Voices of the Trojan War recounts the saga of Troy in verse. The book is a collection of 53 short poems, bookended by an invocation and epilogue. Most of the poems are in the form ABAB, but a few feature other patterns of rhyme and rhythm. Each one has a title, and is preceded by a classical epigraph. Excerpts from Homer’s Iliad and book two of Virgil’s Aeneid feature numerous times, but there are also references to The Odyssey, the plays of Euripides, Ovid, and Lucian.
The book begins with a discourse between an unnamed Poet and the Muse. The opening line, "Tell us, muse, of Troy’s dark days" (p. 3) echoes the opening line of Homer’s Iliad, but it is Hector and Cassandra, not Achilles, who are named first. As the poet takes up the story, the Muse acknowledges the renown of a myth that has been retold countless times:
"MUSE:Words repeated many times-
what is left to tell?
Let the heroes speak themselves;
Ask the gods as well." (p.4)
Hovey offers the characters – both mortal and immortal, famous and unknown – a chance to speak for themselves. In a series of poems called The Apple of Discord I–IV, the three goddesses Hera, Athena and Aphrodite each present their case for Paris to award them the golden apple, and Aphrodite gloats when she wins the prize. Some poems take the form of conversations between characters – Achilles and his mother, Agamemnon speaking to his servant, Hector admonishing Paris – while others are monologues of grief and triumph. There are chants, entreaties, and laments.
The Wooden Horse looms large within the story. Epeios, the builder, recounts how Odysseus dreams up its complicated design and how his unique skills "mathematical precision, | a discerning eye, artistic intuition" help him to construct it (p. 57). His poem is followed by two companion pieces, Trojan Voices Overheard at the Wall and Greek Voices Overheard Outside the Camp, which repeat the refrain "What are they building? | What is that thing?" (pp. 58, 60). Their shared confusion unites the warring enemies in their unease about ‘that dog’ Odysseus and his schemes.
The book has an unexpected conclusion which complicates the veracity of the myth. Helen speaks for the final time, claiming that she was "nothing more | than a pawn in the goddesses’ game" (p. 103). She insists "I set no foot in Troy, I swear. | Tell the world. | I wasn’t there." (p. 104). The final poem, in which the Muse reveals "the truth behind the fable" (p. 106) is followed by an excerpt from Herodotus detailing the alterative tradition in which Helen never spent time in Troy, but was instead spirited away to Egypt. The reader is left uncertain about the veracity of what they have just read, and conscious of the multiplicity of myth. Hovey’s book concludes with an extensive appendix featuring key characters and locations as well as a pronunciation guide.