The true story of the Trojan War

I just saw Troy (the movie, ofcourse!) - yeah, I'm a bit slow at movies - and I must say, that even though the movie was very entertaining, the story was extremely qestionable.

It all happened when I hopped on to the internet to read the REAL story of troy, just to verify the authenticity of the movie's story. What I found were fragments of the history of the war between Troy and Sparta scattered about, but never in a compiled format. So I chose to compile the history of the Trojan war, to fill in the gaps in history. First, let me start by saying that the Trojan war did not happen for sure - there is a possibility that it did, but archeologists aren't sure. Second, there is no record of an Achilles, or a Helen of Troy (although high school history books insist there were!).

The closest account of the war that we have (closest as in closest to the war) is the 'Iliad' by the blind Greek poet Homer, written around 800BC. Click here to view a page from his accounts. Homer places the site of the war by the side of the ardanelles, which would be besides the strait along the Dead Sea. As such, this is strategically a very important location for trade. The war supposedly took place around 1250BC. At the site indicated on the map, several digs have unearthed several cities, built atop one another. The oldest city was dated back to approximately 4500BC.

Some of these cities show signs of a violent end, while others show none. One particular city, dated at about 1200BC, matches Homer's description the closest. Archeologists have found bones, piles of stones for slingshots and evidence of burning, which are implications of a city's sack. Archeologists have also found writings that indicate a war. According to a BBC documentary:

... However, when fragments of Hittite writings from this era were unearthed, they offered some tantalising clues. They spoke of a dispute in the West at this time, and described a city whose name was similar to Ilion - a later name given to Troy.

If Homer's accounts are true, then there were indeed a Helen of Troy, and an Achilles, but the documents retrieved show no such evidence. No evidence of a Queen Helen of Sparta running away with Prince Paris of Troy. Prince Paris (also known as Prince Alexandros) and Prince Hector, however, are believed to be real people instead of just poetic characters. But the war is most unlikely to have happened over Paris' desire for Helen. The most probable reason for the war is the strategic position of troy, and the desire of acquisition of power and wealth - not love.

There is also no evidence for the existence of a wooden horse, as described by Homer (or our high school history books for that matter!) in any of the excavated cities.

Archeologists do not confirm the 10-year war described by Homer, but they believe that there were a series of wars between the Trojans and the Greeks, which were indeed the end of Troy (archeologically known as the Hittite Empire).

Here are a few links you might enjoy:
A sort of abridgement
Translation of Homer's Iliad - Only for the geeky type!

If you would like to know more, I might dig up some more stuff.