Did Homer’s Trojan War really happen?
<p>The Greek Troy is often referred to as Ilion. Since the 8th century BCE, it was a modest-sized Greek city located on the north coast of Asia Minor, south of the Hellespont. According to Strabo, a geographer contemporary to Augustus in the 1st century BCE, Homer’s Troy was a few kilometers away. The tomb of Achilles and the sanctuary of Hector were tangible remnants of a past immortalized in epic poetry. Strange rituals also bore witness to the history of the Trojan War. The Locrians from central Greece annually sent two young girls to Troy, destined to serve as slaves in the temple of Athena Ilias, the city’s patron deity. This tradition was seen as retribution for the rape of Cassandra, the daughter of the Trojan king Priam, by the Locrian Ajax on Athena’s altar during the Achaeans' conquest of the city. Therefore, for the Greeks, there is no doubt that the Homeric Troy was in close proximity to the Troy they knew.</p>
<p><a href="https://medium.com/@osmont.gregory/did-homers-trojan-war-really-happen-4430ad26eff6"><strong>Learn More</strong></a></p>