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The Trojan War | ||||||||||||||||||
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Troy, at the time of the Trojan War, near 1,200 BC., occupied the length of Yugoslavia’s Adriatic coast and off-shore islands, between Sibenik Bay in the north and Boka Kotorska in the south, and extended inland, along the valley of the Neretva river, perhaps as far as Sarajevo (what today are roughly —if you will— the republics of Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina). The visitor of Troy cannot fail noticing two striking aspects of this region’s natural geographical accidents. On the one hand, is the patently maritime nature of life along its intricately indented coastline, peppered with islands here and there, and, on the other, the eminently agrarian nature of life along beautiful and fertile valleys between the ridges of stark and arid mountains. Troy’s privileged geographical situation, and the combination of these two ways of life—maritime and agrarian—lent Troy enormous geopolitical strength, for, not only did it draw ample sustenance from the bountiful valley of the Neretva, it also possessed control of the Adriatic sea-lanes with access into and out of Europe, as well as trade-routes into the Danubian basin and the Aegean Sea. Troy—understood in a political sense as a federation of tribes—evolved, it would seem, during the Bronze Age from periodic foreign influxes into the region which gradually mingled with autochthonous cultures. So it was that the Troes—a collective term for a number of tribes—coexisted with a number of other tribes—apparently, of local stock—which, by the Fall of Troy and beginning of the Iron Age, became collectively known as Illyrians. How the intricate relationship between Troes and Illyroi came about is difficult to explain, yet, that these two ethnic groups were intimately associated may be seen in the name of Dardanus, founder not only of the royal house of Troy, but also the eponymous ancestor of the Dardani, an Illyrian folk, and in that of Kadmos, who was not only father of the Kadmeioi, a Trojan folk occupying the environs of Thebe, but also the father of Illyrus, eponymous ancestor of the Illyrians. The catalogue of Trojan Forces [Abroad]—a listing of the various contingents that defended Troy from the Danaan onslaught (II, 816 – 877)—shows that Troy held an intimate dialogue with diverse peoples along the Italian Peninsula. Though Troy had no definitive borders, one could say that these communities abroad represented a physical extension of Troy, thus the story of Paris visiting Sparta and eloping with Helen seethes with intrigue, since Sparta was a district in the environs of the Laguna Veneta, in the very heart-land of territory held of old by the Paphlagones … furthermore, Helen was an Argive, and Argos was Pelasgian, albeit now held by Hellenes and Myrmidones, likewise in the very heart-land of territory held by the Akhaioi. What were Pelasgians—Indo-European new-comers into the Mediterranean Basin—doing in Akhaian territory? The answer must be that they were holding on to sources of iron-ore on the western coasts of Italy, and Sardinia. One cannot doubt—only Herodotus could— that the Paris-Helen affaire was a legitimate casus belli, for, underscoring this incident is that of overt aggression by Akaioi on Pelasgoi in retaliation of Pelasgoi interference in Akhain territories... There is still one element wanting to coalesce the story of the Trojan War: Mexico City Autumn, 1992 R. S. P. TROY, FROM AIAIA TO ZELEIA NOTE: Names in CAPITALS (AIGAI) are those which occur in the ILIAD (albeit some also occur in the Odyssey); names in bold upper and lower case (Aiaia) are exlusive to the Odyssey • Aiaia (island): LESBOS • AIGAI (sea): Modra Spilja (Bisevo) • Aiolia (island): Pakleni Isles • AIPEIA (town): Milna (Brac) • AISEPOS (river): Rama (tributary of SKAMANDROS) • AMAZONES (people): the northernmost Trojan folk 52/4 • ANTHEIA [ANTREIA] (town): Vela Luka (Korcula): 21/4; 52/2 • Arethousa (spring): Ston 32/2 • ARIMOI (people): a folk of the SKAMANDROS delta 21/2 • Artakia (spring): mouth of SATNIOEIS 52/1 • ASKANIA (district): southem seaboard of Troy 21/1; 33/1; 52/2 • ASOPOS (river): Mala Neretva (tributary of SKAMANDROS) 32/4 • Asteris (island): Plocica 52/2 • BATIEIA (mountain): Kosjak (Neretva delta) • DARDANlA (district): the SKAMANDROS delta-valley • DARDANIOI (people): TROES of the mainland proper 19/1; 53/3 • DOULIKHION (town): Brijeste 32/3 • EKHINAI (archipelago): Lagosta, Lastovo 21/4; 52/2 • ENOPE [EPONE] (town): Epetium, Strobrec 21/4; 52/1 • GARGAROS (mountain): Sv. Ilija & Sv. Jure (Biokovo) 21/1, 52/1 • GRANIKOS (river): Ugrovaca (tributary of SKAMANDROS) 53/3 • Harpyiai (people): a star-gazing (?): folk of NERITON 30/4; 52/2 • HELLESPONTOS (sea): SKAMANDROS delta 21/1; 32/4; 53/3 • HEPTAPOROS (river): Ostrovaca (tributary of SKAMANDROS) 53/4 • Hermaios (mountain): Casnik 30/4; 52/3 • HIRA (town): Bogomolje (Hvar) 21/1; 52/3 • HYPOPLAKIA (district): environs of Jezero Kuti 21/1; 32/4; 53/3 • IDA (mountain): Biokovo Range 21/1; 32/4; 52/2 • [IKAROPONTOS] (sea): Korculanski Channel 21/4; 52/2 • ILIOS (town): Drijeva, Gabela 21/1, 21/2; 30/2-3; 32/1; 33/1; 53/3 • IMBROS (island): Bisevo 21/4; 52/3 • Ismaros (town): Tragurium, Trogir 52/1 • ITHAKA (town): Donja Vrucica 21/1, 21/4; 30/1; 33/1; 52/2 • KADMEIOI (people): occupants of THEBE 21/1, 21/2; 32/4; 53/3 • KALLIKOLONE (mountain): Stari Grad (Gabela) 30/2 • KARHESOS (river): Trebizat 21/1; 32/1-4; 53/3 • KEPHALLENES (people): occupants of NERITON 21/1; 30/1; 53/ • Kharybdis (straight): Vratnik 32/2; 33/1 • KHRYSA (town): Sobra (ZAKYNTHOS) 21/1; 32/3; 53/3 • KIKONES (people): a northern Trojan folk 21/4; 33/4; 52/1 • KILIKES (people): southernmost Trojan folk 53/3 • KILLA (town): Polace (Mljet): 21/1; 32/3; 53/3 • Korax (mountain): Stari Grad (Peljesac) • KROKYLEIA (town): Corcyra, Korcula 21/1, • Kyklopes (people): fictitious inhabitants of LEKTON 33/4; 52/2 • Laistrygones (people): fictitious inhabitants of PEDASOS • LEKTON (island): Lessina/Pharos, Hvar • LELEGES (people): • LEMNOS (island): Issa, Vis 21/4; 52/2 • LESBIDES (people): inhabitanls of LESBOS • LESBOS (island): Brattia, Brac 21/4; 52/2 • Leukas (cape): Loviste (westernmost tip of Peljesac) • Lotophagoi (people): fictitious inhabitants of ENOPE 33/4; 52/1 • LYRNESSOS (town): Ploce/Kardeljevo 21/1; 32/4; 53/3 • MAKAROS (town): Mucurrum, Makarska 21/1 • Neion (mountain): Bartolomija 32/2; 53/3 • Nerikos (harbour): Djunta Doli 32/2; 53/3 • NERITON (mountain): Peljesac Peninsula 21/1, 21/2, 32/3; 53/3 • Ogygia (island): ZAKYNTHOS 32/3; 33/2; 53/3 • OKEANOS (sea): Adriatic Sea • PEDASOS (town): Oneum, Omis 21/4; 52/1 • PERGAMOS (mountain): Avala and Djerzeles (Gabela) 30/3 • Phaiakes (people): inhabitants of SKHERIA 52/2 • PHARE (town): Pharos, Hvar 21/4; 52/2 • Phorkys (harbour): Stonski Kanal • PHRYGES (people): folks of the Trojan seaboard 19/1; 52/2 • PHRYGIA (district): northern seaboard of TROIA 21/4; 33/4; 52/2 • PLAKOS (town): Mlini 53/3 • Planktai (island): Planjak, et al. • PYGMAIOI (people): former occupants of HELLESPONTOS • Rheithron (harbour): Neretvanski Kanal 32/2; 53/3 • RHESOS (river): Bregava (tributary of SKAMANDROS) • SAMOS (mountain): Sveti Ilija (Peljesac) • SANGARIOS (river): Krka 52/4 • SATNIOEIS (river): Titius (?), Cetina • Seirenes (people): fictitious occupants of PLANKTAI • SIMOEIS (river): Krupa (tributary of SKAMANDROS) • SINTIES (people): occupants of LEMNOS • Skheria (island): Scedro • SKYROS (town): Pusica (Brac) • SMINTHIES (people): occupants of ZAKYNTHOS • Telepylos (harbour): delta of SATNIOEIS 52/1 • TENEDOS (island): Corcyra Nigra, Korcula 21/1, 21/3; 34/4; 52/2 • THEBE (town): Klek 21/1; 32/4; 53/3 • Thrinakia (island): AIGILlPS 32/2; 33/1, 53/3 • THROSMOS (mountain): high ground of HELLESPONTOS • THYMBRA (distriet): environs of Bacinsko Jezero 21/1; 32/4; 53/3 • TROES (people): colleclive name for all Trojan tribes 19/1 • TROIA (district): Illyricum • TROIA (town): Daorson (Osanici) • XANTHOS (river): Bradanus, Bradano • XANTHOS [ZANTHOS] (river): Norino • ZAKYNTHOS (island): Melita, Mljet • ZELEIA (districl): Jablanica Gorges SEA AIGAI: Modra Spilja (IMBROS) The location of Aigai, lying exactly due west of SAMOS (Sveti Ilija, Peljesac), from where a sunset at the time of the equinoxes would appear as a shimmering path of light touching the islands of TENEDOS (Korc¼ula), LEMNOS (Vis¼), and IMBROS (Bis¼evo), corresponds with that of a marine grotto, Modra Spilja (‘Blue Cave’) in Bis¼evo’s Balun Cove— XIII; 17, et pas.: Forthwith then he [Poseidon] went down from the rugged mount, [Samos wooded Thrace-like] striding forth with swift footsteps… Thrice he strode in his course, and with the fourth stride he reached his goal, even Aegae, where was his famous palace builded in the depths of the mere, golden and gleaming, imperishable for ever. There is a wide cavern in the depths of the deep mere, midway between Tenedos and rugged Imbros. There, Poseidon, the Shaker of Earth, stayed his horses, and loosed them from the car, and cast before them food ambrosial to graze upon... That the marine grotto is “…midway between Tenedos and rugged Imbros”, and not in Imbros itself, obeys to the fact that this phenomenon, as observed from a vinograd on the western slopes of Samos—perhaps the highest of all in elevation—would appear to place the diameter of the sun’disk between Imbros and Tenedos the moment the upper rim sank below the horizon. On days when the sea is calm, the midday sunlight, penetrating through an openning in the grotto’s vault, illuminates objects in the water with a silvery sheen and the interior with a blue glow. The name of Aigai is from a root whence Greek aix, ‘goat’(thus, the famous Blue Grotto of Capri). The relevance of the name does not come through until something is learned about ambrosia, namely...TOPIC: AMBROSIA- The connection between ambrosia—which to this day nobody knows with certainty what it was—and the blue glow of this grotto, are unavaoidable, for Hindu lore says that ambrita is a heavenly dew from which blue sapphires are solidified. Ambrosia was also fed to horses of Hera, when she arrives at the confluence of SIMOEIS and skamandros quote That it is found in marine grotto suggests that blue ambrosia will have come from some vartiety of conch—murex— and that it was also found at confluence of rivers, that it was some prized sweet-water snail. I have seen for myself, precisely in the area of the confluence of rivers, snail shells large enough to fill one’s cupped hand, from which the inference that ambrosia was an edible snail—marine or sweet-water, since both are delicious. The occurence of the sunset in Equinox = Capricorn.... (why mention this at all?) HELLESPONTOS (the sea): Neretva’s delta; the flat and green expanses where the SKAMANDROS (Neretva) debouches, marked by convoluted brackish channels and marshy islets. VII; 81: “But if so be I slay him, and Apollo give me glory, I will spoil him of his armour and bear it to sacred Ilios and hang it upon the temple of Apollo, the god that smiteth afar, but his corpse will I render back to the well-benched ships, that the long-haired Achaeans may give him burial, and heap up for him a barrow by the wide Hellespont. And some one shall some day say even of men that are yet to be, as he saileth in his many benched ship over the wine-dark sea: ‘This is a barrow of a man that died in olden days, whom on a time in the midst of his prowess glorious Hector slew.’ So shall some man say, and my glory shall never die.” XII; 25: ...and Zeus rained ever continually, that the sooner he might whelm the wall in the salt sea. And the Shaker of Earth, bearing his trident in his hands, was himself the leader, and swept forth upon the waves all the foundations of beams and stones, that the Achaeans had laid with toil, and made all smooth along the strong stream of Hellespont, and again covered the great beach with sand, when he had swept away the wall; and the rivers he turned back to flow in the channel, where aforetime they had been wont to pour their fair streams of water. Hellespontos is a compound-type which emphasizes a topographical condition, derived from the Illyrian root Felj-, connoting the marshy, swampy, banks of a river, + pont-, connoting a long and narrow corridor (as of a river, for instance). The later story about Helle falling from the back of the ram Phrixus at this place, thereafter forever named the Sea of Helle, may well be. Yet the only thing that really falls from the sky into the sea is the sun, and so this story may also well be about that of a midwinter sunset, when the sun, low and golden on the horizon, as seen from Ilios (Gabela), would appear to fall into the brackish waters and soggy marshes at the mouth of the Skamandros (Neretva). The Hellespontos is dotted with a number of natural cone-like outcroppings, one of which was called Batieia (Kosjak, 82 mts.), also known as the Barrow of Myrine. These odd mounds served, upon a time, as burial sites, a fact which has been archaeologically substantiated. IKARIAN SEA [IKAROPONTOS] (the sea): Korculanski Channel; the inter-island sea, as distinguished from OKEANOS (Adriatic Sea) to the west and beyond LEMNOS (Vis) and IMBROS (Bisevo): II; 144: And the gathering was stirred like the long sea-waves of the Icarian main, which the East Wind or the South Wind has raised, rushing upon them from the clouds of father Zeus. XXIV; 77: So spake he, [Zeus] and storm-footed Iris* hasted to bear his message, [to Thetis] and midway between Samos and rugged Imbros she lept into the dark sea, and the waters sounded loud above her. Down sped she to the depths like a plummet of lead, the which, set upon the horn of an ox of the field, goeth down bearing death to the ravenous fishes. The [IKAROPONTOS], as might have been the original name, in keeping with HELLESPONTOS (Neretva's delta), was so named after Ikaros (son of Daidalos and father of Penelope) who flew like a kite or some other bird so high into the sky that his waxen wings melted from the heat of the sun and he plummeted into the sea—not unlike Helle from the ram Phrixius—at the same place where Iris also went down. Perhaps the intended place, more-or-less 'midway between Samos and rugged Imbros', is the rock of Plocica, standing lone though somewhat more to the east than 'midway', where fish might be abundant. It seems particularly significant, that, in the Odyssey, the name of the IKARIAN MAIN or [IKAROPONTOS] is not a geonym included in the structure of a geographical paradigm for The Sea. This fact obeys, certainly, to the utter moral decadence of the Wanderings of Odysseus, such that there is not even a name for the waters of the western tip of NERITON (Peljesac) which he has criss-crossed back and forth time-and-again. *The sight of Iris--a rainbow--at this place can only mean, that, as viewd from the mainland, the sun will have been just risen, still low on the eastern horizon. OKEANOS (the sea): Adriatic Sea The open sea to the west, beyond LEMNOS (Vis) and IMBROS (Bisevo), as distinguished from the sea channels among the islands close to the mainland in the east. Though the sea is certainly common to all lands, one may easily see that, insofar as the Iliad’s authorship was concerned, Okeanos was a Trojan geonym, and even thought of as a Trojan dominion, as its various locations relative to Troy indicate- OKEANOS IN THE WEST OKEANOS IN THE EAST: I; 423: Zeus goes to Okeanos and Aithiopes III; 5: Cranes go to Pygmies VIII; 485: Sun goes to Okeanos XIV; 201: Hera goes to the limits of earth and Okeanos XIV; 302: Hera goes to the limits of earth and Okeanos XIV; 311: Hera goes to the house of deep-flowing Okeanos XVI; 151: Podarge and Zephyr by the streams of Okeanos XVIII; 240: Sun sets in the stream of Okeanos XXIII; 205: Iris goes to the streams of Okeanos and Aithiopes V; 6: Star of harvest-time rises from the stream of Okeanos VII; 422: Sun arises from soft-gliding, deep-flowing Okeanos XVIII; 402: Hephaistos surrounded by the stream of Okeanos XVIII; 489: Pleiades, Hyades, Orion, Bear baths XIX; 1: Eos arises from streams of Okeanos OKEANOS (NO PLACE IN PARTICULAR) XIV; 246: Hypnos lulls Hera, even Okeanos streams o river XVIII; 399: Eurynome, daughter of backward flowing Okeanos XVIII; 607: shield of Achilles river XX; 7: Okeanos to Olympos river XXI; 195: Okeanos source of rivers seas springs wells deep flow It is odd that Okeanos is mentioned 19 times, a number which suggests the Metonic Cycle,* and therefore also (as Strabo the geographer suspected) a perfect knowledge of the moon’s effects on tides. *Metonic Cycle: A period of 19 years, after which the phases of the Moon will recur on the same calendar date and within two hours of the same time, discovered by