Introduction
Author’s Note:
This will be a brand-new adaption of The Story of Troy. It will be loosely tied to Homer’s Iliad in order to make it my own. There will be a mix of different elements, story lines, and characters from an array of books and movies that are some of my personal favorites. This adaptation of The Story of Troy will have twists and turns.
This will follow the young Trojan Prince, Paris, seducing Helen of Sparta to return home with him to Troy. In response to the perceived kidnapping of his wife, King Menelaus recruits his brother King Agamemnon to plan an invasion of the Trojan city that has so long challenged the Greeks in the eastern part of the Aegean.
INTRODUCTION
The Spartans are throwing a farewell party for the Trojans in honor of a peace deal and a new alliance between the two cities. While the party is going on the Trojans are loading the ship with essential supplies for their long journey across the Aegean Sea.
KING MENELAUS: As we say goodbye to our honored guests, we would like to salute the Princes of Troy. Prince Hector and Prince Paris, we thank you now as your allies and as your friends. While we may have had our disagreements in the past, as well as many battles, we always respected each other. And finally, we will drink to peace and tranquility.
PRINCE HECTOR: To peace and tranquility.
Paris looks on at Queen Helen of Sparta in a very seductive way. Helen returns a yearning glance to young Paris.
KING MENELAUS: Time for the celebrations!
The entire palace and city celebrate all night long. Paris follows Helen up to her personal chambers in the palace where he successfully seduces her into making love as well persuading her to follow him back to Troy to be his own wife.
PRINCE PARIS: Come with me, back to Troy.
QUEEN HELEN: I can't just leave.
PRINCE PARIS: We both feel the same way so I plead with you to come home with me.
QUEEN HELEN: Your father and country just made peace with Menelaus. It will destroy the peace and he will follow me with an army hellbent on killing all of us.
PRINCE PARIS: My brother commands the largest and finest army in the east he will protect a daughter of Troy. So please come with us. With me.
QUEEN HELEN: I'll go with you to Troy.
The following morning King Menelaus finds out that his wife left with the Trojans.
However he interprets her leaving as a kidnapping from the part of the Trojans. Angered by these developments he journeys to Mycenae to his brother's palace to enlist his support. Menelaus manages to convince his brother King Agamemnon to wage war on Troy until Helen is returned to Menelaus. But what Agamemnon doesn't tell his brother is that he does not care about his wife but rather the destruction of Troy.
On the high seas Prince Paris informs his brother, Prince Hector, that Queen Helen of Sparta has joined them on the voyage and will now be Princess Helen of Troy. Enraged by his brother’s idiocy and foolishness he orders the ship to go full speed ahead to the Trojan coastline as he has a sense that Menelaus will chase them down.
A week passes by and the Greeks, under the command of King Agamemnon, have amassed an invasion force of 750,000 Greeks to set sail in the morning. Missing from the invasion force is Achilles and his Myrmidons. Achilles no longer wants to fight for Agamemnon due to a power struggle between the two dating back to the Mycenaean-Thessaly War and who would rule Thessaly once it fell.
Agamemnon dispatches warlord King Odysseus to try to convince Achilles to join the invasion force.
After a long conversation between Achilles and Odysseus, Achilles agrees to join the fleet. The hatchet between Agamemnon and Achilles is not resolved but rather buried as Achilles eyes eternal glory now rather than power.
Across the sea the Trojan ship carrying the Princes of Troy and Helen arrives on the beaches of Troy. King Priam leads a special envoy with High General Glaucus welcoming Hector and Paris back to Troy. Priam also tells Helen that she is welcome in Troy as a daughter of Troy. Meanwhile Glaucus gives Hector and Paris a giant bear hug.
Later that night King Priam and Prince Hector have a discourse over what their next move would be.
PRINCE HECTOR: Put her on a ship and send her home. She will cost us our way of life.
KING PRIAM: If I send her away, then Paris will follow her to his death. This is different from all of his other affairs. He truly does love her.
PRINCE HECTOR: He doesn’t have to know.
KING PRIAM: He won't know for a day but he will chase her back to Sparta, to his death.
PRINCE HECTOR: By now Menelaus has recruited Agamemnon and all of Greece to come get Helen. I will not stand idly by and watch my fellow countrymen suffer death, their children massacred in cold blood, and their wives to be slaves, all so my brother can have his first taste of true love.
KING PRIAM: I know your brother can be a fool but I will fight a thousand wars before letting him die.
PRINCE HECTOR: Father, we can’t win this war.
KING PRIAM: Everything is in the hands of the gods now.
The following morning the citizens of Troy are going about their daily normal lives and routines. However the Trojan army is in the midst of making thousands of new sets of armor and thousands of more weapons such as swords, spears, and war machines.
Prince Hector and his wife Andromache are in the palace with their sons, Astyanax and Haldir. The two look down in admiration of the future leaders of Troy.
Atop the high walls of Troy the watchers spot a massive fleet approaching the shoreline. The alarms of Troy ring loud across the beaches, the city, and the nearby pastures. Prince Hector looks out to the sea to see what he fears approach the shoreline of his country.
An emergency meeting is held in the palace with King Priam, Prince Hector, and all of the High Generals of Troy.
PRINCE HECTOR: Glaucus, ready the army. I want every son and daughter of Troy brought within the walls. Get patrols to search the countryside and get them here. If they can’t walk, carry them.
GENERAL GLAUCUS: AYE! And what of the workers and citizens on the beaches?
PRINCE HECTOR: Wake up Deiphobus from wherever he's sleeping and send him down the beaches to evacuate them. I shall lead the cavalry to engage the Greeks and to cover our people's retreat into the city. Ready the archers. Once we’re no longer in the line of fire of our archers unleash hell on the Greeks.
On the beaches the Greeks begin to land their troops and overwhelm the small and thin number of Trojan defenders. The Greek onslaught is led by Achilles and his Myrmidons. The Greeks break through the beach defenses and rout the Trojan forces. Hector and the Trojan cavalry cover the retreating Trojans as the archers open fire on the beaches and cause the Greek forward advance to grind to a halt, allowing for many more Trojans to flee to safety.
Achilles looks upon the beaches of Troy to a victorious Greek army that cheers him on.