What historical account the Iliad describes occurred 800 years before the telling by Homer. You see, soon after the time of Troy, an inland peoples known as the Dorian’s invaded the thinned out population of the Grecian isles (who had recently lost entire generations of fighting men), sending their culture back to “the Stone Age.” They actually lost the ability to read and write through this time. The Dorian’s were probably illiterate and resented the Greek states, forbidding writing. My semi educated guess. Writing returned to Greece approximately fifty years after Homer, if that tells you anything about Homer’s influence.

In that time, this story, and a handful of others were passed down through oral tradition, today the whole collection was referred to as “the epic cycle” of which the Iliad is only a small fraction that remains.

The Iliad was a clutch of the old world Greek culture and identity.

That said, it should be known that the war actually spanned ten years, and it is rumored that its purpose was not to merely get back the girl, it was designed by God (Zeus) to thin out humanity, for “there were too many people in the world, and it made Zeus very angry.” Refer to the story of the golden apple, and the promise made to Paris.

That said, as a vessel of cultural identity it reminded the Greeks who they were and how they should behave in respects to their legacy as peoples.

Scholars believe Homer was one man who was headmaster of an entire school who practiced this oral tradition, and he refactored 800 years of fragments into this one story. This is more clear with the telling of the Odyssey which has many voices, including the perspective of women which is a separate intrigue, that story is a complete fabrication with more emphasis on how to behave with respect to the gods and ideal social order for the time (also involving obedience over free will).

This account that the true purpose is incoherent is somewhat valid. The stories were not “written” by the winners, it was told by the descendants who did not truly comprehend their leadership’s intentions. As though a layperson speaking about Trumps intentions in Iran if our whole intellectual community were somehow wiped out for instance. There may be a fragment of truth, layered by heresay and conjecture, woven together with Devine myth. It is a story which they tell themselves, rather than true insight.