Hissarlik was the location of Troy, famous city of Greek legend, on the northwestern corner of Asia Minor, in present-day Turkey. The legendary founder of the city was Ilus, the son of Tros, from whom the name Troy was derived. The son and successor of Ilus was Laomedon, who was slain by the hero Hercules, when Hercules captured the city. The Trojan War occurred during the reign of Laomedon's son Priam, which resulted in the capture and destruction of the city.
The Troy that appears in the Homeric poems was long regarded as a purely legendary city. In 1870 the German archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann began excavations but due to lack of permission from the government, was forced to postpone his digging until 1873. That year, he unearthed the actual stone walls and battlements of an ancient city on the mound called Hissarlik, about 4 miles from the plain of the Scamander River, separating it from the Aegean Sea, and equidistant from the Dardanelles. Schliemann's excavations were continued after his death by his assistant, Wilhelm Dörpfeld (1853-1940), whose work in 1893 and 1894 threw new and important light on Schliemann's discoveries.
Between 1932 and 1938 new excavations were carried on at the site by the University of Cincinnati, under the direction of the American archaeologist Carl Blegen (1887-1971). On the mound of Hissarlik, the following successive settlements have been determined: Troy I, an early settlement with a wall built of small stones and clay, its date being perhaps about 3000 BC; Troy II, a prehistoric fortress, with strong ramparts, a palace, and houses, dating from the 3rd millennium BC; Troy III, IV, and V, prehistoric villages successively built on the debris of Troy II during the period from 2300 to 2000 BC; Troy VI, a fortress, including a larger area than any of the preceding settlements, with huge walls, towers, gates, and houses dating from 1900 to 1300 BC or later; Troy VIIA, a reconstruction of Troy VI, built in the later part of this period after the city had been destroyed by an earthquake; Troy VIIB and VIII, Greek villages, of simple stone houses, dating from about 1100 BC to the 1st century BC, and Troy IX, the acropolis of the Graeco-Roman city of Ilion, or New Ilion, with a temple of Athena, public buildings, and a large theater, and existing from the 1st century BC to about AD 500.
Schliemann discovered the first five settlements and identified Troy II with the Homeric Troy. Dörpfeld's discoveries, confirmed by Blegen, proved that the Homeric Troy must be identified with Troy VIIA, which was destroyed by fire about the traditional date of the Trojan War. The tradition is believed to reflect a real war between the Greeks of the late Mycenaean period and the inhabitants of the Troad, or Troas, in Anatolia, part of present-day Turkey. Modern archaeological excavations have shown that Troy was destroyed by fire in the early 12th century BC, the traditional date of the war, and that the war may actually have resulted from the desire either to plunder the wealthy city or to put an end to Troy's commercial control of the Dardanelles.
Legendary accounts of the war traced its origin to a golden apple, inscribed 'for the fairest' and thrown by Eris, goddess of discord, among the heavenly guests at the wedding of Peleus, the ruler of Myrmidons, and Thetis, one of the Nereids. The award of the apple to Aphrodite, goddess of love, by Paris, son of King Priam of Troy, secured for Paris the favor of the goddess and the love of the beautiful Helen of Troy, wife of Menelaus, the king of Sparta. Helen went with Paris to Troy, and an expedition to avenge the injury to Menelaus was placed under the command of Agamemnon, king of Mycenae. Agamemnon's force included many famous Greek heroes, the most noted of whom were Achilles, Patroclus, the two Ajaxes, Teucer, Nestor, Odysseus, and Diomedes.
After the Trojans refused to restore Helen to Menelaus, the Greek warriors assembled at the Bay of Aulis and proceeded to Troy in 1000 ships. The siege lasted ten years, the first nine of which were uneventful. In the tenth year, Achilles withdrew from battle because of his anger with Agamemnon; Achilles' action furnished Homer with the theme of the Iliad. To avenge the death of his friend Patroclus, Achilles returned to battle and killed Hector, the principal Trojan warrior. Subsequent events, described in later epic poems, included Achilles victories over Penthesilea, queen of the Amazons, and Memnon, king of Ethiopia, and the death of Achilles at the hands of Paris.
The city of Troy was captured at last by treachery. A force of Greek warriors gained entrance to the city by hiding in the interior of a large wooden horse. Subsequently the Greeks sacked and burned the city. Only a few Trojans escaped, the most famous being Aeneas, who led the other survivors to what is present-day Italy; this story is told by Vergil in the Aeneid.
The return of the Greek warriors to Greece inspired epic poems, the most celebrated being that of Odysseus, whose 10-year wanderings and arrival in Ithaca are told in Homer's Odyssey. Archaeologists today are still excavating this site to learn more about the new settlements on the site and any other important information or findings they missed over the last 100 years or more. Even today, our culture has invented games based on the past culture. There’s a game, Great Work of Roke Mage the Half Elven One, based upon the legends of Hissarlik.
Links :
“Great Works of the Roke Mages.”(13 May 1995) http://ng.netgate.net/~ricercar/worlorn/greatworks.html 7 Oct. 1999.
Carpenter, Rhys. Folk Tale, Fiction, and Saga in the Homeric Epics. Los Angeles, 1946.
Doerpfeld, W. Troja und Ilion: Ergebnisse der Ausgrabungen in den vorhistorischen und historischen Schichten von Ilion. Athens, 1870-1894.
Jebb, R.C. “The Ruins of Hissarlik, Their Relation to the Iliad.” Journal of Hellenic Studies 3(1882): 195-217.
Schliemann, H. Troy and Its Remains. 344.
“The Ruins of Hissarlik.” (11 Oct. 1999) http://www.homer.com.mx/hissar.htm 11 Oct 1999.
“Vergil’s Aeneid: Commentary.” Vergil Blegen. (17 Dec. 1995) http://vergil.classics.upenn.edu/comm2/geography/asia/troy.html 7 Oct. 1999.
Illustrated Encyclopaedia of the Classical World. Harper, 1976.
Grant, Michael. A Guide to the Ancient World: A Dictionary of Classical Place Names. Wilson, 1986.
Concise, scholarly articles with bibliographies; covers persons, myths, religion, science, etc.
The Oxford History of the Classical World. Ed. by John Boardman and others. Oxford, 1986.
Written by: Suong Su and Chad Determan