Whatever the other qualities one may assign to 300, it's the most accurate depiction of the Iliad's action I've seen (yes I know it's not the story of the Iliad). The action portions of the text are basically a series of quick close-ups of guys getting stabbed in the chest by spears, with the occasional bad-ass slow-mo thing or 1v1 fight. Lots and lots of it.

I second this. The Iliad begins at a very cinematic pace that is very reminiscent of 300. The battle depictions – let's face it, the majority of the book – are relentlessly brutal.

It's hard to map modern concepts like PTSD onto ancient cultures. Violence and abuse was commonplace to a degree we can't even comprehend.

This comes up sufficiently often in the excellent /r/AskHistorians sub that it made their VFAQ [1] list twice. Both linked answers are worth reading.

[1] https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/wiki/vfaq#wiki_ancien...

Indeed. The level of anatomical detail is something generally only find on the shadier parts of liveleak or a medical journal.