RESURRECTION OF ACHILLES' HOMELAND AND CAPITAL CITY PHTHIA: What Historical ...

37 Pages·2013·2.93 MB·English

RESURRECTION
OF ACHILLES’ HOMELAND
AND CAPITAL CITY PHTHIA:
___________________
What Historical Research Reveals

Η ΑΝΑΣΤΑΣΙΣ
ΤΗΣ ΠΑΤΡΙ∆ΑΣ ΤΟΥ ΑΧΙΛΛΕΑ
ΚΑΙ Η ΠΡΩΤΕΥΟΥΣΑ ΦΘΙΑ:
Τυ ∆ειχνει Η Ιστορικη Ερευνα

Dr. James G. Brianas ∆ηµητριος Γ. Μπριανας
June 2011 Ιουνιου 2011

© 2011
1
TABLE OF CONTENTS

PAGE

I. EVIDENCE FOR THE TROJAN WAR ………………………………………………………………… 1
A. Ancient Greece – The Legacy of Troy ………………………………………………………. 1
B. Troy Discovered in 1871 ………………………………………………………………………….. 3
C. Troy and Homer ……………………………………………………………………………………… 5

II. THE FAMILY ACHILLES/AIACIDES …………………………………………………………………. 7
A. Aiacos – Grandfather of Achilles …………………………………………………………… 7
B. Peleus – Father of Achilles …………………………………………………………………….. 8
C. Achilles - Youth and Warrior ………………………………………………………………… 9
D. Neoptolemos – Son – and Grandchildren of Achilles ……………………………... 10
E. Religious Cults, Festivals, and Dedications to the Aiacides ……………………. 11

III. THE HOMELAND AND CAPITAL CITY OF ACHILLES ………………………………………. 12
A. Ancient Writings on Phthia …………………………………………………………………… 12
B. Modern Writings on Phthia ………………………………………………………………….. 20

IV. ARCHAEOLOGICAL EVIDENCE …………………………………………………………………….. 26

V. METHODOLOGIES FOR FURTHER RESEARCH ………………………………………………. 28
A. First: High-Tech Methods …………………………………………………………………… 28
B. Second: Smuggling and Illegal Trafficking of Artifacts ………………………… 28
C. Third: Museums - Securing and Preserving Artifacts and Sites ………….. 29
D. Fourth: The Council of Achilles …………………………………………………………… 30

VI. CONCLUSION ……………………………………………………………………………………………. 30

References/Bibliography …………………………………………………………………………… 33

This research paper has been prepared specifically for educational purposes
by THE ACHILLES FOUNDATION
and may be reproduced for such purposes but not reproduced for financial gain.

2
RESURRECTION OF ACHILLES’ HOMELAND
AND CAPITAL CITY PHTHIA –
WHAT HISTORICAL RESEARCH REVEALS

By DR. JAMES G. BRIANAS Professor and President
∆ηµητριος Γ. Μπριανας June 2011 The Achilles Foundation

Abstract: Some scholars continue to believe that the Trojan War and Achilles were mythological events.
Evidence from ancient sources, modern writings, excavations, and onsite visits tell a different story.
Through photographs and this evidence we trace the kingdom and capital city of Achilles, first military
hero of a Greece, to ancient Thessaly and his homeland Phthia with future challenges and opportunities
provided through the “Achilles Project.”

