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Troy The Myth and Reality Behind the Epic Legend
This is a story of war. It is also the story of one man's dream. It is a story from the deepest past, and yet it is a story as close to us as the wind. The narrative of the epic is set in the period around 1250BC, shortly before the Mycenaean civilization of the Mediterranean began to crumble and city states such as Thebes, Knossus and Tiryns fell victim to a period when settled life broke down. It took centuries to rebuild the glory that had been lost. It was a true dark age, but through travelling storytellers and the oral tradition, the stories of old heroes and gods, among them tales of the siege of Troy, were kept alive. For centuries scholars believed that both the place depicted and the events in the epic were mere fables. It took an unscholarly German indigo salesman to make the connection between the text of The Iliad, as written down by Homer, and the truth. He discovered a site of an ancient city that could have been the real Troy.
122 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2004
About the author
Nick McCarty
38 books1 followerNick McCarty is a playwright and scriptwriter whose credits include The Wolf Road and series for UK television. Nick has written many plays and book adaptations for radio.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
January 12, 2022
I'll be posting photos of this book in my instagram. The copy I have is so pretty, and though I admit that I picked the book because of that, the content did not disappoint at all.
The book follows the famous Trojan War story and how a man named Heinrich Schliemann found Troy based on Homer's works. This proves that fanboying can really do wonders. :D
I found the writing structure easy to follow even if I am only familiar with the Troy story from the film. I haven't read the books, nor am I knowledgeable about the gods but McCarty has probably anticipated that people like me would pick this up. The way he narrated from three perspectives, four if you count academics, was admirable.
So, the question that most readers/ people who has seen the film asks: did the Trojan War happened?
Read it for yourself, and maybe like me, you would also google for more information. :D
I have to also add that although the book looked short from when I first held it in my hands, I felt that was me wrongfully estimating the text amount. Each page seems to equal 3-4 pages of a regular sized book, haha. This taught me never to underestimate big pretty hardbounds in the future.
The book follows the famous Trojan War story and how a man named Heinrich Schliemann found Troy based on Homer's works. This proves that fanboying can really do wonders. :D
I found the writing structure easy to follow even if I am only familiar with the Troy story from the film. I haven't read the books, nor am I knowledgeable about the gods but McCarty has probably anticipated that people like me would pick this up. The way he narrated from three perspectives, four if you count academics, was admirable.
So, the question that most readers/ people who has seen the film asks: did the Trojan War happened?
Read it for yourself, and maybe like me, you would also google for more information. :D
I have to also add that although the book looked short from when I first held it in my hands, I felt that was me wrongfully estimating the text amount. Each page seems to equal 3-4 pages of a regular sized book, haha. This taught me never to underestimate big pretty hardbounds in the future.
April 14, 2021
This book is a great introductory source for those looking to learn more about the Battle of Troy as depicted in Homer’s The Iliad. It also goes speaks to the life and obsession of German philanthropist Heinrich Schliemann who was so drawn to the story depicted in the Iliad that he set out to find the lost city of Troy. The book goes on to explain his very “unprofessional and incompetent” way of removing valuable artifacts throughout his digging of the sight in modern day Turkey. Author McCarty does an excellent job of combining the history of the battle and the historical significance of Schliemann’s excavation of the city of Troy.
January 12, 2019
I had mixed feelings about this book.
Good things:
- Great illustrations.
- The parts about Schliemann were super interesting and kept my interest and is the main reason why I kept reading. I thought McCarty did a good job of being fair but honest about Schliemann and how messed up his methods were.
Frustrating Things:
- How dismissive McCarty is of the Greek gods as "ancient" and no longer believed in. With the rise of reconstructionist religions, Hellenism, Hellinisimos, and etc. this is unacceptable. This kind of ignorance is being excused and that really needs to stop. There should be more respect and awareness of the fact that polytheists are a thing, they exist, and they aren't uncivilized idiots, but intelligent people with value and whose opinions matter. McCarty didn't have to go into all of this, obviously, but there should be more respect happening. For example, George O'Connor does a fabulous job of this in his Olympian series, using phrases like "not many people today believe in these gods." As a side note, this is why we need more polytheists/pantheists/spiritually other people allowed to write non-fiction books and to be published academically. (end rant)
Other Things:
- The Iliad retelling part was alright. It felt geared toward a younger audience and was odd about some of the things it obscured or sugar-coated versus the things they were blunt about. Like mentioning how approximately 30,000 women were raped in Berlin but then used polite phrases when talking about what would happen to the Trojan women when they were taken by the Greeks which is a pet peeve of mine.
End Result:
- Worth a read for a general idea of The Iliad and the story of Schliemann, but may be frustrating/boring to those who already know the story.
Good things:
- Great illustrations.
- The parts about Schliemann were super interesting and kept my interest and is the main reason why I kept reading. I thought McCarty did a good job of being fair but honest about Schliemann and how messed up his methods were.
Frustrating Things:
- How dismissive McCarty is of the Greek gods as "ancient" and no longer believed in. With the rise of reconstructionist religions, Hellenism, Hellinisimos, and etc. this is unacceptable. This kind of ignorance is being excused and that really needs to stop. There should be more respect and awareness of the fact that polytheists are a thing, they exist, and they aren't uncivilized idiots, but intelligent people with value and whose opinions matter. McCarty didn't have to go into all of this, obviously, but there should be more respect happening. For example, George O'Connor does a fabulous job of this in his Olympian series, using phrases like "not many people today believe in these gods." As a side note, this is why we need more polytheists/pantheists/spiritually other people allowed to write non-fiction books and to be published academically. (end rant)
Other Things:
- The Iliad retelling part was alright. It felt geared toward a younger audience and was odd about some of the things it obscured or sugar-coated versus the things they were blunt about. Like mentioning how approximately 30,000 women were raped in Berlin but then used polite phrases when talking about what would happen to the Trojan women when they were taken by the Greeks which is a pet peeve of mine.
