Original subtitles

(dramatic music)

- [Narrator] The Greek army

surges towards the ramparts of Troy.

Agamemnon, the king of kings,

has dreamt that this day the city of Priam

shall be his.

This dream is a message from the gods.

And it has woken the courage of his men.

What does it matter

if Achilles, the strongest of the Greeks,

has retreated to his tent?

(dramatic music)

Zeus and the gods on Olympus

have decided to grant the victory to Agamemnon.

Standing in his way,

the Trojans, led by Hector and Paris,

prepare to launch an assault on the Greek army,

which they know to be without the warrior

that could bring complete disaster upon them.

The scourge of Troy, Achilles.

(ominous music)

The two armies clash,

both certain of victory.

The fighting is brutal.

Spears slice through the air.

Swords smash against shields.

Bodies roll in the dust.

Fearsome cries rise up into the sky.

(swords clashing) (people yelling)

On Olympus,

the gods have missed nothing

of the scene that has been unfolding

beneath the walls of Troy.

Hera and Athena are aghast.

Has Agamemnon taken leave of his senses?

He is making a disastrous mistake.

What madness made him throw himself into battle

when for days now the Greeks have been weakened

by Apollo's arrows

and when their foremost warrior Achilles

will not leave his tent?

(ominous music)

Hera and Athena ready themselves to leave Olympus

and to hasten to the rescue of their heroes, the Greeks.

Apollo, Artemis and Aphrodite draw their bows

ready to help the Trojans.

(thunder clapping)

But Zeus stops them with an imperious gesture.

From now on, he forbids the gods

to interfere in human combat.

More than that,

he commands them to watch from the heights of Olympus

as the Greeks and Trojans destroy each other in battle

with neither side seemingly able to claim victory.

But all of a sudden,

Zeus starts in surprise.

(dramatic music)

For in the midst of battle,

two men have just come face to face with each other

and all around them, silence reigns.

As the gods look on,

the eyes of all the warriors

are drawn to the two men

staring defiantly at each other.

Menelaus stands before Paris.

He says nothing.

His heart fills with rage.

He moves towards the younger man

who, in turn, advances towards him

showing no fear,

his leopard skin over his shoulder,

his bow strapped to his back,

and his sword in his hand.

Then, Hector moves to place himself between the two men.

His young brother

has no chance of beating Menelaus,

a fearsome warrior, a born fighter.

But Paris will not allow him to speak.

He simply points to the corpses strewn around them.

The wounded and the dying,

the Trojan Earth soaked in blood.

In order to save further slaughter of innocent lives,

he will face Menelaus alone in hand to hand combat.

After all,

the quarrel is between the two of them,

the abandoned husband and the chosen lover.

Whichever of them should win,

they will carry off all the spoils of war

and take Helen back with them.

(gentle music)

Hector raises his eyes to heaven,

Helen, yet again.

Has his brother still not grasped the fact

that Helen is simply a pawn?

He reproaches Paris for seeing only Helen,

thinking only of Helen,

living only for Helen.

When all the while,

it is the city of Troy

that is the real target of the Greek assault.

Agamemnon appears.

He smiles

and accepts Paris's proposal.

If Paris kills Menelaus,

he will keep the beautiful Helen

and all the Greek treasure.

The Greeks will sail away back to their homeland.

But if Menelaus is victorious and kills Paris,

then the Trojans must give Helen back

and with their treasure,

they must pay for all the fallen Greek warriors

who came to avenge the honor of the victor.

Paris and Menelaus accept.

Hector and Ulysses throw the dice in the air.

The result will decide which of them

will have the first throw of the javelin.

Fortune smiles on Paris.

There is absolute silence in both camps.

On one side,

King Priam surveys the Trojan army

from the high walls of the city.

On the other,

at the head of the Greek army,

the king of kings, Agamemnon.

The gods on Olympus hold their breath.

Paris takes aim at his adversary

and throws his javelin.

Menelaus sneers.

He has his prey in his sights.

He throws his spear.

And rushes at his enemy with unstoppable force.

Paris is defeated.

The Greeks all cry out Menelaus' name.

Their fervor knows no bounds.

They're exultant,

for with Paris' death,

the Trojan war is over.

They will finally be able to return home.

(dramatic music)

Paris is bleeding.

Menelaus rains blows down upon him.

Nothing can assuage his anger.

