In Search of the Trojan War (45 page)

Troy imagined – the latest digital reconstruction of the legendary city begins to look uncannily like the Troy of Homer.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

This list makes no pretence to be comprehensive, for the literature on this subject is truly vast. I have found the following books helpful, and I hope they may also help readers interested in pursuing this fascinating subject.

On early travellers to Troy, there is a useful survey in
The Troad: an archaeological and topographical study
by J. M. Cook (Clarendon Press, 1973). There is an important article on eighteenth-century travellers by T. J. B. Spencer, ‘Robert Wood and the problem of Troy’,
Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes
, vol. 20, 1957, pp. 75–105.

On Heinrich Schliemann, apart from his books mentioned in the text, there are selected letters, many in English, in
Briefwechsel
edited by E. Meyer (2 vols, Berlin: E. Gebr Mann, 1953–8), and also ‘Schliemann’s letters to Max Müller in Oxford’,
Journal of Hellenic Studies
, vol. 82, 1962, pp. 75–105. His historic 1890 report is in Carl Schuchhardt’s
Schliemann’s excavations: an archaeological and historical study
… (Macmillan, 1891). Two recent important articles, ‘Schliemann’s discovery of “Priam’s treasure”: two enigmas’ by Donald F. Easton and David A. Traill, appear respectively in
Antiquity
, vol. LV, 215, November 1981, pp. 179–183, and vol. LVII, 221, November 1983, pp. 181–6; this periodical is in most big libraries. Of Schliemann biographies all are marred by the myth, but that of Emil Ludwig,
Schliemann of Troy
(Putnam, 1931), is still very readable. The best is the compilation by Leo Deuel,
Memoirs of Heinrich Schliemann: a documentary portrait drawn from his autobiographical writings, letters and excavation reports
(Hutchinson, 1978).

Wilhelm Dörpfeld’s great work
Troja und Ilion
(Athens, 1902) is untranslated, but there is a good summary of it with maps and photographs in Walter Leaf’s
Troy: a study in Homeric geography
(Macmillan, 1912).

Along with Sir Arthur Evans’
The Palace of Minos: a comparative account of the successive stages of the early Cretan civilisation
… (Macmillan, 1921–36), the
Annual of the British School at Athens
, vol. 6, 1900, and an article in
Monthly Review
, March 1901, are useful. Joan Evans’
Time and chance: the story of Arthur Evans and his forebears
(Longmans, 1947) and Sylvia L. Horwitz’s
The find of a lifetime
(Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1981) are, as yet, the sum of Evans’ biographies. Two useful paperback publications are available from the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford:
Sir Arthur Evans 1851–1941, a memoir
by D. B. Harden (1983) and
Arthur Evans and the Palace of Minos
by Ann C. Brown (1983). For those with strong nerves the controversy over Knossos can best be read in
On the Knossos tablets. two studies
by L. R. Palmer and J. Boardman (OUP, 1963); in Mervyn R. Popham’s
The last days of the Palace of Knossos: complete vases of the Late Minoan III B period
(Studies in Mediterranean Archaeology, vol. 5, Lund, 1964) and
The destruction of the Palace at Knossos: pottery of the Late Minoan III A period
(Studies in Mediterranean Archaeology, vol. 12, Gothenburg, 1970); in L. R. Palmer’s
A new guide to the Palace of Knossos
(Faber, 1969) and Erik Hallager
The Mycenaean Palace at Knossos: evidence for the final destruction in the III B period
(Stockholm: Medelhavsmuseet, 1977). Two articles which I have found particularly helpful are L. R. Palmer’s ‘The
First fortnight at Knossos’,
Studi Micenei
, vol. XXI, 1980, pp. 273–301, and W.-D. Niemeier’s ‘Mycenaean Knossos and the age of Linear B’,
Studi Micenei
, vol. XXIII, 1982, pp. 219–287, which seems to me to put the case for the revisionists beyond reasonable doubt – but be warned, the whole controversy is very technical!

