You must be an important author when you only have to use a single name. Of course there were less people around at the time, so surnames hadn’t been invented.

The Greek army is stuck laying siege to the Trojan city of Ilium (Troy). The Greek leader Agamemnon humiliates the Greeks greatest fighter Achilles who is so angry he refuses to fight again. As a result the Trojans gain the upper hand under their own hero Hector. Agamemnon is forced to concede and apologises to Achilles but Achilles stays in a sullen mood and won’t be persuaded. However when Hector kills Achilles’ best friend Patroclus in battle, he returns to the battle with furious devastating effect to seek his revenge on Hector.

Being an ancient text you might consider it dull, but its in fact very lively and readable. The interplay of the characters, their motivations and feelings are powerfully described as is the consequences of battle. Deaths are often described by how a widow will not see her husband again, or a child its father. And its the portrayal of such human feelings that make this a classic in every sense and not just a history of a battle.

Is it true?

Good question and one that has aroused experts passions. There was a Troy and Homer certainly uses some very authentic details. But then he is orally telling to an audience for whom such a conflict would already have been old history, fable. He probably was dramatising a story that matched thier own understandings of a past era. And as some have pointed out, no King would allow his kingdom and city to be destroyed over a captured woman (Helen) and the Greeks wouldn’t spend 10 years away from thier own kingdoms fighting across the sea. Having seen the film Troy and been quite scornful that a 10 year seige was compressed to a few weeks, I think I may have to revise my scorn, because Homer does the same. The events are a snapshot of a few weeks, but clearly gives the impression of the wider context. And Brad Pitt caught Achilles’ ego and sulk perfectly. As a book I didn’t enjoy it quite as much as the Odyssey - but then that has a happy ending.