Page 59 - All About History - Issue 29-15

The Truth Behind the Trojan War

most important was what Hittite sources call palisades. If any period of Troy corresponds to the Achilles appears in Linear B. The Hittite texts refer
Wilusa. The subject of international conflict and greatcityoftheTrojanWar,thiswasit. to Attarrisiya from Ahhiyawa, perhaps the Greek
civil war, Wilusa is accepted by many scholars as Todayweconsiderwartheresultofimpersonal Atreus (the name of Agamemnon’s father), and
the place the Greeks called first Wilion and then forces,betheyeconomic,politicalorcultural. Tawagalawa, a brother of the king of Ahhiyawa.
Ilion – Troy. The Hittite texts also refer to a great Late-Bronze-Age culture did the opposite and Today, many scholars would equate Tawagalawa
kingdom across the sea known as Ahhiyawa, tended to think in personal terms. War resulted with Eteocles in Greek myth, a king of the Greek
which most scholars equate with the Achaeans, fromvendettas,insultsandmarriagedisputes. city of Thebes. In Homer, one of the great princes
the Mycenaean Greeks. The ‘Ahhiyawa Letter’ TheAmarnaLetters–a1300sBCEcacheof of Troy is known both as Paris and Alexander.
records correspondence between a Mycenaean diplomatic correspondence between Egypt, Hittite sources refer to a Trojan king named
king and the Hittite king in about 1250 BCE. Canaan and the Hittite kingdom – offer many Alaksandu and also to the name Pari-zitis.
Troy was a great city for 2000 years, from examples,fromwarsoverslightstoa Takingacitybystormorsiegewasvery
about 3000 to 950 BCE. After being abandoned, man’sfathertoapunitiveraidafter nsive. It’s not surprising that Hittite
Troy was resettled by Greek colonists in about 750 aprincewaskilledenroutetohis Mesopotamian texts refer to tricks
BCE and remained a small Greek city throughout marriage to a foreign princess. used to capture an enemy city, such
antiquity, including the Roman period, and into When Homer attributed the aspretendingtowithdrawanarmy
the Byzantine era before it was abandoned. In the Trojan War to a quarrel over the onlytosweepbackinonafoethat
Late Bronze Age, Troy was wealthy and powerful. seductionofaqueen,hewas had let down its guard. There is no
It was the largest city around the Aegean Sea, a true to the Bronze Age. evidence that the Trojan Horse was
major regional centre – if not nearly as large as This is not to say that Helen eal–thattheGreeksreallyfeigned
the great cities of central Anatolia, the Levant, or really existed: we have no proof of departure from Troy and left a
Mesopotamia. Late-Bronze-Age Troy controlled that. But some of the names in Ho oden horse behind to get the Trojans
A Mycenaean stirrup
important harbours and protected itself with and Greek myth are found in Linear B toopentheirgates,butsuchatrickfits
vase from the 14th
a huge complex of walls, ditches and wooden orHittitetexts.Forinstance,thename century BCE thespiritofBronze-Agewarfare.

Mycenaean
palaces were
at the centre of
most cities

Artemis Hephaestus Athena Hermes Demeter Dionysus Hestia
Goddess of the hunt God of the forge and Goddess of wisdom God of travel and liars, Goddess of agriculture God of wine, Goddess of the hearth
and childbirth craftsmanship Patron of the Greeks messenger of the gods Hades took her liberation, and theatre One of Cronus’s
The twin of Apollo, Though crippled, he and especially of Achilles Patron of the Greeks, daughter, Persephone, A god whose status daughters, she is
she was a sworn virgin forged the gods’ weapons. and Diomedes, she although he was said to as wife for winter, during as an Olympian was in sometimes replaced by
and protected young Wed to Aphrodite, their rejected an appeal from have helped Trojan King which Demeter refused question with Hestia’s. Dionysus as one of the
women’s virtue. relationship was unhappy. the Trojans. Priam on one occasion. to produce food. He loved festivities. Twelve Olympians.

59