Troy

Even Plato (gr. "wide"), known for his squabbling temper and a large number of subscribers, made a review of the poem, in which he noted that the gods and heroes are shown as some disgusting jerks; how Achilles quarrels with Agamemnon, how he mocks the body of the defeated Hector, how Eric Bana as Hector spends half of his fee on waxing, in general, the philosopher has made a haipanul on an elderly poet.
The roots of all this history, literary processed by the cunning Homer into an epic poem, lurk in the history of the Greeks running back and forth across Asia Minor, where one of the states was the Trojan kingdom, which roofed the local maritime trade, which greatly hit the pockets of the stingy Greeks.

But historical grounds are not as interesting as, for example, the history of Homer and his poems. No one can tell us the exact dates when the poems were written, but material culture gives us an undeniable fact - since the 8th century AD, scenes from the Iliad have been painted on Greek night pots (scary scenes), on amphorae and jugs (funny or dashing scenes).
Homer's poems were yelled through the Greek polis in the squares by specially trained - aedes and rhapsodes. Sometimes they were even called homerids. So if you hear someone laughing Homerically, you can safely call him a descendant of the blind poet. In general Homer was someone very great and mysterious, kind of like Willy Wonka or Michael Jackson, only without the pedophilia trial. There were 9 different biographies of Homer in different departments of the RUVD of the Greek polis, and they contradicted each other a lot. For example Argos, Athens, Pylos and as many as 4 other Greek polis drew fake birth certificates to claim rights to Homer's birthplace.

The poems themselves were widespread in Greece, and everyone knew them, if not by heart, then they could quote bits and pieces of them. Every now and then a drunken chant came from the back alleys: "Wrath, O goddess, sing of Achilles, son of Peleus..."
It was only in the 6th century B.C., the so-called Golden Age of Ancient Greece, when a certain tyrant Pisistratus decided to show contrast with his sonorous name and issued a decree to that effect. Before that, the Iliad was written only on horrible toilet paper and rolled up in case of need. Or tortured rhapsodists who had memorized the poem by heart. And then it happened - Greek samizdat gave birth to a bunch of private editions, who could do anything - for example, Aristotle for Sasha Macedonian (not to be confused with a killer from the 90s) created his own edition, in which he replaced Achilles' spear with an Austrian Steyer carbine, Paris' bow with a Colt 1911, and the apple of the Hesperides with a thief's commonwealth.

The poem was referenced by almost all known and unknown literate intellectuals - Pindar, Herodotus, Thucydides, Aristophanes, Pushkin, Shakespeare and the Russian linguist Yuri Vladimirovich Otkupschikov. But from the quotes of Aristophanes, a Greek scriptwriter and stand-up comedian, it follows that the canonical text at that time had not yet been formed, and within the general framework everyone invented only in this way, who can do what he likes.

In the Hellenistic era, the docents of the Alexandrian Museum prepared one common version of the Iliad based on the collection of different editions of the poem. It was they who divided the poem into 24 songs - according to the number of letters of the Greek alphabet. Homer did not bother with such nonsense as footnotes, contents, list of references, and formatting according to GOST.

In ancient Rome, which had absorbed Greek culture like Jesus' rag of badger oil, Livius Andronicus translated the Odyssey into Latin, thus laying the foundations of Roman literature. A poetic retelling of the Iliad in Latin was made in the 1st century A.D. Its author is listed as a certain Italicus. Like the original, this abridged translation is in hexameter. "The Latin Iliad was read in medieval Europe.

Educated Romans were familiar with the Iliad in the original. It undoubtedly influenced Roman epic poetry and especially the Aeneid. Half of Virgil's poem imitates the plot of the Odyssey, the other half imitates the plot of the Iliad. Aeneas, who, according to Virgil, founded Rome, escaped from besieged Troy through a secret back alley.

In general, the coolness and thoroughness of Homer's opuses can be estimated simply by this fact: Virgil, who is considered a teacher and inspirer by Dante Alighieri, who himself is literally a titan of art and an icon of Western European civilization, Virgil, who is still such a pillar that even Von Trier visits his good films, has the most important work - a continuation in fanfic format of Homer's poem. In general, it is impossible to argue with such scope and scale, I had to take up a marker and draw, trembling lower lip.

It was only in the 19th century that Europeans began to question, out of their foolish habit, whether Homer was there at all Then German philologists suggested that the poem about the Trojan War could be a compilation of songs written by different authors. Well, we know very well what facets German intellectuality can play with - for example, the oak tree under which Goethe wrote Faust stood in the courtyard of Buchenwald.

But I digress.

In general, German criticism gave birth to the theory that a smart man wrote the story of Achilles, his anger, his tolerant friend Patroclus, and so on. And the rest of the story was twisted by future generations of intellectuals.

I remind you that an awesome poster of the Trojan story in full size, on thickest paper, with the author's signature and individual number of the poster, with an appendix of all the texts explaining the difficult background of Achaean attacks and Trojan sufferings can be ordered from me for ridiculous money and enjoy.