Introduction
Since their first appearances almost three millennia ago, narratives of the Trojan War have continued to fascinate people and inspire numerous retellings across various media and interpretations. From Michael Tippett’s opera King Priam to “Troy: Fall of a City,” a miniseries co-produced by BBC One and Netflix in 2018 that depicted Paris and Helen’s romantic relationship during the Trojan War, the story’s enduring appeal to modern audiences lies in its exploration of universal human experiences, such as love, honor, chivalry, and betrayal. Homer’s Iliad, one of the earliest and most influential accounts, centers on the rage of Achilles during the final years of the Trojan War and reveals how pride, revenge, and grief drive both gods and mortals toward inevitable destruction.
The story continues to be a profound source of inspiration for contemporary writers, artists, and performers who present previously voiceless or peripheral characters through fresh perspectives. The abundance of new works on this subject can be attributed to the many voiceless, yet significant characters in ancient sources, such as the Iliad, many of them women. Their suffering is evident and palpable even in the brief glimpses offered by the ancient sources; however, these pains were often not fully explored, compelling modern creators to reimagine and articulate the tragic perspectives and experiences of those affected. Through such works, contemporary creators connect the present day to the mythic past, offering new insights into the legend and its relevance to our world.
Reinventing Characters and Giving Voice through Music
Joe Goodkin, in his folk-opera retellings of Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey, delivers 17 songs from the perspectives of various characters from the epic poems. Goodkin’s 2022 album, The Blues of Achilles, focuses on the human experiences of the characters involved in the Trojan War. Goodkin is following a very long tradition of retelling the Iliad in ways that reflect the issues of the present moment, and he presents more women’s voices than men’s.[1] He draws parallels between historical and modern conflicts by exploring themes such as grief, loss, and the overall tragedies caused by war, using a style of American folk tradition: “Blues music is [America’s] oral tradition. It was composed and came to be as an art form largely the same way the Greek epic did, by these bards-slash-singer-songwriters.”[2]
The album begins with a reflection on the war’s lasting impact and then moves backward through its most significant events. Specifically, Goodkin gives voice to the women affected by the Trojan War and produces a “true war story”—one without the glory of victory and pompous glorification of triumph.[3] In “Woman of the War (Briseis’ Song),” for example, he laments Briseis’ lot as the captured slave of Achilles, who killed her family: “The man who killed my father said, ‘Go and wait for me in bed’ / You know the face that launched the ships / But do you know the slave with trembling lips?”[4] Goodkin presents Briseis as a war victim who seeks to define herself against Helen. Goodkin hopes to empower the poem’s many silent heroines: “There are more voices in there, sometimes they just speak in different ways than we’re used to in our modern storytelling.”[5]
Another victim, Chryseis, is also given a voice in Goodkin’s song: “She’s the linchpin in the story…but she has no lines.”[6] Goodkin certainly gives her the much-needed voice in his song “This is How It Feels (Chryseis’ Song),” underscoring her sense of loss and displacement: “I am a wave upon a beach / Pulled back against my will into the sea / I am a golden field of grain / Cut down by a farmer ‘til nothing remains.”[7] Instead of denying the original works, Goodkin’s interpretation makes the story more relatable to modern audiences, adding depth and humanity to the heroines of the Trojan War. Moreover, by incorporating the blues—a musical form rooted in American Black culture, described as “grief that arises from love”—Goodkin’s work underscores the universal struggles of human experience and cultural expression. This approach not only revitalizes ancient mythology but also connects it with contemporary cultural narratives.
Reframing the Trojan War in Literature
Contemporary writers are challenging long-held beliefs about ancient narratives in classical literature and drawing in modern readers by re-illustrating the mythological women whose voices and dramas are too often muted by men in the original texts. Modern reimaginings of Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey focus on the stories of fearless Greek and Trojan women, in books such as The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker, Circe by Madeline Miller, and The Firebrand by Marion Zimmer Bradley. Just as the singer-songwriter Goodkin focuses on Briseis and Chryseis, so does Natalie Haynes in a bold choral retelling of the Iliad in her book A Thousand Ships.
Praised by Elizabeth Lowry as a “panoramic and playful yet… serious comment on war and its true cost” from the women’s point of view, A Thousand Ships includes the stories of Briseis and Chryseis, who are portrayed as strong women.[8] After the brutal slayings of her father, husband, and three brothers by Achilles, Briseis refuses to show her grief openly. She confidently tells Chryseis, “They will not see my grief…. They have not earned it. I will grieve for my family when I am alone.”[9] Such internal strength shows her dignity and courage. Chryseis is also depicted as resilient and brave: even in the face of threats and physical harm, she “would not cry…. And nor would Briseis, although the two women were taut, like bowstrings. They would not snap.”[10] In addition to these two characters, fifty-some other characters’ unheard-of stories are retold “in lively fashion, gripping tales of bravery, treachery and revenge.”[11] Contemporary readers see that there are different forms of heroism that they would otherwise not have realized by reading Homer.
