The story of the fall of Troy, which fell victim to the insidious Odyssey, is known to us from the school curriculum - and not from history, but from literature. Homer's poem, one of the oldest examples of the classics, tells of a war that resulted in the destruction of a powerful city and its inhabitants killed or enslaved. Another name for Troy in Greek mythology is Ilion (hence the name of the famous work: “The Iliad”).
Legend of the origin of the city
According to legend, this city was founded by Ilom - the first Trojan king with an interesting pedigree: his mother was a nymph. Once he went to the competitions and won in them, having received, instead of a cup and a medal, fifty slaves of both sexes and (quite unexpectedly) one cow. The oracle told him to build a city where the animal settles down - Il did so.
According to legend, in the form of a blessing of the gods at the entrance to the royal tent, a wooden statue of Athena fell directly from the sky. Later, Il built a temple in honor of the goddess, and this temple existed (although intermittently) for many centuries.
Legends and scientific hypotheses
I must say that the assertion that the second name of Troy is Ilion, in the scientific context does not seem indisputable. Obviously, this city was. Myths and chronicles of neighbors, and the respectful attitude that various ancient peoples had for him (Persians, for example) testify to this. Apparently, this city was very powerful and prosperous, but historians still share Ilion from the Iliad (referring this information to the field of myths and legends), and the city itself, which really existed in antiquity.
Comparing different sources, we can assume that this settlement appeared almost 3 millennia before the birth of Christ. It is clear that reliable data on his exact location, way of life, etc. are now quite difficult to obtain (if at all possible). Moreover, the witnesses are “confused in the evidence” and only provide additional food for the emergence of new hypotheses.
Adventurous ideas
There is, for example, a version according to which Ilion is not another name for the city of Troy, but its capital (in fact, because Troy is a state). Some sources claim that in fact the impregnable stronghold, sung by Homer, is none other than Constantinople: they say, Emperor Constantine decided to build his "new Rome" "on the site of the ancient Ilion", which was considered the birthplace of the founders of the Eternal City (remember "Aeneid" Virgil). So, it turns out that the modern name of Troy is Istanbul? Also no. The authors of the hypothesis are backtracking: apparently, Konstantin later changed his mind and moved his capital further to the ancient Byzantium.
Other sources suggest that, since the second name of Troy is Ilion, and Jerusalem is Elia (Elias, Ilion) of Capitoline, it is quite possible that this is the same city, it was simply called a little differently due to the peculiarities of local dialects . The version is somewhat adventurous, but it also has adherents.
They have a no less fantastic idea, according to which another name for Troy is Atlantis. This conclusion was made at the beginning of the 90s of the last century and is based on a certain similarity of different peoples sung by folklore. However, the scientific world does not laugh at this theory.
Scientific facts
If we turn to the facts, then two names of Troy are mentioned in the ancient archives of the Hittite kings. These sources are quite historical and scientific. But according to these documents, it was not one and the same, but two different cities. However, again: there was no unity of opinion, and no. After all, it is not a fact that the ancient Hittites meant exactly what modern historians wanted to read.
Despite the "confusion and reeling" in the academic community, the version that says that:
the events described in the ancient work took place to be;
another name for the city of Troy is Ilion;
it was located exactly where Homer pointed out (The Iliad is generally a rather detailed work - just a list of Greek ships is worth what).
Archeology enthusiast
There is reason (and considerable) to believe that the impregnable fortress that appears in the ancient poem was discovered in 1970 by the archeologist-enthusiast Heinrich Schliemann. A certain part of the public tends to extol it: it was not afraid of authorities who insisted that the events and the terrain described in the Iliad were nothing more than a myth, but obtained permission for excavation and still found traces of an ancient settlement near the Gissarlyk hill, on the territory of the Ottoman Empire (now - Turkey).
Schliemann did not have a special education, but he was an avid fan of the blind poet. Thanks to evening readings of the Iliad, the name of Troy was inscribed in the boy’s heart in early childhood: it is impossible to explain in another way the fact that the businessman, the father of three children, a middle-aged man, went in search of a city that few believed in existed.
The biography of this amateur archaeologist is a ready-made script for a Hollywood movie: having been born in the family of a poor priest, in a provincial village on the Polish-German border, Schliemann made several fortunes, survived many adventures, ended up in Russia, was married to an unloved woman, left her, setting off look for his dream, and met a new passion: young Greek woman Sofia. It was her lovely head, fingers and neck that he adorned with precious tiaras, necklaces and rings found as a result of excavations. Over 10 thousand gold items! It was a real treasure.