EVIDENCE FOR THE TROJAN WAR

Ancient Greece – The Legacy of Troy

Greece is a very ancient land. Considering that it has probably been inhabited by people
beginning about 400,000 years ago (hominids at that time) at the start of the Paleolithic period,
the 2500 to 3000 years typically given to the recorded history of the country seems very short
(Runnels p5). But it is certain that modern humans inhabited Greece from 30,000 years ago
(Runnels p25, Vermeule p5). 10,000 years ago the great glaciers retreated and with a warming
of the earth the seas rose and the change in climate brought migrations of people which began
to shape Mediterranean Greece (Runnels p31). It is from Crete and Thessaly that most
information about Neolithic Greece, 7000 to 3500BC, comes. At that time agriculture and
domestication of animals was widespread and later trade routes began to connect peoples of
the region. The Bronze Age, beginning 3500BC, brought greater migrations to Greece (from the
north and the east across the islands) which led to the great Minoan and Mycenaean
civilizations – the palatial periods of palaces and massive fortifications during the last part of
that age (Morkot pp22-29; see also Hansen, Vermeule, and Wace and Thompson on Neolithic
and Bronze Age Thessaly, also William Leake’s travels 1805 to 1810).
It is this “prehistory,” before 3000 years ago, which is
the focus of this paper, specifically the late Bronze Age, 1650
to 1050BC, the palatial period known as the Heroic Age of
ancient Greece. It is an age of athlete-heroes like Hercules,
traveler-heroes like Jason and Odysseus, and warrior-heroes
like Achilles. Included is the greatest healer of that period,
Asclepius, whose sanctuaries (health spas) doted the Aegean
region and beyond. It was a period of great influence of the
Mycenaeans, whom Homer called Achaians, also Danaans, and Argives. Agamemnon, king of
Mycenae, ruled during the 13th century. Concurrently other empires ruled the eastern
Mediterranean from King Hattusili III of the Hittites of central and eastern Asia Minor (Anatolia)
3
to Pharaoh Rameses II of Egypt. King Priam ruled at Ilium, Troy. This period also coincided with
the Jewish Exodus out of Egypt. It was an age of historical events that continues to influence
and capture the imagination of scholars and students of history.
Within this epic period, 1250BC, is the setting of what has become the greatest war
story ever told – the Trojan War – documented in the ILIAD. Authored by Homer, a blind poet
from Chios around 800BC, this epic poem
comprises 15,693 lines in 24 books and
involves over 500 characters the main
ones being Achilles, Agamemnon, Hector,
Menelaus, Patroclus, Ulysseus, Ajax,
Helen, Paris, and Priam. The ILIAD covers
51 days in the ninth year of a 10-year
war. It is the first literature of Europe and the first of the western world (Denby pp29-35). As
was typical at that time, it was handed down from generation to generation, sung by
professional bards to the rhythm of a musical instrument like a lyre. Twenty-nine Greek
kingdoms (kings and commanders) came to fight with as many as 100,000 warriors. “There
were noble Greeks and noble Trojans all showing an array of emotions – anger, love, slaughter,
honor, glory – battles raging, warriors dying, enemies speaking the same language and revering
the same gods – all eloquently woven together by Homer’s entrancing poetic style.”
(Brianas1PartI)
To the ancient Greeks the Trojan War was never a myth but a real event that occurred
in their early history. It was required reading for school children in classical Greece. Stories,
historical documents, and plays and poems abounded at that time about events before the war,
during the war, and the returning Greek kings and commanders after the war. Many of these
survived but most have unfortunately been lost or have come down to us through
commentaries (scholia) from those who had seen them, and fragments of writings, fragments
which sometimes have been found as stuffing for mummies of ancient Egypt. (See “Achilles in
lost plays” in Wikipedia.org/wiki/Achilles: ref. the lost plays “Achilles” and “Myrmidons” by
Aeschylus and another, “The Lovers of Achilles,” by Sophocles.)
Pausanias at Delphi nearly 2000 years ago saw an enormous painting of the fall of Troy
and the Greeks sailing
away. It was in a large
building,“the Delphians
call it the CLUB-HOUSE
(Lesche) because this is
where they used to meet
in ancient times both for
old tales and for serious
conversations.” (p469).
After 20 pages of descriptions he says, “That is the scale and extraordinary beauty of the
painting by a man from Thasos (Polygnotos).” (p488).
4
The Persian king, Xerxes, sacrificed at Troy in 480BC on his way to conquer Greece.
Alexander the Great passing from Greece into Asia in 334BC danced at Troy around the tomb of
Achilles, his ancestor from his mother Olympia who was a princess from Epirus descended from
the family of Achilles. Roman emperors paid homage at Troy believing this to also be the site of
their heritage including Roman Emperor Caracalla in 214AD and Byzantine Emperor Justinian in
354AD. And for eastern aristocracy in Constantinople the Iliad and Odyssey were part of their
core educational curriculum (StudiaTroica Sage B10 2000). But with increasing Christian
influence and the ravages of war and invasions and finally Ottoman incursions, pagan and other
sites were gradually abandoned and where history flourished grasslands and farmlands took
hold or new buildings covered old ones and many ancient sites disappeared. After hundreds of
years history evolved into mythology and reality was lost. There was no known surviving
written evidence, no eyewitnesses, nothing to substantiate the events. (For an interesting
guide book to modern Troy, see Troy, by Mustafa Askin, 1999.)
Troy Discovered in 1871
As a young boy in Germany, Heinrich Schliemann was raised with stories and legends of
old including “the great deeds of the Homeric heroes and the events of the Trojan War” such
that he agreed with his father “that I should one day excavate
Troy.” (Schliemann p3). At the age of 49, after years as a very
successful businessman and by then an American citizen, his
dream arrived. On 11 October 1871 until 24 November when
winter arrived, he with some 80 laborers began excavations at
Hissarlik, northwestern Asia Minor, present day Turkey, which
following Homer he believed to be the site of ancient Troy.
“During that interval we had been able to make a large trench
on the face of the steep northern slope, and dig down to a depth of 33 ft. below the surface of
the hill. – We first found there the remains of the later Aeolic Ilium, which on the average,
reached to a depth of 6 ½ ft. – Below these Hellenic ruins, and to a depth of about 13 ft., the
debris contained a few stones – At a depth of 30 ft. and 33 ft. we discovered fragments of
house-walls of large stones, -- appeared as if they were separated from another by a violent
earthquake.” (Sch p22). Schliemann had found Troy, what he called “Sacred Ilios”.

