Original subtitles

10 years.

For 10 years the Greek army has been immobilized

on this river bank.

For 10 years Troy has resisted.

The most ferocious attacks have failed

at the foot of its walls.

Time after time.

The Grecian soldiers have attacked

and pillaged all the surrounding cities,

all those who had sworn allegiance to Troy.

But in recent days, a mysterious disease

has been devastating the Grecian ranks.

Warriors are dying...

by the thousand.

Achilles enters Agamemnon's tent,

where all the Grecian kings are assembled.

Ajax, Menelaus, Ulysses, Nestor, and all the others.

Calchas, the soothsayer, is with him.

It's been a long time since the man who reads

the palms of the gods last advised Agamemnon.

When he condemned the young Iphigeneia to death

to satisfy the goddess Artemis

and obtain favorable winds for the Greeks.

The Greeks, who today are seeking to understand

why a new plague has fallen upon their army.

Since that day, when Calchas addresses the kings,

they all tremble and fear the worst.

This time, the soothsayer points to young woman.

She is lying in a corner of the tent.

They recognize Chryseis,

the daughter of Apollo's high priest.

They all remember that she had been abducted

during a raid on a city near Troy,

and that, when the plunder was shared out,

she was given to Agamemnon.

A few days later, Chryseis's father

had come before Agamemnon, his arms full of offerings,

and begged him to return his child.

Agamemnon had contemptuously refused,

and sent the unfortunate man away.

The high priest had left.

As all humans do when seized by despair,

he had solicited the help of the gods

or, rather, one god,

Apollo, of whom he is the most faithful servant.

And Apollo had heard him.

The god of light had rushed to the plain of Troy

and unleashed his death-bearing arrows

on all the Grecian warriors.

Calchas the soothsayer knows this,

and he tells the frightened Grecian kings.

He even adds that, until Chryseis is returned to her father,

Apollo and Ares, these infernal deities

who haunt the battlefield and drink the blood of the dying,

will not leave a single Greek soldier alive.

The kings turn to Agamemnon.

Will their leader persist in his refusal

to return Chryseis to her father?

Agamemnon gets up.

A terrible rage fills his chest.

He stares at Calchas the soothsayer.

He curses the old man, who has already deprived him

of his daughter Iphigeneia, and who now intends

to take away this young beauty Chryseis.

For Agamemnon has begun to love Chryseis,

more than his own wife, Queen Clytemnestra.

He is already imagining that, once the war is over,

Chryseis will accompany him home to Mycenae

and will replace Clytemnestra in his bed, as on the throne,

until she grows older by his side.

He would like to say to his men, his companions,

that he will never give her back,

and who cares if Troy is not conquered,

who cares about Helen and her cuckold husband?

Then he thinks of the Grecian dead.

The thousands of souls who, for 10 long years,

have been hoping for revenge.

Agamemnon looks down.

He remains silent.

At the same time, in Troy another confrontation is brewing.

Hector bursts into Helen and Paris's room.

He's looking for his brother.

Paris is not there.

Over all these years, the beautiful Helen

has had little chance to talk privately with Hector.

Paris's brother avoids her.

He holds her responsible for the misfortunes

that have fallen up on Troy.

Helen knows it.

She wants to tell him that she understands,

that she keeps blaming herself,

that she was captivated, bewitched,

that if she had known what the consequences of her actions

would be for even the slightest moment,

she would never have given herself to the handsome Paris.

But Hector brusquely interrupts her.

She knows now.

All she has to do to put an end to this interminable siege

is leave Troy and return home

to her legitimate husband, Menelaus.

Helen meets Hector's gaze.

She knows that to do so would mean certain death.

Menelaus would never forgive her.

He would kill her with his own hands.

And even then, it is not certain that the Greeks

would spare Troy.

Paris enters the room.

He goes to Helen and takes her in his arms.

Must he explain once again to his brother Hector

that he will defend his city and never let Helen leave Troy?

Hector knows he cannot reason with his brother.

He joins the Trojans, ready for battle,

ready to make use of the decisive advantage

that the god Apollo, outraged by the Greeks, is offering.

Agamemnon has just listened to the advice of his warriors.

They all ask him to return the daughter of Apollo's

high priest so that the anger of the god ceases.

The gods favor the man who follows the gods.

Agamemnon flies into a rage.

Old Nestor points out that the salvation of his people

is worth a girl, even one as beautiful as Chryseis.

Ulysses supports him in this, as do Diomedes and Ajax,

Menelaus and Achilles.

So be it.

It will be thus.

He will return Chryseis to her father

to put an end to the wrath of the god Apollo.

But he is being robbed of his battle prize.

Now more than any other, he is entitled to his share.

It is unthinkable that the king of kings

be the only one to be deprived of this privilege.

Agamemnon demands compensation.

The kings agree.

He can have what he wants, as long as the massacre stops.

So, Agamemnon looks at Achilles.

He too received a beautiful young woman as a prize.

Her name is Briseis.

Let him give her to Agamemnon, and then the king of kings

will return Chryseis to her father.

No sooner does Agamemnon utter these words

than Achilles seizes his sword,

ready to slit the throat of the king of kings.

The Greek leaders freeze.

Even the gods above hold their breath.

But at the moment when the blade is about to spring

from its sheath, an imperious force restrains it.

Athena has suddenly appeared.

Athena, invisible to everyone except Achilles.

The goddess stays his hand.

She whispers in his ear that it is Hera,

the goddess with the white arms, who has sent her.

