Troy – Stephen Fry

You think you know the story, maybe from Homer’s Iliad at school, or Brad Pitt’s exploits in the 2004 film. You think you know the main players – Helen, Achilles, Odysseus, Hector, Paris. But exactly who did what to whom and why?

Here, Stephen Fry takes you through “the greatest story ever told” with clarity and wit. In his hands (or words) the names are fleshed out into characters and events make as much sense as mythology allows.

The Greeks: Menelaus, the wronged husband who calls in the pledges of support when wife, Helen, is carried off to Troy; Agamemnon, his brother, king of kings, noble but rather dim; Odysseus, the trickster, charming, resourceful, but self-serving; Achilles, bold, big-headed, and invincible (apart from that unprotected heel). Then the Trojans: King Priam, aged and fretting over his city and his sons; Hector, the stately, upright, honourable warrior; Paris, the pampered, entitled waster, gifted Helen as a bribe by Aphrodite to sway his judgement of the beauty contest between her, Hera and Athena.

Let battle commence, ten years of it, on the plains of Ilium. On both sides, heroic deeds and heroic deaths; sulkings and fallings out; squabbles over tribute, booty, and concubines. A stalemate until Odysseus reveals his cunning plan – the old wooden horse trick – and despite Cassandra’s warnings, the Trojans fatally fail to beware Greeks bearing gifts.

It is a great read. Fry’s scholarship is worn lightly and though the sly asides are fun, he does not shy away from the brutalities that intrude. He gives the women their due, as far as possible given the sources, and exposes the failings of the mighty, be they men or gods.

Mythos, Heroes, Troy, all read, next stop Odyssey (via Pat Barker’s trilogy giving voice to the Women of Troy).