Mythology became history and the mystery of Troy was solved – or so we thought. In 1881
with his colleagues he would write a fascinating book about these excavations and the finds. In
the preface written by a colleague, is stated “I recognize the duty of bearing my testimony
against the host of doubters, (that) – The Burnt City would still have lain to this day hidden in
the earth, had not imagination guided the spade.” (Sch pix). (Above photos used by permission, Arno Press.)
5
Evidence from Troy revealed that the city was first occupied around 3000BC. Some 500
years later it was leveled by a great fire as it was again some 300 years later. A newer city was
constantly being built upon an older city such that by Troy VI newer people who settled the
region around 1900BC “built a very much larger and more beautiful fortress – destined to
endure for about 600 years (until 1300BC or so). The most interesting fact about these invaders
is their cultural affinity to the peoples who at that period were entering the mainland of Greece
– Greeks and Trojans, are linked especially by the common use of an unparalleled technique in
ceramics, the peculiar art of making Gray Minyan Ware (named after the Minyans in
Orchomenos, Greece, where it was first found), and the introduction of the horse, unknown at
Troy before the founding of the Sixth Settlement. Troy VI was
a fortress of great strength and elegance, the castle of a king,
accommodating only the royal family and its retainers, a few
hundred persons all told.” Further evidence from this newer
city shows that another catastrophe likely an earthquake
“reducing it to a heap of stones and brick and timber” which
occurred around 1275BC, a period just prior to King Priams’
Troy (Sch p26).
During an interval of 1874 to 1878, Schliemann excavated at Mycenae uncovering the
palace site of King Agamemnon, leader of the Greeks at Troy (See Mycenae by Schliemann,
1878.) Although Schliemann passed away in 1890 his excavations at Troy, with the help of
German archaeologist Wilhelm Dorpfeld, lasted until 1894. Since then two other major projects
occurred at Troy with Professor Carl Blegen, University of Cinninnati, from 1930 to 1938 and
German Professor Manfred Korfmann from 1988 to 2002 continuing until 2008 with Professor
Ernst Pernika, both from the University of Tubingen, with a large team including German,
American, and Turkish archaeologists and scholars. Blegen also conducted research at Pylos in
southwest Peloponnese and through excavations in 1939 found the palace of King Nestor,
oldest of the Greeks kings, with ruins dated to the thirteenth or twelfth century BC. Of great
importance also was the discovery of 600 clay tablets whose writing was Linear B like ones
previously found at Knossos,Crete in 1935 by Arthur Evans who had been excavating in Crete
since early 1900. It was not until 1952 that Michael Ventris, a British architect, deciphered the
tablets showing them to be written in Greek – “a difficult and archaic Greek, seeing that it is
500 years older than Homer and written in abbreviated form, but Greek nevertheless.” (Latacz
pp156-159). Another step was achieved in the solving the mystery of Bronze Age Greece.
Also in a Greek newspaper, Τυπος Της Κυριακις, headlines on a Sunday in May 2002 read:
“Πελανα Λακωνιας: Επειτα απο εικοσι χρονια ανασκαφων ο καθηγητης Αρχαιολογιας
Σπυροπουλος ισχυριζεται οτι την οµηρικη Λακεδαιηονα και το παλατι του Μενελαου.
The palace site of King Menelaus and his wife Helen, the apparent cause of the Trojan War, was
located near Sparta. Plus, during the summer of 2010, a professor with the University of
Ioannina in Greece announced the founding of Odysseus’ palace site on the island of Ithaca.
AND WHERE IS ACHILLES? The mystery of the location of his capital city Phthia we unravel in
this paper. But his tomb still exists outside the walls of Troy by the Aegean Sea next to the
ancient city of Achilleion populated after the war. A magoula/tumulus 30 ft. high, excavations
6
were begun in 1998 by Dr. Korfmann, director of the 3rd
team at Troy. The tumulus is known as Besik-Sivritepe.
“Professsor Korfmann’s discoveries in the nearby settlement
(including a Mycenaean cemetery) fit well with the ancient
descriptions of the site of Achilleion, which was built next to
the tomb. – it was publicized as the tomb of Achilles by the
fourth century BC.” (Rose pp65-66).

