- On the Trojan Plain a silence reigns,
the like of which hasn't reigned for 10 years.
Wisps of smoke rise to the sky.
It's the remains of the Grecian camp
burned by it's own soldiers.
Agamemnon's fleet, the largest fleet ever assembled,
has gone.
The horizon is empty.
There is nothing left on the shore
but this strange, wooden monument.
A gigantic horse,
abandoned.
After the funeral of Hector, King Priam's eldest son,
and as the Trojan army was preparing for battle
the Greeks did not appear below the high walls of Troy.
And since then they are nowhere to be found.
Priam has sent his riders to scour every coast
in his kingdom.
They are unanimous.
The Greeks have returned to sea.
They have given up the war.
And where the king's ships once stood,
a wooden horse of unheard of size
harnessed in gold and bronze stands on the beach.
Priam doesn't know if he should rejoice or worry.
What does this about turn mean?
And this wooden horse?
The old king orders that the gates be opened.
He goes out, accompanied by the main dignitaries of Troy
and goes to the ruined camp of his enemies.
He recognizes the location of Achilles's tent.
In the place from which he collected the martyred
remains of his son, Hector,
now stands this horse.
They all look at it, fascinated.
But already the questions are pouring forth.
What is behind this strange work of carved wood?
Is it a trick on the part of the Greeks?
An offering to some protective deity?
Cassandra in a voice devoid of expression
suggests that they set fire to it
without further delay or throw it into the sea.
This wooden horse is a trap.
Aeneas protests.
Hecuba sides with her daughter.
Paris admires the enormity of this horse
and sees it as a present made to the victors,
the people of Troy.
But Cassandra insists
they should beware of anything coming from the Greeks,
especially their gifts.
Helen, the beautiful Helen, goes over to the horse.
She walks slowly around it, three times.
As she does so, she says women's names.
The names of the wives of the Greek warriors
separated from their loved ones for 10 years.
Penelope, the wife of Ulysses.
Klytaimnestra, the wife of Agamemnon.
Aigialeia, the wife of Diomedes.
And all those whose names she had once known
when she herself was married to Menelaus.
She hopes that one of them,
if he has taken the treacherous idea of locking himself
in this wooden shell,
will be betrayed by his emotion upon
hearing his wife's name.
But Helen's litany is met by silence.
Cassandra then seizes a spear
from the hands of one of the Trojan soldiers
and hands it to Aeneas.
He throws it with all his might at the wooden horse.
Inside the horse the Greek warriors cling
impassively to the beams.
Menelaus and Achilles stare at the cunning Ulysses.
It was he who had the idea for this monumental construction.
He who imagined hiding dozens of Greek soldiers within it
in order to steal into the Trojan city.
An ingenious ploy but terribly risky.
The fear of being discovered suddenly distorts their faces.
But a sound from the shore chases this fear away.
Ulysses knows exactly what is going on.
His plan is being implemented.
The Trojans bring a man covered in blood to Priam.
Priam questions him.
The prisoner is called Sinon.
He has just been captured a short distance away.
He tells Priam and the assembled Trojans
that he is a deserter from the Grecian army.
And that shortly after the death of Hector
a great argument broke out between the Greek kings.
Agamemnon reproached Achilles for granting
Priam a truce in order to burry his son.
Feeling that he had been avenged enough,
Achilles decided to go home.
Deprived of Achilles, the scourge of Troy,
the other kings decided to give up this long war
which has exhausted them, and to return home.
Calchas, the soothsayer, was summoned to tell Menelaus
and his brother Agamemnon, the king of kings,
that Troy would never be taken.
And that it was time after 10 years of useless effort
to return to their homes.
Calchas also revealed to them
that since they had only been able to approach
the Trojan shores at the price of spilled blood,
that of Ephesiania,
it was at the same price that they would get to leave again.
They had to sacrifice a Greek life.
It is he, Sinon, whom Ulysses chose
to be put to death.
Taking advantage of the chaos of the departure
he managed to escape
and another was sacrificed in his place.
Priam listens, attentively.
So be it.
And this horse.
Trembling, Sinon continues his story.
The winds refuse to rise.
Then Ulysses protected by the goddess Athena
saw in a dream that they had to give the gods a present
worthy of their greatness.
A horse, a magnificent horse as tall
as the highest wall of Troy.
What's more, adds Sinon,
if the Greeks made it this way
rising up to the sky,
it is to prevent the Trojans from taking it
inside their city.
Because the oracle was clear about it.
If the Trojans disrespect this offering to Athena
they will attract the wrath of the goddess of war.
But if they manage to carry it into their city
then they will one day be the conquerors of all Greece.
Priam begins to dream.
So the Greeks prefer dishonor to glory
and are sailing back to their palaces
on the other side of the sea.
The gods are with the Trojans now.
Perhaps they are even pondering Troy's revenge
on the kingdom of Agamemnon.
They must win their favor.
For Priam, there is no possible doubt.
The gods who were fighting Troy yesterday
will grant it victory tomorrow.
The king proclaims that they must draw the horse
into the city immediately.
Build a new temple to Athena,
and offer up prayers in order to win her favor
and soon put an end to the arrogance of the Greeks.
Bring the horse into Troy.
The Trojans set to work.
They slide wheels and beams under the horse's hooves
and attach tow ropes to it's neck.
In order for the deadly machine to enter the city
the walls must be breached in places.
But there is no danger lurking for the Trojans
because the Greeks have gone back to sea.
On four occasions the horse gets stuck
on the road that leads to Troy,
and four times the sound of clashing weapons
echoes within it's flanks.
But given over to their delight,
singing and cheering, the Trojans pay no attention.
Now the monster is installed in the heart of the city.
