The Ending Of Troy Explained

Achilles is a man who answers to no one, not even kings. At least that is what he claims. Sure, he does have an abiding disdain for Agamemnon and isn't shy about calling the greedy monarch out for the filth that he is straight to his face. Yet, Achilles still shows up when Agamemnon demands it. But is it because Agamemnon commands the warrior who leads the elite Myrmidons or is it some other reason? Achilles makes no secret of it, he wages battle, often at the behest of Agamemnon, simply for the glory. Combat is all he has ever known, so he can't very well make a career in anything else. However, practice makes progress, and since combat has been the single focus of Achilles his entire life, he's damn near perfection.

Agamemnon hates Achilles for his insolence but understands he needs the warrior. He knows that Achilles won't do his bidding just because he commands it. Instead, the king listens to his advisors and dangles the carrot of glory in Achilles' face. Essentially, most of Achilles' entire career has been one big manipulation of the King of Mycenae using the warrior's greatest desire to be remembered for his exploits in order to secure his sword amid his campaigns to conquer Greek kingdoms. But, of course, Achilles is no dummy. He understands the manipulation, which is why he disdains the king. He doesn't agree with Agamemnon's methods or politics, but he nonetheless reaches for his own notoriety. After all, creating a lasting memory that echoes through the ages is the only true way to gain immortality and live on forever.

"Troy" feels like a truly grounded war film depicting a moment in history. But in all actuality, it's an adaptation of Homer's "Iliad," the first in a pair of epic Greek poems authored by Homer in the 8^th Century B.C. The film shed Homer's use of the gods in the tale and only depicted the men in the story as god-fearing. Furthermore, "Troy" took a few other liberties with the material.

In the film, Patroclus (Garrett Hedlund) is the cousin of Achilles. The warrior acts as somewhat of an older brother to Patroclus and teaches him all that he knows in the art of combat and war. When Patroclus is killed, his death inflames Achilles who kills Hector in retaliation. The "Iliad" never mentions that Patroclus and Achilles are related. In fact, it often depicts them as close friends and potentially even romantically entwined.

The length of the war is, perhaps, the most egregious alteration of Homer's original work. The film depicts a war that lasts days, maybe weeks at best. Troy is a city with mighty walls and is primed for a lengthy defense during war. "The Iliad" shares that the siege of Troy lasted an entire decade. Furthermore, the film depicts Agamemnon's victory as short-lived when the priestess Briseis (Rose Byrne) unceremoniously ends his life. But in the actual story, he survives the Trojan war and is only later murdered by his wife.

Helen, the queen at the center of it all is said to have been married off to Menelaus at a young age by her parents. However, Helen was actually the daughter of the king and queen of Sparta, making her royalty before her nuptials with Menelaus.

In the times of ancient Greece, it seems chivalry wasn't quite invented yet. Even in modern times, equality is a struggle, but in the ages when corrupt men had all the power over nations, women were often treated poorly. "Troy" depicts this tenfold with the film's villains, Menelaus and Agamemnon. As we've previously covered, Menelaus only regarded his own wife as a tool for bearing children. Otherwise, he'd wield his power and authority to sleep with whomever he wanted to in the kingdom of Sparta. Agamemnon doesn't do much better in his treatment of Briseis considering her nothing more than the "spoils of war."

Even the tortured anti-hero Achilles can hardly rein in his emotions enough to stay dignified in his relationship with Briseis. Not only does he hold her as a prisoner, but he also promises her that he won't hurt her and later breaks that promise when he flies into a rage over the death of his cousin.

And let's not forget the leadership of this era. When Priam holds counsel with the elders and elites of Troy, there's not a single woman among them. All women in this film are relegated to love interests or objects for the abusers depicted on screen. Even Helen is ultimately disrespected by her own lover Paris. How might you ask? Well, he never harms her physically or verbally abuses her, but he often refuses to allow her to use her own agency in matters of war. She voices her hesitancy to leave with Paris because of the bloodshed that would result, but her voice ultimately falls on deaf ears. "Troy" is a story about the conflict of the egos of men, and women and children are the ultimate victims.

