Strauss says that Homer is true to Bronze Age warfare in The Iliad.
Following the end of Troy, the departing Greeks start fighting amongst each other, set off by Locrian Ajax' sacrilege against the Trojan equivalent of Athena when he grabbed Cassandra from her image. Agamemnon doesn't think stoning Ajax is sufficient atonement, but Menelaus, now with Helen in tow, wants to get going. Although Menelaus and Helen return to Sparta and witness their daughter's marriage to Neoptolemus, all is not rosy there, and brother Agamemnon dies at his wife's hands. Odysseus takes 10 years (or just "a long time") getting back to Ithaca. Archaeology shows a series of catastrophes in many of the Greek centers. We don't know who or what caused them. The city of Priam was rebuilt, nowhere near as extravagantly, and composed of a different mix of people, including "newcomers from the Balkans."
The Trojan War: A New History, summary pages:
Introduction | 1. War for Helen | 2. The Black Ships Sail | 3. Operation Beachhead | 4. Assault on the Walls | 5. The Dirty War | 6. An Army in Trouble | 7. The Killing Fields | 8. Night Moves | 9. Hector's Charge | 10. Achilles Heel | 11. The Night of the Horse | Conclusion
