Wikipedia Trail: From Homer's Iliad to Leonidas I

(statue of Leonidas I of Sparta)

(source: WikiMedia Commons)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iliad

My foray into Wikipedia this week began by visiting the page for the epic poem I chose as the basis for my story this week, Homer's Iliad. There was little new information presented to me concerning the story itself, rather the material present on the page focused more on the historical significance of the poem and whether or not the events portrayed in the story are factual or exaggerations. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Odyssey

The first link to draw my eye was to the story that was a direct follow up to the Iliad, concerning a group of soldiers who participated in the Trojan Wars and there dangerous voyage home that did not exactly end in a positive manner. The story of Odysseus and his men attempting to return home was an opportunity to for me to revisit a story that was one of my favorites during high school english. 

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sparta

Considering this was one of the major forces I chose to use in my story it seemed almost natural for my wikipedia trail to lead me in this direction. The Spartans were a warrior culture that developed an intense training program to form the fiercest fighting force of the Bronze Age. Our generation has been introduced to the city-state of Sparta due to a fairly successful film from several years ago known as 300, which ultimately lead to my final wikipedia trail stop. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonidas_I 

My final stop on this week's wikipedia tour landed me on the legendary Spartan king who lead the famous final stand at Thermopylae against the invading Persian army as they attempted to overtake the Greek peninsula. This was the most interesting of my stops this week, presenting me with the most new information, where I had previously only known what was shown to me in the aforementioned movie 300. 

My wikipedia trail this week continued down a constant line the whole way, focusing on Greek culture and mythology. Maybe future trips down the rabbit hole will lead to a broader experience than this first one, but it was still an enjoyable first time.