Did the war of troy exist and what is the evidence for and against it?

Question

im sorry, ive already posted a question for the trojan horse but decided that there was no physical evidence to support it and therefore would be way too hard to do an assignment on. so i have changed my topic and am hoping that people can be bothered to help me on this one. any information or sources would be great!

thanks so much

Answer 1

Yes the war of Troy is very likely to have existed. Archeologists have recently uncovered ancient ruins near where Troy supposedly was in Turkey. Troy was very similar to the Phoenicans of the Roman Era. Homer's Illiad details the War of Troy but I don't know much else about it.

Answer 2

The German archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann excavated Troy and discovered that it was a city built and destroyed several times. One layer or strata showed definite signs of a city under siege with the amount of wreckage and apparent burning. That layer could be THE Troy described by Homer.

Answer 3

In Greek mythology, the Trojan War was waged against the city of Troy by the Achaeans after Paris of Troy stole Helen from her husband Menelaus, the king of Sparta. The war is among the most important events in Greek mythology, and was narrated in many works of Greek literature, including the Iliad and the Odyssey by Homer. The Iliad relates a part of the last year of the siege of Troy, while the Odyssey describes the journey home of Odysseus, one of the Achaean leaders. Other parts of the war were told in a cycle of epic poems, which has only survived in fragments. Episodes from the war provided material for Greek tragedy and other works of Greek literature, and for Roman poets like Virgil and Ovid.

The war originated from a quarrel between the goddesses Athena, Hera and Aphrodite, after Eris, the goddess of strife and discord, gave them a golden apple, sometimes known as the Apple of Discord, marked "for the fairest". The goddesses went to Paris, who judged that Aphrodite, as the "fairest", should receive the apple. In exchange, Aphrodite made Helen, the most beautiful of all women, fall in love with Paris, who took her to Troy. Agamemnon, king of Mycenae and the brother of Helen's husband Menelaus, led an expedition of Achaean troops to Troy and besieged the city for ten years. After the deaths of many heroes, including the Achaeans Achilles and Ajax, and the Trojans Hector and Paris, the city fell to the ruse of the Trojan Horse. The Achaeans slaughtered the Trojans and desecrated the temples, thus earning the gods' wrath. Few of the Achaeans returned safely to their homes and many founded colonies in distant shores. The Romans later traced their origin to Aeneas, one of the Trojans, who was said to have led the surviving Trojans to Italy.

The Ancient Greeks thought the Trojan War was a historical event that had taken place in the 13th or 12th century BC, and believed that Troy was located in modern day Turkey near the Dardanelles. By modern times both the war and the city were widely believed to be non-historical. In 1870, however, the German archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann excavated a site in this area which he identified as Troy; this claim is now accepted by most scholars.[1] Whether there is any historical reality behind the Trojan War is an open question. Many scholars believe that there is a historical core to the tale, though this may simply mean that the Homeric stories are a fusion of various tales of sieges and expeditions by Mycenaean Greeks during the Bronze Age. Those who believe that the stories of the Trojan War derive from a specific historical conflict usually date it to the 12th or 11th centuries BC, often preferring the dates given by Eratosthenes, 1194–1184 BC, which roughly corresponds with archaeological evidence of a catastrophic burning of Troy VIIa.

Topics in Greek mythology

Gods

Primordial gods and Titans

Zeus and the Olympians

Pan and the nymphs

Apollo and Dionysus

Sea-gods and Earth-gods



Heroes

Heracles and his Labors

Achilles and the Trojan War

Odysseus and the Odyssey

Jason and the Argonauts

Perseus and Medusa/Gorgon

Oedipus and Thebes

Theseus and the Minotaur

Triptolemus and the

Eleusinian Mysteries



Related

Satyrs, centaurs and dragons

Religion in Ancient Greece



Contents [hide]

