Firstly, I know Homer was not the author of the stories.

To me it seems unlikely that we would have preserved the only two Homeric stories for millennia. To put it in a modern way, is it likely that we have the Homeric equivalents of Avengers Assemble and the Winter Soldier but we have lost all the other marvel movies?

The iliad, especially, has such a huge cast. Surely Hector had his own pre iliad myth? Or Diomedes? Nestor surely?

I dont mean the Aeneid or other later Roman stories but at the time that the Homeric myths were being passed on orally. Sure Odysseus makes for a good protagonist but I cant believe that some of the other iliad characters didn't have their own "stand alone" tales.