I was mostly inspired by the fact the first images of Christopher Nolan‘s adaptation of the Odyssey have been making their way around the internet. Though, of course, the Odyssey and the Iliad (the basis for today’s post) are two separate works, though they are two parts of the same story by, reputedly, the same author — Homer’s very identity and even existence are historically the subject of debate.

I don’t really want to wade into the whole “But it’s not historically accurate” thing, though I will just point out that even the Homeric texts themselves don’t really represent any real history. Short version: Mycenaean Greeks were active in the roughly the right place at the right time period, but seemingly mostly in the capacity of roving pirates, rather than as any sort of unified major force fighting some major, decisive war and Homer (whether “Homer” was a real person or is just the name we give to a poetic a tradition) is relating events that had been garbled and barely remembered by the time the stories as we know them were being compiled.

For example, Homer’s depiction of chariots, while not entirely impossible (especially given how little we know about the details of Mycenaean culture), doesn’t really jive with what we know from how chariots were used elsewhere in the Bronze Age. Similarly, the notion of Troy being captured by the use of the Trojan Horse has been suggested as a garbled recollection of the use of either a some major siege engine, or more abstractly, the city’s walls being levelled by an earthquake — since Poseidon was god of both horses and earthquakes and is depicted in the Iliad as fighting on the Greeks’ side.

I could do a whole write-up about this, but that’s a bit beyond the scope of the exercise today…

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Fun fact, in my first-year Classical Mythology class back at Carleton, we had an assignment that was basically “Do a write-up about media that’s about Mythology.”

I chose And Then There Was Silence, German Power Metal icons Blind Guardian‘s song about the Trojan War.

Now, as part of that assignment, we had to include either a link to or a copy of the thing we were writing about.

Even after single-spacing the lines, getting rid of the paragraph breaks, and reducing the font size, the copy of the lyrics I attached to my assignment still came in at 7 pages.

The actual assignment was, like, 3 and a half.

Granted, And There There Was Silence is 14 minutes long.

Clearly, Blind Guardian’s greatest strength is their subtlety and fondness for understatement…

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Fittingly recorded for the album A Night at the Opera, And Then There Was Silence is certainly operatic — as the aforementioned 14-minute length may indicate.

Blind Guardian’s vocalist Hansi Kürsch is described by TV Tropes as having a “nearly superhuman vocal range.” And Then There Was Silence is pretty concrete proof of that. If it is indeed an opera, then Hansi is singing every role — up to and including being his own backing vocals.

And Then There Was Silence is about the Trojan War, so the epic grandeur fits the source material. Now, the lyrics can be a bit cryptic if you aren’t well-acquainted with the sources — Who’s talking here? Why is denying wisdom and power a bad choice?

Why are they singing about Rome?

On the other hand, there are direct references (or at least paraphrases) to the actual text of the Iliad — for example Achilles‘ famous boast to Hector:

And as the lion
Slaughters man
I am the wolf
And you’re the lamb.

Lyrics via Genius.

I’m not going to go so far as to say that And Then There Was Silence is one of the greatest pieces of music ever written, but it probably is one of the most immediately-impressive things I’ve ever listened to…

So, clear your schedule and take a listen:

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