Fluent Essays

1. What are the thesis and main points of Eric Cline's argument? What evidence does he use to support his thesis?   2. What does Herodotus see as the strengths and weaknesses of the three forms of government that he describes? Reading between the lines, which one does he think is best? Which one does he think is the worst? Eric H. Cline THE TROJAN WAR A Very Short Introduction OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University's objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide. Oxford New York Auckland Cape Town Dar es Salaam Hong Kong Karachi Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Nairobi New Delhi Shanghai Taipei Toronto With office in Argentina Austria Brazil Chile Czech Republic France Greece Guatemala Hungary Italy Japan Poland Portugal Singapore South Korea Switzerland Thailand 'IY1rkey Ukraine Vietnam Oxford is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press in the UK and certain other countries. Published in the United States of America by Oxford University Press 198 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016 @ Eric H. Cline 2013 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted by law, by license, or under terms agreed with the appropriate reproduction rights organization. Inquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the address above. You must not circulate this work in any other form, and you must impose the same condition on any acquirer. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Cline, Eric H. The Trojan War : a very short introduction / Eric H. Cline. p. cm.—(Very short introductions) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-19-976027-5 calk. paper) 1. Troy (Extinct city) 2. Trojan War. 3. Turkey—Antiquities. 4. Excavations (Extinct city) – Turkey – Troy (Extinct city) 5. Greece—Civilization—To 146 B.C. I. Title. DF221.T8C54 2013 939'.m—dc23 2012036331 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2 Printed in Great Britain by Ashford Colour Press Ltd., Gosport, Hants. on acid-free paper Dedicated to the memory of my mother, for introducing me to the wonders of the Trojan War when I was seven years old. Chapter 3 Homeric questions: Did Homer exist and is the Iliad accurate? Modern scholars studying the Greek literary evidence for the Trojan War are generally concerned with what is known as the “Homeric question.” This actually consists of a multitude of smaller questions, of which the most relevant are: “Did Homer exist?” and “Does the information in Homer's Iliad and Odyssey reflect the Bronze Age (when the Trojan War took place), the Iron Age (when Homer lived), or something in between?” Although both questions are important, the latter has the more important implications for scholars studying the Trojan War, or excavating for the remains of Troy, or trying to re-create the world of the Bronze Age in the Aegean and eastern Mediterranean. Homer Not much is actually known about Homer or his life. The ancients held him in the highest regard as a bard—a traveling minstrel who sang of the heroic deeds of an age gone by—and he is still regarded as the first, and possibly the greatest, of the Greek epic poets. His genius reportedly lay in compiling, combining, and perhaps even 41 ultimately writing down the story (or stories) of the Trojan War. One scholar, Barry Powell, has made the rather unusual suggestion that the Greek alphabet was invented so that the epics could be written down—that it was “invented by a single human being . . . to record the Greek hexameters of the poet we call Homer.” Others have suggested that Homer may have created the epic poems but meant them to be passed along by an oral tradition, as had the earlier epics, until what we now know as the Iliad and the Odyssey were ultimately written down, perhaps as late as, or even later than, the sixth century BCE. Assuming that Homer is a real person and the author of the epic poems, both of which are open to question, when and where did he live? Herodotus thought that Homer had lived approximately four hundred years before his own era, stating: “Homer and Hesiod . . . lived but four hundred years before my time, as I believe” (Histories II.53). Since Herodotus lived ca. 450 BCE, that would place Homer in the middle of the ninth century, ca. 850 BCE. However, after decades of discussion, scholars now generally place Homer about a century later, ca. 750 BCE, in part because one of his students, Arctinus of Miletus (composer of the Aethiopis and the Iliupersis) is said to have been born in 744 BCE (see Clement of Alexandria, Stromata 1.131.6). Ancient Greek scholars, writers, and poets, among them Aristotle and Pindar, argued about Homer's origins. Some thought that Homer came from the city of Smyrna on the western coast of Anatolia (now Izmir in modern Turkey) and had worked for years on the island of Chios; others said that he had been born on Chios or on the island of Ios. In short, there has never been general agreement as to his origins. Indeed, there are many scholars who have insisted that he never existed, at least not as he is generally portrayed. On the other hand, it has been suggested that Homer was not a single individual but was at least two people, Indeed, it was 42 long thought, by German scholars in particular (among them Friedrich August Wolf in 1795), that the Iliad and the Odyssey were written by different people. At one point, a