Troy and Homer
Michael Wood’s, In Search of the Trojan War, provides interesting details and dynamics
of the war and that period. The Egyptians ruled in the southeastern Mediterranean, the
Babylonians and Assyrians further east, the Hittites in Anatolia (central and eastern Asia Minor),
and the Mycenaeans in Achaia (Greece). There was communication and visits among the royal
households of these kingdoms. Egyptian inscriptions of 1450BC show evidence that they “sent
ambassadors to many of the ‘barbarian’ countries on the fringe of his (the Egyptian king’s)
world, among them the ‘foreigners in their islands across the Great Green (i.e. Greece).’” (Wood
pp175-181). There was also communication, written records, between Mycenaean Greece and
the Hittite kingdom clearly showing in the historical record mounting evidence for Mycenaean
warfare in the Aegean and the reality of the Trojan War.
Further evidence on the reality or mythology of Troy and Homer is to be found in a 2004
book of the same name, an objective, well written, and documented volume by Joachim Latacz.
A colleague of Professor Korfmann and follower of the 20-year excavation project at Troy, he
sites British Hellenist Denys Page who in 1959 stated “The Achaeans did fight the Trojans, and
Agamemnon was the name of Mycenae’s king. Achilles is certainly not less historical.” (pp
169/170 and 305). He also cites Edward Visser in his 1997 book, Catalogue of Ships, who wrote,
“Nowhere in Homer can real errors – be established.” (p223). While the accumulation of
information and details amassed by Homer 2800 years ago appears in our day amazing, the
geographical list and locations of the cities and areas identified by him were real. My onsite
research and that of many others can clearly attest to that. And, as this writing is attesting to,
those cities that have not yet been “discovered” does not imply they do not exist. They were
never lost. They remain under the earth waiting for the spade and shovel.
In 1905 an archive of 10,000 clay tablets was found at the Hittite capital of Hattusa
(modern Bogazkoy), 150 kilometers east of Ankara. These tablets, many written in Akadian the
language of diplomacy of that period, were well preserved (p59). To this day they continue to
be studied and along with Egyptian texts are vital to documenting and understanding historical
events of the period in the eastern Mediterranean. (Note: In the 1840’s over 25,000 clay
tablets were discovered in Nineveh, Babylon – modern Iraq – dated to 2300BC describing in
poetic song “Gilgamesh” a hero who lived 400 years earlier. A version has been found in the
Hittite tablets. See N.K. Sandars. The Epic of Gilgamesh. London: Penguin Books, 1972.)
7
Referencing the Hittites, Latacz states, “In the Hittite documents, Ahhijawa (now usually
written ‘Achijawa’) occurred at an early date as the name of a country (first mentioned in the
Hittite texts in 1400BC). – this name bear(s) an obvious phonetic resemblance to the ‘Achaioi’
found in the ILIAD. – this word also, considered geographically and politically, seems to point to
the people we know as ‘Greeks.’” (p121). Latacz further shows evidence from Professor Frank
Starke of Tubingen which states, “– we are finding out substantially more detail about
Ahhijawa. Since ‘for decades to come in the reign of (the Hittite king) Hattusili III (1265-
1240BC), he (Ahhijawa) repeatedly stirred up unrest on the entire western coast of Asia Minor,
from Lukka to Wilusa (southwestern Asia Minor north to Troy).’ -- The Hittite Great King
consistently addresses the king of Ahhijawa formally, using the style ‘my brother.’ The
significance of this is that the king of Ahhijawa is shown here as being placed on the same level
as the king of Egypt and the Hittite king himself. For the Hittite crown, therefore, -- Ahhijawa
