Is Troy the Hittite Wilusa? About name associations and their role in the historization of Hisarlık

Abstract

The widely accepted link of Homer’s town with the land of Taruwisa and/or the land of Wilusa in Hittite sources is based on little other than name associations: firstly that of Alaksandu, king of Wilusa, with Alexandros or Paris, the Trojan prince (1911), then of Wilusa with Ilios, another name for Troy, and, independently, of Taruwisa with Troy itself (both 1924). Also ]appaliunas, in a list of Wilusian gods, was identified with Apollo (1931). None of these equations is cogent, and if a Wilusian king and a Wilusian god really had Greek names, it would not strengthen the localization of Wilusa in the Troad. Homer’s town was indeed localized there, but the efforts to prove the existence of a town around the stronghold on the hill of Hisarlık have failed. This stronghold was neither Troy nor the capital of Wilusa, and there is no connection with Hittite history or culture. Monuments and inscriptions in Hittite style exist in West Anatolia, but farther to the south, and until now none of the western kingdoms attested primarily in Hittite sources has been confirmed by excavation. The equation of Ephesos with Abāsa, the town of Uhhazidi, the last king of Arzawa, is phonetically even worse, and Ephesos is probably a genuine Greek name.

Keywords

• homeros
• hitit coğrafyası
• bronz çağı batı anadolusu
• fonetik benzerlik sirenleri
• homer
• hittite geography
• bronze age western anatolia
• sirene des gleichlauts