Original subtitles

(dramatic classical music)

(mysterious music)

- [Narrator] In the caves of the island of Lemnos

lives the god of blacksmiths, Hephaestus.

He is the son of Zeus and the divine Hera,

husband of Aphrodite.

Hephaestus is as ugly as the goddess of love is beautiful.

He is lame since his mother, upon seeing his face,

threw him from the top of Olympus,

hoping to get rid of him.

(dramatic music)

He and he alone knows the secret

of the indestructible weapons of the gods of Olympus.

But tonight, he will forge weapons for a mortal,

for Achilles, the inconsolable Greek warrior,

filled with rage.

Hephaestus throws brass, bronze, gold and silver

into the fire.

All night long, he works the precious metals.

From his forge,

he had already drawn a sword whose blade is sharper

than the sword of Ares, the god of war,

and a spear, lighter, more precise

than those possessed by the best warriors on Earth,

greaves with strong straps,

a sturdy helmet,

sparkling armor.

Now, he sets his great anvil on its block,

takes his hammer and his tongs

and starts to make a shield,

a shield that no bolt can pierce.

It will be composed of five layers.

On the last one, Hephaestus will put his signature.

Like all the gods of Olympus,

he has followed the twists and turns of the Trojan War.

He is one of the few who did not support one camp

over the other.

He deplores this fratricidal struggle between mortals

that disturbs the natural order of things.

(men shouting)

(clanging)

He will also engrave up on this invincible shield

what can not be destroyed as a reminder

of that which presides over human destinies.

The earth, the sky,

the indefatigable sun,

and the moon in its fullness.

But, also the constellations with which Olympus is crowned.

(dramatic music)

Then he will add to his work

a city at peace,

and a city at war,

and also shepherds, pastures,

vineyards, men and women.

Finally, around the rim of the shield,

he will place the river ocean.

In truth, it is not just a shield the lame god is forging,

it's the whole universe.

By the time his work is finished,

the first rays of dawn

are illuminating the Grecian camp and ships.

Hephaestus appears on the shore.

Thetis is already there waiting for him.

Thetis, the mother of Achilles, is also the one

who raised Hephaestus when his own mother, Hera,

cast him out.

For years, the sea nymph, Thetis,

hid Hephaestus in her cave.

And it was she who taught him the art of jewelry making.

The student has since surpassed his teacher.

He can not refuse Thetis anything.

And now he's giving her the most beautiful armor

he has ever made,

the armor of Achilles, the son of Peleus and Thetis.

Thetis takes the armor from the god's hands

and sets it down near her son.

She finds him still in tears,

lying upon the body of Patroclus.

But no sooner does Achilles see the shield,

the sword and the armor than his eyes light up.

He gets to his feet,

puts on his new armor,

takes up the newly forged sword and spear,

adjusts the shield with its magnificent chasing,

then he reflects one last time upon the body of his friend.

Speaking in a low voice, he swears an oath.

(dramatic music)

He will not bury him until he has brought back the head

of his murderer,

the head of Hector, Prince of Troy.

Thetis then steps forward.

She pours the amber nectar and ambrosia,

drunk only by the gods,

into the nostrils of Patroclus

so that his flesh will not decay.

Achilles embraces his mother for a long time.

Thetis knows that her son is bidding her farewell.

By giving him these weapons,

the mother is sending her son to his death.

And no god, not even Zeus, will be able to oppose

the fate that awaits him.

(dramatic music)

At least he will enter the Kingdom of Hades

with the finest armor in the world,

and after sowing terror amongst the ranks of his enemies.

(armor clanking)

When they see the leader,

the Myrmidons freeze, both amazed and fearful.

The eyes of Thetis' son are filled

with a greater anger than anyone has seen before.

Achilles strides along the seashore,

uttering furious cries.

All the warriors come running,

even those whose duty it is to watch the ships.

Ulysses, old Nestor and Agamemnon, the king of kings,

are there.

They know that the time for reconciliation has come.

Achilles anger will be the vengeance of the Greeks.

It heralds the end of Troy

and the extermination of the Trojans.

Agamemnon, in an astonishingly humble gesture,

speaks to Achilles.

He admits to having been mistaken.

He was wrong to rob Thetis' son of his battle prize.

He was wrong to humiliate him.

He promises that as soon as the war is over,

he will shower him with gold and silver

and give him more land than the could ever have wanted.

But, for the time being, Agamemnon will release Briseis.

He gives her back and begs Achilles to accept his apology.

But Achilles is scarcely listening to him.

It's to be wondered if he even sees him.

At the same moment, Hector is about to gather his men

and lead them into battle.

The death of Patroclus has shaken the Greeks.

And Hector has seized the young man's armor as a trophy.

He wants to see it as a sign of victory for Troy.

They must press home their advantage,

attack without respite.

(footsteps echoing)

(suspenseful music)

A woman comes running toward him.

It's Andromache, his wife.

She is accompanied by a nurse,

carrying their young son, Astyanax.

Andromache does not give Hector time

to tell her how invincible he feels

since Apollo saved him from the kingdom of the dead.

She implores him not to go into battle this day.

His courage his blinding him and will be his death.

She is tormented by a dark foreboding.

It is said that Achilles is back on the battlefield

and he intends to avenge the death of Patroclus,

to kill Hector.

Death is hovering over him.

She begs him to stay,

to lay down his weapons,

not to make his son an orphan or his wife a widow.

Hector smiles, and looks at his son in silence.

