The Epic Cycle and the Trojan War

What is the epic cycle? Epic cycle (Greek kyklos “circle, wheel”) as sum total of all myths connected with the Trojan War, arranged chronologically. Capable of expansion and contraction. No one poem spans the whole cycle. Other than Iliad and Odyssey most of the poems are lost, exist only as fragments or summaries (e.g. Proclus in Anthology) Poets “hop on” to the cycle at a particular point, then “hop off” E.g. Homer’s Iliad only covers a small part (51 days) of the tenth year (final) of the Trojan War: does not show the beginning or the end of the war

Trojan War Where is mythic Troy? Was there a historical Troy? Did a Trojan War really take place? Who were the Trojans? If so, was there really an Agamemnon and an Achilles and a Helen of Troy? And if so, what difference does it make?

Map showing principal sites listed in the Iliad and Odyssey

Chronology Mycenaean period (aka Bronze Age): BCE: the time of the Mycenaean palaces and, conventionally, the time of the Trojan war (ca 1200 BCE) Dark Age ( BCE): destruction of palaces, time of collapse, then slow growth Archaic period ( BCE): conventionally, the period when Homeric poems flourish (8th- 7th century BCE)

Troy Occupied from ca BCE Trade What language did they speak? Luvian seal found: Anatolian Indo-European language Mentioned in Hittite documents (also an Anatolian Indo-European language) as Wilusa: cf. Greek name (W)Ilion=Troy Hittite documents also refer to problems with the Ahhiyawa: cf. Greek Akhaioi = Achaeans, one of the names used in the Iliad to refer to the Greeks) Reference in documents to ruler of Troy as Alaksandu: cf. Greek Alexandros, alternate name of Paris, son of Priam, King of Troy in Homer. One of three gods guaranteeing the terms of the treaty on the side of Alaksandu is the "Storm god of the Army", Apaliunas ( D A-ap-pa-li-u-na-aš ). Could be Apollo? Fragment of song in Luvian: “when they came from steep Wilusa” – cf. Homeric description of Troy as “steep”: see Layout of city and environment: citadel, city, plain, walls all part of description of Troy in Iliad.

Hittite tablet in cuneiform script recording a treaty with Wilusa (=Ilion=Troy). Dated c BCE

Excavations at Troy (Turkish name of site is Hisarlık) Heinrich Schliemann, 1870s and 1880s: belief in historicity of Iliad and Odyssey, excavation to prove truth of this. Successive excavators W. Dörpfeld, Carl Blegen, U. of Cincinnati, 1930s Manfred Korfmann, University of Tübingen, began in 1990s and ongoing

Heinrich Schliemann, , German excavator of Mycenae and Troy

Sophia Schliemann, wife of Heinrich Schliemann, wearing treasures discovered at Hisarlık (Turkish name of site of Troy).

Nine layers of occupation of site, from c BCE to c. 500 CE. Red level is Troy VI ( BCE)

Artist’s impression of Troy VI

Troy today

Agamemnon’s city: “Mycenae rich in gold” One of the large centers of Mycenaean civilization ( BCE, other centers include Knossos, Tiryns, Pylos, Thebes) Flourishes in 14th century BCE Elaborate burials found (“Treasury of Atreus” “Tomb of Clytemnestra”: names given by Schliemann not based on any evidence) Destruction begins in mid-13th century, by 1100 Mycenae is no more than a village

Location of Mycenae

Bronze Age Mycenae

Lion Gate, entry to Mycenae

Funeral mask known as “Agamemnon Mask”. Gold, found in Tomb V in Mycenae by Heinrich Schliemann (1876), 16th c. BCE. Were the features “touched up” by the excavators?

Another funeral mask from Mycenae

Boar’s tusk helmet, described in Homer’s Iliad. L. actual helmet found at. R. Boar’s tusk helmets on fresco from Orkhomenos.

How does Greek myth relate to history? Greek myth remembers and preserves places of importance in the past even when they no longer exist or are no longer important (Troy, Mycenae) Greek myth attaches itself to places and landscapes But does not necessarily preserve personages accurately or at all