"Where Troy Once Was" (Ovid. "Heroids". 1.1.53)

Abstract

In ancient times, no one argued that in the Iliad and the Odyssey Homer recounted nothing more than invented stories. Yet in the nineteenth century, on 5 August 1873, the German amateur archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann announced the discovery of Troy on the territory of modern-day Turkey, an event that overturned many long-held views in Homeric scholarship. The possibility emerged that, if Troy had indeed existed, Homer’s epic poetry might, at least in part, preserve memories of real events. This idea gained further support nearly forty years ago with the expedition led by the English researcher Tim Severin, who retraced the route that Odysseus is said, in Homer’s account, to have followed from Troy to his native Ithaca. Severin’s findings revealed numerous striking correspondences with the Homeric poems, thereby contributing to the emergence of an entire subfield now known as Homeric archaeology.

This article explores how Homer and Troy—long regarded as the first literary monument of ancient Greek civilization and a key component of Europe’s collective identity—became part of Turkey’s cultural memory. It also considers how, consequently, both the Turkish government and the public view the preservation of this heritage as a shared responsibility, making it unsurprising that the site often hosts more local visitors than foreign tourists. The study also explores the ways in which the history of European culture, embodied in Homer’s legacy, informs and inspires Turkish cultural traditions; the function of Homeric epic in relation to the Ottoman Empire; the prospects for archaeological research and the preservation of Troy’s cultural heritage in Turkey; and the regulatory framework established in the early twentieth century to facilitate continued research at the site. Consideration will also be given to Turkish translations of the Iliad, among other issues.

It is especially noteworthy that in the Iliad, Homer names the Halizones from the land of Alybe among the allies of Troy—peoples whom ancient authors already associated with one of the Kartvelian tribes—the Chalybes. Priam, in his conversation with Helen, likewise recalls the Colchian warrior women, the Amazons, whose support had earned him many victories in the past. From these references we may assert with confidence that the Kartvelian world, to some extent, entered Homer's conceptual horizon. In this sense, Homer stands as the earliest European author to provide information about ancient Colchis within the wider context of the Mycenaean age and the Trojan War.