How controlling (and tolling) a narrow waterway near ancient Troy changed history

Pierre Belon, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons Christopher Nolan’s highly anticipated adaptation of The Odyssey officially opened in theatres this week. It retells Homer’s ancient epic of Odysseus’ journey home from the Trojan war. The Trojan war of Homer’s epics is heavily mythologised. But it is set in a world of seafaring and sea passages that the ancient Greeks knew intimately well. Interestingly, Nolan’s film has reframed the Trojan war as a trade war over a shipping route. This…