Essay Preview: Troy
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Synopsis 1:
Homers mighty epic poem, The Iliad, is the earliest written literature of Western civilization. Adele Geras, best known for her trilogy based on Sleeping Beauty, takes on the seemingly impertinent task of retelling the siege of Troy as a young adult novel, but manages to carry it off without trivializing the original. The great battles of the bronze-clad warriors and the clashes between Achilles and Hector and Odysseus are seen at a distance from the walls of the city, where the Trojan townspeople gather to sit each day and cheer the action like spectators at some archaic football game.
The passion of Helen and Paris, Hectors farewell to his ill-fated infant son, and other familiar domestic scenes are seen from a closer perspective, through the eyes of the four teenage protagonists. Marpessa is Helens young servant, and her sister Xanthe is nursemaid to Hectors baby son, while Iason, who is secretly beloved by their friend Polyxena, tends the horses and yearns for Xanthe, who has a crush on Alastor, who has impregnated Marpessa. These complicated, interlocking infatuations and love affairs work themselves out against a background of siege and bloodshed watched over by the gods. Artemis, Mars, Poseidon, and Pallas Athene appear in visions to reveal their plans to the characters (and to us), but their words blow away like mist as soon as they are gone. Meanwhile, the bawdy gossip of three old serving maids in the kitchen emulates a Greek chorus. The story winds to its inevitable destination with the emergence of the Greeks from the wooden horse and the bloody sack of the city–a suitably violent end to an ancient and violent tale.
Synopsis 2:
Troy focuses on the lives of young women in Troy at the end of the Trojan War and includes a full cast of characters from old serving women to Greek and Trojan royalty to Goddesses and all of the men these women are involved with. The storys perspective shifts between numerous characters with each chapter representing a different setting and different characters perspective. The book opens with Xanthes story. She works in the blood room tending soldiers brought into the walls after a battle. It is there that she meets Alastor and the god Eros who shoots Xanthe with his arrow causing her to love Alastor. (The Gods and Goddesses drift in and out of the story meddling in the affairs of the characters seemingly out of boredom, but humans immediately forget any contact with the deities after they disappear.) Xanthe works in Hector and Andromaches home, and her sister Marpessa works for Helen and Paris. Marpessa can see the Gods and Goddesses and remember what she sees, so when Aphrodite decides to teach Xanthe a lesson, Marpessa is fully conscious of what happens. Aphrodite brings together Alastor and Marpessa despite Marpessas objections. In the mean time, Iason, Xanthes long time friend is trying to decide how he can ask to marry her. Polyxena, friend to Xanthe and Iason, agrees to intercede with Xanthe on Iasons behalf even though she has feelings for Iason.. Xanthe doesnt consider the request because she is distracted by Alastor. Rumors have begun to travel through Troy that Alastor, a young man of means, has taken on a secret lover and that his mother arranged a marriage to prevent a union below his station. Xanthe is forced to face