Homer's Ill Iliad & Odd Sea Odyssey (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9781956785685)

The poet/bard Homer, reputed to have been blind, is credited with orally describing the Iliad (the story of the end of the ten-year Trojan War), and the Odyssey, the epic tale of the Greek hero Odysseus, who had been punished by Poseidon (Neptune, the sea god) for ten-long-years after the Trojan War. Homer had lived during the time when alphabets and writing were being developed (around 1,000 BC), so his epic poems were later recorded by educated scribes, and both stories exist today in their present forms.

Around 1184 BC, King Agamemnon of Mycenae, and his brother, King Menelaus of Sparta, had led the great expedition of a thousand Greek ships and 50,000 warriors against the Asia Minor city of Troy. The kings of the Greek city states were notorious pirates and marauders, but to glamorize their siege upon Troy, a mythological story involving Helen of Sparta, wife of King Menelaus, claimed that she had been wooed by Prince Paris of Troy to elope to Asia Minor. Thus, Helen of Sparta soon became Helen of Troy, and her abduction became the principal cause of the Trojan War.

The Trojan War had taken almost ten-long-years to fight, and the lengthy conflict was finally won when Odysseus, a brilliant schemer and ball-breaker, had a magnificent Wooden Trojan Horse built, and then had the Greek warriors situate the structure outside the main gates of Troy. The city was strategically located at the Hellespont Channel between Greece and Persia (now Turkey). Greek heroes were hidden inside the stomach of the colossal horse, and during the night, the warriors stealthily climbed-down a rope, opened the gates to Troy, and allowed thousands of Greek warriors to enter, rampage, sack and plunder. The Trojan War was fought during the late Bronze Age, which according to historical records, was around 1184 BC.