stylistic analysis of the texts by computer seemed to confirm this conclusion, but no general consensus has ever been reached. It has also been suggested that Homer was not a man, but a woman. Although the case for this hypothesis has recently been explored, the original suggestion goes back more than a century, to Samuel Butler, writing in 1897. Perhaps most intriguing, and eminently plausible, is the suggestion that Homer was not a specific individual but was, instead, a profession. That is to say, there was no person named “Homer,” but rather that one was a “Homer,” a traveling bard who sang the epics of the Trojan War for his living. If so, then one or more of these professional bards may have written down the oral version of the story when a new writing system became generally available in the eighth century BCE. Overall, there is no shortage of suggestions, and books, about Homer. The simple answer, however, is that we actually know almost nothing about him, most importantly whether he actually wrote the two works, the Iliad and the Odyssey, which are generally attributed to him. Bronze Age or Iron Age? As for the second part of the Homeric question, we may well ask whether the information in the Iliad and Odyssey reflects events that occurred in the Bronze Age (1700—1200 BCE), the Iron Age (1200-800 BCE), or sometime in between. In order to answer this question, we must use information gleaned from the texts and compare it to information gained from archaeology. We begin by testing the premise that the descriptions in the Iliad, the Odyssey, and elsewhere in the Epic Cycle are accurate representations of Bronze Age Greek society, and that they were 43 handed down verbatim and without dilution by bards during the five hundred years between 1250 and 750 BCE. Could a single poet, or many poets, have accurately remembered, and transmitted, tens of thousands of lines of information over five centuries? What evidence, or examples, do we have that this might be the case? Modern scholars using ethnographic analogies, such as Milman Parry in the 1920s, have documented that bards could indeed have accurately transmitted orally thousands of lines of epic poetry, for they recorded examples of modern poets and bards reciting and singing epics in Yugoslavia, Turkey, and Ireland. Clearly, it would have been no problem to accurately transmit such poems, especially if many of the lines or descriptions are stock, formulaic, and repetitive, such as “grey-eyed Athena,” “swift-footed Achilles,” and “rosy-fingered dawn.” The Catalogue of Ships from the Iliad (11.494—759), which mentions 1,186 ships in all, is considered by many scholars to be a reasonably accurate remnant from the Bronze Age, orally transmitted by generations of bards over the course of five centuries. Archaeological investigations have shown that many of the cities and towns listed in the catalogue as having sent men and ships were inhabited only in the Bronze Age and had long been abandoned by the time of Homer. Only ruins, if anything, would have been visible at these once-vital places during Homer's lifetime. Legends and stories could account for memories of some, but not for all; the only way for such a catalogue to be so accurate is if it had been composed at a time when the cities were flourishing, during the Late Bronze Age, and had then been handed down from bard to bard until finally inserted and written down as part of Book Il of the Iliad. However, it is not a completely unblemished remnant from the Bronze Age, for there are cities present that should be absent and cities absent that should be present, if everything were strictly Bronze Age. Instead, it seems to be an amalgamation, with 44 changes made over the centuries as the story was handed down orally by the bards. Overall, the Iliad seems to be a compilation of details and data spanning the full range of time from the Bronze Age to the Iron Age. This may be expected, if changes and updates were constantly being made to the poem as it was handed down over the centuries, in order to keep it fresh and relevant. For instance, both Patroclus and Hector are said to have been cremated on funeral pyres following their deaths in battle (Il. XVIII.138—257 and XXIV.784-804, respectively): “they carried out bold Hector, weeping, and set the body aloft a towering pyre for burning. And set fire to it.” Although the practice of cremation, rather than burial by inhumation, is much more typical of Iron Age Greece than of Bronze Age Greece, a cremation cemetery dating to the late fourteenth century BCE, in which the remains were buried in urns, was uncovered in level Vlh at the site of Troy/Hisarlik. In addition, the boars'-tusk helmets described in detail by Homer had gone out of use by the end of the Bronze Age. Boars' tusks from such helmets, and depictions of warriors wearing them, have been found at sites such as Tiryns on the Greek mainland, Knossos on Crete, and on the island of Delos, but they would no longer have been seen by the time of Homer, despite the knowledgeable description found in the Iliad (X.260-65): Meriones gave Odysseus a bow and a quiver and a sword; and he too put over his head a helmet fashioned of leather; on the inside the cap was cross-strung firmly with thongs of leather, and on the outer side the white teeth of a tusk-shining boar were close sewn one after another with craftsmanship and skill; and a felt