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We do not know that the Iliad is true. What is 'true'? The Iliad was an epic poem sung by the bards for hundreds of years before writing was innvented - that is it was passed by word of mouth.

Not only is oral tradition subject to great distortions after three generations, each bard gave a different version from the others. Not only that, the bards used to change their own stories for variation.

The first version was written down around perhaps 725 BCE - over five hundred years after the alleged events. The written versions were themselves subjected to many changes. So we can be sure that the version we have today is greatly at variance from what may or may not have actually happened.

Even the internal evidence in today's version is at odds. Ajax was dead before the alleged war. The boar's teeth helmet was in fashion two hundred years before the war. The political scene depicted reflected that of the 8th Century BCE - four hundred years after the war.

And it's true? Just what is true about it?

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13y ago

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