ANTH 1200H Seminar report 4

Griffin Bianco

1. Homer rejected the idea that the war was started off of a misunderstanding, where Helen
was kept in Egypt instead of at Troy. Page 183 lists some aspects of the story that came
from the poet’s imagination. Divine interaction with humanity, the supernatural, and
aspects of the characters were all used to make the stories more dramatic, and were
seen as essential parts of the story to the audience.
2. The City that Bryce argues is most likely Homer’s Troy is the site Hisarlik. The reasons
he gives for this is that level VIh of this site best matches Homer’s description of Troy,
and it was destroyed around the same time Troy was said to have been destroyed. The
time it was destroyed was shown by pottery that was found on the site. (Page 185). This
argument makes sense to me but Bryce does say that the poems should be used as a
historical source, then bases what site Troy is on the description of it in the poems.
3. The most noteworthy example that Bryce gives on page 187 is that of the boar tusk
helmet. The elements that don’t conform to the information provided by Homer are the
palace of Odysseus which seems to be of a different era than the Alkinous’ royal
residence. Homer also inconsistently refers to iron, sometimes it is a valuable
commodity, and other times it seems to have common use. The ships and place names
that Homer mentioned in the Iliad seem to reflect a later time period closer to Homer's
own time.
4. The seal found in Troy VIIb is significant because the markings indicate that the seal
owner was a scribe. This would mean that there was possibly scibal activity during the
second millennium in the city. It would also help prove the ethnicity of the city
inhabitants. The information is limited, the seal displays names which are incomplete.
(page 189).
5. The Hittite texts mention 2 places, Wilusiya and Taruisa. These were believed to either
be the same place, or be located next to each other and eventually Wilusiya absorbed
Taruisa. Wilusiya is believed to be the Hittie way of writing (W)ilios or Ilios, which is
another name for Troy. To further confirm that this is Troy, records of an expedition that
had to cross the Seha River Land north to reach the Wilusiya were found. These records
helped confirm that Wilusiya was in a similar location to Troy. (Page 191). The City of
Wilusiya was attacked several times, which Mycaenean Greeks may have been directly
or indirectly involved. (Page 193). The city was occupied by the enemy, which loosely
follows Homer’s story where Troy was attacked, occupied, then destroyed by the
Greeks. The Hittite texts are not complete though, in some instances entire tablets are
missing and the person they are addressed to is unknown. These texts seem useful to
me, as so far they have provided the most complete story I have seen so far. The story
that they tell also seems far more realistic than the one depicted in the poems.
6. Bryce makes that argument that Homer was just a creative poet that observed a
sequence of events that took place, and intertwined supernatural elements and colourful
characters into it to make it more entertaining. I agree with this. I think it would be unwise
to base our historical knowledge of something off of a poem where a) we don’t
 definitively know who composed it or when it was composed and b) many events in the
poem happen due to supernatural reasons, like intervention from the gods.
7. The last part of the article is what really helped convince me of Bryce's argument.
Seeing all the evidence in one place made it very easy to understand, and absorb
everything at once. I think another thing that makes it easy to believe is that Bryce’s
conclusion seems very uncontroversial. Of course a story with gods, and spirits will not
accurately depict a historical event. If the main purpose of the poem was to entertain
then the events in the story had to actually be entertaining.