was set in the center. Similarly, the description that Homer gave of Ajax, and the large “Tower Shield” that he used is thought to be not only from the Bronze Age but from a period in the Bronze Age even earlier than the Trojan War: 45 Now Ajax came near him, carrying like a wall his shield of bronze and sevenfold ox-hide which Tyhios wrought him with much toil; at home in Hylde, far the best of all workers in leather who had made him the great gleaming shield of sevenfold ox-hide from strong bulls, and hammered an eighth fold of bronze upon it. (Il. V11.219-23) Such shields, and boars'-tusk helmets as well, can be seen in the so-called Miniature Fresco painted in a house at Acrotiri on the Greek island of Santorini, dating most likely to the seventeenth century BCE, four hundred years before the Trojan War is said to have been fought. Some scholars think that Ajax was a hero from an earlier time, who was originally featured in another epic, now lost, and was introduced into the Iliad as a character who would already have been well known to the audience. The Trojan hero Hector also a Tower Shield in one scene, where his shield knocks against both his ankles and his neck ( Il. VI.117-18). Hector is also described as “complete in bronze armor” (Il. XI.65). This, like similar descriptions elsewhere in the book, is now thought to be validated by a discovery made at the site of Dendra near Mycenae, which produced a full suit (panoply) of armor reminiscent of Homer's description but dating to about 1450 BCE. This would make Homer's reference another example of Bronze Age knowledge. The more usual pieces of armor, including the leg greaves used by the “well-greaved Achaeans” to protect their shins, are described numerous times in the Iliad (e.g., III.328—39; IV.132-38; XI.15-45; XVI.130—42; XIX.364—91) and also reflect Bronze Age items rather than those of Homer's own time. The equipment is always donned in the same order: greaves, corselet, sword, shield, helmet, and then spears: Patroclus was helming himself in bronze that glittered. First he placed along his legs the beautiful greaves, linked with silver 46 fastenings to hold the greaves at the ankles. Afterwards he girt on about his chest the corselet starry and elaborate of swift-footed Aiakides. Across his shoulders he slung the sword with the nails of silver, a bronze sword, and above it the great shield, huge and heavy. Over his mighty head he set the well-fashioned helmet with the horse-hair crest, and the plumes nodded terribly above it. He took up two powerful spears that fitted his hand's grip. (Il. XVI.13—140) Patroclus is also described in the Iliad as climbing the walls of Troy three times, only to be knocked back by Apollo each time. Homer's precise words are: “Three times Patroclus tried to mount the angle of the towering wall, and three times Phoibos Apollo battered him backward with the immortal hands beating back the bright shield” (Il. XVI.702—3). The implication is that the walls were climbable and, indeed, when archaeologists such as Heinrich Schliemann, Wilhelm Dörpfeld, and Carl Blegen excavated the remains of Hisarlik/Troy, they found that the walls of the citadel of Troy VI were at such an angle and with enough spacing between the stones that they could be readily climbed in at least one place. At the time that Homer was writing, these walls may well have lain buried deep under the surface, unseen for hundreds of years. It seems likely, therefore, that Homer's description is an accurate recollection of a Bronze Age fortification wall that had been covered over long before Homer ever lived. And yet, Homer seems to be describing the outer walls ofTroy, rather than the walls of the inner citadel, so there is some degree of confusion present in his account. Perhaps most telling is that Homer's warriors almost always use bronze weapons, despite the fact that during his own age the weapons were all made of iron. In the Iliad, few objects of iron are mentioned, which is consistent with the fact that iron was known but rare and valuable during the Bronze Age. In fact, one of the few iron weapons known from the Bronze Age is a dagger found by Howard Carter in the tomb of King Tutankhamun in Egypt, dating to the fourteenth century BCE, which presents a possible parallel 47 for the iron knife held by Achilles as he mourned Patroclus (Il. XV111.32-34). Other details given by Homer confuse Bronze Age items and practices with those from the Iron Age. These are primarily minutiae, such as the number of spokes used in the wheels of the chariots used by Homer's warriors and the number of horses that drew those chariots. Bronze Age depictions, seen, for example, on grave markers found in the Shaft Graves at Mycenae and on gold rings found in other tombs at Mycenae and elsewhere, indicate that chariots at the time of the “Trojan War had four spokes in their wheels, were pulled by two horses, and were used as moving platforms from which to fight. Homer's descriptions, however, indicate that his chariots had eight spokes in their wheels (Il. V.720- 23), were frequently pulled by four horses, and were used as “battle taxis” to bring the warriors to the front lines, after which they dismounted to fight on foot—all of these are known characteristics of Iron Age chariots and fighting tactics, dating to long after the Trojan War. Similarly, Homer's warriors usually carry two spears, which they used