Brandon Prince

Professor Joel Christensen

Classics 4973

8 May 2012

Research Narrative:

My research began by reading some the articles posted on Blackboard related to my topic of choice. The article by Casey Dué was very helpful in finding additional sources relating to my topic and a quick online search brought the articles and books he mentioned to the forefront. The Dué article also pointed me to the Raaflaub article about finding history in epic, this article was not specifically targeted towards the Trojan War myth but was still quite useful. After this I went to the library and tried to pick up some books that looked at the history of the Trojan War and how the Trojan War has influenced history itself.  This task was a bit harder and I feel I taxed the John Peace Library to it’s limit regarding hard copy book sources but I was nonetheless successful. Finding internet resources was difficult because there doesn’t seem to be as much online relating to my topic that isn’t already in print somewhere else.  The best thing about online resources regarding the Trojan War is the availability of the texts and the corroborative capabilities that an online forum for discussion provides

In all my research about this topic I found a common strain of concern from most of the modern writers on this topic regarding the historicity of the Trojan War itself. There is a certain uneasiness in considering the Trojan War epic and being unable to place it definitively in history. And the fact that the epic exists primarily as myth and that divine figures are heavily involved is held against the work’s historical authenticity. But regardless of the historicity of the Trojan War epics, the vast scope of it’s influence is extraordinary. Nearly every person of importance in western history can place themselves in agreement with or opposition to the ideas or the message of the epic itself.