Trojan War: Real or Imaginary - Research Paper Example

Trojan War For greater parts of three thousand years since the Trojan War, the imagination of the poets and dramatists has been busy with its story. This has become the subject of most famous of all legends and has inspired many of the greatest works of literature world has produced (Coolidge & Coolidge, p.ix) The name Trojan War is familiar to most of the people who studies history; however, the exact nature of this war, the parties involved, the outcomes of this war etc are still controversial. In fact historians and scholars are still not sure whether Trojan War was a real war or an imaginary war developed in the minds of renowned literature writer, Homer. The details of this war is described by only Homer and no other people did record anything about this war which is the major reason why people raises doubt about this war. Strauss (2007) has pointed out that “Some people believe that Trojan war never happened and the beauty of Homer’s description forced people to think that it actually happened” (Strauss, p.1). At the same time, some of the recent researches have concluded that this war might have happened in reality as described by Homer. Strauss (2007) has mentioned about some of the evidences collected by the archeologists recently to substantiate the arguments of people who believe this war was an actual one rather than an imaginary one (Strauss, p.1). This paper briefly analyses whether Trojan War was a real one or an imaginary one. The exact date of occurrence of this war is not mentioned by Homer or any one else. Homer never described anything about the exact timing of this war in any of his epic poems. However, historians do believe that this war was happened around 1200 BC. Strauss (2007) has pointed out that “The Trojan War which probably dates to around 1200 BC is just a piece in a large puzzle” (Strauss, p.3). The timing of Trojan War is not a controversial one since historians calculate this based on the time period of Homer and his descriptions about this war in his epic poems Iliad and Odyssey. Caroline Alexander (2010) has pointed out that “The Trojan War story was memorialized by the Iliad, an epic poem attributed to Homer and composed some five centuries later around 750 to 700 BC” (Alexander,p.1). The Iliad is to Trojan War what The Longest Day is to World War 2. The four days of battle in the Iliad no more sums up Trojan War than the D-day invasion of France sums up the World War 2. The Iliad is not the whole story of Trojan War (Strauss, p.5) The Longest Day is a film produced in 1962 about Second World War which speaks about the D-day invasion of France (D-Day is a military term used to represent a day in which a specific battle event occurred or will occur). It should be noted that The Longest Day was produced just around twenty years from the end of Second World War whereas Homer explained the details of Trojan War around five centuries later. In other words, Homer never seen Trojan War and he explained the details about this war from his imagination. It is easy to explain an event if it happened in the recent times, whereas it is difficult to explain an event if it happened long time back. In short, Homer’s explanations about this war primarily came from his imaginations and therefore one can safely argue that his arguments lack authenticity. Another interesting aspect about Trojan War is the controversies surrounding the Trojans. “A generation ago, scholars thought that the Trojans were the Greeks. But new evidences suggests otherwise” (Strauss, p.2). Since Iliad was written in Greek language, many people thought that Trojans were actually Greeks. They failed to realize the fact that the Iliad was written centuries later by a Greek person called Homer. Another fact which forced people to think Trojans as Greeks was the names of the persons and gods used in Iliad. All the names used in this poem were Greek names and moreover, their conversations were in Greek language which forced people to think that Trojans were actually Greeks. The abundance of the Mycenaean type of ceramics which were found during the excavations also strengthens this opinion. But according to the latest research of linguists, the Trojans spoke an Indo-European language which was widely spoken in different part of Anatolia, called Luvian. As a matter of fact there is a resemblance between the marriage traditions of the Trojans and the Hittites. For example: according to a Hittite law "if a man has a wife and the man dies, his brother takes his wife". Take Trojans had exactly the same law. Obviously, the trojans had connections both with east and west. (Who were the Trojans?) Troy city had a significant role in the Trojan War. Evidences suggest that this city was destroyed around BC 1180 and some historians do believe