In medieval Britain, the works of Homer were practically unknown. In his absence, the half-remembered story of the Trojan War took on a distinctly Arthurian flavour, with the heroes Achilles and Hector reimagined as armoured knights on horseback, duelling with broadsword and lance. In 1474, in Bruges, William Caxton's translation of Raoul Lef?vre's Recoeil des Histoires de Troyes ("Anthology of the Histories of Troy") became the...