Meton of Athens in 433 B.C. It arises from the fact that 235 lunations equal 19 tropical years almost exactly, about 6939.5 days. Norton’s Star Atlas, 1973. SANGARIOS: Krka III; 184: Ere now have I [Priam] journeyed to the land of Phrygia... and there I saw in multitudes the Phrygian warriors... that were then encamped along the banks of Sangarius. For I, too, being their ally, was numbered among them on the day when the Amazones came, the peers of men. XVI; 717: ...Asius, that was uncle to horse-taming Hector, and own brother to Hecabe, but son of Dymas, that dwelt in Phrygia by the streams of Sangarius. The northernmost river of Troy, the natural border, if you wish, of a land which had no defined borders, though breaching it might well have been construed as a territorial aggression. SATNIOEIS: Cetina VI; 34: ...and the king of men, Agamemnon, slew Elatus that dwelt in steep Pedasos by the banks of fair-flowing Satnioeis. XIV; 445: Then far the first did swift Aias, son of Oleus, leap upon Satnius and wound him with a thrust of his sharp spear, even the son of Enops, whom a peerless Naiad nymph conceived to Enops,* as he tended his herds by the banks of Satnioeis. XXI; 86: "—Altes that is lord over the war-loving Leleges, holding steep Pedasos on the Satnioeis." The Satnioes rose in the interior from a plain (now Perucko lake) at the foot of mount Dinara (1831 mts.), gradually cutting a deep winding course through the Biokovo range to debouch suddenly at Omis from a winding gorge of high sheer walls. *The name of Enops is surely a metathesis of Epones (cf. Altes), who likely tended horses in the fields at the source of the Satnioes. SKAMANDROS: Naro, Narenta, Neretva XII; 17: ...then verily did Poseidon and Apollo take counsel to sweep away the wall, [of the Danaans] bringing against it the might of all the rivers that flow forth from the mountains of Ida to the sea—Rhesus and Heptaporus and Caresus and Rhodius, and Granicus and Aesepus, and goodly Scamander, and Simos, by the banks whereof many shields of bull's-hide and many helms fell in the dust... —of all these did Phoebus Apollo turn the mouths together, and for nine days' space he drave their flood against the wall... The great River of Troy, it rose deep in the interior from two Y-like sources in the Zelengora mountains, one being the Heptaporos (Ostrovaca) and the other the Skamandros itself. It was met in its course to the sea by eight tributaries, four on either side of its banks, with the exception of the Granikos (Ugrovaca) which, though a part of the watershed, disappeared into the ground before reaching the Skamandros. The geological fact that the Skamandros cut transversally through the mountains of Ida (Biokovo) lent it a wide diversity of geological curiosities. And, that it has been a natural highway to and from the coast and the interior since neolithic times, has consistently contributed to a diversity of life styles in the its rich, earthy valleys running more-or-less perpendicular to its course. Of Skamandros' tributaries, and its mighty torrents, is the following— IN THE ORDER LISTED ABOVE: RHESOS like Karhesos (Trebizat), flows but then dries HEPTAPOROS with Skamandros passes 'seven mouths' KARHESOS like Rhesos (Bregava), flows in cascades RHODIOS emerges from chasm in a loud thunder GRANIKOS disappears into crags in the ground AISEPOS like Simoeis (Krka), drains two mountain lakes SKAMANDROS mingles with waters of Heptaporos (Ostrovaca) SIMOEIS like Aisepos (Rama), drains two muddy areas AISEPOS: Rama A tributary of the SKAMANDROS (Neretva), meaning 'ever dank', was perhaps so called not only because it drained two marshy valleys, but also because of the mysterious and unpleasant character of the those living in the environs: II; 824: And they that dwelt in Zeleia beneath the nethermost foot of Ida, mean of wealth, that drink the dark water of Aesepus, even the Troes, these again were led by the glorious son of Lycaon, Pandarus... IV; 89: And she [Athene in the guise of Laodocus] found Lycaon's son, [Pandarus] peerless and stalwart, as he stood, and about him were the stalwart ranks of the shield-bearing hosts that followed him from the streams of Aesepos. ASOPOS: Mala Neretva The last tributary of the SKAMANDROS (Neretva), it drains the marshes of HYPOPLAKIA (Jezero Kuti)and debouches a short distance away at Opuzen. IV; 376: "Once verily [says Agamemnon] he came to Mycenae, not as an enemy, but as a guest, in company with godlike Polyneices, to gather a host; for in that day they were waging a war against the sacred walls of Thebe, and earnestly did they make prayer that glorious allies be granted them... So when they had departed and were got forth upon their way, and had come to Asopos with deep reeds, that coucheth in grass, there did the Achaeans send forth Tydeus on an embassage. And he went his way, and found the many sons of Cadmus feasting in the house of mighty Eteocles. Then, for all he was a stranger, the horseman Tydeus feared not, all alone though he was amid the many Cadmeians, but challenged them all to feats of strength, and in every one vanquished he them full easily... But the Cadmeians, goaders of horses, waxed wroth, and as he journeyed back, brought and set a strong ambush... But Tydeus even upon these let loose a shameful fate, and slew them all..." The name is likely derived from a-, an intensive inseparable prefix, + the Illyrian reduplicative-type root sipo-, connoting a 'soppy' sense, as if meaning 'very soggy and marshy', indeed an apt despcription. GRANIKOS: Ugrovacæa. A tributary of the SKAMANDROS (Neretva) which, oddly, never meets