Abstract

For centuries the tale of the Trojan War has held pride of place as autochthonous European mythology. Thanks to a Greek poem of nearly 16,000 verses recounting just 52 days of a legendarily 10-year war pitting tribes of Achaians and others against the citizens and allies of Troy, and thanks to related stories by Classical poets, playwrights, and mythographers, the Trojan legend is inscribed indelibly into Western consciousness. Every educated person recognizes and most relate to the figures of Achilles, Patroclus, Hector, Priam, Hecuba, Helen, Paris and others, whose struggles and personalities continue to resonate. This is because, despite its exotic world of gods, fate, and talking horses, our first Greek epic has a timeless quality which makes it a classic.