and of course, you have as one of your reading assignments

你们的课后阅读作业中
a problem that deals precisely with that question

有一道课后题的其中一问就是
that asks the subordinate question:

"荷马史诗中所描述的世界
was there a real world that Homer's poems refer to?

是否是历史上真实的世界呢"
If so, what world was it?

如果是那是怎样的呢
Was it the world of the Mycenaean Bronze Age?

是迈锡尼的青铜时代吗
Was it the world that succeeded that Bronze Age that we call the Dark Ages?

还是之后被我们称作黑暗时代的世界呢
Was it the world in which tradition says Homer himself lived,

或是那个传说中荷马曾经生活的时代吗
the transition first to the Archaic

那个时代先经历了古代的转变
and then to the Classical Period,

而后到了古典主义时期
the period in which we think about the dawn of the polis?

也就是我们所说的城邦萌芽的时期
That really is the question we are wrestling with and,

这确实是一个很棘手的问题