But all of a sudden,

a mist seemingly out of nowhere engulfs the two warriors.

For several minutes,

Paris and Menelaus disappear from view.

And when the mist lifts,

Paris is nowhere to be seen.

(dramatic music)

Bewildered,

Menelaus strikes in the void.

Everyone looks around for Paris, son of Priam.

No one can understand how he could've escaped.

Menelaus runs to and fro,

pushing through soldiers from both sides,

no trace of Paris.

No one can understand it except the gods, that is.

Hera and Athena understood what had happened straight away.

There is one God missing from Olympus, Aphrodite.

The goddess slipped away

and it was her who made the mist

appear around the two warriors.

Placing herself between the two men,

she lifted Paris up

and carried him to his bed in the palace in Troy,

stealing the young Trojan from under the very nose

of his would be murderer.

(dramatic music)

Hera and Athena fume with rage.

They point to Paris' perfumed bed chamber,

where all the gods can see him safe and sound

stretched out on his bed.

Helen, alerted by Aphrodite,

has already joined him there.

(ominous music)

Zeus remains still.

The matter is settled, he decides.

The victory goes to Menelaus.

Thus, the war has ended.

Aphrodite disobeyed him

by intervening in favor of the Trojans.

And even if Paris' life has been saved,

he lost the fight against the King of Sparta.

A war that has lasted 10 years has thus ended.

And Zeus is jubilant.

For has he not resolved all of his problems

without seeming to disadvantage

any of the shadowy gods over whom he reigns.

Hera and Athena supported the Greeks

so they should be content that their hero was victorious.

Apollo and Artemis defended the Trojans

but they should vent their anger on their ally, Aphrodite,

because in saving Paris from Menelaus' sword,

it is she who is the cause of their defeat.

And Thebes should be content

because her son Achilles will not die in the war,

as it will end before he has been required

to take part in it.

It is then that Hera rises up before Zeus

in the grip of a savage fury.

Behind her stands Athena

and also Poseidon, the God of the sea,

who saw Thebes pushing Zeus to side with the Trojans

and who cannot stand to see his authority usurped

by a nymph.

And Eres, the God of war,

who until now has only supported those

who could win by means of their own strength.

Opposite them,

the twins Apollo and Artemis stand together.

(dramatic music)

Hera rails at Zeus.

It is not only victory for the Greeks that she desires

but the downfall of Troy,

the city that dared to prefer Aphrodite to her.

All the gods protest to the master of Olympus.

Meanwhile, Hera signals to Athena.

Zeus' daughter slips away from Olympus unnoticed.

She descends onto the plain

and mingles with the Trojan ranks.

Athena is goddess of war

but she is also goddess of cunning.

Since Zeus has tricked everyone,

she will trick Zeus and the other gods and men too.

Athena searches for an archer,

the best archer in the Trojan ranks.

Here he is.

The goddess whispers in his ear,

think of the glory that could be yours

if you kill Menelaus here now.

Thus, beguiled by the goddess,

the archer does not hesitate.

Hidden behind the shields of his comrades,

he takes aim at the king of Sparta.

(energetic music)

Cries of outrage immediately rise up from the Greek ranks,

sacrilege.

The Trojans have broken their promise

at the very moment when Paris was lying on the ground

about to be killed by Menelaus.

The pact is broken.

It is what Agamemnon has been waiting for.

He points to his brother lying wounded on the ground.

He whips up his warriors into a fervor.

And the battle starts up again immediately,

more bloody than ever.

The fighting is merciless.

The day wears on

and neither of the two sides appears to be victorious.

The only winner, it seems, is Hades,

the Lord of the underworld

who is counting the dead.

Then, Athena has an idea.

She must find an invincible warrior among the Greeks,

one who is capable of changing the course of a battle.

A warrior as strong as Achilles

who is still refusing to join the combat

until his captive Breseus

is given back to him.

She needs a warrior without equal.

Could it be the giant Ajax

who fights with such fury

or cunning Ulysses, King of Ithica?

No.

It shall be Diomedes, the King of Argos.

Of all the kings who came from Greece

to make war against the city of Troy,

he is one of the youngest and most courageous.

Athena returns to the battlefield.

With one hand,

she softly caresses the forehead of the Greek warrior.

In so doing,

she imparts to him a unique gift,

the ability to see the gods normally invisible to mortals.