was a political and military force to be reckoned with.” (p123). For the first time now, scholars
and historians have written evidence of events occurring during the period surrounding the
Trojan War. And more tablets have yet to be translated (see also Wood pp181-209).
The significance of these and other finds were highlighted in 1998 by an international
symposium on Troy in Germany. Niemeier’s 1999 article, though, underscores the diversity of
opinions from analyses of these tablets by different scholars. This includes the location of the
center of the Ahhijawas (Homeric Greeks) which has been placed at Mycenae. An alternative
possibility is Boeotian Thebes, a large kingdom, since in historical times the name Achaia has
been connected with central Greece not the Peloponnese (Niemeier p144, Wood p181).
What remains key is the association of Ahhijawa with Greece which establishes the earliest
known written sources of Greek history (the 13th century BC). At a press conference during
August 2003 in Troy, Professor Starke presented details of the first letter to be sent from the
Greeks to the Hittites. “The sender of this letter (which has been known since 1928 but
completely misunderstood) was a king of Ahhijawa, and the recipient was the Great King of the
Hittites. Paleographic evidence dates the letter in the thirteenth century – (likely) addressed to
Hattusili III (1265-1240BC) --. Linguistic features of the text confirm the writer spoke Greek,
rather than Hittite as his mother tongue.” Citing a previous letter to the Greek king sent by the
Hittite king, King Ahhijawa claims that the islands belonged to him (most likely the northern
Aegean islands of Lemnos, Imbros, and Samothrace). These letters mirror territorial claims
which continue to this day (Latacz p243).
Sensational discoveries such as these deciphered letters, the founding of Troy itself by
Schliemann, the palaces thus far found of the Greek kings in Achaia (ancient Greece), and
continuing scholarly and archaeological research and dialogue on Troy and Homer, it clearly
becomes even more evident: The Trojan War was real and Homer’ ILIAD describes real
historical events as over 2000 years ago the Greeks themselves attested to. As Latacz stated,
“For the moment it is sufficient to state one fact: at the very core of the tale of Homer has shed
the mantle of fiction commonly attributed to it. Ilios or Wilios (Troy) is not the product of the
Greek imagination, but a real historical site. This site is located at the very place in which
Homer shows it.” (p90). Latacz concludes his book with the statement, “The abundance of
evidence pointing precisely in this direction is already overwhelming. And it grows with every
8
month in which new shafts are driven into the mystery by archaeologists (and) scholars – and
many other representatives of divergent disciplines, all working with strict objectivity – It would
not be surprising if, in the near future, the outcome states: Homer is to be taken seriously.”
(p287).
THE FAMILY ACHILLES/AIACIDES
Noting the overwhelming historical and archaeological evidence which I have briefly
presented and which continues to grow, our attention now turns specifically to Achilles and his
family – the Aiacides. Here is the family tree from legend and historical documents:
Zeus and Aegina
Aiacos Grandfather of Achilles
Aiacos and Endeis (Psamathe) Aiacos wedded to Endeis
then Psamathe
Menoetius Telamon Peleus Phocus Peleus, father of Achilles
(Antigone) Peleus and Thetis Peleus wedded to Antigone
then Thetis
Achilles Achilles
Achilles and Deidameia Achilles weds Deidameia
Neoptolemos Son of Achilles
(Hermoine) Neoptolemos and Andromache (Helenus/Deidameia)
Molossos Pielus Pergamus Grandsons of Achilles

