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NAVIGATE THIS PAGE: Did The Trojan War Actually Happen? | Retelling of the Trojan War | The Aeneid was the First Retelling of the Trojan War Story | Retelling of the Trojan War | More Books Based on Greek Myth | More Greek Myths Retold on Bookshop >>
DID THE TROJAN WAR ACTUALLY HAPPEN?
The tragic story of the Trojan War is one of the oldest epic tales in Western literature. The invasion and subsequent destruction of Troy by the Mycenaean Greeks was written down for the first time in Homer’s The Iliad (circa 750 BCE), although the story was certainly conveyed orally for generations.
Because The Iliad contained many mythical and supernatural elements, Western historians were uncertain if Troy even existed at all — or if the story was simply a fantastical morality tale. Then, in 1870, amateur archaeologist Heinrich Schlieman decided to excavate at a site near the modern Turkish city of Hissarlik. Hissarlik was several hours to the south of where most scholars suspected historical Troy existed, and even Schlieman was skeptical. But within seven years, Schlieman’s team had uncovered nine layered cities spanning 3,600 years. One city, known as Troy VII, showed evidence of a catastrophic fire which would have been consistent with invasion as described in The Iliad. Dating of the site put the fire between 1194 and 1184 BCE, and the beginning of the collapse of Late Bronze Age Greek society.
My first introduction to the Trojan War was in elementary school when I read Black Ships Before Troy by Rosemary Sutcliff. The epic tale of gods and heroes was brought to life by the detailed and evocative illustrations by Allan Lee. I didn’t read The Iliad until I was a freshman in high school, but Black Ships had me hooked on the tale of Troy forever.
The major ancient historical works dealing with the Trojan War are listed below.
The tragic story of the Trojan War is one of the oldest epic tales in Western literature. The invasion and subsequent destruction of Troy by the Mycenaean Greeks was written down for the first time in Homer’s The Iliad (circa 750 BCE), although the story was certainly conveyed orally for generations.
Because The Iliad contained many mythical and supernatural elements, Western historians were uncertain if Troy even existed at all — or if the story was simply a fantastical morality tale. Then, in 1870, amateur archaeologist Heinrich Schlieman decided to excavate at a site near the modern Turkish city of Hissarlik. Hissarlik was several hours to the south of where most scholars suspected historical Troy existed, and even Schlieman was skeptical. But within seven years, Schlieman’s team had uncovered nine layered cities spanning 3,600 years. One city, known as Troy VII, showed evidence of a catastrophic fire which would have been consistent with invasion as described in The Iliad. Dating of the site put the fire between 1194 and 1184 BCE, and the beginning of the collapse of Late Bronze Age Greek society.
My first introduction to the Trojan War was in elementary school when I read Black Ships Before Troy by Rosemary Sutcliff. The epic tale of gods and heroes was brought to life by the detailed and evocative illustrations by Allan Lee. I didn’t read The Iliad until I was a freshman in high school, but Black Ships had me hooked on the tale of Troy forever.
The major ancient historical works dealing with the Trojan War are listed below.
This timeless poem still vividly conveys the horror and heroism of men and gods battling amidst devastation and destruction, as it moves to its tragic conclusion.
Homer's best-loved and most accessible poem, recounting the great wandering of Odysseus during his ten-year voyage back home to Ithaca, after the Trojan War. A superb new verse translation.
For two thousand years, the epic tale of Aeneas's dramatic flight from Troy, his doomed love affair with Dido, his descent into the underworld, and the bloody story behind the establishment of Rome has electrified audiences around the world.
RETELLING THE TROJAN WAR
THE AENEID WAS THE FIRST RETELLING OF THE TROJAN WAR:
The Aeneid is the story of how the surviving Trojans, led by Prince Aeneas, son of the goddess Venus and cousin to Trojan heroes Hector and Paris, embarked on an epic journey to find their new homeland. According to prophecy, this new land would lie to the west of Troy and require a long sea voyage filled with many perils, similar to Odysseus’s journey to Ithaca as told in The Odyssey. After many trials and hardships — most conjured by the Olympian gods who were still divided in their loyalties between the Greeks and Trojans — Aeneas and his followers settled in what is today modern Italy. It will be Aeneas’s descendants, Romulus and Remus, who establish the city of Rome.
The poem was written by Publius Vergilius Maro (more commonly known as Virgil) from 29–19 BCE. The text was written in a similar style to Homer and borrowed much of its source materials from The Iliad and The Odyssey.