In a flash,

Diomedes is transformed into a ferocious animal.

He feels himself becoming ever stronger.

And then the massacre begins.

One after another,

Trojan soldiers fall beneath his blows.

(swords clanging)

(ominous music)

Two of Priam's sons lie on the ground.

The Trojans pull back

and the Greeks acclaim the young king of Argos.

He stands before the gates of Troy.

And facing him stands Aeneas.

Aeneas, son of Anchises of Troy,

cousin of Hector,

one of the best Trojan warriors.

Fearsome in combat,

fearsome and feared by all.

It is said that he is more

than just the son of old Anchises,

for in his youth Anchises was the goddess Aphrodite's lover.

And down on Earth,

as well as on the heights of Olympus,

everyone knows that Aphrodite has supported Troy

since the beginning of this war,

not only to safeguard the union between Paris and Helen

that she instigated

but also to watch over her son,

her only son.

(dramatic music)

Aeneas parries Diomedes blows.

He resists the Greeks furious assault.

Diomedes loses his weapon

but he picks up a stone,

an enormous stone which smashes into Aeneas' side.

Diomedes takes up his spear once more

and readies himself to administer the fatal blow.

But once more,

mist rises up from the blood-soaked sand.

(dramatic music)

Suddenly, Aphrodite, normally invisible to human eyes,

appears on the battlefield.

Diomedes recognizes her instantly.

Aphrodite,

that he, a mere mortal

should look upon the splendor

of the most beautiful of all the goddesses

and not be struck down by a thunderbolt.

Aphrodite gently lifts up her son Aeneas

and carries him away with her from the tumult.

She is about to disappear

when Athena looms up at Diomedes' side.

It is she who guides the weapon in his hand.

The javelin cuts through the air

and pierces Aphrodite's arm.

(dramatic music)

The goddess is wounded.

The goddess is bleeding.

She lets go of her son.

Aeneas falls heavily on the ground.

Aghast, Aphrodite finds herself alone,

defenseless before Diomedes

who is coming towards her with his sword drawn

and with Athena close behind him.

In a final gesture,

Aphrodite clasps Aeneas to her breast.

Once again,

Athena raises Diomedes arm

but there is no time to strike at Aphrodite.

In a flash of lightning,

the goddess and her son disappear.

Apollo, the God of Light,

has lifted them up

and is carrying them across the sky

not to Olympus,

but to the top of one of the mountains

which looks down on Troy,

where the God Ares is waiting.

Ares was previously on the side of the Greeks,

it is true,

but above all else,

Ares is on the side of the goddess of love.

The God of war has always been in love with Aphrodite.

They were once lovers.

Their affair caused a great scandal on Olympus.

Aphrodite shows her wound to Ares,

and asks him if he still loves her enough

to lend her his horses to return to Olympus.

The God of war's heart is moved.

With a click of his fingers,

a team of horses appears

and Aphrodite speeds off towards the home of the gods.

But Ares doesn't stop there.

He returns to the field of battle to avenge Aphrodite.

His anger knows no bounds.

Every Greek soldier that crosses his path

is cut down with lethal accuracy.

No one appears to have noticed

this warrior of superhuman proportions,

no one except Diomedes, that is.

And then something unheard of happens.

With reckless audacity,

Diomedes attacks the God of war.

(dramatic music)

What Ares doesn't know

is that it is once again Athena

who is guiding his hand.

Behold, Ares is wounded.

For a few moments,

the God of war,

the invincible God of war,

allows his gaze

to wander across the carnage of the battlefield.

He looks at his wound,

at the blood flowing onto his armor,

at Athena who stares defiantly back at him,

at Diomedes who scarcely seems to be able

to contain his fury.

Then, he hastens back to Olympus.

Zeus is there.

He witnessed it all.

Ares comes towards him.

He shows him where he has been speared in the side,

his bronze armor soaked in his own blood.

If mortals are making war of the very gods themselves,

then this war must come to an end.

He has to bring it to a close.

The ruler of Olympus does not reply.

He stares at Ares.

A single question can be read in his bewildered gaze,

how can one stop a war?

Ares is about to reply

but he is interrupted by the sound of a lyre

rising up from the Greek camp.

The gods, in their astonishment,

lean down from the clouds.

It is Achilles,

alone, outside his tent on the shore.

Achilles playing the lyre,

a smile hovering on his lips.

(dramatic music)