In Search of the Trojan War

In this liberally illustrated volume written to accompany a forthcoming PBS series, BBC producer and series narrator Wood, author of In Search of the Dark Ages, etc., explores the origins of Homer's epics and efforts of archeologists to document the historic truth of the Bronze Age Trojan War as celebrated in the Iliad. Oral tradition and accounts by poets, he notes, have yet to be disproved by archeology. He cites the fascination which the Trojan story has exercised throughout history and on travelers of all periodsByron among them. Despite archeologist Heinrich Schliemann's exaggerations, the author credits him with the development of modern archeology into a science. Schliemann's finds and those of other archeologists of Mycenaean, Minoan and Hittite civilizations are discussed in some detail. Troy, Wood speculates, may have been one of many cties sacked by the Greeks for economic reasons, and Helen one of the many women captured. 50,000 first printing; History Book Club main selection; BOMC and Macmillan's Natural Science alternates.(May 1p)