Historicity of the Trojan War

There are many conflicting theories as to whether the Trojan War took place. However, a number of sources have suggested the war did take place including Homer’s Iliad, Michael Wood, Manfred Korfmann and number of historians. Another question is the Trojan horse, the trick Odysseus used to get the Greek soldiers into the fortresses of Troy.

One of the main sources is Homer’s Iliad. It states that Paris, a Trojan Prince falls in love with Spartan King Menelaus’ wife Helen and escape together back to Troy. Menelaus, enraged by the treachery of Helen and Paris, calls on his fellow chieftains to join him in a war to regain Helen and punish the Trojans. The fleet is assembled and eventually sets sail for Troy. What follows is a ten year-long siege of this fortified city before it finally falls to the Greeks using the stratagem of the wooden horse.

The extent of the historical basis of the Iliad has been a topic of scholarly debate. Thucydides, a Greek historian of the 5th century BC in his book ‘The History of the Peloponnesian War’ states that although he believe the Trojan War did take place, he doubts that 1186 ships sailed from Greece to Troy.

The Age of Enlightenment had rejected the story of the Trojan War as Fable, however discoveries made by Heinrich Schliemann at Hisarlik reopened the question, and the subsequent excavation of Troy VIIa and the term Wilusa in the Hittite Diplomatic Archives which we now know is Troy has made it plausible that the Trojan War cycle was at least based on a historical conflict of the 12th century BC, even if the poems of Homer were written some 400 years after the event.

Michael Woods in his book ‘The search for the Trojan War’ states that Homer’s Iliad is inaccurate as Priam’s city Troy was never large and was in effect a royal citadel. It sheltered at most a few hundred people with about a thousand in its outskirts. Its soil was never particularly fertile, and it’s circuit wall unimpressive. Trojan warriors like their Mycenaean counterparts, amassed wealth by plunder and maritime commerce.

Woods states that what Troy did have was an important location, on the Dardanelles at the entrance to the Aegean. He states the war itself probably arose from Trojan interference with Mycenaean commercial interests.