The Siege and Fall of Troy Author:Robert Graves from the Introduction: — The Seige and Fall of Troy describes all the evils commonly found in war on a large scale - ambition, greed, cruelty, suffering, treachery, incompetence. But the Greeks, though frankly telling how their ancestors ruined themselves in this foolish ten-year-long campaign, did not consider even the Olympian gods blameless. ... more » War was forced on King Priam and King Agamemnon, they said, by a jealous quarrel between three goddesses, which Almighty Zeus himself dared not settle: in other words, by forces beyond man's control. The effects were felt as far away as Northern Italy, Libya, Ethiopia, Palestine, Armenia and Crimea.
Homer's poems are by no means the sole source of the legend; in fact, about two thirds of this book is taken from various other Greek and Latin authors. Yet on linking the accounts together, I am surprised to find how well they agree...