He understands his wife's anguish.

(exciting music)

In a low voice, Hector asks Zeus and the gods of Troy

to watch over his son,

that he be full of strength and wisdom

and that one day, people say, seeing him return from battle,

that is braver than his father.

(dramatic music)

Then, turning to Andromache in tears,

he tries as best he can to reassure her.

No warrior, he says, will send him to Hades before his time.

(dramatic music)

He places Astyanax in his wife's arms

and strokes her forehead one last time.

Her eyes blurred with tears, she watches him set off

to meet his fate.

From the top of Olympus,

Zeus has missed nothing of the reunion

between Achilles and Agamemnon.

Nor of Hector's farewell to Andromache.

The king of the gods sighs.

The die is cast.

Achilles, drunk with anger, armed by the blacksmith god,

supported by his rage, is now out of control.

Even his mother, sweet Thetis, cannot sway him.

Zeus turns to the other gods.

Some of them are smiling,

and some are looking tense.

(suspenseful music)

The twins, Apollo and Artemis,

and even Aphrodite are troubled.

Even the gods are helpless against Achilles wrath.

Hera and Athena are not hiding their satisfaction.

Achilles will bring them victory and glory.

The gods stare at Zeus.

He forbade them to take sides

but he, himself, tips the scales of fate

in favor of Hector, to please Thetis,

and punish the Greeks for offending Achilles.

He let Ares and Athena take part

in the fighting without striking them with lightening bolts

as he had promised.

The god of the gods has lost his touch.

And now, confronted with Achilles rage,

what does he do?

Nothing.

He's waiting, obviously out of his depth.

(suspenseful music)

Then, as one, the gods rush forward.

(horses whinnying)

Hera and Athena hurry to the Greek camp.

Poseidon follows them.

As does Hephaestus.

The lame god has no particular reason

for siding with the Greeks

but he forged Achilles fabulous armor.

He can not imagine his life's greatest work

being pierced for a second.

(dramatic music)

Aphrodite, Apollo and Artemis have already reached

the Trojan city.

Their mother, Leto, the goddess of the night,

comes to help them.

The gods disobeying Zeus, spur on both sides to fight.

Even worse, from now on,

the gods are ready to fight their equals.

To precipitate them into the kingdom of shadows,

to Hades, the guardian of the dead.

(dramatic music)

Poseidon makes the earth and the steep mountain peaks quake.

The earth moves so much that it seems it will crack open

revealing the terrible dwellings of the realm of the dead,

at the thought of which, even the gods shudder.

The whole plain resounds with the dreadful clashing

of the two armies.

Men face men.

And gods face gods

in an incandescent whirlwind.

Achilles cleaves his way through the fray

with sword and spear.

It's Hector's blood that he wants.

He slaughters all those in this path.

(swords clanging)

(suspenseful music)

Meanwhile, Hector ties to revive the Trojans' valor.

He implores them to stand firm,

promises to defeat Achilles

even though his hands be made of fire.

On the walkway that runs along the walls of Troy,

King Priam leans on the arm of his wife, Hecuba.

Paris, by their side, seems paralyzed.

What they are observing is no longer battle.

It is carnage.

(dramatic music)

(swords clanking)

Suddenly, old Priam turns pale.

Achilles has just attacked a young man.

(dramatic music)

The young man dying is the youngest son

of Queen Hecuba and King Priam, Polydoras,

the son that Priam had ordered to stay away

from the battlefield.

The old king feels dizzy.

Hecuba utters a terrible cry and collapses.

And when Paris bends down to his mother,

he hears her murmuring between sobs,

"The torch, the torch."

The torch is the one that Queen Hecuba saw in a dream

at the birth of Paris,

the one her daughter, Cassandra has taken for a sign

of the imminent end of Troy.

Cassandra, who no one had wanted to believe.

Hecuba points to Achilles,

bounding in front the Greek army,

slaughtering every man he meets.

Athena has crowned him with a fearsome halo of golden fire.

The terrified Trojans are doing all they can

to avoid this madman, Achilles, son of Thetis.

(suspenseful music)

(men shouting)

This escape death,

the fugitives plunge into the waters of the Scamander.

The Scamander is the great river that surrounds Troy.

But nothing stems Achilles anger.

Without hesitation, he throws himself into the deep waters

and cuts down all those within reach.

(suspenseful music)

The river becomes red with the blood of Trojan warriors.

Without respite or pity,

Achilles mows, slaughters, beheads with every turn.

All pay for Patroclus' death.

The Scamander becomes choked with the bodies

of those slain by the Greek.

Then, something happens that neither mortal nor god

has ever seen before.

Suddenly a dark wave rises up around Achilles.

(suspenseful music)

The river begins to swell.

It becomes menacing.

The Scamander has borne many corpses since the world began,

but never has it suffered so much fury.

It is outraged.

It revolts against such senseless cruelty.

And then it rises up in front of Achilles,

terrifying, ready to engulf him.

(dramatic music)

(water sloshing)

Hera is distraught.

Achilles has disappeared, swept away

by the torrent of this horrifying river.

(suspenseful music)

(tense music)

The goddess calls Hephaestus.

He has to save Achilles from a hideous death.

(dramatic music)

(sizzling)

The Scamander River begins to burn.

Molten lava mixes with the tumult.

From the depths of the waves,

rise unbearable screams of pain.

The cries of Achilles about to drown?

Or the cries of the Scamander River

tormented to death?.

(dramatic music)