6/7/2023 0 Comments Trojan war story lost to timeSo we can look forward today to the continuation of research with keen anticipation. The abundance of evidence pointing precisely in this direction is already almost overwhelming. ![]() However, the possibility that a historical event could underlie the tale of Troy/Wilios. There are several semi-popular treatments out there which do come down firmly in favour of a historical Trojan War: the best examples are Michael Wood’s In search of the Trojan War (1985 the TV documentary it’s based on is on YouTube) Joachim Latacz’ Troy and Homer (2001, English translation 2004) various lectures and interviews by Manfred Korfmann Eric Cline’s The Trojan War: a very short introduction (2013). It’s easy to see why someone would think that, mind. But if someone claims that ‘there is a general consensus’, then that is most definitely a false understanding. That isn’t a modern myth, it’s just a good old argument. Doubts resulting from a lack of evidence, or disagreements about how to interpret the evidence, are fine and good. It isn’t by any means crazy to believe it was a historical event. ![]() No, the important thing is this: there is no consensus. If that logic made any sense then the existence of Thebes would prove the reality of Oedipus, Nottingham would prove the reality of Robin Hood, and New York would prove the reality of The Avengers.īut what I want to stress today isn’t that there was no Trojan War - or, conversely, that there was - or that ‘it’s more complicated than that’, or that the question needs to be fine-tuned, or anything like that. When Schliemann ‘discovered’ the remains of Troy - actually he didn’t, he was just the first to do major excavation there - that wasn’t any kind of proof of the reality of the Trojan War. Review of Barry Strauss’ The Trojan War: a new history (2007)
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |