An Old Soldier remembers the ten-year war at Troy and the events which led up to it: Paris, Helen, Menelaus, Agamemnon, Priam, Achilles, Patroclus, Hector, Cassandra, Odysseus…and the wooden horse.
Episode 1. video
Paris is blown off-course and lands his ship at Sparta, where he meets Menelaus and his queen - Helen.
Episode 2. video
Menelaus discovers Helen has eloped with Paris and issues an ultimatum to Troy: return her or face war.
Episode 3. video
The Greeks invade and the Trojans retreat behind the city walls...it's the start of 10 years of stalemate.
Episode 4. video
Achilles is refusing to fight and sends cousin Patroclus into battle wearing the hero's armour.
Episode 5
Patroclus is slain by Hector and Achilles returns to the battle seeking vengeance.
Episode 6. video
Achilles is killed by an arrow to the heel...and Odysseus has a plan for a secret weapon to end the war.
Episode 7
The Greeks leave the wooden horse outside the gates of Troy: the Trojans believe they have won the war.
The Trojan War
The events of the Trojan War are written about in a number of works of Ancient Greek literature, including ±«Óătvr’s epic poem The Iliad, which is at least 2,500 years old.
The cause of war is Helen’s elopement from the Spartan court with Paris, a Trojan prince. Helen is the wife of Menelaus - King of Sparta - and he musters an army led by his brother Agamemnon to sail to Troy to take Helen back. The war lasts for 10 long years, during which time the main events are concerned with the clashes between the leading characters, climaxing with the death of Hector at the hands of Achilles (as written about by ±«Óătvr in The Iliad) and continuing with the creation of the Trojan horse by Odysseus, the means by which Troy is vanquished and Helen returned to Menelaus.
Our version of the story is told from the point of view of the Old Soldier - looking back 40 years to the time when he was a bodyguard assigned to King Menelaus in the Spartan court. As the Old Soldier tells us: 'I was there at the beginning. And at the end.' He witnesses all the key events, which he relates in a manner that is both gritty and amusing.