He knows how much he is both loved

and protected by these two deities.

The death of Agamemnon would ruin

the Greek's chance of success.

It would signal the victory of Troy.

Achilles must keep calm.

His sword must remain in its sheath.

He will be avenged.

Athena promises it to him.

So, Achilles withdraws his hand

from the pommel of his formidable sword.

Athena leaves.

Achilles rages against Agamemnon.

He calls him every name under the sun:

profiteer, wretch, incompetent, drunkard.

He recalls that it is he, Achilles, who has gone

from victory to victory throughout all these years.

Agamemnon remain impassive.

Achilles seizes the wooden scepter studded with gold

that the Greeks brandish when they proclaim

the most serious oaths.

Before all the kings assembled around Agamemnon,

he declares that he will give Briseis to the king of kings.

But, from now on, he and his Myrmidons,

the terrible warriors who terrorize the Trojans,

are withdrawing from the battle.

The Trojan War will continue, but without Achilles.

His golden shield will no longer cast its fire

on the walls of Priam's city.

No longer will the hero be seen on the battlefield.

As for Agamemnon, Achilles swears an oath:

he will perish under the blows of the Trojans

after seeing his men fall, one after the other.

Dawn has broken.

Two men appear outside Achilles' tent,

where Patroclus, Achilles' cousin, greets them.

They have been instructed by Agamemnon to bring him Briseis.

Achilles doesn't blame them for anything.

His anger is directed at Agamemnon.

A day will come when the king of Mycenae

will have to pay for this humiliation.

Reluctantly, Patroclus takes Briseis gently by the arm

and leads her out of the tent.

The young woman takes a last look at Achilles and leaves,

escorted by Agamemnon's emissaries.

Achilles is mad with rage.

He mulls over Agamemnon's decision,

to which he had to agree.

Briseis has been stolen from him.

It's an abuse of power, an injustice,

a sign of contempt and dishonor.

Nothing calms his fury.

He has forbidden his men to take

any further part in the fighting.

He shuts himself away in his tent.

There, he appeals to his mother, the sea nymph Thetis.

She has such great powers.

Will she let her son be scorned by the king of kings?

Thetis, Achilles' mother, is not used to going to Olympus.

Zeus knows that she will come tonight.

He is waiting for her, sitting on the edge of his bed.

He has a face like thunder,

expressing his dismay and irritation.

Before he has time to react,

Thetis throws herself at his feet.

She begs and pleads her son's cause.

Achilles has been humiliated.

He doesn't deserve such an affront,

he, the bravest of the Grecian warriors,

who has always been faithful to Zeus.

Zeus cannot refuse Thetis.

And she knows it.

There was a time, long before men came into the world,

when Zeus, Poseidon, Hades, and all the other gods

courted the sea nymph Thetis.

Of the most desirable creatures that populated this land,

she was the one Zeus wanted most ardently.

But an oracle warned the ruler of Olympus.

If he would have a child with Thetis,

this child would become more powerful

and more terrible than his father.

Zeus gave her up,

like all the other gods frightened by the prospect

of one day being overthrown by their own offspring.

And Thetis went to live alone,

as a recluse at the bottom of the ocean.

Zeus never stopped loving her.

It was to spare her the pain of living in solitude

for eternity that he offered her the hand in marriage

of a mortal with great qualities, Peleus,

who had accompanied Jason in his quest

to find the golden fleece, and gained the trust

of the powerful centaurs, whom all mortals dread.

From the union between Thetis and Peleus

was born Achilles, the mighty, the divine,

over whom Zeus has been watching since childhood.

Therefore he did not oppose Thetis when she did everything

she could to make her son invincible amongst mortals.

One night, she went down to the banks of the Styx,

the river of hell, and plunged the young Achilles

into its waters.

The water of the Styx had to power to make him invulnerable.

Thetis knows that Zeus has a love for her

that will never be requited.

If he still loves her, then he must protect her son Achilles

and make sure that the Greeks treat him with respect

and not by confiscating the prize he has just won in battle.

Zeus listens to Thetis's request.

This greatly complicates his plans.

For 10 years, Zeus has refused to take sides.

He loves and blames the Greeks and Trojans equally.

The god of the gods wants to be the father of all men.

Neither side has outraged him.

But this war between the Greeks and Trojans

has become a conflict between the gods.

If he helps the Trojans, then his wife Hera

and his daughter Athena will never forgive him.

If he helps the Greeks, his son Apollo

and his daughter Artemis will refuse his verdict.

But Thetis is here, begging, still beautiful.

Thetis asks Zeus to lend his might to the Trojans

until the day the Greeks will have no choice

but to ask Achilles to return to them,

when they will be forced to give him back his captive

and at the same time the esteem that is due to him.

And then she tells Zeus that Achilles

is the child he didn't have.

After a long moment, the ruler of Olympus gets up.

He has made up his mind.

He doesn't want the Greeks to fail

but to pay tribute to Achilles.

He will, therefore, take the Trojan side in a discrete way

so that none of the gods notice.

He devises a strategy.

He will make the Greeks believe that he's supporting them,

to better lead them to their demise.

At night, Zeus sends a pernicious dream

towards Agamemnon's silent ships.

The king of kings is sleeping in his tent.

The dream tells him that the hour of his triumph has come,

that Zeus himself has decided to grant him glory.

At dawn, he can send his troops

to conquer King Priam's city,

unaware of the trap into which the ruler of Olympus

has just lured him.