surprise summer hit F1 also starring Pitt.

Why did they think letting “Lawrance of the Arabia” reciting some Homeric lines about parent kissing the hands of their child’s killer in some stage play fashion would fly in a time when Face/Off having a father assigned to wear the face of his son’s killer! Also, Priam’s mind game is totally off in Troy only about Achilles’ dead-only-in-the-film father would roll in his grave. The whole you denied your father having closure with your death, how dare you deny mine with Hector is bolder.

There is the “mistreatment” of Achilles’ own arc. The Iliad has the whole throughline about what he can or cannot want. You would not know it only watch the 2004 flick. Sonny Hayes also played by Pitt in F1 sure has more of that “what he can or cannot have” arc as that film hits very twist and turns of a sports drama. Heck, the racing movie certainly makes more focus on Hayes' being Swift-footed than Achilles in 2004's Troy.

Baby and not necessarily the bath water

Goddess, sing of the cataclysmic wrath of the great Achilles, son of Peleus, which caused the Greeks so many noble souls of heroes to Hades, and made men the spoils of dogs, a banquet for the birds, and so the plan of Zeus unfolded.

-----The Iliad Book 1 Line 1 to 7, the Emily Wilson translation

Trojan War was originated by Al’mighty known as Zeus wanted to reduce mortal population, or at least that’s the closest guess one can have. Helen of Spartan and then Troy was not only allegedly the most beautiful woman in her known world, she was also the daughter of said Al’mighty, so I guess marrying her had some other bless seeking purpose than mere lust. Then there is of course Eris’ Golden Apple and all that jazz. No god should mean no story, but Peterson and Benioff somehow thought otherwise.

The so-called “realistic” or “historical” approach of the 2004 flick is by the end of day total horseshit. The reason why there was an allied arm outside the city was treaties among Greek cities. Treaties said that if Helen was taken from Sparta, they would wage war together to get her back to that city. People interested in World War One would be familiar with states going into that shitstorm because their allies hold out treaties like that and the Greek pact is directly referenced in the cliff notes of Wilson’s translation. Yet, Benioff mapped Imperial hunger that was not possible back (The logistics that can support such imperialist expansion was still centuries away from the supposed age of Trojan War.) in this story onto his script.

Off all the film’s faults, trying to stretch the few days of the Iliad onto the legendary ten years of the Trojan War is not among those. Ms. Wilson also think there are moments of year ten in the Iliad reflect things came before and would come after. Like Agamemnon listing the warriors he still has after Achilles went on strike in Book 2 was always the same as the listing before Greeks sailed for Troy.

Then there is Aphrodite forcing Helen to care for Paris being a reflection of the kidnapping that started the war. And dead Hector returned to the city of Troy for funeral and laments is basically the Trojan Horse hiding Greek braves.

While merging the Ajax known for strength and the Ajax known for speed into one character is not here nor there, the total exclusion of Diomedes is just a symptom of cutting gods of this story about gods. To anyone who read Iliad, Diomedes is the true most valuable player on the Greek side. The man is so powerful that he wounded both Aphrodite and Ares in battle, so I guess he has no place in a telling excluding the gods. Not only that, the wise Odysseus conducts his nighttime clandestine operation having Diomedes watch his back. Needless to say, a Iliad video game would be pretty faithful if Diomedes is the player character on the Greek side and Aeneas, son of Aphrodite and mythical ancestor of Rome in the had-to-be-written-the ground-up Trojan campaign.

Guess there were the misconception of duals can solve back in the old days as well. The epic poem mainly has 2 duals, and neither solved any issues. The first is between Menelaus and Paris, the 2 husbands of Helen’s. Menelaus’ brother Agamemnon very much poison pilled this one as in both side agreed to resume the battle if the dual is inconclusive. Paris lost and the issue was about to be resolved as Menelaus dragged him by the helmet and threw him to his warriors. But Aphrodite spirited him away since he picked her to have the Golden Apple.

