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A load of Greek soldiers hails the arrival of Achilles (Brad Pitt) in Wolfgang Petersen’s &

Those who ordinarily could care less about Greek mythology may find themselves showing a bit of interest on Friday.

Wolfgang Petersen’s much anticipated blockbuster, “Troy,” is based on Homer’s “Iliad,” the epic story of the Trojan War. With Brad Pitt as Achilles, Orlando Bloom as Paris, and Diane Kruger as Helen, the players in this piece have never been so gorgeous.

The “Iliad” recounts the mythical battle between the Greeks and the Trojans. The fight is over Helen, whom Trojan Prince Paris kidnapped from Agamemnon, the leader of Greece. The epic explores the consequences of broken honor and a breach of social code during the course of the war through its tragic hero, Achilles, the world’s greatest warrior.

While the film will undoubtedly leave an imprint in the minds of audiences, its impact on society’s understanding of the actual story may be less profound. According to classics Professor Katherine King, most films based on classical material in the past have been poorly done and fail to capture the traditional epic successfully .

“Troy,” with all its star power, may be no different. The synopsis on the film’s Web site claims to follow the “Iliad” as closely as possible, but some classics professors scoffed at what the Web site had to say. Being the Hollywood production that it is, Petersen’s version will most likely exaggerate the social institutions that 21st century Americans hold dear while downplaying those reflecting ancient Greece.

For example, although divine intervention plays a central role in all Greek mythology and is omnipresent in the “Iliad,” there is a good chance that “Troy” will not address it. This may be a problem, as the lives of the Greeks were dependent on the divine personalities of gods and goddesses such as Zeus, Athena and Aphrodite.

“An epic needs the supernatural,” King said. “You can do a tragedy without the gods, but you can’t do an epic. There really needs to be this larger-than-life human being striving against mortal limitations.”

King attributes this deviation to modern-day human pride.

“Generally, the population (now) is not religious in the sense that there are gods and then there’s us, and we’re just human,” she explained. “The (ancient) Greeks would say that our culture constitutes hubris.”

According to classics Professor Kathryn Morgan, audiences today do not have an interest in themes that aren’t prevalent in today’s society.

“It would be understandable if the film leaves out the idea of divine apparatus,” Morgan said, “because we’re more about power versus love. But what we will lose is the sense of men being at the mercy of complicated divine forces.”

Another deviation from the “Iliad” could be the portrayal of Achilles, whose character could be easily distorted by the film. The film’s synopsis describes Achilles as a warrior who “has allegiance to nothing and no one, save his own glory,” and “it is his insatiable hunger for eternal renown that leads him to attack the gates of Troy.”

This interpretation of Achilles is not entirely accurate, according to King. Invoked by the hypocrisy and betrayal of Agamemnon and later by the death of his best friend, Achilles fights to restore meaning to his life. The gods had prophesied that he would either live a long and lackluster life or a short but glorious one. Achilles knows his fate is the latter.

“With the breach in the social code and in communal honor, what is there for Achilles to live for?” King questioned. “Where is the glory? He has to fight.”

Despite these potential differences between Petersen’s version of the Trojan War and that of Homer’s, the Greek myth should ultimately remain unaffected.

“The wonderful thing about myths is that they’re flexible stories that exist in so many different versions that they can be remade in every age to express what is important to any given society,” Morgan said. “There isn’t really one true version of the story. Myths are relevant because they continue to move us. But the question to be asked is, ‘Does this film move me as much as Homer moves me?’”

Regardless of whether “Troy” succeeds in moving today’s audiences as the “Iliad” still does, movie-goers at least can count on being enticed by the characters on the big screen.

“I imagine that (‘Troy’) will have a great effect with Brad Pitt and Orlando Bloom (in it),” King said. “Orlando Bloom will be good, and I really do think that Brad Pitt will make a great Achilles.”