The legend of Troy – a city sparking with fire, a cataclysmic war and a refugee crisis – always has something more to offer writers looking for inspiration. The unspeakable horrors of conflict. The brutalities written on women’s bodies. The journey that, for the victors, means a voyage home, and for the victims, a farewell to freedom.
And it’s very much the season for Troy. Emily Wilson’s landmark Iliad translation was released in paperback on August 6. Stephen Fry’s Odyssey retelling will be published in September. My own book, Mythica – a new history of Homer’s world, told through the real women written out of it – is published next spring.
