XIX – TROJAN WAR

XIX – TROJAN WAR

There is quite extensive literature about the Trojan War, considered to be the first known prehistoric world war. According to Eratosthenes (275-194 BC), librarian at the Macedonian Ptolemaic Alexandria Library in Egypt, the Trojan War lasted ten years from 1193 to 1183 BC. Detailed information about the opposing sides that fought in the war was given by Homer (VIII century BC), the oldest European poet, revered throughout antiquity as the creator of the Iliad and Odyssey, the Trojan War and the fall of Priam’s Troy VII. Unfortunately there is still an insurmountable gap between mythological epics and historical reality regarding this war. Historians claim that the Mycenaean Civilization reached it zenith and peak power after 1450 BC after the devastating earthquake on Ter Island. The earthquake destroyed the Minoan power centres and culture in Crete and Knos became the next naval power. By 1400 BC the Mycenaean civilization had reached its peak and lasted until about 1200 BC when Mycenaean power was completely extinguished. From this it can be concluded that the Trojan War could not have taken place after 1200 BC because the Aegean Mycenaean world would not have been able to organize a campaign by sea, as described in the Iliad.

Because of these discrepancies it would be more accurate to assume that archaeological Troy VII was destroyed by the Indo-European tribes known as “the people from the north” or “the people from the sea”. Included among those who played an important role are the Phrygians and Illyrian-Scythians and not the Mycenaeans. (Homer, Iliad, p. 141, BGS, 1965.) These tribes were probably also responsible for bringing down the Hittite Empire and penetrated as far south as northern Egypt. Here they found opposition from Ramses III (1990 BC) who victoriously stopped their invasions, weakened them and diffused them in various directions. The tribal movements in the Balkans and Asia Minor, which led to the “migration of peoples” and to “Homer’s stories” will be discussed in the next chapter.

From a geopolitical and strategic position, Troy’s location in prehistoric times was very important. Stretched to its east were the vast Skamander Plain and Ida coastline where the Eneidian and Dardanian tribes were located. To the west Troy was the outpost and guard of the Helespont entrance as well as an obstacle to trade and the Mycenaean colonizing appetites of the southern Balkans. The fall of the Hittite Empire and the destruction of Troy were caused by indigenous Balkan people led by the Mycenaeans and their king Agamemnon, who organized the military expeditions and declared war on Trojan king Priam. In the absence of other sources, we know of this conflict from the myths and from the Iliad, during which the two warring sides fought over the “abduction of the beautiful Helen” abducted by Priam’s son Alexander (Paris).

According to Herodotus (Herodotus, History, I, 3, 5, Matica Srpska, Belgrade, 1988), “... The Persians say that the Asians in general never questioned abductions of women, contrary to the Greeks who, for a single Spartan woman, gathered a large army and came to Asia and destroyed Priam’s state. Since then, the Persians considered the Greeks their eternal enemies. The Greeks saw Asia as their own territory... while Europe and Greece they considered as special territory.”

Supreme commander of the Greek army during the Trojan War was Agamemnon, king of Mycenae, son of Atrei, grandson of Pelops, a Phrygian originally from Asia Minor. Taking part in the war were the Argives, the Danai and the Achaeans but not the Hellenes because they were not there. The Hellenes occupied the Peloponnesus eighty-five years after the fall of Troy... (Thucydides, Povijest Peloponeskog installment, I, p. 12 Dereta, Belgrade, 1991.) “Dorieis te odgoekosto eteei meta Iliou alosin xyn Herakleidais Peloponeson eshon...” The Greek army heading for Troy gathered in Aulida, a port in Boeotia, east of Thebes. The Thebans did not participate in this campaign.

The largest part of the army consisted of Aeolians, descendants of Pannonia, who lived in Thessaly, Boeotia, Attica, the Peloponnesus and other places in the peninsula. This was confirmed from the information provided by Homer (Homer, Iliad and Odyssey, II, 484-785, Novi Sad, 1985. (Prev. Gjurigj MN)), such as the list of ships, where from the total of 858 ships that participated, the Aeolians of Thessaly alone participated with 208 ships. Their relative king Nestor of Pil in the Peloponnesus participated with 90 ships, while king Menestei of Athens participated with 50 ships. Achilles of the Achaeans from Thessalian Ftia participated with 50 ships, Agamemnon with 100, Menelaos with 60, Ulysses with 12 ships etc.

As mentioned earlier, the Trojan War lasted ten years. After the fall of Troy, Agamemnon along with his people and captives, including Cassandra, Priam’s daughter, returned to his homeland where, instead of being warmly welcomed, he was welcomed with an unexpected conspiracy and was murdered by his wife Klitemnestra. He was buried in Amiklam, in Sparta. Agamemnon’s son Orestes took revenge for his father’s murder by killing his own mother. Ten years later, after he was cleansed of having his own mother killed and other wrongs he had done, as well as being cured from insanity in Giteon, in the southern part of the Peloponnesus, he became king of Mycenae. He reigned for seventy years before he died in Arcadia and was buried in Tegei. His sons Tisamen and Pentil fought against the Dorian-Hellenes when they conquered the Peloponnesus.

Head of the Trojan army was king Priam, son of Hector, who, because of his courage and nobility, the Trojans adored as a god. His allies in the war were the Thracians, the Peonnians, the Migdonians from Macedonia, king Res of Tribalia, the Phrygians, Mizians, Meonians, Likians, Kikonians, Pelasgians, Karians, Lelezians and others. The war proved disastrous for the Trojans.