The Movie Troy: The Untimely Timeship
By: Odessa May Fontenelle
Tags: History, Time Travel, Greece, Classics, Movies

Troy… ah… a savagely brilliant movie! Derived from the “Iliad” originally written by Homer, set in the 13th (or 12th?) century BCE, and directed by Wolfgang Peterson; was released on May 9th, 2004, starring — drumroll — Orlando Bloom, Diane Kruger, Eric Bana, and… Brad Pitt *sigh*.

Troy tells the story of a courageous Greek demi-god hero — Achilles, beautifully brought to life by none other than Brad Pitt — who dies during the Greek war against Troy, after falling in love with one of Troy’s priestesses, right before the Greeks claim their victory on Troy. The story starts with a young naive Trojan prince — Paris portrayed by Orlando Bloom the other dreamboat in this movie — who steels the wife (and most beautiful woman in all of Greece) from Menelaus right after a peace meeting with him. In response to this Menelaus and his power hungry brother Agamemnon wage war on Troy.

Moving onto the untimely movie moment in question…

A long scene is set in the Trojan’s temple of Apollo, centered around Achilles and his fleet of Greeks brutally sacking the temple. At the beginning of the scene the camera slowly zooms in on the front of the temple, clearly displaying the three statues guarding the entrance (see fig. 1): one solid gold statue of Apollo and two marble Kouros statues. The golden statue is completely out of place in context of the time period. The Trojan war would have taken place around 13th or 12th century BCE, so the only statues around would have been the simpler Kouros and Kore statues, whose arms did not extend away from their bodies, made of either wood or marble. Solid metal statues only appeared around the early classical period during 6th and 7th centuries BCE. Moving on to the stance and posture of the two historically correct Kouros statues… although the Kouros statues would technically be in place in context of the time period, the muscles of the ones depicted being given prominent definition as well as their postures being slightly slacked, is completely opposed to the static posture of virtually every statue before Kritos’ contrapposto breakthrough in *gasp!* 480 BCE!!! (Is it just me or do you smell time travel here?) Sadly, Kritos hasn’t even been born yet when this movie is taking place… This brings us to the next problem with the Apollo statue, is that he is not only made out of the wrong material for the time period but his posture and position also give away that he would have been made after Kritos’ breakthrough in 480 BCE… *sigh*… in fact, significantly after Kritos’ contrapposto due to the accurate muscle definition and realistic execution of his specific and complicated stance.

In accurate (or is it in inaccurate?) conclusion…

Troy’s representation of the statues surrounding Apollo’s temple in Troy in the 13th or 12th century BCE is undeniably an untimely inaccurate movie moment.

Works Cited

Troy. Dir. Wolfgang Peterson. Screenplay by David Benioff. Perf. Brad Pitt, and Orlando Bloom. Warner Bros. Pictures, 2004. Film.

<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ikUD2rG-rNI>(3:14)

List of Illustrations

(Fig. 1) Still of Apollo’s temple in Troy. Dir. Wolfgang Peterson. 2004. Film.

<Screenshot from youtube video>

(Fig. 2) Kouros Statue. The Bronze. 2019. E-commerce website.