Cycladic, Minoan, Mycenaean, and Archaic Greek MythologyThe Trojan War and the Iliad |
What is the background of the myth of the Trojan War narrated in the Iliad? |
The Iliad tells a story about the war in Ilium (Troy), waged by the Greeks, or Hellenes (called by Homer Achaeans, Argives, and Danaans), led by King Agamemnon of Mycenae against the people of Troy and their allies (Ionians and Aiolians), under King Priam. The beautiful Helen, wife of Agamemnon’s brother, Menelaus, the king of Sparta, had been seduced and abducted by Paris, a Trojan prince, and an alliance of Greeks had come to take her back and to punish Troy for harboring her.