What do we really know?

We know from archaeological evidence that there was a Troy that commanded the strategic entrance to the Bosphorus for over a thousand years. This city was destroyed and rebuilt multiple times during the Bronze Age, because its location on the trade route into the Black Sea was so important.

The war mentioned by Homer coincides with one of these sieges, and appears to have been the result of Mycenaen maritime challenge to the Persian (Or Hittite, I'm not sure) Empire, of which Troy was a vassal state. In fact, I recall reading somewhere that diplomatic messages in cuneiform from Troy's king to his boss in Turkey, appealing for help and reinforcements, have actually been found.

So the war probably was fought, but we don't really know how long it lasted, or who specifically was involved, or even which war we are talking about. But all those Greek personalities and locations mentioned in Homer were not involved. Those people, the Achaeans, did not exist at the time, they were a successor civilization that replaced the Mycenaens, one which developed its own alphabet from Phoenician script much later. The Minoan/Mycenaen culture used a script called Linear Cretan B, which has only recently been deciphered. The Trojans and their Asiatic lords communicated in cuneiform.

Those stories are all very old, and haven been passed down from antiquity, changing a great deal in the process, until they were adopted by the Greeks as their own. The poetry was sung until the Greeks acquired the alphabet, when it was written down, after which a long period of editing and modification started until the current "canonical form" finally evolved, probably around 800 or 900 BC.

Needless to say, there is a lot of disagreement and controversy among scholars, both contemporary and ancient, as to the details. And remember, much of that controversy and the supporting documents did not survive our own Dark Ages. Much of the myths and legends of Troy that were available in Classical times are no longer around, survive only as brief quotations or references in other works and only Homer survives pretty much intact.

From this enormous puzzle arise numerous interpretations (even ancient Greek and Roman scholars had debates like the one we're having right now!) I've heard all sorts of versions, one being that The Iliad describes a conflict that occured along the shores of the Baltic in prehistory and that the story somehow was transplanted to the Mediterranean. Another is the theory that the Odyssey was written by a woman, specifically, Nausikaa. Needless to say, these theories all sound very convincing, even though they are often contradictory and self-excluding. And then and again, a little factoid falls into place. The Iliad mentions that Odysseus wore a helmet made of boar's tusks, and modern scholars couldn't figure out just how they could be fashioned into headgear...until...a helmet just like the one described was found in a grave in modern day Turkey.

We'll probably never know the whole story, at best we can eliminate some of the more obvious errors in our understanding. This is why I have proceeded in these notes from memory, rather than plunging into researching the internet trying to reconcile hundreds, even thousands of of conflicting theories and opinions.

What I take away from all this is that story survived, that it gives a blurry but very real glimpse into our Bronze Age past, and to the human drama and history that our ancestors revered and that affected and molded their own lives. It also tells us how similar documents, like the Old Testatment, also contain great wisdom, such as philosophy, history, religion, poetry, literature, but that they should not be taken too literally. There is a truth more important than dates and places and names.

I like to think instead of how the two major fountainheads of Western Civilization dealt with the problem of truth. The ancient Hebrews told of how God forbad Man to taste the fruit of the tree of knowledge, and that when he (and she) did so, it was the origin of all evil, sin and tribulation.

The Greek myth was very different. Odysseus has his men lash him to the mast of his ship so he can hear for himself the horrible sound of the Truth. "The Tales of Brave Ulysses...how his naked ears were tortured by the siren's sweetly singing."

I may be wrong, but I prefer to believe this refers to an actual incident, something that ocurred to a sailor thousands of years ago. I believe it because I too have heard the Sirens' song from the deck of a small boat far out at sea. And once you've heard them singing for yourself, everything else falls right into place.

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You thought the leaden winter would bring you down forever,
But you rode upon a steamer to the violence of the sun.

And the colours of the sea bind your eyes with trembling mermaids,
And you touch the distant beaches with tales of brave Ulysses,
How his naked ears were tortured by the sirens sweetly singing,
For the sparkling waves are calling you to kiss their white laced lips.

And you see a girl's brown body dancing through the turquoise,
And her footprints make you follow where the sky loves the sea.
And when your fingers find her, she drowns you in her body,
Carving deep blue ripples in the tissues of your mind.

The tiny purple fishes run laughing through your fingers,
And you want to take her with you to the hard land of the winter.

Her name is Aphrodite and she rides a crimson shell,
And you know you cannot leave her for you touched the distant sands
With tales of brave Ulysses, how his naked ears were tortured
By the sirens sweetly singing.

The tiny purple fishes run lauging through your fingers,
And you want to take her with you to the hard land of the winter.