The Iliad

The Iliad by Homer

The Iliad is the original war story. It's set in the 9th year of the Trojan War. It begins with an argument between Achilles and Agamemnon over a woman. Agamemnon wins the argument and the woman. So Achilles goes off to pout, leaving the war for the others to fight. The gods and goddesses have all chosen sides and often help their chosen army.

The story was already hundreds of years old when Homer finally wrote it down. It was an epic poem that had been passed down through the century's. I watched a program on History International the other night and the subject of how could so long a poem be accurate centuries later. Well turns out early in the first half of the 20th century some researcher wondered the same thing. So he went out and studied the songs The Serbian story-tellers sang about a war that occurred about 400 years before. And he found the songs were very accurate. I found that extremely interesting. It lends a little credence to the legend of the Trojan War, but I still don't believe Aphrodite spirited Paris off the battlefield.