Giving Motion to the Unsung Heroes of the Trojan War through Dance
In addition to literary reimaginings, the Trojan War narrative has been reborn in modern drama and dance. Indeed, it has proven especially powerful in contemporary performance, where its themes are reinterpreted through physical and emotional expressions rather than through text alone. Syrian director Omar Abu Saada turned to the Iliad to tell the story of the suffering of women in his blighted homeland. He staged an Arabic version of The Trojan Women by Euripides, a play with anti-war themes which strongly resonated through its cast of twenty-four Syrian refugee women, all of whom left their homes due to armed conflict.[12] Saada wove the refugee women’s personal stories of the Syrian conflict into the production, adding that the actors “started to make links between [their] stories and the original stories in the text and used that in the performance…because the women were more interested in telling their stories, and that’s where the action lies—in the storytelling.”[13]
In another retelling, choreographer Pascal Rioult and his company, RIOULT Dance NY, performed “Women On The Edge…Unsung Heroines of the Trojan War,” a triptych that examines the consequences of the war on women and others on the periphery of the conflict by focusing on three stories of royal women who lost everything in the Trojan War: Iphigenia, the daughter whom King Agamemnon sacrificed to bring favorable winds to the Greek fleets; Helen, the queen of Sparta whose kidnapping ignited the Trojan War; and Cassandra, a Trojan woman gifted with the power of prophecy, but cursed that nobody would believe her.[14] Rioult highlights their heroism, such as Iphigenia’s acceptance of her sacrifice: “Iphigenia in the end steps forward to accept her own sacrifice … She makes this gesture and behaves so much more heroically than male Greek ‘heroes’ around her.”[15] Despite forms of modern technology, warfare across three thousand years witnesses similar ideas of trauma and loss. By highlighting the voices of the politically marginalized and historically ignored, Rioult also influences how we interpret the conflicts of our time: to see victims as humans rather than background noise in a larger conflict.
Conclusion
Oral traditions, after all, are born through retelling. And perhaps that is why we are so fond of retelling them. It is natural that we are retelling these stories. They are supposed to continue the human spirit, reminding us that we are not so different from those who lived thousands of years ago. These reimaginings enrich the original narratives and make classics more accessible to the modern audience. From such a perspective, these reinterpretations are a kind of transhistorical dialogue between ancient bards and contemporary storytellers, challenging stereotypes and adding new dimensions of inclusivity. By continuously adding new details and creativity, we honor the essence of the oral tradition, keeping these stories alive and relevant.
These reimagined accounts, in various forms, offer a rejuvenated sense of studying ancient civilizations and their enduring impact on contemporary culture. Timeless themes that remain relevant even today, such as love, honor, pride, revenge, and the human cost of war, allow modern creators to examine contemporary issues through the lens of the story of the Trojan War.[16] By reimagining this classic tale, modern authors can engage with its enduring themes and characters while addressing contemporary concerns. They make the ancient story appealing to new generations of readers and inspire them to create their own works, adding to the collective legacy of mankind.
[1] Robert Rodi, “Singing of War: Joe Goodkin Advances the Bardic Tradition,” Newcity Music, April 8, 2022, https://music.newcity.com/2022/04/08/singing-of-war-joe-goodkin-advances-the-bardic-tradition/.
[2] Olivia Ares, “If Homer Had a Guitar,” Duke: Research Blog, November 3, 2021,
https://researchblog.duke.edu/2021/11/03/if-homer-had-a-guitar/.
[3] Joe Goodkin, “Singing in the Shadow of Homer,” Antigone Journal, February 17, 2022,
https://antigonejournal.com/2022/02/singing-shadow-homer/.
[4] Goodkin, “Singing in the Shadow of Homer,” 2022.
[5] Goodkin, 2022.
[6] Rodi, “Singing of War: Joe Goodkin Advances the Bardic Tradition,” 2022.
[7] Goodkin, 2022.
[8] Elizabeth Lowry, “A Thousand Ships by Natalie Haynes Review—Women of the Trojan War,” The Guardian, May 23, 2019, https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/may/23/a-thousand-ships-natalie-haynes-review.
[9] Natalie Haynes, A Thousand Ships (New York, NY: Picador, 2019), 63.
[10] Haynes, A Thousand Ships, 67.
[11] Carol Memmott, “Natalie Haynes’s ‘A Thousand Ships’ Brilliantly Reframes the Trojan War,” Washington Post, February 8, 2021, https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/a-thousand-ships-book-review/2021/02/08/4885ae7c-60d2-11eb-9061-07abcc1f9229_story.html.
[12] Haben Habteslasie, “Life Imitates Art: Syrian Refugees Stage Greek Tragedy in Jordan,” UNHCR, June 1, 2014, https://www.unhcr.org/news/stories/life-imitates-art-syrian-refugees-stage-greek-tragedy-jordan.
[13] Habteslasie, “Life Imitates Art: Syrian Refugees Stage Greek Tragedy in Jordan,” 2014.
[14] Geoffrey Mock, “Dancing to the Continuing Relevance of the Trojan War,” Duke Today, July 27, 2016, https://today.duke.edu/2016/07/trojan.
[15] Mock, “Dancing to the Continuing Relevance of the Trojan War,” 2016.
[16] Jan Haywood, “From the Iliad to Circe: Culture’s Enduring Fascination with the Myths of Troy,” The Conversation, November 21, 2019, https://theconversation.com/from-the-iliad-to-circe-cultures-enduring-fascination-with-the-myths-of-troy-127405.
Bibliography
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Memmott, Carol. “Natalie Haynes’s ‘A Thousand Ships’ Brilliantly Reframes the Trojan War.” Washington Post, February 8, 2021. https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/a-thousand-ships-book-review/2021/02/08/4885ae7c-60d2-11eb-9061-07abcc1f9229_story.html.
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