The Illiad represent the effective beginnings of Western Literature. Dated roughly to the 8th Century B.C., it recounts part of the legendary 10 year war between the Greeks and their opponents the Trojans in the city of Troy. The story itself alludes to an older period of Greece rather that the end of the Dark Ages and entry into the Classical Era of Greek History. The Greeks treated it as history and the heroes - Achilles, Menelaus, Patrocles, Odysseus - as real historical characters. Alexander the Great was said to sleep with a copy of The Illiad by his bed and allegedly, copying Achilles, was the first to jump from the boat to Asia. But sometime between that period and later years, Troy was lost to ages, a legend and myth which inspired Greek Literature and therefore indirectly, Western Civilization.
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| Location of Troy (Source) |
Until A.D. 1871, when the German businessman and amateur Archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann electrified the world with excavation of a mound called Hisarlik in the then Ottoman Empire in Anatolia. The city of Troy as a Roman city was known; Schliemann's excavations revealed that the city had been rebuilt a number of times (in the modern era, there are 11 different rebuilt cities on the site over a history of 4100 years, from 3600 B.C. to A.D. 500).
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| Schematic of Troy (Source) |
Archaeological evidence since then has verified that in fact the city Schliemann found was called Ilios or Troia. Records from the Hittite Empire place a city in that area of the world known as Wilusa or Truwisa. So at least it seems like there was real place called Troy in the Ancient world. Additionally, the layers of Troy (names by Roman Numerals, e.g. Troy I, Troy II, Troy III, etc.) show that at least two of the rebuilt cities - Troy VIH - was contemporary with the Mycenean Culture of Greece (you may remember we visited there last year here, here and here), and was destroyed by fire. That same city had a lower city - only discovered in the 1980's - that suggests that it was 16 times larger than originally thought. Additionally, geographical studies suggest a possibility that the coastline of the time might be similar to that described in the Trojan War. And at least one tablet from the Hittite Kingdom mentions Ahhiwaya, believed to be Achaea, or Mycenean Greece.
Some of the walls of Troy. At some point these stood 9 meter high with superstructures and mud over the stone, and were as thick as 5 meters.
A very fascinating post. I hadn't put a lot of thought into Troy being history or myth but I guess my mind is telling me that I have assumed Troy itself has always been a real place and that the characters were probably myth. I knew nothing about the discovery of the real Troy.
ReplyDeleteEarlier this year, the Brad Pitt epic on the subject was on television and I watched the last two thirds of the movie again. I admired how much I still enjoyed it even though Google assures me that it is 20 years old at this point.
What's that old saying......if these walls could talk. That's a long time for people to be living on one spot TB, no wonder the walls grew so extensive.
ReplyDeleteBeing familiar with The Illiad, I confess that I had certain images in my head about what Troy must have looked like. Seeing the photos is rather a shocking blow to my imagination.
ReplyDeleteIt is interesting to me that modern archaeologists tend to assume that so much of ancient persons and places are myth. It's almost as though if they don't discover it for themselves, then it couldn't possibly have been real. I don't have an opinion one way or another, but it does seem to be a pattern of modern thought.
My personal interest in Troy stems from genealogical research. My online family tree (which is a collaborative work, much of which is not verified with documentation) reveals an ancient ancestor named Brutus of Troy, so called first King of England. He is regarded as mythological. Could be, but it is interesting to me that there are several ruins in England that have been credited to him throughout the centuries. Also interesting, there are a few recent opinions which believe he was a real person. Who knows? I doubt we'll ever get to the truth of it because one thing I've observed is that Experts tend to be emotionally (and often economically) invested in their opinions and don't like to admit when they're wrong.