the Skamandros, but, rather, disappears into the porous ground near Mostar. HEPTAPOROS: Ostrovaca. One of the two sources of the Skamandros (Neretva), the other being the Skamandros itself, so called because its waters, or those of the Skamandros with which they have mingled, pass the mouths—or 'pores'—of seven other tributaries. Yet there are eight other tributaries below the Heptaporos—four on either side—and so the name may only be explained by the fact the Granikos (Ugrovaca) never reaches the Skamandros but, rather, disappears into the porous ground. KARHESOS: Trebizat A tributary of the Skamandros (Neretva), so called because of its four beautiful hair-like fan-shaped falls. RHESOS: Bregava. A tributary of the SKAMANDROS (Neretva), apparently so-called because of its off-and-on seasonal floodings when its otherwise dry and stony bed becomes gorged with snow waters and conger eels. 4. PLACES OF INTEREST: NATURAL POOLS, Women's Washing Tanks. RHODIOS: Buna A tributary of the Skamandros (Neretva) which emerges from a deep chasm by the same token its companion tributary, the Granikos (Ugrovaca) disappears into the porous ground. SIMOEIS: Krupa XX; 51: And over against her [Athene] shouted Ares, dread as a dark whirlwind, calling with shrill tones to the Trojans from the topmost citadel, [Pergamos] and now again as he sped by the shore of Simois over Callicolone. XXI; 305: Nor yet would Scamander abate his fury, but was even more wroth against the son of Peleus, and raising himself on high he made the surge of his flood into a crest, and he called with a shout to Simois: "Dear brother, the might of this man let us stay... fill thy streams with water from thy springs, and arouse all thy torrents..." A tributary of the Skamandros (Neretva), meaning 'snub-nosed', was so called because it drained—like the nose drains the nasal mucus—the two muddy areas of the Ileian Plain (Hutovo Blato). It flowed into the Skamandros opposite Kallikolone (Gabela, Strari Grad)— XANTHOS [ZANTHOS]: Norin VI; 1: So was dread strife of the Trojans and Achaeans left to itself... as they aimed one at the other their bronze-tipped spears between the Simos and the streams of Xanthus. VIII; 560: ...even in such multitudes between the ships and the streams of Xanthus shone the fires that the Trojans kindled before the face of Ilios. A thousand fires were burning in the plain and by each sat fifty men in the glow of the blazing fire. XXI; 1: But when they were now come to the ford of the fair-flowing river, even eddying Xanthus that immortal Zeus begat, there Achilles cleft them [the Trojans] asunder, and the one part he drave to the plain toward the city... but the half of them were pent into the deep-flowing river with its silver eddies. XXI; 144: Upon him rushed Achilles, and Asteropaeus stood forth from the river to face him... and courage was set in his heart by Xanthus, being wroth because of the youths slain in battle, of whom Achilles was making havoc along the stream and had no pity. XXI; 328: But Hera called aloud, seized with fear for Achilles, lest the great deep-eddying River should sweep him away. And forthwith she spake unto Hephaestus, her dear son: "Rouse thee, Crook-foot, my child! for it was against thee that we deemed eddying Xanthus to be matched in fight. Nay, bear thou aid with speed... do thou along the banks of Xanthus burn up his trees, and beset him about with fire..." XXIV; 692: But when they were now come to the ford of the fair-flowing river, even eddying Xanthus, that immortal Zeus begat, then Hermes departed to high Olympus, and Dawn, the saffron-robed, was spreading over the face of all the earth. A tributary of the Skamandros (Neretva), meaning 'yellowish' (as of a muddy river), a name which does not tally with the otherwise pristine waters of the Troic Plain (Glibusa Marshes). But Zanthos, meaning 'very flowery', indeed describes the dense marsh vegetation of bulrushes and reeds covering this plain. It was in the waters of the Zanthos and over the Troic Plain that many dramatic episodes of the Trojan War occurred. ISLANDS AIGILIPS: Elaphites; Sipan, Lopud, Kolocõep, and other isles Aigilips (in the plural) is the collective name for the string of isles known in classical times as the Elaphites. These hug a stretch of the mainland from NERITON (Peljesac Peninsula) to Dubrovnik Olipa, Jakljan, Sipan, Ruda, Lopud, Kolocõep and Lokrum II; 631: And Odysseus led the great-souled Cephallenians that held Ithaca and Neritum, covered with waving forests, and that dwelt in Crocyleia and rugged Aegilips; and them that held Zacynthus, and that dwelt about Samos and held the mainland and dwelt on the shores over against the isles. The Greek understanding of the name Aigilips is 'bereft even of goats', presumably, as the epithet 'rugged' suggests, because of the utter desolation of this string of isles. Such a meaning suggests, one might think, the classical name Elaphites, 'deer isles', (whence later Delaphodia and Latin Lafota, now Lopud). > Name akin with that of AIGAI (Modra Spilja, Bisevo) .. >In odyssey, Thrinakia, island of the kine of Helios will have been goats... ECHINAI: Lagosta, Lastovo Echinai (in the plural), is the collective name for a cluster of small islands lying south of Tenedos (Korcula). The name obeys, surely, to the innumerable jagged boulders immediately below the surface of the water lying all about this small archipelago, a threat to local navigation. II; 625: And those from Dulichium and the Echinae, the holy isles, that lie across the sea, over against Elis, these again had as leader Meges, the peer of Ares, even the son of