On Mycenae there are great introductory books by Chrestos Tsountas and J. I. Manatt,
The Mycenaean age: a study of the monuments and culture of pre-Homeric Greece
(Macmillan, 1897);A. J. B. Wace’s
Mycenae: an archaeological history and guide
(Princeton University Press, 1949) and G. E. Mylonas’s
Mycenae’s last century of greatness
(Methuen, 1968). Wace’s loving description of the place should be savoured. The key article by Wace and Blegen mentioned on
here
is ‘Pottery as evidence for trade and colonisation in the Aegean bronze age’,
Klio
, vol. 32, 1939, pp. 131–47. C.W. Blegen also wrote a popular introduction,
Troy and the Trojans
(Thames and Hudson, 1963). His yearly reports are in the
American Journal of Archaeology
(1928–38). The supplementary monograph, 4,
Troy: the archaeological geology
by G. Rapp and J.A. Gifford (Princeton University Press, 1982) contains information about the existence of the bay in front of Troy.

On the controversy surrounding Blegen’s ‘Trojan War’ there is the famous discussion in the
Journal of Hellenic Studies
, vol. 84, 1964, pp. 1–20. The ‘dissenter’, Sir Moses Finley, has encapsulated his views in
Schliemann’s Troy – one hundred years after
(British Academy, paperback 1975) in
The World of Odysseus
(Chatto, 2nd rev. edn, 1977; Penguin Books, 1972) and in ‘Lost: the Trojan War’ in
Aspects of antiquity: discoveries and controversies
(Penguin Books, 1972).

On Linear B, in addition to Michael Ventris’s and John Chadwick’s
Documents in Mycenaean Greek: 300 selected tablets from Knossos, Pylos and Mycenae with commentary and vocabulary
(Cambridge University Press, 1956), there is a highly readable introduction by John Chadwick,
The Mycenaean world
(Cambridge University Press, 1976).

On Homer, G. S. Kirk’s
The songs of Homer
(Cambridge University Press, 1962) is still the best introduction (there is a shortened version from the same publisher,
Homer and the epic
, 1965). Also to be recommended in paperback are J. Griffin’s
Homer
(OUP, 1980) and J.B. Hainsworth’s
Homer
(Clarendon Press, 1969). I have found particularly helpful Minna Skafte Jensen’s
The Homeric question and the oral-formulaic theory
(Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum Press, 1980).

On the catalogue, R. Hope Simpson’s and J. F. Lazenby’s
The catalogue of the ships in Homer’s ‘Iliad
’ (Clarendon Press, 1970).

On modern Mycenaean and Cretan archaeology there are excellent broad introductions by Sinclair Hood, George Cadogan, Lord William Taylour and O.T. P. K. Dickinson and an interesting geographical approach by John L. Bintliff,
Natural environment and human settlement in prehistoric Greece
(Oxford: British Archaeological Reports, 1977). An exciting synthesis is J.V. Luce’s
Homer and the heroic age
(Thames and Hudson, 1975).
A companion to Homer
, edited by A. J. B. Wace and F. H. Stubbings (Macmillan, 1962), is still invaluable. Very useful, though bulky, if you are footslogging round the sites is
Mycenaean Greece
by R. Hope Simpson (Park Ridge, NJ: Noyes Press, 1981).

On Hittites and Greeks,
History and the Homeric Iliad
by Sir Denys
Page (Cambridge University Press, 1959) is now superseded because of the redating of the texts – see this in the revised edition of
The Hittites
by Oliver Gurney (Penguin Books, 2nd edn. revised 1981). Important new developments are noted in articles by Itamar Singer in
Anatolian Studies
, vol. XXXIII, 1983, pp. 205–217, ‘Western Anatolia in the thirteenth century BC according to the Hittite sources’, and by H. G. Güterbock, ‘The Hittites and the Aegean world 1. The Ahhiyawa problem reconsidered’,
American Journal of Archaeology
, vol. 87, 1983, pp. 133–8. Opposition to the Ahhiyawa identification can be found in J. MacQueen’s
The Hittites and their Contemporaries in Asia Minor
(Thames and Hudson, 1975). J. D. Muhly’s ‘Hittites and Achaeans: Ahhijawa redomitus’,
Historia
, vol. XXIII, no. 2, 1974, pp. 129–45, and in James Mellaart’s many articles in
Anatolian Studies
, 1961–70, along with his piece in a forthcoming Festschrift for George Mylonas. The Greek theory now looks increasingly solid.