End Result:
- Worth a read for a general idea of The Iliad and the story of Schliemann, but may be frustrating/boring to those who already know the story.
May 7, 2024
Filled with typographical errors, bad writing and a merely superficial examination of Troy's myth and rediscovery. There's no reason to read this book when there are other quality texts on the same topic. Would not recommend.
August 15, 2021
Nice pictures and an interesting way to tell the story by alternating between the archaeologist and the legends. I expect a teen with an interest in history to enjoy it.
May 9, 2026
dumped on that German schliemann guy way too much (even if he was a bit of a goon). other than that, it was a decent read
June 28, 2010
I'm not sure what I was expecting this book to be, but whatever I expected, this wasn't it.
This book bounced back and forth between two very different worlds: One was the mythological story of Troy, and one was the story of the man who found actually found Troy thousands of years after it was destroyed.
For many years, it was a given in the literature world that Troy was simply a myth - that none of what was written in the story was true. That idea held until Heinrich Schliemann came along in the 1800's. He was obsessed (a word that the author used repeatedly) with the story of Troy, and with the belief that the city of Troy really did exist. He was going to find it, no matter the cost.
The book started out by describing all of the characters in Troy - who they were related to, what they did, etc. Since I have never been a huge myth fan (until I read Percy Jackson and the Olympians I had never once found any sort of mythology interesting) I simply skimmed that chapter. The next chapter described Schliemann - his background and how he became obsessed with Troy. Then back to mythological Troy again - how the story started and where the conflict came from. The next chapter pinged back to Schliemann and what he was up to.
It was like having a conversation with a schizophrenic person who keeps changing between two different personalities while you're talking to him. Very disconcerting. Add into the mix the fact that I'm not a huge fan of mythology, so half of the conversation was boring to me, and you'll start to see why I wasn't such a huge fan of the book. To top things off, Schliemann wasn't a real nice guy (that's code for "he was a slime bag") and if he did have any redeeming features, the author of the book certainly didn't point them out.
The only saving grace of the book was the pictures - there were a lot of high quality, glossy pictures in the book, and I really liked that. I felt like I had a better feel for the time period because of that.
Perhaps for someone else, this would be a better fit, but for me, it simply didn't work.
This book bounced back and forth between two very different worlds: One was the mythological story of Troy, and one was the story of the man who found actually found Troy thousands of years after it was destroyed.
For many years, it was a given in the literature world that Troy was simply a myth - that none of what was written in the story was true. That idea held until Heinrich Schliemann came along in the 1800's. He was obsessed (a word that the author used repeatedly) with the story of Troy, and with the belief that the city of Troy really did exist. He was going to find it, no matter the cost.
The book started out by describing all of the characters in Troy - who they were related to, what they did, etc. Since I have never been a huge myth fan (until I read Percy Jackson and the Olympians I had never once found any sort of mythology interesting) I simply skimmed that chapter. The next chapter described Schliemann - his background and how he became obsessed with Troy. Then back to mythological Troy again - how the story started and where the conflict came from. The next chapter pinged back to Schliemann and what he was up to.
It was like having a conversation with a schizophrenic person who keeps changing between two different personalities while you're talking to him. Very disconcerting. Add into the mix the fact that I'm not a huge fan of mythology, so half of the conversation was boring to me, and you'll start to see why I wasn't such a huge fan of the book. To top things off, Schliemann wasn't a real nice guy (that's code for "he was a slime bag") and if he did have any redeeming features, the author of the book certainly didn't point them out.
The only saving grace of the book was the pictures - there were a lot of high quality, glossy pictures in the book, and I really liked that. I felt like I had a better feel for the time period because of that.
Perhaps for someone else, this would be a better fit, but for me, it simply didn't work.
November 23, 2011
If you want to learn of the legend of ancient Troy, this would be an excellent book to get you going. Combining the myths with the 19th century excavation, the author takes the reader through the history of Troy, which led to the Homer classics and defined the first great clash between Europe and Asia.
The material is wonderfully presented with chapters alternating between the explanation of the Trojan War and the real-life archaeological digs by Heinrich Schliemann. It's fairly difficult to put this book down, because you get caught up in the characters of Achilles, Helen, Hector, Paris, and Agamemnon while learning about the amazing adventure of Schliemann who stunned the world with his discovery. And what of King Priam's Treasure? That's also included here, so good luck in trying to put this book down, I certainly couldn't.
Also, this makes for an excellent Coffee Table book. That is, a book for guests or family who want something to read while sitting around. I have found it to be the most coveted of such books, causing people to start talking about the Trojan War as though it happened yesterday.
Book Season = Summer (when the winds send one ashore to Ilium)
The material is wonderfully presented with chapters alternating between the explanation of the Trojan War and the real-life archaeological digs by Heinrich Schliemann. It's fairly difficult to put this book down, because you get caught up in the characters of Achilles, Helen, Hector, Paris, and Agamemnon while learning about the amazing adventure of Schliemann who stunned the world with his discovery. And what of King Priam's Treasure? That's also included here, so good luck in trying to put this book down, I certainly couldn't.
Also, this makes for an excellent Coffee Table book. That is, a book for guests or family who want something to read while sitting around. I have found it to be the most coveted of such books, causing people to start talking about the Trojan War as though it happened yesterday.
Book Season = Summer (when the winds send one ashore to Ilium)
October 1, 2008
Anything to do with Ancient Greece just fascinates me.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews