The Mycenaeans—made legendary in part by Homer's Iliad, which fictionalizes their war with Troy—dominated much of Greece from about 1600 B.C. to 1100 B.C...
At one time these self same "experts" were claiming that Troy didn't really exist, it too was a myth. Now they claim the Iliad "fictionalizes" the war. Maybe, or maybe something happened back then that they do not understand.
“At one time these self same “experts” were claiming that Troy didn’t really exist, it too was a myth.”
Those experts have been dead over a hundred years. These are new experts.
“Now they claim the Iliad “fictionalizes” the war. Maybe, or maybe something happened back then that they do not understand.”
Or maybe they think “fictionalizes” is not a perjorative term and accurately describes what Homer did. Sometimes people who devote their lives to studying a subject actually know something about it.
My reaction too. Homer took literary liberties including the Gods as active participants, but using the word “fictionalizes” just sounds arrogant and wrong. I have the same reaction to “scholars” who dismiss Abraham, Moses, David, and Jesus as made-up characters. Legends, and certainly most religions, do not usually come from nothing (Scientology being a major exception).