If you have read my book Henchmen of Ares (2013), you know that I go into quite some detail on the historicity of the Homeric epics in the prologue. Put briefly, it is clear that some elements of the epic poems date back to the Mycenaean Bronze Age. The political geography, with a powerful king at Mycenae, and a conflict in north-western Asia Minor, seem to fit with what we know about the Late Bronze Age. Furthermore, many of the names in the Iliad and Odyssey, such as Achilles, also belong to the Late Bronze Age. We don’t encounter people named “Achilles” in the historical period until after the Homeric epics have been in circulation for quite some time.