Week 2 Story Planning: Homer's Illiad

(how I feel having to write papers sometimes)

(source: flickr) 

Moving forward to the storytelling phase further research needs to be completed on the geography of Eastern Europe, specifically the Greek Islands and Western Persian Empire. Rather than setting my story in a historically known place such as Athens or Sparta, the war will instead take place on a lesser known Greek isle in the region serving as a sorta of neutral ground for the combat to take place. Moving forward I have decided the antagonist for my retelling of a Greek Epic will be the city-state of Sparta, with Achilles leading a mercenary force aligned with the Trojans of Troy lead by Hector. Pairing these two traditional rivals with one another will provide a different take on the potential legacies that could have been left behind had Achilles joined Troy during the war rather than serving the desires of Agamemnon's brother. I have no prior knowledge concerning naval warfare, especially the form that existed during the Bronze Age, so my war story will be focusing on ground warfare between classical hoplite troops of the Greek City-States from the period. As I mentioned in my first and second note taking posts a big issue I felt when going through the reading process was trying to pronounce the names of the Greek chieftains in the epic poem, so I will be using names with more of a Roman origin instead, hoping to aid in the reading rhythm of the story. This being the first story of the semester means I am going in not knowing what to expect exactly, similar to the feeling I am sure the Greeks would have felt sailing to the shores of Troy. I am hoping to tell a story in a classic age of antiquity, while implementing more modern tones of warfare story telling, rather than glorifying one central hero of the conflict my tale will be similar to the HBO show Band of Brothers, focusing on the goals that can be accomplished through the brotherhood formed in combat. Achilles and Hector will be presented as they are in the Illiad, as great warriors of a by-gone age, coming together in my story for glory and their names to go down in history forever. The leader of Sparta will be known as Prometheus, planning to overtake the Greek peninsula with the goal of pleasing the God Hades. Zeus will enlist the legendary soldiers Achilles and Hector to lead forces against the Spartans with the goal of protecting the peninsula and immortalizing their names in history.  

Bibliography: Homer's Illiad (retold by A. J. Church)

http://mythfolklore.blogspot.com/2014/05/myth-folklore-unit-homers-iliad-retold.html