On May 12, 9:59 am, JTEM <
jte...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Speaking of things "We Know"...
>
> We know the Trojan War never happened. We know the
> story has similarities with the taking of Joffa. We
> know in pretty much every circumstance outside of
> Troy that people assume and appropriation... take
> Noah's flood, for example.
>
> The TroyTards are trying to impose an exception. They
> want a literally true "Bible" tale complete with the
> active participation of gods...
>
> Anyone who would argue the Trojan War might as well
> argue over how many angels can fit on the head of a
> pin...
My hermeneutic reading of Homer and the Bible raises
the plausibility of a long series of conflicts in the east,
condensed to a war in the epics.
Polyphem -- Troy, his one eye the acropolis overlooking
the river plain, his body downtown Troy VIIa providing
protected shelter for five to ten thousand people,
vulnerable after the Hittite empire collapsed
his cave -- Trojan harbor in the Besik bay
his goats and sheep -- foreign ships waiting in
the harbor for favorable wind, asked for high fees
and tributes, tolls on their cargo
horses -- ships of the early Trojans (Phaeakians),
and of the Achaeans who avoided the harbor in the
Besik bay and instead maintained an improvised
harbor in the mouthing area of the Trojan rivers
near the mosquito infested swamps (malaria episode)
Helen and her extended family -- tin, copper, bronze,
andrasit and brass; Mycenaean bronze containing
twelve or even fifteen per cent of tin, no tin in Greece,
tin came from Central Asia, bound to pass the Hellespont
where the Trojans laid hands on the precious cargo,
abducting Helen, as it were
Trojan horse -- a beautiful and apparently abandoned
Achaean ship dragged into the Besik harbor by Trojan
sailors, Achaean soldiers hide within, leave the ship
in the dark of the night, overcome the Trojan guards,
acropolis alarmed via a chain of signals, Trojan troops
hasting to the Besik bay, meanwhile Achaean troops
storm the acropolis of Troy, probably in the summer
of 1184 BC, blinding Polyphem, the one eye of the
Much Famous cyclops who resembles more a wooded
hilltop than a man who eats bread (Homer)
oxen of Helios -- freight ships on the Black Sea
transgression of Odysseus' men -- a raid on the Krimean
fleet, prolonging the series of conflicts in the east
travels to strange places -- Odysseus dreaming, reaching
Troy in disguise and blended with other places and periods
of time (Homer anticipating Freud's dream logic)
pleasant Scherie -- early Troy, when the Phaeakians were
able pilots of foreign ships and helped sailors in the
dangerous waters (Eberhard Zangger), Odysseus
recognizes where he is, what a lovely place he destroyed,
or will destroy in the time perspective of the Phaeakians,
and can't help weeping, then arrives home for good
(Zangger) where another task awaits him
Penelope -- Peloponnese
her shameless suitors -- those who profit from the land
without meeting their obligations
Athene -- course of history personified
Telemachos -- Far-away-war, far away from the Trojan
war in time, Messenin wars, Homer of the Iliad living
in the time of the first Messenian war, Homer of the
Odyssey in the time of the second Messenian war,
both compiling rich bardic material, both fearing for
the unitiy of Greece
Plagues befalling Egypt in the Bible -- symbolize the
invasion of the Sea Peoples and thus testify to turmoils
in the time of the Trojan war.