Loss In Troy And The Iliad

When exploring the main concerns and key aspects in both ‘Troy’ and ‘The Iliad’ the audience have to over-come and understand the huge focus of loss. When experiencing loss many other possessions come along with it such as, grief, anger, revenge, loneliness and various emotions and feelings. Looking deeper into both texts you gain a sense and understanding of the grief all families and loved ones had to endure from the loss of a family member or relation. Both text can be read into closely to find deeper meanings and when drawing onto different meanings you see that when reading ‘The Iliad’ and viewing ‘Troy’ nature is frequently touched on in both text.

To withstand the feeling of loss you have to go through the death or passing of a loved
something/someone. Through the reading of an epic poem - ‘Book 24 of The Iliad’ by Author Homer, you gain a sense of the main views, values and personal connections that Homer is trying to explore. Drawing onto universal values, the emotions us humans feel such as grief, honour, anger, loss, and love will help better understand how Homer wants his audience to read and understand the personal values. The way in how Hectors wife and Priam and his people grieve and feel after the passing of Hector are what no human should ever have to go through. Especially witnessing the whole killing scene of Hector in front of their own eyes. Homer uses deliberate diction to show readers the difficulties and horror that will haunt them for ever more and now have to live with. The application of loss and grief is very evident in this passage. Homer displays this through speech such as; ‘‘grieving’, ‘memory burning on’, ‘memories flooded over him’, ‘wander in anguish’, ‘shamming’, ‘mourned her brave sons fate’, ‘never-ending heart break’, and ‘what unforgettable sorrow seizes on your heart’’. When drawing deeper on the quotes from the passage there is a common reference to nature like forces. Such as ‘memories flooded over him’ and ‘memory burning on’. Both flooded and burning could connote when it comes to describing the way people respond to grief. In a way both ‘flooded’ and ‘burning’ are opposites and yet both fire and water can be destructive. These two words have a deeper meaning than just environmental changes that happen in nature. Burning could indeed represent the anger and revenge that one feels in their heart and soul after losing someone or something they love, and flooding could initiate the tears and the cold lonely feeling in one’s heart or the dark empty hole that is left behind and cannot be filled again after the after the loss. Imagery use is present in ‘The Iliad’ as it provokes emotions and thoughts of readers. Examples of imagery use in ‘The Iliad’ are ‘burning’, ‘flooding’, ‘battle’, ‘thunder’, ‘blood’, ‘tears wept’, ‘warrior’, ‘burning plunging balls of fire’, ‘over-looking the steep sand dunes’ and many more.
Homer uses connotations regularly through his work to help readers use their imagination. Examples through - out ‘Book 24’ include ‘battle’- this helps readers picture a violent killing scene, with blood and horror. ‘The Iliad’ also presents ‘love,’ ‘passion’ and ‘erotic desire’. This connects readers to the text in a personal way as they can relate to own experiences. It assists the conveyance of humanity throughout ‘The Iliad’, as it involves readers emotionally with the representation of everyday ‘farmers’ being transformed into ‘warriors,’ similarly to real life circumstances associated with war.

When looking at the Greeks camp in ‘Troy’ there is a lot of scenes set in darkness.
These scenes are normally when there is a battle involved or a burial of a loved one. This creates a cold lonely feeling as they are all grieving and the mood is set in darkness to create a sad miserable impression. The mention of nature in ‘Troy’ is quite evident through the film as one of the main references of nature is water. Water is used for both good and bad in the film. It creates a barrier for outlanders to approach Troy, however the Greeks find a way around the problem and use numerous amounts of monstrous boats to Travel to Troy to take place in the battle. The use of wood is also very common during the film of ‘Troy’. It was used by the Greeks to build boats but most importantly to build the ‘Trojan Horse’. This helped the Greeks win the battle and was the reason why Achilles lost his now known as memorable life. The wood represents the mourning of one and the loneliness one feels. When it was time for both people of Sparta and people of Greece to pay their respect and tributes to the passed loved ones they would burn their deprived bodies on high wooden stakes to glorify the deceased ones power or vulnerability. The people of Sparta used another element of nature against the Greeks and that was fire. They used it to light up their arrows that would then find their way to a moving energetic ball of finely woven sticks and grass, the fire would then catch light to the traveling plunging balls that were pushed down the sand dunes to then finally make it to the mass of Greeks waiting to fight the people of Sparta. Troy used this to their advantage as it burnt alive and crushed many Greeks. Imagery is used throughout the film. With all battle scenes, some parts weren’t shown to viewers as it may have been too full on or gruesome. This is then when watches had to use their imagination and picture what it would be like fighting under orders of the king or ruler. Dictions such
as ‘his breath turned heavy’, or ‘he took his last breath’. These quotes create a picture of someone slowly dying in views minds. In the film there is one particular scene that catches my attention. It is the killing scene of Prince Hector. The camera has a bird eye view as it films over the top of Hector and Achilles going into battle. This could indeed represent the gods as they are above all us humans with their power and authority that they hold. It could also represent that the gods are watching over us.

When comparing both ‘The Iliad’ and ‘Troy’ they have a lot of similarities. If both are explored in depth you find many mentions of ‘grief’ and ‘loss’ being likened to ‘nature’. This helps the audience relate to other things that they might have experienced in life. When in a tight and meaningful relationship humans can experience countless emotions and grief and loss are just minor examples of what we go through in life.