Trojian war

Do you belive the trojian war existed

Yes, because of strategic and economic reaons, the Greek Myceneans fought with the Luwian Troyans just before the Migrations of the Sea Peoples started.

There is no doubt that Troy was destroyed (at least in one occassion) by a violent attack, based in archeological evidence. What it is not so sure is that Homer is accurate in every indication.

As an example it is widely known that probably every mention of Athens is an interpolation in classical times (under Pisistratos' rule), given that Athens was a tiny city in Micenean times.

Basically what everyone else said.

Originally posted by Cat�n . What it is not so sure is that Homer is accurate in every indication.

Quite so. Actually Homer wrote (or collected previous fragmented stories and put them together-some disagree if he is an actual person) 3-4 centuries after the Trojan war. Most researchers agree however that he described an actual event and don't forget that he wrote a poem based on history, not history itself. Historical data are plenty in his work but their accuracy is to be debated. His list of cities is an accurate description of the Greek word of the era (Trojan war era, not his) and so are some elements of everyday life which are not as in life of his era but of much older times.

Just to clarify on Sharrukin's post that "Akhaiwoi" correcponds to "Achaeoi" which is a from of "Greek". Another expression used for "Greeks" was "Danaeans".

"Wilios" is Ilion, that was the Acropolis of Troy (rather than the city - Sharrukin can you confirm?) but was also used to rescribe the whole city (hense "Iliad"). At least that's my understanding.

Pergama is the city of Pergamos, a Greek city in Asia Minor. It has nothing to do with Ilion/Troy... (or has it? )

Lol that still doesn't solve the question of which was referred to the city and which to the citadel. Anything with -id pretty much the poem about. eg. The Aeneid is the poem about Aeneas. I'm aware that there's a Pergamos, but I'm sure that there is a "Pergama" in the Aeneid (at least) that describes the citadel, metaphorically for the city. Many greek names were simply copied and placed into Latin. Of course, we all know that there are 100 names for one thing in poetry.