The Myth of the Trojan War

The Iliad and other stories of the Trojan War were passed down in oral tradition. These stories told of a massive invasion of Troy by the Greeks, which resulted in a ten-year siege on the city. There's no way to confirm such a siege, but it does appear that the city of Troy was destroyed around the time that the war supposedly happened. The story of the Trojan hero Anius provided the basic foundation myth of Rome. Writers in Medieval England extended the story of Anius to proclaim his descendant Brutus as the mythological founder of Britain.