Making of War Gods

The epic poem Iliad, written by Homer long ago and far away about the Trojan War and the men and women therein, ended with the famous line: “Thus, then, did they celebrate the funeral of Hector breaker of horses.”

But of course, it was only a story… Or was it?

Although Achilles and Hector may have been archetypes of ancient Hellenic warriors who fought for honor, glory and greed – and Helen may have lived but sat out the war in Egypt accordingHerodotus (Histories 2:113-120), the fact is the warrior king Agamemnon, a “shepherd of the people” was an actual historical figure mentioned in many works of ancient history as well as inscribed on ancient artifacts.

Indeed, the ancient Greek Thucydides noted that “Agamemnon’s was a continental power; and he could not have been master of any except the adjacent islands if he had not possessed a fleet” (1.9.4).

With these words Thucydides adds weight to what Homer wrote about Agamemnon, the king of the Argives who had arrived with “their strong benched ships” to make war on Troy as so many other “pirates” did in that era according to Thucydides (1:5-7).

Thematically there is more going on than our…