What would it be like to be a god? At first, you might fancy the idea entirely given that you'd be immortal and impervious to pain and sorrow. However, you'd only like to be invincible to pain because you know what pain is. Imagine living only a life of divinity. Because you wouldn't know pain or sorrow, that means you also wouldn't know joy and pure bliss. It's a hard idea for us to wrap our minds around, but our moments of happiness are only effective because we have the backdrop of our frailty and sadness to compare them to. In effect, there would be no highs without any lows. Your story would be a stagnant straight line neither experiencing the worst nor best life had to offer. In fact, you couldn't even say that it's truly living.

Achilles understands this. Perhaps, he not only fights for glory but for the feeling of being truly alive — as twisted as that might seem. The warrior explains to the priestess why the gods aren't as important as everyone thinks they are. "The gods envy us. They envy us because we're mortal, because any moment may be our last. Everything is more beautiful because we're doomed. You will never be lovelier than you are now. We will never be here again," he softly states to Briseis. In effect, Achilles is romanticizing our pain and suffering. But he's also not wrong. There's a deeper meaning to our lives the moment we understand how finite they really are. Life is meant to be lived.

The legend of Achilles is one that echoes through the ages thanks to Homer's "Iliad." If he were a real person, then he certainly would've obtained the glory that he so desired given that nearly 3,000 years later we are still cognizant of his story. Ultimately, Achilles vied for immortality — at least the only form that a human could achieve — because he wanted to be remembered through the ages. But in the final moments of "Troy", he sheds his care for glory in favor of finding and protecting Briseis during the sacking of Troy.

He does manage to find the priestess and kills those who attempt to do her harm. But Paris decides to dish out his own brand of vengeance upon Achilles for killing his brother Hector. He shoots Achilles with his bow and arrow. The first arrow pierces Achilles' heel. The succeeding arrows sink into the warrior's chest. He pulls the arrows from his body. Eventually, he succumbs to his wounds with the only arrow remaining in his corpse being the one that pierced his ankle. As the myths of Achilles go, it is said that his mother dipped him in the river Styx when he was a baby in order to make him impervious to physical threats. Though, she held him by his ankle. So, that part of him didn't receive the protection of the river making it his weakness. This legend, of course, wasn't relayed in the grounded take of "Troy." But it was thought that the arrow Paris shot into his heel is the one that finally ended him. Thanks to the legend, the Achilles tendon is named after him. Without truly desiring it in the end, Achilles does achieve the immortality he once sought after.

The film ends with the fabled infiltration of the Greek army by utilizing the Trojan horse, a wooden construct used to gain entry to the city. The Trojans think the Greeks abandoned their campaign and left the large wooden horse behind as a token of peace. However, some of the Greek army men are hiding inside the horse. After the Trojans bring it inside the city walls, the Greek soldiers sneak out at night and open the city gates allowing the rest of the armies through to invade and sack Troy. What ensues is the stuff of nightmares as Greek soldiers ravenously kill innocent civilians, including children. Priam dies knowing that his city has fallen and that he's lost everything.

The way "Troy" positions its characters, the good guys lose and the bad guys win. While the film may not be an entirely accurate depiction of Homer's "Iliad," it does fall in line with the tradition of Greek myth. That is that the story is a remarkable tragedy. The feel-good stories of modern pop culture typically always see justice and light prevail among the darkness. But the ancient Greeks are famous for highlighting the cruel nature of humankind and even the universe at large in their tales of gods and men. There is no doubt that the fall of an entire city is tragic. What makes it even worse is that most of the heroes are involved in death during the war. It's not entirely dour, of course; the story offers at least a glimmer of hope for the remaining Trojans seeking a new life beyond their walls.