Speaking of “historical mistakes” with reference to “Troy” is nonsense, for the simple reason that the movie is inspired to a myth, and the myth is the result of fantastic amplification and transfiguration of historical events. The Trojan war was very different from its poetical (not only Homeric) representations: as historians such as Moses Finley showed, it was not a ten-year-long siege, but probably a series of short raids aiming at plunder. As a matter of fact, the post-Homeric epics describe Achilles as a thug and the Myrmidons as a band of robbers, spoiling temples and abducting daughters of priests. Besides, at the time of the Trojan war the Myceneans were considerably impoverished in comparison with the wealth of the previous centur...