Phyleus, dear to Zeus, begat—he that of old had gone to dwell in Dulichium in wrath against his father. IMBROS: Bisevo. A small island about 5 kms. south-west of LEMNOS(Vis), it was most noted as a reference point on the distant horizon for astronomical observations made from the vinograd on the western slopes of SAMOS (Sveti Ilija, Peljes¥ac). XIII; 17, et pas.: Forthwith then he [Poseidon] went down from the rugged mount, [Samos wooded Thrace-like] striding forth with swift footsteps... Thrice he strode in his course, and with the fourth stride he reached his goal, even Aegae, where was his famous palace builded in the depths of the mere, golden and gleaming, imperishable for ever. There is a wide cavern in the depths of the deep mere, midway between Tenedos and rugged Imbros. There Poseidon, the Shaker of Earth, stayed his horses... Poseidon's strides—a sunset exactly due west, hence that of an equinox—are like a path of light reflected of the surface of the water, appearing to touch tips of the out-lying islands like stepping stones— 1st stride: right foot on Samos -summit of Sveti Ilija 2nd stride: left foot on Tenedos -northern tip of Korcula 3rd stride: right foot on Lemnos -southern tip of Vis 4th stride: left foot on Aigai: -grotto Modra Spilja However, that there is 'a wide cavern in the depths of the deep mere, midway between Tenedos and rugged Imbros' refers to the fact that, as the sun sinks below the horizon, it will appear to have come to rest at a place in the sea midway between Tenedos (Korcula) and Imbros (Bisevo). DESCRIPTION OF THE LUNAR CYCLE In the Iliad, the lunar cycle is reckoned from Full Moon to Full Moon (29.5 days) such that the 1st day of Full Moon is the 30th of the previous cycle, rising in the east at sun-down. In the course of the moon's cycle it's phases evolve thus: Full Moon (4th quarter) Light/Dark 1st quarter New Moon 2nd quarter Dark/Light 3rd quarter Full Moon 4th quarter Like the sun, the moon rises in the east and sets in the west, though it gains upon itself along its orbit in a backward, retrograde motion, such that it appears to rise a little later every day. Hence the account of Hera's soujourn on Lemnos (Vis) and then Imbros (Bisevo)—the retrograde motion from west to east—is a description of the lunar cycle from the New Moon in the 2nd quarter over the course of 15 days to a Full Moon in the 4th quarter, such that Hera and Hypnos, as if in a love embrace, correspond with the light and dark sides of the 3rd quarter moon: XIV; 280: But when she [Hera] had sworn and made an end of the oath, the twain left the cities of Lemnos and Imbros, and clothed about in mist went forth, speeding swiftly on their way. To many-fountained Ida they came, the mother of wild creatures, even to Lectum, where first they left the sea; and the twain fared on over the dry land, and the topmost forest quivered beneath their feet. The scene ends with an alignment of LEMNOS (Vis) and IMBROS (Bisevo) with LEKTON (Hvar) and GARGAROS (Sveti Ilija, Biokovo). LEKTON: Lesina/Pharos, Hvar. 3 An island, with the port-townsof PHARE (Hvar) in the west, and HIRA (Bogomolje) in the east. It is mentioned only once in the Iliad— XIV; 283: To many-fountained Ida they [Hera and Hypnos] came, the mother of wild creatures, even to Lectum, where first they left the sea; and the twain fared on over the dry land, and the topmost forest quivered beneath their feet. There Hypnos did halt, or ever the eyes of Zeus beheld him... The name of Lekton does not appear in modern recensions of the Odyssey, though its presence in the original text may be inferred with a reasonable safety from the following (which some early editor did not understand and changed)— iv; 670: "… give me a swift ship and twenty men, that I may watch in ambush for him as he passes in the strait between Ithaca and rugged Samos [i.e., Lekton]". and again in iv; 845: There is a rocky isle in the midst of the sea, midway between Ithaca and rugged Samos [i.e., Lekton], Asteris, of no great size… That Hera and Hypnos—the light and dark halves of the 3rd quarter moon—came first to Ida and then Lekton, where, however, 'first they left the sea', suggests they will have done so from Hira (qv.), and obeys to the moon's retrograde motion. LEMNOS: Issa, Vis. I; 590: "Yea, on a time ere this... he [Zeus] caught me [Hephaestus] by the foot and hurled me from the heavenly threshold; the whole day long was I borne headlong, and at set of sun I fell in Lemnos, and but little life was in me. There did the Sintian folk make haste to tend me for my fall." II; 722: But Philoctetes lay suffering grievous pains in an island, even in sacred Lemnos, where the sons of the Achaeans had left him in anguish with an evil wound from a deadly water-snake. There he lay suffering; yet full soon were the Argives beside their ships to bethink them of king Philoctetes. VII; 465: ...and the sun set, and the work of the Achaeans was accomplished; and they slaughtered oxen throughout the huts and took supper. And ships full many were at hand from Lemnos, bearing wine, sent forth by Jason's son, Eunes, whom Hypsipyle bare to Jason, shepherd of the host. VIII; 221: "Fie, ye Argives, [says Agamemnon] base things of shame, fair in semblance only! Whither are gone our boastings, when forsooth wedeclared that we were bravest, the boasts that when ye were in Lemnos ye uttered vaingloriously as ye ate abundant flesh of straight-horned kine and drank bowls brim full of wine..." XXI; 40: For that time had he sold him into well-built Lemnos, bearing him thither on his ships, and the son of Jason had given a price for him; but