Tales of Aeneas leading Trojan refugees out of the city’s burning ruins predated Virgil by centuries, but they, along with details about Aeneas himself, were vague. Virgil capitalized on this ambiguity by solidifying Aeneas as the connective element between the ancient and heroic Greeks, the Olympian gods, the greatest war in ancient history, and the founding of Rome. In doing so, Virgil also fulfilled a political and propagandistic role in giving the Romans, a culture that borrowed heavily from the Greeks, its own heroic origin myth on par with The Iliad. In doing so, the Trojans were recast as the ultimate victors of the Trojan War. While Troy may have burned to the ground, the Trojans/Romans ultimately conquered and subjugated Greece, along with most of the Mediterranean.
In reality, of course, the historical Trojans and Romans are not related. But in the end, it didn’t matter. The Romans had an epic legend of their own, showing them as favored by the gods, and proving that the Romans, along with all their other amazing feats, were also skilled in disinformation.
The Aeneid is the story of how the surviving Trojans, led by Prince Aeneas, son of the goddess Venus and cousin to Trojan heroes Hector and Paris, embarked on an epic journey to find their new homeland. According to prophecy, this new land would lie to the west of Troy and require a long sea voyage filled with many perils, similar to Odysseus’s journey to Ithaca as told in The Odyssey. After many trials and hardships — most conjured by the Olympian gods who were still divided in their loyalties between the Greeks and Trojans — Aeneas and his followers settled in what is today modern Italy. It will be Aeneas’s descendants, Romulus and Remus, who establish the city of Rome.
The poem was written by Publius Vergilius Maro (more commonly known as Virgil) from 29–19 BCE. The text was written in a similar style to Homer and borrowed much of its source materials from The Iliad and The Odyssey.
Tales of Aeneas leading Trojan refugees out of the city’s burning ruins predated Virgil by centuries, but they, along with details about Aeneas himself, were vague. Virgil capitalized on this ambiguity by solidifying Aeneas as the connective element between the ancient and heroic Greeks, the Olympian gods, the greatest war in ancient history, and the founding of Rome. In doing so, Virgil also fulfilled a political and propagandistic role in giving the Romans, a culture that borrowed heavily from the Greeks, its own heroic origin myth on par with The Iliad. In doing so, the Trojans were recast as the ultimate victors of the Trojan War. While Troy may have burned to the ground, the Trojans/Romans ultimately conquered and subjugated Greece, along with most of the Mediterranean.
In reality, of course, the historical Trojans and Romans are not related. But in the end, it didn’t matter. The Romans had an epic legend of their own, showing them as favored by the gods, and proving that the Romans, along with all their other amazing feats, were also skilled in disinformation.
From the Trojan women whose fates now lie in the hands of the Greeks, to the Amazon princess who fought Achilles on their behalf, to the goddesses whose feud started it all, these are the stories of the women whose lives, loves, and rivalries were forever altered by this long and tragic war.
After ten years of siege by Greek forces, the walls of Troy remain intact. Only the intervention of the greatest warrior of all time, Achilles, can tilt the balance in favor of the invaders. On the Trojan side, Prince Hector is the only one who can face him.
Here is the story of The Iliad as we've never heard it before: in the words of Briseis, Trojan queen and captive of Achilles. Wry, watchful, forging connections among her fellow female prisoners, Briseis is caught between Greece's two most powerful warriors.
A tale of gods, kings, immortal fame, and the human heart, The Song of Achilles is a dazzling literary feat that brilliantly reimagines Homer’s enduring masterwork, The Iliad. An action-packed adventure, an epic love story, a marvelously conceived and executed page-turner!
Virgil's classic tale of a hero's mythical journey comes to life in this graphic retelling for kids. From the smoldering ruins of Troy, the warrior Aeneas sets out to find a new homeland for his people. But it's no easy task, for his adventure is filled with great sacrifice, angry gods, tragic love, and brutal battles.
The traditions of ancient Sparta would have Helen know her place: a beautiful princess, a loyal daughter, a perfect bride. Helen will find her destiny . . . but what does destiny have in store for her?
Threatened, Zeus banishes her to a deserted island, where she hones her occult craft and crosses paths with many of the most famous figures in all of mythology, including the Minotaur, Daedalus and his doomed son Icarus, the murderous Medea, and, of course, wily Odysseus.
