The War at Troy by Lindsay Clarke

As Troy the movie is almost upon us, I wanted to brush up on some historical reading on the Homer’s epic Iliad. amongst the other things I read was a fictional re-telling of Iliad by Lindsay Clarke.

The book tells of the events that lead to the ten-year war between Troy and the Greek nations, but above all it is the story of the heroes that are larger than life. It is as Clarke puts it in the prologue of the book:

"The people who lived in those days were closer to gods than we are, and great deeds and marvels were commoner then, which is why the stories we have from them are nobler and richer than our own. So that those stories should not pass from the earth, I have decided to set down everything I know of the stories of the war at Troy -- of the way it began, of the way it was fought, and of the way in which it was ended."

Surprisingly enough, the book covers the war itself in relatively little detail, and concentrates on the relationships between the characters and their personalities: love between treacherous Paris and fair Helen, the cunning of Odysseus, King Priam’s pride in his sons and nobility of Menelaus and his anguish when Helen is taken from him.

Agamemnon, the High King of Men and the leader of the Greek armies is painted as a ruthless tyrant, exploiting the capture of Helen to bring his armies to the shores of Asia. Indeed Clarke takes the view (supported by most historians) that the true cause of the war was the struggle for dominance between Asia and the Argive Greeks. Indeed the author details the political machinations between the different courts in great detail and with apparent relish. I always appreciate this as it makes the time and the people to come alive in my mind –very few people exist solely for war after all.

The supernatural elements are present in the book (starting with the argument between the goddesses of Olympus on which one of them is the most beautiful), but many mythological elements have been ditched too –for example, Achilles is not magically invulnerable to all wounds as in the original epic, but rather is simply the greatest warrior of the age.

By far the strongest elements are the epic encounters between the Troyan Champions and the Greek heroes: the most touching of all being the most famous duel in the history of the world: Hektor’s valiant but pointless battle against the god-like Achilles.

Though not the best of all historical epics I have ever read, it is well worth your time if you enjoy heroic stories of love and war.

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