The Trojan War as Military History

The dramatic events of the Trojan War are legend?but Homer's epic poem, Iliad, is devoted entirely to a few mundane weeks at the end of a debilitating, waning ten-year campaign. The story's focus is not on drama but on a bitter truth: both armies want nothing more than to stop fighting and go home. Achilles?the electrifying hero who is Homer's brilliant creation?quarrels with his commander, Agamemnon, but eventually returns to the field to avenge a comrade's death.