from thence a guest-friend had ransomed him—and a great price he gave—even Etion of Imbros, and had sent him unto goodly Arisbe... XXIV; 751: "For of other sons of mine [Hecabe's] whomsoever he took would swift-footed Achilles sell beyond the unresting sea, unto Samos and Imbros and Lemnos, shrouded in smoke..." Lemnos, lying westward in a straight line from SAMOS (Sveti Ilija, Peljesac), was inhabited by the SINTIES, a sinister sort of folk. LESBOS: Bratia OJO SPELLING, Brac. IX; 128: "And I [Agamemnon] will give [to Achilles] seven women skilled in goodly handiwork, women of Lesbos, whom on the day when himself took well-built Lesbos I chose me from out the spoil, and that in beauty surpass all women folk." XXIV; 543: And of thee, old sire, we hear that of old thou wast blest; how of all that toward the sea Lesbos, the seat of Macar, encloseth, and Phrygia in the upland, and the boundless Hellespont, over all these folk, men say, thou, old sire, wast preeminent by reason of thy wealth and thy sons. LESBOS was inhabited by the LESBIDES (and not necessarily so by lesbians, which is altogether another thing), and had two towns, AIPEIA (Milna) at the west end, and SKYROS (Pusica) at the east. TENEDOS: Corcyra Melaina, Korcula TENEDOS (island): Corcyra Melaina, Korcula I; 37: "Hear me [Chryses], thou of the silver bow, who dost stand over Chryse and holy Cilla, and dost rule mightily over Tenedos, thou Sminthian..." XI; 624: And for them fair-tressed Hecamede mixed a potion, she that old Nestor had taken from out of Tenedos, when Achilles sacked it, the daughter of great-hearted Arsinous. Tenedos had a town at either end: ANTHEIA [ANTREIA] (Vela Luka) in the west, and KROKYLEIA (Korcula) in the northeast. Tenedos was of enormous logistical importance to the success of Agamemnon's endeavour (whose camp lay across the straight at Orebic), for it was here, one must think, that ships were refurbished and made new again during the long wait before launching a final naval assault on the mainland proper. It was here that Philoctetes of Meliboia was bitten on the foot by a poisonous snake, and because of his wound lay in grievous suffering on the island of Lemnos (Vis). quote The irony of this story is that Philoctetes himself came from a land of magicians and healers, and that, if for some reason or other he knew not how to treat himself, old Hecamede, a Tenedian knowledgeable in mixing at least one hundred different potions, refused him aid. Towards the end of the Trojan War it was a certain Sinis who hatched the evil plan of building a boat with a horse-head prow and a tail-like rudder. It was built on Tenedos and sailed around Neriton (Peljesac), past the Hellespontos (Neretva's delta), as far up-stream the Skamandros (Neretva) as the sandy banks immediately below Kallikolone (Gabela, Stari Grad). Everyone knows the rest of the story, though details vary. The boat-building tradition on Tenedos has been preserved throughout the ages to this day: the now legendary corsair, of just a few centuries ago, took its name from Corcyra. ZAKYNTHOS: Melita, Mljet. Zakynthos was inhabited by the Sminthies, and had two towns, Killa (Polacåe) at the west end, and Khryse (Sobra) at the east. II; 631: And Odysseus led the great-souled Cephallenians that held Ithaca and Neritum, covered with waving forests, and that dwelt in Crocyleia and rugged Aegilips; and them that held Zacynthus, and that dwelt about Samos and held the mainland and dwelt on the shores over against the isles. The name of Zakynthos, meaning 'very dog-like', has a bearing on the name of the Sminthies, meaning 'mongooses', which roam wild over the island. Both are relevant, it would seem, to the curse—perhaps rabies?—laid by Chryses, priest of Apollo, on Agamemnon's forces. Pliny records in his Natural History (III, 26, 152), that, according to Kallimakhos, the Maltese terrier got its name from Meleda. Also, it is claimed locally, it was this island, and not Malta, where St. John was bitten on the hand by a snake. Strabo-sminthos mouse Skamandros - bebrykes MOUNTAINS BATIEIA: Kosjak, 82 mts. The location of Batieia wthin the Hellespontos (Neretva's delta)corresponds with that of Kozjak, the most prominent of several isolated out-croppings which dot the flat and marshy expanses like miniature peaks of mountains: II; 811: Now there is before the city a steep mound afar out in the plain, with a clear space about it on this side and on that; this do men verily call Batieia, but the immortals call it the barrow of Myrine, light of step. There on this day did the Trojans and their allies separate their companies. GARGAROS: Sveti Ilija, 1640 mts., and Sveti Jure, 1762 mts The 'summit' of Ida (Biokovo Range), as represented by twin prominences at the latitude of Lesbos (Brac) of its two highest elevations: VIII; 47: To Ida he [Zeus] fared, the many-fountained, mother of wild beasts, even to Gargarus, where is the demesne and his fragrant altar. There did the father of men and gods stay his horses, and loose them from the car, and shed thick mist upon them; and himself sat amid the mountain peaks exulting in his glory, looking upon the city of the Trojans and the ships of the Achaeans. XV; 151: To many-fountained Ida they came, mother of wild beasts, and found Zeus, whose voice is borne afar, seated on topmost Gargarus; and about him a fragrant cloud was wreathed. Though the reduplicative-type name Gargaros suggests a 'throat', such as that of a volcano's crater, this range is Karstic limestone. However, near the summits of both Sveti Ilija and Sveti Jure are numerous caves packed with perennial snows, a