The Curious Case of the Missing Oracle

It all starts with Paris and his “accidental” affair with Helen. The film makes it seem as if they just met each other and have fallen and love. Greek Myth however would have you believe she was persuaded by Aphrodite in return for Paris declaring her fairest of all the goddess's. But this is quite minor so it’s easy to tell the story without it. The next big event ignored is the supplication of Agamemnon by Chryses. Without this event, I suppose, there is no need for Apollo to be angry –aside from the fact the Achaeans pillaged his temple- so I suppose it makes economic sense to cut out both that and Apollo’s plague. And so continues the film with only verbal references to the all mighty gods.

One could say that the film almost makes fun of the gods. Early in the film, as the Achaean armada approaches , there is a conversation between King Priam and Prince Hektor where Hektor questions the gods power. This also summerises a the rest of the films tone towards the gods.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=POsbuxdVeW0

The next scene regarding the god’s role in the war occurs after the Greeks first strike at the walls. The leaders of Troy assemble to discuss their next move.
http://www.anyclip.com/movies/troy/trojan-war-room/#!quotes

It is at the end of the movie that Wolfgang Peterson’s ironic humour of their gods really shines through. The horse if found and a priest claims it to be a gift to the gods, it must therefore be taken inside the city. Paris objects and says they should burn it. King Priam however, takes the side of the priests and this simple act leads to the sacking and burning of the once great city.

Leaving the gods out probably wasn’t the best decision artistically, but history-wise Wolfgang Peterson can’t be criticised: it's relatively safe to say that the gods didn’t actually exist. He was trying to create a world that a modern audience can relate to, he succeeded, but at what cost? We lose a big part of the over-all feel of the Iliad and the people of that time. Economically, he manages to fit an epic poem of about 150,000 words into 196 minutes as well as adding extra background information before and after the happenings of the Iliad. Not to mention the Idea of a god coming down and having a conversation with someone mid-battle would be difficult to depict and wouldn’t make much sense to an audience of people who –for the most part- don’t care or know much about the Greek Gods or their influence on the ancient society.

In the Iliad, having the gods involved, has a significance that affects the affairs of both mortals and immortals for times to come. The story of the Trojan War itself can be seen as a lesson in human nature. It is a textbook in psychology, anthropology, cosmology, and metaphysics. All the myths have something important to say about human nature, because they are always about the interaction of men with the gods. A myth told without the gods is only half of the story, and not the better half at that.

In "Troy," the gods have become useless, foolish, and even the bringers of useless decisions; to put our confidence in them is to bring about ruin. Like our modern science and culture, which avoids the mysterious in favor of what we can see, hear, and measure, a story of Troy without the gods is only really about the arrogance of warriors and their strategies, which end in either victory or defeat. The story in the film told misses the opportunity to make us question our beliefs about the human heart and the human soul.