Black Ships Before Troy

This semester we are learning about Ancient Greece in our homeschool, and we've just finished Black Ships Before Troy by Rosemary Sutcliff as a read aloud.


What an enthralling retelling of Homer's The Iliad! Beginning with the golden apple and ending with the fall of Troy, we read this 125 page book over 3 sittings.

Book blurb -

Using the most up-to-date research on Troy and ancient Greece, Rosemary Sutcliff brings Homer's epic poem The Iliad singing to life with the skill of a master storyteller, drawing on Greek mythology to set the scene and on The Aeneid to complete the story after the burial of Hector.

I enjoyed Rosemary's expressive writing so much, that I've made a note to obtain two of her other books (perhaps more) One is Eagle of the Ninth for when we study Ancient Rome next year. Following that, in the 2nd semester of 2010 for our Middle Ages studies, I will purchase Tristan and Isolde

The death of Rosemary Sutcliff in 1992 is a sad loss to the world, indeed.

The actual book we read from was a Library borrowing, but I've since bought a lovely hardcover version to add to our personal library at home; we will definitely read it again in the future. The illustrations by Alan Lee appealed to all of us, though Tony especially liked them.

Sarah thought most of the story was 'quite violent' which was off-putting for her. Daniel agreed it was violent, and remarked, "but that is war, Sarah".

On the weekend after we completed the reading, we watched the dvd TROY, starring Brad Pitt as Achilles and Eric Bana as Hector (who in my opinion played the better role). Oh yes, I did fast forward the opening scenes that showed Brad almost entirely naked in bed with a woman (inappropriate for children in my opinion) so keep that in mind if you play it as a family movie. Tony and I had seen Troy before, but I wouldn't have shared it with Sarah & Daniel, apart from our ancient Greece studies. The movie did not enter into much of the mythology surrounding The Iliad and neither did it present the Trojan war as apparently lasting 10 years... but for showing the scope, sadness and futility of the war, seeing visual of what the city looked like, seeing the massive fleet of ships that sailed upon Troy, and seeing the main characters Paris, Achilles, Hector, Helen of Sparta (who should have stayed in Sparta), King Menelaus and Agamemnon come alive, the movie was a treat!

My friend Peta also loaned us a chapter by chapter comprehension guide that goes with this book, and which can be brought from Veritas Press, should you be interested.
http://www.veritaspress.com/prodinfo.asp?number=000725

What's next? I will tell you another day. Till then, God bless you!