The Trojan War was a time of heroes. From the swift-footed Achilles, and the hot-headed Prince Paris, to the beautiful Queen Helen, and the all-powerful gods, Zeus, Athena, and Aphrodite. In these early days of what we now call Ancient Greece, the story of Troy was already a saga from a bygone age, re-imagined by Homer, and told around the world ever since.

But was any of it true? Did those legendary heroes ever exist? How did Helen’s beauty launch a thousand ships? And could the Greeks really have breached the city walls by hiding inside a giant wooden horse?

This is a Short History Of The Trojan War.

A Noiser Production, written by Jo Furniss. With thanks to Professor Armand D’Angour, a classical scholar at Jesus College, Oxford, and presenter of the podcast It’s All Greek (And Latin) To Me.

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