Who Were the Trojans?

The same question was asked of Victor Hanson.  He replied that the Trojans were a Hittite/Semetic peoples and seperate and distinct from Greeks.  But that they shared cultural influences.  His view is somewhat contreversial.

"From archaeological and philological evidence Trojans were probably some sort of early Semitic people and their language akin to Hittite."

Samothrace and founded Troy. The grandson of Dardanus was Tros, which had as son Ilus II (which re-founded Troy and gave his own
name to the city). Ilus' son was Laomedon, and Laomedon's son was Priam. The father and the son of this king, Paris, will be defeated by
the Greeks after raping Hellen (action that humiliated the Greeks and menaced since he would have inherited Hellen's kingdom)."

Something that dorian mentioned: Homer does praise Hector,but not because of his origin or due to the fact that he is "Anatolian".Homer was an epic poet,which means that he praises the virtuus,the "aristoi".Hector was no doubt the greatest troyan warrior,so the poet could not leave him out of the story.

As for the coming of the Troyans,they couldn't be Greek the way that Spatans,Athenians or the ionic cities of .. Ionia are. The first greek migration is dated in around 1100 B.C., with the coming of the Dorians. The prosperous city of Troy and the war as well happened before the greek tribes massively moved to minor Asia. Perhaps they were a pre-hellenic branch..

From the point that they are mostly meaningful in greek language and their compositions.

For example Hektor is derived from ������ (hektor) "holding fast", ultimately from ��� (echo) meaning "to hold, to possess".

Same with ��������� (Kassandra), which possibly meant "shining upon man", derived from �������� (kekasmai) "to shine" and '����' (aner) "man" genitive ������ (andros).

Its known Greeks had a tedency to regularize foreign names. If we take as example the Achaemenids royal names we have...

- The name Artaxerxes is the regularization of the original Persian name Artakhshathra.

- The name Xerxes is the regularization of the original Persian name Khshayarsha

But on the contrary to the above Trojan royal names, neither of these Persian names have any meaning in Greek language.

the Greeknes of the names is derived by their linguistic root and by their meaning. Examples:

Laomedon -  From the Greek words "Laos" and "Medon". This cannot be an adoption or a transliteration, because it is a fundamentally Greek name

Hector - a greek root 

Alexandros -  another composite word: Alexo + andras. Both Greek roots, forming a Greek name with the meaning "defender of men".

Helenos -greek root (probably related to the word Helen (Greek) from the times the Greeks were not called Hellenes but Danaoi.

Deiphobos - greek composite name: By the prefix "Dei" (bi- twol-) and the word phobos (fear).

Polydoros - composite Greek: Poly and doro

Politis - greek root (Polis)

Laodice - greek composite name (Laos + Dike)

Kassandra - this one is disputed as the linguistic root is concerned, although it is adopted as a Greek name even from the Homeric times, especially in northern Greece.

Polyxena - composite name: Poly + Xene

...and so on.

So, names like the above could not (with the exeption of Kassandra) have been "adopted" by the Greeks, because they are fundamentally Greek. I still insist on a common Aegean culture (and maybe even ethnical background, at least partly) of the two people.