The second dual does reflect the Bronze Age though. It’s between Hector and Ajax known for strength. This is the one influenced manga until these days, as it talked about Hector stabbed through 6 out 7 layers of big Ajax’ shield. The dual was stopped because the sun was setting and Bronze Age people generally did not conduct business at night.

How myth reflects its times

When Superman first appeared in 1938, he was shown to lift a car up with his bare hands. One cannot help but consider it as part of anxiety regarding the industrialized world people had been living in for about one century back then, or they would not have found the imagery of man overcome machine comforting or compelling. The Iliad on the other hand is considered to be out in the post-apocalypse world after the Bronze Age collapsed. Not even Ares the God of War himself got to manhandle chariots in the story.

No, Olympians do not behave like comic book super heroes that we know in the Iliad. They are closer to Looney Toon characters with the ability to teleport, shape shift and commanding voices to put ideas into mere mortals’ minds.

Yours truly first heard of the Trojan War as one four-year-old with a cleaner bed time story version of it: Menelaus is a bright-eyed prince in love with “Princess” Helen. After the evil Trojans took her, Menelaus went to rescue her along with his friend named Achilles. The prince of Spartan got his princess back but not before Achilles died of an arrow to his heel. The closing line of the fairy tale is Menelaus saying the following to a gratefully rescued Helen: Let’s have a son that would be as strong as Achilles.

Despite all the missing bits, I found the telling above not contradicting the Iliad at all. Paris had been Helen’s spouse for a decade, and she was so tired of he being a coward by then. While the Iliad does not show Paris running from Menelaus after the dual, he ran before the battle and his brother Hector pushed him back into the filed basically saying “Now go and kill your wife’s ex like any fighting man would, bro!”

Not much interaction between Menelaus and Achilles though. Odysseus was the one old man Nestor sent to talk with Achilles after Agamemnon reached his “There is no fucking money.” (Anyone who watched 1996’s The Rock knows what happens to raid leader if they said that.) stage and got a nice barbecue meal from Achilles.

So, the Trojans were totally the bad guys for kidnapping another man’s wife, but there still can be sympathy towards them. For in the ancient Aegean World back then, losing in warfare means city burnt down, men slayed and women sold into slavery. It’s more of a “why should regular Trojans suffer for the sins of their royalty” question. Hector’s monologue in the poem states that he vowed to protect all Trojan women from such misery, with his wife, mother(Ah, yes, what a Hollywood thing to do to exclude one elderly lady from the script, Benioff.) and sister-in-law among them.

Do please stop mistaking foreknowledge for spoiler, “internet”.

A timeless quality of the Iliad lies in its suit-up scenes. Paris suiting up before his dual with Menelaus, with the helmet saving him one second and literally dragging him to death the next. Hera dolls up before she can put her husband Zeus to sleep thus the gods can directly engage in the Trojan War. Last but not least Achilles’ new suit of armor is described in very fine details.

The middle one is particular funny taking in Zeus’ rage after he woke up. In the Rouse translation, the Al’mighty just lays the hatred triangle of Hector, Achilles and Patroclus bare. Wilson’s translation paints Zeus as a spoiled brat being denied of toys, his line can be summed up as “But all the twists and turns the plot would take before it plays out!”

Maybe I really ought to stop visiting the cesspool that is ign comment section. The number of people crying about “spoiler” for shallow and predictable Hollywood blockbusters is maddeningly high. The introductions to both translation of the Iliad I’ve read say that this not likely real Homer did sung to audiences familiar with the plot and character. They know all the twits and turns the plot would take just like the Al’mighty himself.

The Iliad is not about world altering event. Yet it does not turn away from impactful moments for people’s lives. There is entertainment in terms of high efficiency high body count battle scenes. The gods are not in every scene yet the story would lose its texture without them. And I just wonder what Tony Gilroy could have done to this source material with his ability of bringing out the internal struggle of fighting men. But alas.

(To be continued in the Dark Forest)