Gold is a dark thing ...
The fate of the treasures is somewhat foggy. Schliemann transferred the finds (all or part, God knows) to the Berlin Museum, from where they safely disappeared during the Second World War. There are sources claiming that gold was discovered after the collapse of the USSR in Russia, which means that in state museums (in particular, the Hermitage) objects are presented that witnessed the prosperity of the city, sung by the great Homer.
Schliemann was very lucky: his quest was crowned with success. True, now he is severely criticized: the excavations were carried out, let's say, in a somewhat barbaric way. On the way to the discovered valuable finds, Schliemann “demolished” the seven (!) Cultural layers of ancient civilization, almost without noticing them, and did not even get to the bottom, but stopped at the penultimate level. You can’t say anything, “delicate” work.
Painstaking researchers
Later, archaeologists (no longer amateurs, but professionals) discovered nine layers: centuries replaced each other, the city fell into decay, then flourished - and each of the periods left its mark on the shores of the Aegean Sea.
At the beginning of its existence, this settlement probably had a different name: the city of Troy as such in the 3rd millennium BC. e. could not exist yet. The first cultural layer discovered by archaeologists was a village with a diameter of only a hundred meters. For its time, it was a well-fortified, rather powerful structure, destroyed, as is believed, by fire.
The layer excavated by Schliemann was the next and dates from the middle of the third millennium BC. Given that the modern historians attribute the Trojan War to the end of the second, the artifacts discovered by the home-grown archaeologist can in no way relate to the heroes of the Iliad, since they are at least a thousand years older than the described events. But "Troy at number two" was really destroyed in the course of hostilities: scientists believe that the nature of the destruction testifies to this.
Over the next five centuries, the city was most likely not particularly successful. Scientists did not find signs of prosperity, but found evidence of degradation. It is unlikely that “Troy number three, four and five” was just that magnificent city that fell due to the cunning of Odysseus - which means that the events described in the Iliad date back to the period of Troy's existence at numbers six and seven.
Excavations uncovered the remains of a huge fortified palace built during this period, the walls were 4-5 meters thick. Obviously, between 1800-1025 BC. e. ancient Ilion (if you still assume that this is the second name of the city of Troy) flourished and was buried in luxury. And although the walls of Troy No. 6 were not destroyed at all by people, but by an earthquake, modern scholars are inclined to believe that the war that resulted in the great stronghold fell falls on this (1800-1250) or the next (1250-1025) period .
Romance and harsh reality
In poetic presentation, the cause of the catastrophe was a beautiful woman (and if you count the goddesses as the weaker sex, then not one, but four at once). According to legend, the Trojan prince Paris (who, by some strange combination of circumstances, was also a shepherd), came three powerful inhabitants of Olympus: Aphrodite, Hera and Athena with a request to determine the most beautiful of them.
The young man could not decide, and then the goddesses began to offer him all sorts of benefits: corruption, apparently, is older than humanity. Someone promised power, someone - success in the military business, and the goddess of love promised the favor of the most beautiful of women.
By a fateful combination of circumstances, the "subject of a bribe" was married to the Spartan king, but this did not stop the hero. He abducted the wife of Menelaus, and he, supported by the Allies, began a war against the father of Paris, besieging the city of Ilion (the second name of Troy).
Modern cynical researchers believe that the love line is nonsense: most likely, money and influence in the region became the cause of contention (however, as always). The direct participation of the gods is also nothing more than fiction. But in the descriptions of the terrain, life and layout of the city, the Iliad was extremely accurate.
Kingdom of imagination
Perhaps this is explained simply: after Troy No. 7 was destroyed by the war, after 2.5 centuries the Greeks began to inhabit it again - the work of Homer dates back to this time. Not so much time passed, the remains of the ancient city were relatively "fresh." It was easier for an epic writer to link fiction to reality, since the result of the “clash of civilizations” was before his eyes, one might say. However, as it was, we will never know.
This is the story — partly fictitious, sometimes real — of a city whose echoes of greatness have survived thanks to the brilliant ancient Greek culture. It must be admitted that if it were not for the blind writer (whose authorship is also called into question), it is likely that both the first and second names of Troy would forever go into oblivion (or, at least, would be of interest only to narrow circles of specialists) .
Fortunately, it happened differently. The magnificent city and its sad fate have dominated the minds of people for more than two millennia. Truly: even if Troy never existed, it certainly should have been invented.