The History & Mythology of The Trojan War

Did the Trojan War really happen - or did centuries of storytelling transform myth into memory?

Following the release of Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey, return to one of the foundational stories of ancient Greek culture. Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey are the earliest surviving Greek literary works, composed in the eighth century BCE but shaped by oral traditions reaching back towards the end of the Bronze Age, around 1200 BCE. How much history survived that long journey?

In this talk, Associate Professor Jan Haywood will examine how the epics evoke the Bronze Age through armour, tombs and social, political and religious life - while also reflecting the later Greek world of their audiences.

We’ll explore the wider cycle of Trojan War stories, meet the traditions beyond Homer, and consider why these poems remain powerful creative works even when they resist the historian’s search for reliable evidence.