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[[Image:Troy location.png|right|300px]]
[[Image:Troy location.png|right|300px]]
'''Troy''' (Ancient Greek: Τροία), archaeological site in northwestern [[Turkey]], chief city of the [[Trojans]] during the siege by the [[Greeks]] in the [[Trojan War]], an event described in poetic terms in [[Homer]]'s [[Iliad]] to have taken place around the 12th century B.C.<ref>Encyclopedia of Military History, Dupuy & Dupuy, 1979</ref> Archaeological research is centered on Hisarlık Tepe, a small hillock in the province Çanakkale in which archaeologists [[Frank Calvert]] and [[Heinrich Schliemann]] identified as the most probable site of Troy in the 1860's, which is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
'''Troy''' (Ancient Greek: Τροία), archaeological site in northwestern [[Turkey]], chief city of the [[Trojans]] during the siege by the [[Greeks]] in the [[Trojan War]], an event described in poetic terms in [[Homer]]'s [[Iliad]] to have taken place around the 12th century B.C.<ref>Encyclopedia of Military History, Dupuy & Dupuy, 1979</ref> Archaeological research is centered on Hisarlık Tepe, a small hillock in the province Çanakkale in which archaeologists [[Frank Calvert]] and [[Heinrich Schliemann]] identified as the most probable site of Troy in the 1860's, which is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site<ref>https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/849</ref>.
In addition to Homer, the Roman poet [[Virgil]] set down the [[Aeneid]], an epic of the founding of ancient [[Rome]] by a Trojan prince who fled the city after the Greeks had sacked it.
In addition to Homer, the Roman poet [[Virgil]] set down the [[Aeneid]], an epic of the founding of ancient [[Rome]] by a Trojan prince who fled the city after the Greeks had sacked it.
==Trojan War==
==Origins==
The story of Troy essentially begins with the Trojan War, a conflict between Mycenaean Greeks and the Kingdom of Troy that has generally been told and retold for about four centuries before being put down in writing by Homer, a Greek poet and bard who may or may not have existed. The conflict began when the wife of King Menelaus of Sparta, Helen, eloped with the Trojan prince Paris, and to get her back, Menelaus received the backing of King Agamemnon of Mycenae. The army that was created sailed to Troy on a thousand ships and laid siege to the city for ten years; lacking the physical power to enter, the Greeks feigned giving up, leaving a large, wooden horse on the beach as a "gift" to Troy. The horse was pulled into the city, and the Greek soldiers who had hidden inside it crept out, opened the city gates, and allowed the Greek army to enter, resulting in the destruction of the city. Homer's tale involved age-old conflicts of right and wrong; the influence of the gods; the heroes Ajax and Nestor; the intercession of the Amazons in the aid of Priam; the doomed Patroclus who believed he could be a stand-in for his cousin, the nearly-indestructible Achilles, who would take vengeance against Hector on the plain before Troy, dragging his body around the city with his chariot. And when Troy was turned to ashes, Odysseus would face a ten-year journey to get back home to Ithaca, to find his wife the target of unwanted suitors.
According to Greek mythology, the Trojan royal family finds its progenitors in Zeus and one of the Pleiades whose name was Electra, becoming the divine parents of Dardanus and Iasion. The myth has both sons living on the island of Samothrace, but Iasion had an affair with Demeter, resulting in his death at the hands of Zeus, and Dardanus leaving the island for Asia Minor. It was here he met Teucer, who treated him with respect enough to give him in marriage his daughter Batea.
Dardanus eventually became a king of the region he had named for himself, called Dardania. After his death the kingdom passed to his nephew Tros, who soon renamed the region "Troad". Ilus, one of Tros' sons, had won a wrestling tournament in Phrygia and as a prize the king offered fifty youths and fifty maidens, and a cow. Ilus was told the gift of the cow was based on an oracle that he should build a city in his own land where he saw the cow lay down, which it did at the hill Ate, and Ilus laid the groundwork for the foundation of what was to be known as Troy/Ilios. The inhabitants of Troy were collectively called "the Trojan people", while Teucer, together with the descendants of Dardanus, Tros and Ilus, were considered the eponymous founders of the site.
===Trojan War===
The most famous part of the story of Troy is the Trojan War itself, a conflict between Mycenaean Greeks and the Kingdom of Troy that has generally been told and retold for about four centuries before being put down in writing by Homer, a Greek poet and bard who may or may not have existed. The conflict began when the wife of King Menelaus of Sparta, Helen, eloped with the Trojan prince Paris, and to get her back, Menelaus received the backing of King Agamemnon of Mycenae. The army that was created sailed to Troy on a thousand ships and laid siege to the city for ten years; lacking the physical power to enter, the Greeks feigned giving up, leaving a large, wooden horse on the beach as a "gift" to Troy. The horse was pulled into the city, and the Greek soldiers who had hidden inside it crept out, opened the city gates, and allowed the Greek army to enter, resulting in the destruction of the city. Homer's tale involved age-old conflicts of right and wrong; the influence of the gods; the heroes Ajax and Nestor; the intercession of the Amazons in the aid of Priam; the doomed Patroclus who believed he could be a stand-in for his cousin, the nearly-indestructible Achilles, who would take vengeance against Hector on the plain before Troy, dragging his body around the city with his chariot. And when Troy was turned to ashes, Odysseus would face a ten-year journey to get back home to Ithaca, to find his wife the target of unwanted suitors.
The ''Illiad'' was first written down about 750 B.C., followed by the ''Odyssey'' around 725 B.C. Both works are ascribed to Homer. About 29 B.C. Virgil wrote his epic ''Aeneid'', in which the tale recounted Trojans who fled the destruction to Carthage; led by Prince Aeneas, they would leave for the Italian peninsula, founding the city of Rome on the banks of the Tiber River. Written during the period of the first emperor [[Augustus]], Virgil's epic had the intention of giving the Romans a history as impressive as any the Greeks had.
The ''Illiad'' was first written down about 750 B.C., followed by the ''Odyssey'' around 725 B.C. Both works are ascribed to Homer. About 29 B.C. Virgil wrote his epic ''Aeneid'', in which the tale recounted Trojans who fled the destruction to Carthage; led by Prince Aeneas, they would leave for the Italian peninsula, founding the city of Rome on the banks of the Tiber River. Written during the period of the first emperor [[Augustus]], Virgil's epic had the intention of giving the Romans a history as impressive as any the Greeks had.