for throwing (Il. 111.16-20, VII.244-48). This was a common Iron Age tactic, whereas warriors in the Bronze Age more often are shown with a long single spear, used for thrusting close-range at an opponent rather than throwing long distances. Such long spears are only infrequently described by Homer. However, he does mention an eleven-cubit-long spear wielded by Hector (Il. VI.318-20) and a single long spear belonging to Achilles (Il. XXII.273). Homer also frequently describes one- on-one fights or duels between major opposing heroes, designed to enhance the glory of the individual warriors; for example, Ajax and Hector (Il. VII.224—32) and Achilles and Hector (Il. XX). He also describes infantry marching in close formation (Il. 111.1-9). Both the individual duel and the method of marching appear to be Iron Age methods of fighting, rather than those of the Bronze Age. 48 Additionally, Homer speaks frequently of weapons and other objects that are characteristic of the Mycenaean period as well as those that occur in the later Iron Age. He describes Mycenaean weapons like “silver-studded swords” (Il. XI.29—31)—that is swords with hilts riveted with silver or gold studs, such as have been found in the sixteenth to fifteenth century BCE Shaft Graves at Mycenae—as well as a scepter studded with golden nails (Il. I.245—46). He also describes Achilles's new shield (Il. XVIII.474— 607) as made in a manner similar to the inlaid daggers that have been found in the Shaft Graves at Mycenae and elsewhere (using gold, silver, and a black gummy substance known as niello, inset into a base surface of bronze). All of these are proper Bronze Age artifacts. But Homer also describes Achilles's original shield (which was lost when Patroclus was killed in battle) as having a Gorgon face on it: “And he took up the man-enclosing elaborate stark shield, a thing of splendor. . . . And circled in the midst of all was the blank-eyed face of the Gorgon with her stare of horror, and Fear was inscribed upon it, and Terror” (Il. XI.32-37). Shields with such blazons, as they are called, did not come into general use until the Iron Age, reaching their peak usage during the Greek Hoplite phalanx warfare of the seventh century BCE. In sum, Homer's recitation of the Trojan War and the minute details of the warriors, equipment, and fighting, as depicted in our version of the Iliad, contains a combination of Bronze Age and Iron Age practices. This amalgamation probably reflects the changes that were introduced into the original story as it was handed down over five centuries. Scholars, both archaeologists and ancient historians, are therefore very cautious about using the details provided by Homer when trying to reconstruct the Bronze Age in the Aegean. Indeed, it is partially this temporal combination, mixing different periods, that led earlier classicists to doubt that the Trojan War had actually happened. However, one can obviously make the opposite argument. Homer's discussion contains much detail about the many objects and places 49 that were only in use during the Bronze Age and that were not rediscovered until modern archaeologists began their excavations in the early twentieth century. It would not be surprising, therefore, if Homer's epic poems did reflect an authentic event that took place at the end of the Bronze Age, even if his account also includes some inaccuracies or details that were introduced during the centuries of oral transmission from one bard to another. Neoanalysis There is, however, one other point to consider, and that is the assessment by a number of scholars who argue that within the Iliad, the Odyssey, and the Epic Cycle are not only items from later in the Iron Age, but also people, places, and events that can b e dated to earlier in the Bronze Age, that is, to before the thirteenth century BCE when the Trojan War is thought to have taken place. These scholars, who together comprise an informal grouping known as the German Neoanalysis School, argue that one can find bits and pieces of earlier epics that have been inserted into the Homeric epics. For example, the first, ill-fated, Achaean expedition sent to rescue Helen at Troy, as recounted in the Cypria, reportedly resulted in Achilles and other Achaean warriors fighting in Teuthrania, an area in northwest Anatolia south of Troy, at some time immediately prior to the actual Trojan war. (Ancient and modern estimates for the elapsed time between the expeditions usually range from a few weeks to nine years.) The account of this expedition is seen by Neoanalysts as an excellent example of a pre- Homeric episode, most likely referring to an earlier “Trojan War.” They also see the figure of Ajax, with his Tower Shield, as coming from a previous time and an earlier epic. The same might apply to the figures of Idomeneus, Meriones, and even Odysseus. Neoanalysts and other scholars also point out that the Iliad itself mentions that the Greek hero Heracles sacked Troy in the time 50 of Priam's father, Laomedon, using only six ships (Il. V.638-42): “Of other sort, men say, was mighty Heracles, my father, staunch in fight, the lion-hearted, who on a time came hither [to Troy] by reason of the mares of Laomedon with but six ships and a scantier host, yet sacked the city of Ilios and made waste her streets.” (This previous expedition against Troy is depicted on the east pediment of the Temple of Aphaia on the island