Achilles Playing a board game with his cousin Ajax As a healer
AIACOS – Grandfather of Achilles
According to Apollodorus’ Library (of Greek Mythology), Zeus carried off and married
Aegina bringing her to the island of Oinone, southeast of Athens, which Zeus renamed Aegina.
Their offspring was Aiacos. After a plague, with no other humans on Aegina, Zeus turned the
ants (myrmidons) into humans. Aiacos and Endeis bore Peleus and Telamon. Aiacos also
9
married Psamathe who bore him Phocus. Because Phocus excelled in sports, Peleus and
Telamon killed him. The father, Aiacos, discovered this and exiled the brothers, Telamon going
to (the nearby island of) Salamis and Peleus to Phthia (further north) (pp126-127).
Hesoid’s Catalogue also mentions Aiacos as identified through scholia which stated:
“About the Myrmidons Hesoid says the following: She became pregnant and bore Aiacos who
delighted in battle-chariot. He also states “One should know that ancient history records that
Patroclus was also a relative of Achilles, since it states that Hesoid says that Patroclus’ father
Menoetius was Peleus’ brother, so that accordingly they were each other’s first cousin.” (pp213-
214).
In 450BC Herodotus, the first real historian, recorded the recent Persian invasions of
Greece of a generation before. At Salamis a great naval engagement was to begin at which the
Persian fleet was eventually decimated. Before the battle, according to Herodotus, “an
earthquake occurred on land and sea, at which point they (the Hellenes) decided to pray to the
gods and invoke Aiacos and his descendents as their allies – they prayed to all the gods and
then, after invoking the aid of Ajax and (his father) Telamon, they sent a ship to fetch Aiacos (his
spirit) and the rest of his descendants.” (p625). Such were the religious traditions and cultural
dynamics of the ancient Greeks towards their ancestors whom they strongly believed were real
mortals.
PELEUS – Father of Achilles
In the Argonautica by Apollonius, librarian at the great library of Alexandria, Egypt, we
read the story of Jason and the Golden Fleece. It also includes interesting insights of Peleus,
father of Achilles, and his brother Telamon. Peleus is described as an adventurous hero from
whose trials and tribulations and athletic abilities we begin to understand the warrior mentality
and strength of character of his Myrmidon son, Achilles (as further bolstered by passages in the
Library below). Apollonius identifies the linage and heroes of those who accompany Jason on
his quest for the golden fleece, a six month journey. He tells of the two sons of Aiacos,
Telamon and Peleus, both who were exiled for killing their bother Phocus (p5). Peleus speaks
throughout much of the text.
Of Pindar’s victory odes, composed by him to honor victorious athletes at the Olympian games
at Olympia, Pythia, Nemea, and Isthmia, the predominant city/region he celebrated most was
the island of Aegina. Of the four-five victory odes that have survived eleven deal with Aegina.
“Set plumb in the middle of the Saronic Gulf, within sight of her persistent maritime rival Athens,
Aegina was a great trading center and dispatched her vessels to every part of the Aegean. – At
Salamis her naval contingent was inferior in size only to that of Athens and when the war was
over she was judged to be superior in valor.– (although Pindar was himself from Thebes) what
must have drawn (him) to Aegina was her wealth of heroic saga, richer that the legendary
Thebes.” (Carne-Ross pp66-67).
One could write a book about the feats of Peleus. His adventures are more diverse than
those of his son Achilles and clearly define the adventurer-warrior-hero foundation of the
Aiacide family of which only glimpses are found in ancient texts. After Peleus was exiled by his
10