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In Search Of The Trojan War

Episode Three

The Singer Of Tales

Homer wrote his epic, The Iliad, in 700 BC  500 years after the Trojan Wars were supposed to have taken place. On what did he base his story? Where was Troy situated? Did Paris and Helen really exist? What was the significance of the famous wooden horse? Can archaeology help us to recreate a Bronze Age citadel which stood at the cross roads of the major trading routes of the day? Did the Trojan war ever happen,or was the city destroyed by natural causes?It's fascinated poets, painters and Hollywood directors for over 2,500 years.

Join charismatic historian Michael Wood as he combs the cradle of civilization  from Greece to Turkey  and points beyond  Germany, Ireland and England  in search of archaeological evidence that may validate the fantastic battles immortalized in The Iliad. Over six hour-long programmes, Wood marshals the disparate strands of evidence to present as fully rounded a portrait as possible of both the historical and the legendary city of Troy, its central place in Western culture, and the Mycenaean Age itself. From Schliemann's initial cavalier bulldozing of the mound at Hisarlik, to Homer's epics, the Hittite Empire, and the role of slave women, Wood journeys back and forth across the Aegean and elsewhere to illuminate the dawn of Western literature, myth, and history. The trail is not easy to follow and Michael hits various dead ends and dramatic twists before he finds an answer to the question which has obsessed scholars for more than a century.

This six part series was originally broadcast in 1985 on BBC Two and won the Silver Plaque Award at the Chicago International Film Festival.