Christy Wiabel

Barbarian Translation - The Trojan War Christy Wiabel

Somewhere between the 8th and 7th centuries BC, The Iliad was first committed to prose, depicting the 12th century BC Trojan War. Scholars doubted that such a war actually took place until Heinrich Schliemann excavated the historic Troy in the 1870s. That's all that can be said with certainty. The rest is conjecture, but it's also legend, an enduring part of our culture for thousands of years, right down to Brad Pitt's turn as Achilles in the 2004 film Troy, an international blockbuster hit, as well as a continuing string of translations that seek to update The Iliad's appeal. The funny thing is, whether or not you obsess over the existence of Homer, the most famous chronicler of the war (and its aftermath as depicted in the most famous sequel in literary history, The Odyssey), it's hard to avoid the elements that together create the stirring, eternal portrait of war depicted within. From the Greek warrior Achilles, who sulked in a tent for most of The Iliad, to how he was eventually defeated (not depicted in The Iliad), to how the war itself ended (again, not depicted in The Iliad), that famous Trojan Horse, there are a thousand memorable things about it, to match the thousand ships that stormed the shores of Ilium (or, Troy). It remains a favorite subject of writers interested in revisiting familiar haunts, and Barbarian Translation - The Trojan War is just one more example. This third volume of Mouldwarp Press Presents features new fiction from Christy Wiabel (who also contributed to the first one, Project Mayhem), as well as a short story from series editor Tony Laplume.