There is dancing in the streets.
With festive foliage they crown the temples of the gods
and the palaces of the princes.
They drink until they are rolling on the ground.
Night envelopes the plain of Troy in it's great shadow.
Sleep has overcome all the inhabitants.
A man approaches the horse.
It is Sinon, the deserter whom Ulysses was
going to put to death
and who Priam, with his generous heart,
welcomed amongst his own.
He climbs one of the legs of the machine.
Then he moves a plank and reveals a secret hatch.
In an instant Ulysses and his companions
are at the gates of the city.
They wave torches from the ramparts.
And if the Trojans had kept their soldiers
along the coast,
they would have seen to their terror
the ships of Agamemnon and Nestor.
Ajax and Diomedes sailing in an orderly fashion
from the island of Tenedos with the mute complicity
of the silent moon.
The horse stands in all it's great height
in the center of the city.
It spews out men in armor
while thousands of other pour through the open gates.
As many as ever came from distant Greece.
Like a torrent that can no longer be controlled,
like a fire fanned by furious winds,
the Grecian army rushes into the streets
of the impregnable city.
Troy, buried in sleep and in wine sees nothing coming.
The first cries are terrible.
They are those of women and children
who's throats are being cut.
Men run and are put to the sword.
Virgins are raped, priests are sacrificed.
Agamemnon swore it.
There would be no mercy for the sons and daughters of Troy.
In his palace, old King Priam puts on his armor
which he hasn't used for a long time.
He buckles at his belt a useless sword
and confronts the pack that invades his chambers.
In vain, he is disarmed,
seized by the hair, dragged into the courtyard
and his throat is cut at the foot of Zeus's altar.
The massacre continues.
Merciless.
Hecuba, Cassandra and Andromache are taken prisoner.
They will become slaves to the desires of the victors.
Menelaus, his sword in his hand,
scours the palace from top to bottom.
He enters Helen's room.
She is alone.
She remains silent.
10 years, 10 years have past since she left her husband
and Sparta.
10 years during which blood has been flowing for her.
The unfaithful wife shows no fear.
She seems almost relieved.
Slowly, beautiful Helen bares her breast,
ready to welcome death.
Menelaus raises his sword.
But he does not follow through
and without a word, he takes his wife by the hand
and leads her out of Troy
while the carnage continues all around them.
In the blazing city the Greeks are the masters.
It is then that Achilles, the crusher of warriors,
covered in the blood of his victims
steps within the walls of Priam's palace.
In front of him stands a young woman of great beauty.
It is Polyxena, the youngest of Priam's daughters.
Two Greek soldiers, drunk with violence,
tear off her tunic and prepare to rape her.
Achilles breaks their necks.
He releases Polyxena.
He contemplates her in all her dazzling beauty.
Then he remembers the dream
he has so often had.
He, Achilles, in the arms of a woman
with a beauty similar to that of Ployxena
surrounded by children, happy, at home.
What if deep down he was made to live such a life?
With this woman who is looking at him with admiration.
Perhaps desire.
Achilles has no time to take this any further.
Hidden behind a rampart,
Paris with his curving bow is furious.
He had aimed well at Achilles's back,
right there in front of him.
But at the last moment the arrow had
mysteriously changed it's course
and planted itself in Achilles heel.
What Paris did not see
what no mortal could see,
is that the god Apollo witnessing the massacre
staining his city with blood had changed it's flight.
But it's not a simple wound that Paris,
thanks to Apollo, has inflicted on Achilles.
Apollo alone knows the great Greek warrior's secret.
He alone seems to know that in her desire
to make her son invincible,
his mother Thetis, plunged him as a child
into the water of the Styx, the river of hell.
The water of the Styx has the power to make
someone invulnerable.
But the heel by which Thetis held the child
was not bathed in the water with it's prodigious virtues.
And it is because of this heel
that Achilles is dying today.
Through the noise rising from the city
the last words that resonate in his soul
are those of his mother.
If you leave for Troy, your name and your exploits
will be celebrated until the end of time.
But you will die in the flower of youth.
If you stay at home near your people
your life will be long and beautiful
but it will be devoid of everlasting glory.
A strange smile appears on Achilles's lips.
And the dark night covers his eyes.
Zeus contemplates Troy,
which has been consumed by fire.
In a few days no stone will remain
of the proud city built by Apollo and Poseidon
defended by Priam and the valiant Hector.
The corpse of Paris, riddled with arrows,
lies near that of Achilles.
From the high walls, newborn babes are being
thrown to the dogs and vultures.
Among them is Astyanax, the son of Hector.
The temples of the gods are streaming with blood.
The cruelty of men knows no limit.
Zeus reflects in silence.
Never has he been so worried.
Gods and goddesses are tearing themselves apart.
On Olympus as on Earth hatred has replaced Harmony.
Men no longer respect gods or godliness.
Those who remain of the Trojans,
some poor heroes fleeing the city
amongst whom is Aeneas, carrying his father on his back,
aren't denying their faith.
And the victors, in spite of the death of Achilles
and so many of their own men,
now believe themselves so glorious
that they think they are the new gods.
Zeus looks at the world emerging from this war
and he understands that men have doomed the gods
to loneliness and death.
He knows that men contribute to the power
of the gods by prostrating themselves before them.
If the faith of men is extinguished
the gods will disappear.
For the gods live from this faith.
They borrow from it their strength and their power.
A new era is beginning.
Who will remember the gods of the old world?
Ulysses goes home to Ithaca.
But in his eyes there is no glimmer of triumph.
In his heart, not the slightest feeling of victory.
Just a silent question.
10 years of war, 10 years of murder,
10 years for this.
Who will remember the Trojan War?