The Greek Gods

Troy is a legendary city which is in the middle of the Greek mythology war known as the Trojan War. The war is described in the Epic Cycle and in the Illiad of Homer. Trojan is referred to as the culture and the people of Troy. Troy is the name of an archeological site which was the traditional area of Homeric Troy, Turkish Truva, in Hisarlik in Anatolia. This location is close to the seacoast and is now the Canakkale province in the northwest part of Turkey and is southwest of the Dardanelles under Mount Ida.

There was a new city named Ilium which was built on the site in the reign of the Roman Emperor Agustus. The city flourished until the Constantinople was built and then Ilium declined gradually during the Byzantine age.

There were many excavations in the area of Troy and in the 1870's, the German archeologist named Heinrich Schliemann excavated the area and later the excavations revealed other cities which were built in succession of each other over the years. One of these earlier cities was Troy VII. Some say the city was not Troy but was identified as Wilusa. Some even say that Homer’s Troy was not even in the Anatolia area, and might have been in England, Croatia, or Scandanavia. The mainstream scholars do not believe this however.

Troy was best known for the riches it gained from the trades made with the east and the west. The royal Trojans traced their ancestry from Pleaid Electra and Zeus, who were the parents of Dardanus. The Greeks say Dardanus was from Arcadia but the Romans believed he was from Italy. Dardanus met King Teucer, who was from Attica, and the king treated Dardanus with respect. Dardanus eventually married Teucer’s daughter and then founded the city of Dardania. Dardania was later ruled by Aeneas. When Dardanus died, the kingdom went to his grandson, Tros. Tros founded the city of Ilium (or Troy). Zeus gave Ilus the Palladium. Poseidon and Apollo built the walls and the fortifications around Troy for Laomedon, son of Ilus. When Laomedon refused to pay for the work, Poseidon flooded the land and demanded the sacrifice of Hesione to a sea monster. After that , pestilence came and the sea monster took away the people of the plains.

The Maxyans also claimed that they were a tribe from west Libya who were also descendants from the men of Troy. It is said that the Trojan ships were transformed into naiads and they rejoiced to see the wreckage of Odysseus’ ship. Some of the famous Trojans were Dardanus, Laomedon, Ganymede, Priam, Paris, Hector, Cassandra, Troilus, Oenone, Tithonus, Memnon,Aeneas, Brutus, and more.