Laden with doom, yet surprising in its moments of innocence and beauty, Helen of Troy is an exquisite page-turner with a cast of irresistible, legendary characters.
Penelope. Immortalized in legend and myth as the devoted wife of the glorious Odysseus. Now Penelope wanders the underworld, spinning a different kind of thread: her own side of the story — a tale of lust, greed and murder.
MORE BOOKS BASED ON GREEK MYTH
When a gorgeous but murderous warrior god claims I'm the only way to restore his lost power I know I can't trust him. Ares is every bit the brute the myths claim him to be. I'm no angel myself though, and he causes something to spark within me — a fire I have spent my life trying to control.
Each decade, only the six most uniquely talented magicians are selected to earn a place in the Alexandrian Society, the foremost secret society in the world. The chosen will secure a life of power and prestige beyond their wildest dreams. But at what cost?
Old Gods never die... Or so Athena thought. But then the feathers started sprouting beneath her skin, invading her lungs like a strange cancer, and Hermes showed up with a fever eating away his flesh. So much for living a quiet eternity in perpetual health.
Ariadne, Princess of Crete, grows up greeting the dawn from her beautiful dancing floor and listening to her nursemaid's stories of gods and heroes. But beneath her golden palace echo the ever-present hoofbeats of her brother, the Minotaur, a monster who demands blood sacrifice.
First, they loved her. Then, they abused her. Finally, they made her a villain. Gifted and burdened with stunning beauty, young Medusa seeks sanctuary with the Goddess Athena. But when she catches the eye of the lecherous but mighty Poseidon, she is beyond protection.
Geryon, a young boy who is also a winged red monster, reveals his fragile, tormented soul in an autobiography. As he grows older, Geryon escapes his abusive brother and affectionate but ineffectual mother, finding solace behind the lens of his camera and in the arms of a young man named Herakles.
You were born to a king, but you marry a tyrant. You stand by helplessly as he sacrifices your child. You watch him wage war on a foreign shore, and you comfort yourself with violent thoughts of your own. Slowly, you plot.
Daphne has spent her entire life honing her body and mind into that of a warrior, hoping to be accepted by the unyielding people of ancient Sparta. But an unexpected encounter with the goddess Artemis upends the life she's worked so hard to build.
Being a Greek god is not all it once was. Yes, the twelve gods of Olympus are alive and well in the twenty-first century, but they are crammed together in a London townhouse — and none too happy about it. And they've had to get day jobs...
Think you know the real story behind the Greek myths? Think again. Most people only know what Zeus wants them to. But the truth is, Zeus is a total myth-o-maniac. Hades, King of the Underworld, is here to set the record straight on how he ended up as Ruler of the Underworld and Zeus became King of the Gods.
Judged, despised, cursed by gods, Clytemnestra reveals the tragic saga of a powerful woman caught between the demands of her ambition and the constraints on her gender...
In her inventive novels of ancient Greece, Mary Renault performs the alchemical feats of fashioning from the myth of Theseus a convincingly flawed hero and of weaving a thrillingly plausible account of the events that inspired the fantastical tale of the Labyrinth and the Minotaur.
Each spring, Ithaca condemns twelve maidens — the price vengeful Poseidon demands for the lives of Queen Penelope's twelve maids, hanged and cast into the depths centuries ago. But when that fate comes for Leto, death is not what she thought it would be.
Percy Jackson is about to be kicked out of boarding school . . . again. And that's the least of his troubles. Lately, mythological monsters and the gods of Mount Olympus seem to be walking straight out of the pages of Percy's Greek mythology textbook and into his life.
Rachel Smythe's original Eisner-winning webcomic Lore Olympus brings Greek mythology into the modern age in a sharply perceptive and romantic graphic novel.
They will fear you and flee you and call you a monster. The only mortal in a family of gods, Medusa is the youngest of the Gorgon sisters. Unlike her siblings, Medusa grows older, experiences change, feels weakness. Her mortal lifespan gives her an urgency that her family will never know.
Apollo is a deity... almost. Half mortal and refusing to take his position as god of the sun, he spends his nights drowning out haunting memories and his days avoiding responsibilities. Until his father forces him into an ultimatum: Ascend immediately.
Zeus/Zane, King of the Greek gods, holds the world in his palm in both his mortal and godly form... until Hera leaves him, forcing him to uphold Gaea's clause: There must always be a Queen, or he loses his title and his power.