1 Sources

2 Legend

2.1 Origins of the war

2.1.1 The plan of Zeus

2.1.2 The marriage of Peleus and Thetis, the Apple of Discord, and the Judgement of Paris

2.1.3 Elopement of Paris and Helen

2.2 The gathering of Achaean forces and the first expedition

2.2.1 Odysseus and Achilles

2.2.2 First gathering at Aulis

2.2.3 Telephus

2.3 The second gathering

2.4 Nine years of war

2.4.1 Philoctetes

2.4.2 Arrival

2.4.3 Achilles' campaigns

2.4.4 Ajax and a game of petteia

2.4.5 The death of Palamedes

2.4.6 Mutiny

2.5 The Iliad

2.6 After the Iliad

2.6.1 Penthesilea and the death of Achilles

2.6.2 The Judgment of the Arms: Achilles' armour and the death of Ajax

2.6.3 The prophecies

2.6.4 Trojan Horse

2.7 The sack of Troy

2.8 The returns

2.8.1 House of Atreus

2.9 The Odyssey

2.10 The Telegony

2.11 The Aeneid

3 Dates of the Trojan War

4 Historical basis

5 Trojan War in art and literature

6 Notes

7 References and further reading

7.1 Ancient authors

7.2 Modern authors

8 External links



Sources

The events of the Trojan War are found in many works of Greek literature and depicted in numerous works of Greek art. There is no single, authoritative text which tells the entire events of the war. Instead, the story is assembled from a variety of sources, some of which report contradictory versions of the events. The most important literary sources are the two epic poems traditionally credited to Homer, the Iliad and the Odyssey, composed sometime between the ninth and sixth centuries BC. Each poem narrates only a part of the war. The Iliad covers a short period in the last year of the siege of Troy, while the Odyssey concerns Odysseus's return to his home island of Ithaca, following the sack of Troy.

Other parts of the Trojan War were told in the poems of the Epic Cycle, also known as the Cyclic Epics: the Cypria, Aethiopis, Little Iliad, Iliou Persis, Nostoi, and Telegony. Though these poems survive only in fragments, their content is known from a summary included in Proclus' Chrestomathy.[2] The authorship of the Cyclic Epics is uncertain. It is generally thought that the poems were written down in the seventh and sixth century BC, after the composition of the Homeric poems, though it is widely believed that they were based on earlier traditions.[3] Both the Homeric epics and the Epic Cycle take origin from oral tradition. Even after the composition of the Iliad, Odyssey, and the Cyclic Epics, the myths of the Trojan War were passed on orally, in many genres of poetry and through non-poetic storytelling. Events and details of the story that are only found in later authors may have been passed on through oral tradition and could be as old as the Homeric poems. Visual art, such as vase-painting, was another medium in which myths of the Trojan War circulated.[4]

In later ages playwrights, historians, and other intellectuals would create works inspired by the Trojan War. The three great tragedians of Athens, Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides, wrote many dramas that portray episodes from the Trojan War. Among Roman writers the most important is the 1st century BC poet Virgil. In Book 2 of the Aeneid, Aeneas narrates the sack of Troy; this section of the poem is thought to rely on material from the Cyclic Epic Iliou Persis.

Legend

The following summary of the Trojan War follows the order of events as given in Proclus' summary, along with the Iliad, Odyssey, and Aeneid, supplemented with details drawn from other authors.

Origins of the war

The plan of Zeus

For the foundation of Troy and her first fall to Heracles, see Troy: "Legendary Troy".

According to Greek mythology, Zeus had become king of the gods by overthrowing his father Cronus; Cronus in turn had overthrown his father Ouranos. Zeus was not faithful to his wife and sister Hera, and had many relationships from which many children were born. Since Zeus believed that there were too many people populating the earth, he envisaged the notion of Momus[5] or Themis,[6] which was to use the Trojan war as a means to depopulate the Earth, especially of his demigod descendants.[7]

The marriage of Peleus and Thetis, the Apple of Discord, and the Judgement of Paris

See also Judgement of Paris.

Zeus came to learn from either Themis[8] or Prometheus, after Heracles had released him from Caucasus,[9] that, like his father Cronus, one of his sons would overthrow him. Another prophecy stated that a son of the sea-nymph Thetis, with whom Zeus had an affair, would become greater than his father.[10] Possibly for one or both of these reasons,[11] Thetis was betrothed to an elderly human king, Peleus son of Aiakos, either upon Zeus' orders,[12] or because she wished to please Hera, who had raised her.[13] All of the gods were invited to Peleus and Thetis' wedding and brought gifts,[14] except Eris ("Discord"), who was stopped at the door by Hermes, on Zeus' order.[15] Insulted, she threw from the door a gift of her own:[16] a golden apple (το μήλον της έριδος) on which were inscribed the words Tēi Kallistēi ("To the fairest"). The apple was claimed by Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite. They quarreled bitterly over it, and none of the other gods would venture an opinion favoring one, for fear of earning the enmity of the other two. Eventually, Zeus ordered Hermes to lead the three goddesses to Paris, a prince of Troy, who, unaware of his ancestry, was being raised as a shepherd in Mount Ida,[17] because of a prophecy that he would be the downfall of Troy.[18] The goddesses appeared to him naked, and because he was unable to decide between them, they resorted to bribes. Athena offered Paris wisdom, skill in battle, and the abilities of the greatest warriors; Hera offered him political power and control of all of Asia, and Aphrodite offered him the love of the most beautiful woman in the world, Helen of Sparta. Paris awarded the apple to Aphrodite, and, after several adventures, returned to Troy, where he was recognized by his royal family.

