Are the "Iliad" and the "Odyssey" just charming poetic fantasies? Or do they give a more or less accurate picture of the Mycenaean period, the early Dark Age of Homer's own era? Do archaeological discoveries like Schliemann's excavations at Troy bear out Homer's account of the Trojan war? The author offers an analysis of Homer's depiction of kinship and community, Helen and Hector, morals and values, Paris, Priam and the gods.