Alternate Character Interpretation: This has been going on or centuries. Later writers tend to be much more sympathetic to the Trojan side, especially Hector. One example is Thersites, who is portrayed in The Iliad as a cowardly weakling. In William Shakespeare's Troilus and Cressida by contrast, he is still a coward but also the only character who recognizes how ridiculous the entire conflict really is.
Fanon Discontinuity: A particularly harsh example; the books aside from The Iliad and The Odyssey were so disliked that they don't even exist anymore. Out of all of them, The Telegony is especially hated for its Broken Aesop regarding responsibility, loyalty and love that made The Odyssey popular. Nowhere more evidence by the lack of works from the other ancient Greek writers detailing the events of the book.
Fridge Brilliance: In the Aethiopis and the Little Iliad, the Achaeans are surprised by the arrival of relief forces for the Trojans... Because they thought they had already destroyed or scared off all of Troy's allies and the last ones were already in the city, as noted by Achilles being said to have sacked 29 cities and Aeneas being a Dardanian (from the city of Dardanus, north of Troy and its main ally).
This also explains why the Trojan War went on for ten years, why Priam needed Helen to tell him who the kings and warriors in the Achaian army were at the start of The Iliad, and why the lesser unnamed soldiers wanted to go home: the Achaians maintained only a light force or none at all in front of Troy while they destroyed its allies first, at the start of The Iliad they had just brought there the bulk of their forces (or even just arrived) and were mounting their first attack at the start of the siege proper, and the lesser soldiers were more than content with the loot they already had and saw no purpose in risking their lives against the most fortified city they had ever seen, especially after Achilles decided to pull out of the alliance.
Fridge Horror: Achilles was involved in the sack of 29 cities, the Achaeans later destroy Troy's reinforcements and Troy itself, a city in what should be the Hittite sphere of influence, and when they come home many die during the voyage or are killed when they arrive - sounds awfully a lot like the start of the Bronze Age Collapse, that archaeology and historians date to the same period as the sack of Troy VII and in which peoples from Greeks are believed to be among the Sea Peoples.
Harsher in Hindsight: Due to the agreements made by the many rulers, an enormous and terrible war occurs that leaves even its victors worse off from the degree of their losses. This describes the Trojan War, but also sounds a lot like World War I.
Magnificent Bastard: The versions of Odysseus "The Cunning", King of Ithaca, who lack the offering of captured women to his men to rape, makes for one of the most classic examples of this trope in literature. As a soldier of Agamemnon, Odysseus serves as one of his most intelligent advisors, leading the war effort both in physicality and mentality through his fighting and guile. After masterminding the Trojan Horse to cause the sack of Troy, singlehandedly ensuring the end of the Trojan War, Odysseus attempts to return home with his crew, only to face years of hardships. Along the way, he blinds the Cyclops after tricking him into getting drunk, forces Circe to release his crew from an enchantment, journeys to the Underworld and comes out alive, and sacrifices six of his men to escape the legendary monsters Scylla and Charybdis. When he returns home, he deceives his way into the house so as to determine who in his household is aligned with the suitors, even impressing Athena with the strength of his deceit. After waiting for the precise right moment to strike, he does so with ruthless efficiency, killing all of the suitors and their loyalists in one fell swoop. With this done, he retires with his wife and son to his father's land, finally knowing peace after twenty years of hardships.
The Cypria
Hilarious in Hindsight: Zeus basically sets off the whole Trojan War in order to trim down the world's population. He's clearly gotten lazy over the last three thousand-odd years, seeing as the human population has grown much, much, much, much larger than it was either before or after the conflict.
Sequelitis: Aristotle criticised the work as lacking focus, as it was more of a series of events than a unified story. The Iliad and The Odyssey are considered superior works.
