Genre of the Epic Poem    (The entire section is 1155 words.)
Want to Read More?   The Poem (Masterplots, Fourth Edition)
(The entire section is 1583 words.)  Places Discussed
(Cyclopedia of Literary Places)  *Troy (Ilios)       (The entire
section is 555 words.)  Historical Context   Ajax defends the
Greek ships against the Trojans  The Bronze Age The Trojan War
and its aftermath took place in the late Bronze Age, which began
around 1550 BC. This is the date assigned to the wealthy burial
sites found by Heinrich Schliemann in Grave Circle A at Mycenae
in 1873. For this reason, the period is sometimes also called
the Mycenaean era. This was a time of relative stability though
not, of course, without its conflicts, wars, and raids....  (The
entire section is 1281 words.)  Literary Style  Since it is the
first work in its genre to have survived, the Iliad does not so
much display the mechanics of epic poetry as define them. Epic
poetry in the West was written in virtually the same form as the
Iliad for at