Review of Troy: Our Greatest Story Retold – Stephen Fry

The story of Troy speaks to all of us – the kidnapping of Helen, a queen celebrated for her beauty, sees the Greeks launch a thousand ships against the city of Troy, to which they will lay siege for ten whole years. It is a terrible war with casualties on all sides as well as strained relations between allies, whose consequences become tragedies.

In Troy you will find heroism and hatred, love and loss, revenge and regret, desire and despair. It is these human passions, written bloodily in the sands of a distant shore, that still speak to us today.

Troy: Our Greatest Story Retold

Stephen Fry

Michael Joseph

Supplied by Penguin Random House New Zealand

Reviewed by Stephen Litten

Yes, it is that Troy, and the story starts like most Greek myths, with Zeus not keeping it in his pants. From there on, there’s a few more Olympian extramarital affairs, royal murders, marriages, prophecies, and a divine beauty contest. From this point on, the gods seem to fall over each other trying to get their preferred prophecy over the line. And once war starts, they can’t resist meddling in Greek and Trojan affairs. Even after Zeus puts his foot down and orders a stop to it.

For those familiar with Homer’s Iliad¸ which covers but four days and three nights during the tenth year of the war, there is a wealth of background detail Homer assumes his listeners know. Such as how Menelaus came to married to Helen, why Paris risked it all to abduct her (and Menelaus’ treasury), and why the Greeks united to get her back. All told in the pared down, modern idiom Fry has used in the preceding Mythos and Heroes.

Once more. Stephen Fry has crafted another great book out of the dusty stanzas of Greek epic poetry. He has drawn on various sources to create a coherent narrative. And then tells the reader not to look too closely at the timelines as it’s all been bodged together. The one grumble I have is Stephen hasn’t really shown his calculations. Part of the problem is that many works, such as the Epic Cycle (which details various events during the Trojan War). Apart from the usual Intros and acknowledgements, Fry has included two short essays on Myth and Reality. Read them.

This is a book that should inhabit your collection. It’s certainly staying in mine. Hopefully there is a retelling of the Odyssey (and other tales following the fall of Troy). My thanks to Penguin Random House for the review copy.