The Trojan War, captured forever in Homer’s epic poem the Iliad, resonates to the present day in the popular imagination, and this magnificent confrontation continues to exert a tremendous influence on modern audiences. But did Troy actually exist? And if so, where is it located? Was the Trojan War actually fought? If it was, did it take place over the course of ten years, as Homer wrote, or was it a much longer series of battles? And why was the war fought? Could Helen’s face alone really have launched a thousand ships? In this course, esteemed professor Eric H. Cline examines the real history of Troy and delves into the archaeological discoveries (which continue to the present day) that help to answer the questions above. Through an entertaining and incisive analysis of known data, Professor Cline provides a fuller, richer understanding of this historic clash. lecture 1. The tale of the Trojan War, introduction and overview. lecture 2. The Mycenaens lecture 3. The Hittites lecture 4. The Sea peoples and the end of the late Bronze Age lecture 5. Greek literary evidence for the Trojan War and its sequence of events lecture 6. The Homeric question, Bronze Age or Iron Age lecture 7. Hittite literary evidence for Troy, the Mycenaens and the Trojan War lecture 8. Heinrich Schliemann and the City of Troy lecture 9. Priam's treasure lecture 10. Wilhelm Dörpfeld and the City of Troy VI lecture 11. Carl Blegen and the City of Troy VIIa lecture 12. Manfred Korfmann and the results of recent excavations lecture 13. Possible motivations and dates for a Trojan War lecture 14. Did the Trojan War take place?