that the destruction of this city was occurred due to a war. They substantiate their claims with the help of “a conflagration, some skeletons, and heaps of sling bullets” (Korfmann). Even though this argument seems to be a logical one, it should be noted that Greeks or ancient people had the habit of preserving ornaments and weapons for long time because of the cultural associations of these things with their daily life. Moreover, Korfmann (2004) has pointed out that “According to the archaeological and historical findings of the past decade especially, it is now more likely than not that there were several armed conflicts in and around Troy at the end of the Late Bronze Age” (Korfmann). Fights and small wars were common in Ancient Greek. Under such circumstances, it is quite possible that the Troy city would have destroyed in some other wars rather than in the Trojan War. Moreover, Troy was not a major city and a fierce war for such an unimportant city was improbable. In short, it is difficult to conclude that the Troy city was destroyed because of the Trojan War, after analyzing the evidences put forward by Homer or other Greek literature writers. However, everything currently suggests that Homer should be taken seriously, that his story of a military conflict between Greeks and the inhabitants of Troy is based on a memory of historical events--whatever these may have been. If someone came up to me at the excavation one day and expressed his or her belief that the Trojan War did indeed happen here, my response as an archaeologist working at Troy would be: Why not? (Korfmann). The exact reasons cited by Homer for Trojan War were also controversial one. Based on the descriptions of Homer, the roots of Trojan War lies in an incident happened in the marriage between Peleus and Thetis, a sea-goddess. "Peleus and Thetis had not invited Eris, the goddess of discord, to their marriage and the outraged goddess stormed into the wedding banquet and threw a golden apple onto the table. The apple belonged to, Eris said, whomever was the fairest” (The Trojan War). Many people claimed their authority over this disputed apple (Apple of discord) in order to stamp them as the most beautiful person in Greek. Zeus, another god agreed to act as the judge. The prominent gods and goddesses of that period were Athena, Hera, and Aphrodite and all of them joined the quarrel over the disputed apple of discord for the most beautiful person. In any case this war prolonged for many years with the help of bloody battles and the end of it came with the construction of a giant hollow wooden horse. Horse was a sacred animal for the Trojans. It was filled with soldiers under the leadership of Odysseus. The rest of the army left Troy city leaving only the horse with soldiers there. Trojans thought that the Greeks were gone, accepting their defeat and the war was over and they started to celebrate. During the night the Greek soldiers came out from the wooden horse and killed many of the Trojan men and took most of the women as prisoners. To conclude, Trojan War is a controversial event in the history because of the lack of evidences to substantiate it. This war is described only in the epic poem, Iliad of Homer. No other ancient scholars or historians said anything about this and many people consider this war as a fiction rather than a fact. Homer wrote Iliad after few centuries from the occurrence of Trojan War and therefore it is difficult to believe the descriptions of this war by Homer. Homer says that the ancient troy city was destroyed in this war. However, Troy was an unimportant city in the ancient Greek and it is hard to believe that such a decade long war was fought in this unimportant city. At the same time, some of the recent evidences collected by the archaeologists substantiate the claims of destruction of Troy city in a war. Small fights and wars were common in ancient in Greek and the destruction of Troy city could possibly because of such small fights. In short, it is difficult to accept or reject the claims of Trojan War as a real war. Homer might have exaggerated some small events in order to make his poem more attractive. Works Cited 1. Alexander, Caroline. “The War That Killed Achilles: The True Story of Homer's Iliad and the Trojan War”. 2010. Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics); Reprint edition (September 28, 2010) 2. Coolidge, Olivia E. & Coolidge Olivia E. “The Trojan War”. 2001. Publisher: Sandpiper; None edition (October 29, 2001) 3. Korfmann, Manfred. “Was There a Trojan War?”. 2004. ANISTORITON: Volume 8, December 2004, Section M044. Web. 01 July 2011. 4. Strauss, Barry. “The Trojan War: A New History”. 2007. Publisher: Simon & Schuster (August 21, 2007) 5. “The Trojan War”. Web. 01 July 2011. 6. “Who were the Trojans?”. 2011. Web. 01 July 2011. Read More