Homer+2

= Trojan Legends = Text p.110-112 Which one of these wrote //The Iliad//?
 * [[image:Homer_British_Museum.jpg width="250" height="320" align="center"]] || [[image:homer-239x300.jpg width="262" height="325" align="center"]] ||

From your reading of the text, write a brief account of Homer and his role in Greek society. To what extent would Homer's work be useful and reliable for an historian.


 * What caused the Trojan War? **

Did Helen's lust really cause the Trojan War? Or may there have been other causes? Use Sources 9.3, 9.4 and 9.5 to assess the causes of the war. Was it lust, conquest or fish?

//So did a "Trojan War" take place? Even with qualifications and certain reservations, I can give a basically positive answer. We still cannot prove that the Trojan War took place. However, all circumstantial evidence points to armed conflicts around 1200 B.C. between the area we now call Greece and the area that was called Wilusa at the time of the Hittite kingdom. The historical event or events left a mark in Greek poetry of that time, and because of the distinctive nature of the orally improvised Greek epic poetry of the Dark Ages, traces of this were preserved down to the time of Homer.//

__Archaeology__, Vol. 57 No3, May/June 2004
 * Joachim Latacz**, professor of Greek philology at the University of Basel in Switzerland.