In Search of the Trojan War Read Free Page B

Ilios , were evidently of great scope and power. They were composed soon after Homer: if he lived in the late eighth century BC (see Chapter 4 ) then his successors were probably working around 700 BC or soon after, by which time writing was becoming widespread in Greece. These successors to Homer may have written down their epics, but it is clear from the surviving fragments that they, like Homer, were drawing heavily on a long oral tradition.
    According to Greek tradition, Troy stood near the Dardanelles. Of its general location in the story there has never been any dispute. The topographical landmarks are all familiar and easily placed: the Dardanelles themselves, the islands of Imbros, Samothrace and little Tenedos, Mount Ida to the south-east, the plain itself and the river Scamander which flowed downthrough the foothills of Ida. It was an ancient city whose inhabitants were known as Teucrians or Dardanians (after legendary founders back in the mists of time) but also as Trojans or Ilians: the legends invent eponymous heroes, Tros and his uncle Ilus, to account for these two names but other accounts say with some probability that originally Troy and Ilios were two separate places (and indeed Homer’s insistence on using the two names for Troy has never otherwise been satisfactorily explained). Ilus was the father of Laomedon, an important figure in the legends of Troy, for he it was who built the great walls of Troy mentioned in the tradition. In this he was helped by Apollo and Poseidon, but he tried to cheat the gods of their reward and this led to the first sack of Troy. It may be a surprise to learn of an earlier sack of Troy, but Greek legend is insistent on it. We need not go into the antecedents here – suffice it to say that Laomedon would not give up the immortal snow-white horses which were owed to Herakles (Hercules) who had helped Laomedon by destroying a sea monster sent by Poseidon. Herakles then recruited a small army in the Peloponnese – only six ships according to Homer – sailed to the Troad and attacked the city, breaching it at a place destined to be famous in the later siege, the weak spot in the western wall where the beautiful walls had not replaced the older circuit. In the sack Laomedon and his sons were killed; only the youngest, Podarces, survived, for he alone had maintained that Herakles should be given his rightful reward. Podarces was released and took a new name, Priam, meaning ‘redeemed’: a fateful name indeed. Herakles left Priam as a young king, and Troy was restored within the same walls.
    Over a very long and successful reign, spanning three generations, Priam restored Troy to the height of its former power. He himself had fifty sons and twelve daughters; his eldest son was the great warrior Hector, the next Paris, whose other name was Alexandros – and Paris was to be the instrument of destiny in the events that followed.
    For the ancients Troy was a real place, and in the Homeric epic there are a number of indications as to what the traditionthought it looked like in its heyday under Priam. Most of the descriptive epithets in Homer are stock phrases, and should not be taken too seriously, but some are at least worth remembering. Homer’s Troy is ‘well-walled’; it is a ‘broad city’, with ‘lofty gates’ and ‘fine towers’; it has ‘wide streets’. Some are applied only to Ilios, which is ‘holy’, ‘sacred’, ‘steep’, ‘sheer’, ‘lovely’, but ‘very windy’. Like Troy it is ‘well-built’ but also has ‘good horses’ – indeed the people of Troy are several times called ‘horse tamers’ or ‘having fine foals’ (uniquely among all the people mentioned by Homer – perhaps tradition remembered that horse breeding was a characteristic of their people?). As for the layout of the town, Homer describes a great city with beautiful, strong walls, extensive enough to hold a large population. On the top of the acropolis was the palace of Priam