The ancient Greeks believed that their ancestors joined together sometime around 1184 B.C.F.. to sail against Troy under the command of several Mycenaean leaders. According to Greek myth, the war began when the Trojan prince Paris (also known as Alexander) kidnapped Helen, the wife of the Spartan king Menclaus, during a visit of xenia (guest friendship) and brought her back to Troy. Led by Agamemnon, the brother of Menelaus, armies from several regions in Greece waged a campaign against Troy. With the help of heroes like Achilles, Ajax, and Odysseus, they won the war in the tenth year. A cycle of poems about the outbreak of the Trojan War, the actual battles, and its aftermath, including stories of heroic return, developed in the Dark Age and later influenced Athenian tragedy. Composed before the advent of writing...