Peleus and Thetis bore a son, whom they named Achilles. It was foretold that he would either die of old age after an uneventful life, or die young in a battlefield and gain immortality through poetry.[19] Furthermore, when Achilles was nine years old, Calchas had prophesied that Troy could not again fall without his help.[20] A number of sources credit Thetis with attempting to make Achilles immortal when he was an infant. Some of these state that she held him over fire every night to  

Answer 4

yes, Troy really existed.  You can visit the ruins of the city if you make it over to Turkey.  It even has the right number of gates, proper rivers and landmarks of the legendary city.  As for the war in Homer's Iliad being real or not - I tend to believe it was.  What you need is to go get the book -

In Search of the Trojan War by Michael Wood from the library or you can rent the DVDs by the same name from the library most likely.  They pretty much cover the same thing though be warned - VERY tight pants in the DVDs.  Anyway, it'll give you all the background, research, etc. that you need.  Excellent source of info - very easy to understand and enjoyable and you can skim if you need to and still get enough.  If you go to the library and just randomly dig out books you'll need a lot more of them to equal what you can find in this one book.  Trust me - I've been doing the research myself and I am now officially a Mr. Tightpants fan.  Online you're looking for Hisarlik, Troy VI, though some still argue for Troy VII.  

just as a sidenote for your Trojan horse - do you realize that Poseidon was the god of horses and often thought to take the form of a giant horse?  He was also the god of earthquakes.  Wouldn't it be interesting if the Trojan wall being knocked down to let in the giant horse might have been a metaphor for an earthquake that allowed the enemy in?  Its an interesting thought.

Answer 5

i agree with J V. Go dig it out girl

Answer 6

hey

my name is Troy

Answer 7

I am sorry...I try to help my kids with their school work[I would even cheat if I could] but the schools are so much harder than when I was in school.....I hope some one out there will help you...I would if I could...I guess I'm not that smart.

Answer 8

me not sur me dumb

Answer 9

Yes it did a guy..... (sorry can't remeber his name) found troy in the 80's.

Answer 10

for a while it was believed to be a myth, but recently there might be some evidence about it....but i would look up news articles...websites...go to the library. I woudlnt do a report on it being real though, bc its only a slight possibility

Answer 11

There certainly was a Troy, and being a city, it was probably besieged several times.

But that the Greeks warred there for 10 years over a stolen bride?  I'm not sure there's any evidence for that.

Answer 12

It is very likely that there is a historical basis for the Trojan War.

There is a site at Hisarlik in Turkey that has been under excavation for the last several decades, which provides evidence for the existence of a large city that was destroyed by fire, dating to around the time that the Trojan War is believed to have occured.

http://projectsx.dartmouth.edu/classics/...

http://www.archaeology.org/0405/etc/troy...

Given the size and location of the city (corresponding to the location where Troy was supposed to have been) it's probable that the myths of the Trojan war originate from whatever conflict occured in the region that destroyed it.

What is less certain is whether the characters and events depicted in the myths of the Trojan War, such as in Homer's poems, bear any relation to the actual events of that war.

Answer 13

There is no evidence.

The story of the trogan war was recorded in Greek a hundred or so years after it's author had died.



He,  that is HOMER had passed it on as a verbal record because there was no written language at the time he composed it.

The place TROY did exist.

But there is no evidence to say whether there was a war fought there or not.

Answer 14

Borrow the movie Troy (double disk I think), and then watch the documentaries in Special features. There's a really good one in there.

But the best thing for it is google. It would take less typing than this did. "war troy exist"

Answer 15

Ever heard of the library?