What is more important is the strong possibility that the early audiences for the Iliad had in their minds the entire Trojan saga as it came to be written down later in the Cyclic poems, including the origins of the conflict and the ultimate fates of the Greek veterans. Every Iliad character and theme would have taken on greater resonance and depth for such listeners. That a body of such lore, perhaps even in poetic form, already existed when the Iliad was composed can explain why the Homeric poet is at liberty to begin the poem in the midst