of Aegina, off the coast of Attica not too far from Athens.) At fifty men per ship, that would have been only three hundred men, which would have been a fairly small fighting force. However, an alternative tradition, mentioned by the later Greek authors Apollodorus and Diodorus, said that Heracles had eighteen, rather than six, ships under his command when he raided Troy, which would have meant that he had nine hundred men, a much more formidable army. Clearly, there was a tradition in Greece, reflected even in the Iliad and the Epic Cycle, that Mycenaean warriors had been fighting and adventuring on the western coast of Anatolia for decades, and perhaps centuries, before the actual Trojan War, and that Troy itself may have been attacked by Mycenaeans almost a century before Agamemnon took on Priam. The ancient historian Moses Finley, in his book The World of Odysseus (1956), suggested that there were many “Trojan wars” during the Bronze Age. The verdict We are left with some fundamental, commonsense questions. Were the events and plot of the Iliad and Epic Cycle believable? Is it plausible that what Homer and the other epic poets describe actually took place and in the way that they say it did? Would an entire nation (or its ancient equivalent) really have gone to war over one person? Could Agamemnon really have been a “king of kings” who mustered so many men to retrieve his brother's wife? Was Mycenaean society of the Late Bronze Age really organized in that manner? And, what about the Trojan Horse—is 51 it conceivable that such a machine was built and used successfully to end the war? The answer to all of the above questions is yes. For instance, Homer's descriptions of the action, travels, battles, and other minutiae all ring true and the events depicted in the Iliad are believable, even if the arms, weaponry, and tactics come from a broad span of time, reflecting the oral transmission of the story over centuries. Furthermore, Bronze Age Greece was indeed split into a large number of what were essentially city-states, with each king ruling over a major city, such as Tiryns, Pylos, and Mycenae, and its surrounding region. And Mycenae certainly seems to have been more powerful and interconnected than the other cities of the time, especially if the foreign goods imported into the city and found by archaeologists are an indication of its international status. It is unlikely that the war was actually fought because of Helen's kidnapping, even though that may have provided a convenient excuse. “The real motivations were probably political and commercial, the acquisition of land and control of lucrative trade routes, as were most such wars in the ancient world. There are later historical examples, however, in which an action involving a single person was used as an excuse and catalyst to begin a war. The prime example is, of course, the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand that set off World War I. The war was probably destined to take place anyway, but the assassination served as the spark. A second example comes from the world of the Hittites, when the royal prince Zannanza, the son of king Suppiluliuma I, was killed by unknown attackers while on his way to marry an unnamed Egyptian queen in the fourteenth century BCE. His father used the death as an excuse to begin a war between the Hittites and Egyptians—a war that probably would have been fought eventually anyway, again for territorial reasons, which had nothing to do with the death of his son. The Trojan Horse is among the least believable elements in the story, but even its presence can be explained. It is, frankly, unlikely 52 that the Greeks would have built such a horse and hidden men in it; and it is even more unlikely that the Trojans would have been foolish enough to bring it inside their city. However, Homer and the other bards were poets, and as such, may be presumed to have taken some poetic license. It is not out of the question that the Trojan Horse represents some sort of siege engine, whether a huge battering ram, such as the Romans used in 74 CE to destroy the wall surrounding Masada in what is now modern-day Israel, or a tower from which the warriors could fight, like those depicted by Sennacherib in panels at his palace at Nineveh sh01Åing the siege of Lachish, just south of Jerusalem, in 701 BCE. It has also been suggested that the Trojan Horse is a metaphor for an earthquake that destroyed the city, for Poseidon was the Greek god of earthquakes and his symbol was a horse. A final question relates to whether Homer was describing one Trojan war or several. The Greek epic tales document at least three Mycenaean attacks upon Troy and the region of the Troad during the Late Bronze Age; first, from the time of Heracles and Laomedon when Troy was sacked; then the mistaken attack on Teuthrania by Agamemnon and his men; and finally the battle for Troy as depicted in the Iliad. Which of these is Homer's Trojan War? Or are they all? Could Homer have telescoped these actions into a single great epic, a symbolic and poetic representation of numerous smaller conflicts that took place over several hundred years on the coast of western Anatolia? Indeed, there are additional indications, both archaeological and textual, that Greek warriors were fighting on the northwestern coast of Anatolia, and perhaps specifically at Troy, long before the thirteenth century BCE. 53