In mythology class the other day, my teacher mentioned that Agamemnon’s death mask had been found, which coupled with the discovery of Troy in the 19th century makes me wonder if the war and characters Homer described were real. What’s the evidence, and what’s the straight dope on this so-called death mask? —Briana, Montana
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That doesn’t prove anything about the events of the Iliad, of course. Even classical writers like Thucydides, while not denying a Trojan war happened, didn’t really buy Homer’s description of its cause and extent. Many modern scholars agree, acknowledging the war but doubting its ten-year duration, or that it was fought over a woman. But could the Greeks have been somehow involved in a more modest assault on Troy? Not only possible, but judging from Hittite records, more likely than not.
With that in mind, several Hittite texts offer tenuous evidence of a Greek—Trojan conflict. These documents use the place-name Ahhiyawa, currently thought to refer to one or more Greek-speaking kingdoms. Ahhiyawa is phonetically similar to Akhaioi, a Homeric term for the Greeks. More importantly, the texts indicate it was a formidable power that meddled in Anatolian affairs, and the only good candidates for such an entity are the Greek kingdoms, of which Mycenae was among the greatest. So let’s further assume Ahhiyawa was someplace Greek.
Art accompanying story in printed newspaper (not available in this archive): illustration by Slug Signorino.