On Greeks in Anatolia see C. Mee’s ‘Aegean trade and settlement in Anatolia in the second millennium BC’,
Anatolian Studies
, vol. XXVIII, 1978, pp. 121–155. Nancy K. Sandars’s
The Sea Peoples: warriors of the ancient Mediterranean, 1250–1150 BC
(Thames and Hudson, 1978) is the only general introduction to that shadowy subject. Matters should be clarified when the Sheffield Sea Peoples’ Colloquium papers edited by R.A. Crossland are published. There are some fascinating items in the
Proceedings of the First International Colloquium on Aegean Prehistory
held in Sheffield in 1970,
Bronze Age migrations in the Aegean: archaeological and linguistic problems in Greek prehistory
edited by R.A. Crossland and A. Birchall (Duckworth, 1974). A future volume will include the papers of the Troy conference.
Pharaoh triumphant
by K. A. Kitchen (Aris and Phillips, 1982) is an extremely informative and interesting look at the life and times of Ramses II, the Egyptian view of the thirteenth century BC.

Travellers’ guides – of course the greatest pleasure of all is seeing these places for oneself, but there are some helpful general books:
The Blue Guide to Greece
, edited by Stuart Rossiter, includes Crete (Benn, paperback 1981); he also edited
The Blue Guide to Crete
(Benn, 1980). George Bean’s guides to Asia Minor are all published by Benn –
Aegean Turkey: an archaeological guide
(1979),
Lycian Turkey
(1978) and
Turkey Beyond the Maeander
(1980) are indispensable for later remains though they do not concern themselves with the Bronze Age. Ekrem Akurgal’s
Ancient civilizations and ruins of Turkey
(Istanbul: Haset Kitabevi, n.e. 1983) is extremely useful, with plenty of site plans. The fascinating work of J. M. Cook
The Troad: an archaeological and topographical study
(Clarendon Press, 1973) is absolutely indispensable for detailed field-walking around Troy, but unfortunately lacks a good map. Good site guides include Blegen for Pylos, Mylonas for Mycenae and Kurt Bittel for Boghaz Köy.

The artefacts described in
In Search of the Trojan War
are mainly in the great museum collections in Athens, Heraklion and Ankara, but there are some excellent local museums which should not be missed, especially at Thebes, and Chora near Pylos. There are small site museums at Troy and Miletus. In the United Kingdom, the British Museum has a small Anatolian section and some interesting Mycenaean material, including of course Elgin’s loot from Mycenae and Minos Kalokairinos’ pithos. In Oxford, the Ashmolean Museum has the best Cretan collection outside Crete; there
too, incidentally, are kept the archaeological paintings of Thomas Burgon, the Smyrna merchant who set the ball rolling in 1809, and who is buried in St Giles Church, a stone’s throw from the Museum door.

Last but not least, Homer himself. There are fine translations of
The Iliad
in prose by Walter Leaf (2 vols, 1886–8) and Andrew Lang, W. Leaf and E. Myers (1883–9); there is a
Compact Homer
translated by A. Lang (Barron’s Education Series, US, paperback 1981). Another fine translation in verse is by Richmond Lattimore (Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1951). The translation by E.V. Rieu published in the Classics series by Penguin Books, 1951, which had sold a million copies by 1984, is in readable but unpoetic prose. Christopher Logue has done a tremendous adaptation of Homer,
War music: an account of Books 16 to 19 of Homer’s Iliad
(Cape, 1981).

On Homer I leave the last word with Alexander Kinglake who in 1834, standing on the Trojan plain, fondly recalled his childhood teaching ‘that the Iliad was all in all to the human race – that it was history – poetry – revelation, that the works of men’s hands were folly and vanity, and would pass away like the dreams of a child, but that the Kingdom of Homer would endure for ever and ever’,
Eothen, or traces of travel … brought home from the East
, 1844, (Century, 1982; OUP, paperback 1982).

ADDITIONAL BIBLIOGRAPHY

On the new excavations
Studia Troica
, vols. 1–14 (Mainz, 1991–2004) is indispensable. This is a yearly account with beautiful new maps of the city plus numerous site plans and photographs; the important examination of Besika Bay is by Ilhan Kayan in vol. 1, with detailed reconstructions; in the same volume is Donald Easton’s ‘Troy before Schliemann.’ The project website is
www.uni-tuebingen.de/troia