Were Troy and the Trojan War Myth or Reality

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Were Troy and the Trojan WarMyth or Reality?
Filip Filipov
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Troy

• Troy was the place where the affairs of men
  became entwined with the will of gods
• Troy was the place where the love of a man and a
  woman sparkled a war that lasted for ten year
• Troy was the place where a wooden horse brought
  doom to once a great city

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How much truth lies behind one of the greatest
tales of the ancient world?
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The Iliad

• Most of the facts about Troy and the Trojan War
  come from the Iliad
• The word Iliad comes from Ilion.
• Ilion was the Latin name for Troy
• Iliad literally mean Poem about Troy
• For a long time people thought that there was no
  such place as Troy, because It existed in the
  Iliad

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Heinrich Schliemmann

• In 1870 a German archeologist Heinrich
  Schliemmann put together all the clues and in an
  area in northwest Turkey he found what in
  archeological terms matches very closely Troy

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Homer

• Scholars doubt that he existed. They believe that
  the Iliad is a work of two or three poets.
• The main and only proof that Homer existed is the
  Iliad itself.
• Nevertheless, the Iliad is so remarkable that it
  must have been put together by a single creative
  genius who we call Homer.

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Where exactly was the city of Troy?

• There have been many arguments since 1870 when
  Heinrich Schliemann proclaimed the mount of
  Hissarlik as Troy.
• It was obvious for archeologists and historians
  that it is impossible to have 50 000 men the
  Trojan army within the walls of what Schliemann
  claimed were the walls of Troy.
• Recently it was found that the mount was just the
  citadel of the city and there was a lower town
  capable of holding more than 50 000 men which
  fits the Homers legend.

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Where exactly was the city of Troy?

• The archeologists found Inscriptions that date
  from the final stage of the settlement which
  showed that this place was known to the Romans
  and the Greeks as New Ilium
• New Ilium New Troy

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The cause of the war

• The legend says that the love affair between
  Helen and Paris caused the war.
• Helen was already married to Spartan Menelaos,
  the brother of Agamemnon, ruler of Argos.
• After Helen fled with Paris to Troy, Menelas
  gathered an army and he prepared to fight against
  Troy

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The cause of the war

• Did the Greek army actually sailed selflessly to
  war aboard its mighty fleet of 1000 ships,
  because of love and honor and to rescue Helen
  from the evil seducer?
• Some people believe that there is a less romantic
  reason for invading Troy.
• Some Scholars believe that the Greeks were
  jealous of Troys wealth and wanted to pillage it.

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The Trojan War

• A prophecy had promised the Greeks that, after
  nine years of fighting on the tenth year they
  will be victorious.
• The Iliad records that for nine years the Greeks
  laid siege of Troy and many battles were fought.
• Even the gods were unsure of the outcome of the
  war
• But was there really a siege of Troy?

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The Trojan War

• There are no evidence of a siege lasting ten
  years as described in Homer.
• Normally a siege lasts for just a couple of
  months
• The longest siege recorded was during the
  Peloponnesian war.
• The siege of Ptedaia lasted for about three
  years, which proved an immense drain of the
  Athenian empire.
• The besieged city usually had to give up, or to
  die of starvation.
• It is impossible to encamp and provision and army
  of the size Homer describes on the plains for
  anything like ten years or even two years.

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The Trojan War

• The only evidence of war comes from the
  excavations.
• The archeologists found evidence of burning, of a
  city being destroyed on some of the citadel walls
  of Troy.
• No weapons were found
• No other actual evidence was found
• The fighting as described in the Iliad would have
  been for the savagery combats of the ancient
  times.

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The Trojan War

• After both Achilles and Hector died, no side was
  able to gain victory.
• It was clear that more than muscles were needed
  to bring down Troy
• Who was going to win the war?

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Odysseus

• Odysseus was a legendary king of Ithaca, husband
  of Penelope.
• He had the idea for the deceit that was going to
  make Troy famous forever

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The Trojan Horse

• The wooden horse of Troy is one of the most
  memorable episodes in the whole epic legend.
• The Greeks built the horse or 3 days and in it
  climbed the bravest Greek soldiers, Oddyseus,
  Diomedes, Menelaus and Philoctete
• Thinking that the Greeks have surrrendered the
  people of Troy got the magical horse inside the
  wall of the city.
• It is believed that the Trojans even broke some
  walls in order to fit the horse inside their city
  walls.
• Succeeded in hiding themselves from the Trojans,
  the warriors inside the horse allowed the Greek
  fleet to enter into the city.

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The Trojan Horse

• The horse, in fact is the one piece of the story
  of the siege that, incredibly may have some basis
  in historical truth.
• In Anatolia in the late Bronze Age it was quite
  common for people to create libation vessels
  which were animal shaped.
• There are evidences in central Anatolia that
  there were life size vessels of that sort created
  for special occasions, used mostly In religious
  ceremonies.

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The sculptures Alacahoyk

• The sculptures Alacahoyuk in central Turkey,
  depict a religious procession with, at the end of
  it, a life sized bull on wheels with a spout on
  the top.
• It would not have been surprising if a general
  might, not once have used one for getting into a
  besieged city.

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Were Troy and The Trojan War Myth or Reality?

• Archeologists established that a city probably
  Troy stood, roughly the same place and time as
  the one described in the Homer legend
• No hard evidence can be found for the existence
  of the Trojan war.
• The characters from the story, Helen, Paris,
  Achilles, Hector and the rest are just characters
  in a wonderful and enduring story that has
  survived the passing centuries.

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Sources

• http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troy
• http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trojan_war
• http//proteus.brown.edu/mesopotamianarchaeology/1
  007
• http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heinrich_Schliemann
• http//www.unmuseum.org/troy.htm
• http//www.royalty.nu/legends/Troy.html
• http//ablemedia.com/ctcweb/netshots/homer.htm
• http//classics.mit.edu/Quintus/ftroy.11.xi.html
• http//www.iit.edu/agunsal/truva/exc.html

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