feature not to be found elsewhere. The reduplicative sense in the name of Gargaros is carried in the name of another Sveti Ilija, 770 mts, some 45 kilometers to the south along the same range, near the entrance to the HELLESPONTOS (Neretva's delta). IDA: Biokovo Range. The name, generally speaking, for all mountains and hills though, specifically, one might think of it as the name for the towering wall-like Biokovo Range which runs parallel with the coast. Thus, it is the name used for the mountains of the distant district of ZELEIA (Jabalnica Gorges) as it is for the hills in the environs of ILIOS (Gabela) near the coast. II; 824: And they that dwelt in Zeleia beneath the nethermost foot of Ida, mean of wealth, that drink the dark water of Aesepus, even the Troes, these again were led by the glorious son of Lycaon, Pandarus... XX; 215: At the first Zeus, the cloud-gatherer, begat Dardanus, and he founded Dardania, for not yet was sacred Ilios builded in the plain to be a city of mortal men, but they still dwelt upon the slopes of many-funtained Ida. XII; 17: ...then verily did Poseidon and Apollo take counsel to sweep away the wall, [of the Achaeans] bringing against it the might of all the rivers that flow forth from the mountains of Ida to the sea... KALLIKOLONE: [Kapela/Gabela?] Drijeva/Gabela (Stari Grad) The name for the southeastern promontory of Ilios (Gabela). NERITON: Peljesac peninsula. II; 631: And Odysseus led the great-souled Cephallenians that held Ithaca and Neritum, covered with waving forests, and that dwelt in Crocyleia and rugged Aegilips; and them that held Zacynthus, and that dwelt about Samos and held the mainland and dwelt on the shores over against the isles. The long and narrow Peljesacs peninsula, almost an island, though not quite, for it is connected to the mainland by a narrow neck of land some 500 mts. wide— -Od: ix; 19: "But I [Odysseus] dwell in clear-seen Ithaca, wherein is a mountain, Neriton, covered with waving forests, conspicuous from afar; and round it lie many isles hard by one another, Dulichium, and Same [Samos], and wooded Zacynthos." xiii; 349: "This [says Athene to Odysseus], thou must know, is the vaulted cave in which thou wast wont to offer to the nymphs many hecatombs that bring fulfilment; and yonder is Mount Neriton, clothed with its forests." PERGAMOS: [Kapela > Gabela?], Drijeva/Gabela. The collective name for the adjacent hills of Avala and Djerzeles behind ILIOS (Gabela). SAMOS (mountain): Sveti Ilija (Peljesac), also Monte Vipera, 961 mts. The highest prominence along the length of Neriton (Peljesac), situated towards the western end. II; 631: And Odysseus led the great-souled Cephallenians that held Ithaca and Neritum, covered with waving forests, and that dwelt in Crocyleia and rugged Aegilips; and them that held Zacynthus, and that dwelt about Samos and held the mainland and dwelt on the shores over against the isles. XIII; 17: Forthwith then he [Poseidon] went down from the rugged mount, [Samos wooded Thrace-like] striding forth with swift footsteps... Thrice he strode in his course, and with the fourth stride he reached his goal, even Aegae, where was his famous palace builded in the depths of the mere, golden and gleaming, imperishable for ever. XXIV; 77: So spake he , [Zeus] and storm-footed Iris hasted to bear his message, and midway between Samos and rugged Imbros she lept into the dark sea, and the waters sounded loud above her. Down sped she to the depths like a plummet of lead, the which, set upon the horn of an ox of the field, goeth down bearing death to the ravenous fishes. XXIV; 751: "For of other sons of mine [Hecabe's] whomsoever he took would swift-footed Achilles sell beyond the unresting sea, unto Samos and Imbros and Lemnos, shrouded in smoke..." Samos was not only an obvious geographical reference point from which the authors of the Iliad and Odyssey constructed a local geographical system (not unlike that of a central post-office from which street numbers and zones are reckoned), it was also, literally, the seat of Orpheus who was often depicted sitting on a rock (as on the cover of this book). The spiritual importance of this site—having uncanny parallels with Mount Sinai—was paramount in the development and preservation of Trojan thinking and behaviour. Of the many transcendental Trojan achievements in the arts and sciences, it is perhaps the Iliad and the Odyssey which are supreme, and which, rightly, deserve to be regarded as originally inspired by the very Orpheus himself. THROSMOS: the high ground of the Neretva's delta-valley. X; 159: "Awake [says Nestor], son of Tydeus, why slumberest thou the whole night through in sleep? Knowest thou not that the Trojans on Throsmos in the plain are camped hard by the ships, and but scant space still holdeth them off?" XX; 1: So by the beaked ships around thee, O son of Peleus, insatiate of fight, the Achaeans arrayed them for battle; and likewise the Trojans over against them on Throsmos in the plain. Though the flat expanses of high ground contained within the Neretva's delta-valley can hardly be thought of as a 'mountain', they are nevertheless higher than the marshy level of the environs, and thus, topographically, a height. famed for his bow, that thou wilt sacrifice a glorious hecatomb of firstling lambs, when thou shalt come to thy home, the sacred heights of Zeleia.” The name of this sub-district, as Zaleia, would render a Greek understanding as a ‘(place of) very great plunders’, thus suggesting that a tariff or some other duty was summarily exacted by Troes, suitably ensconced in the many crags and ravines of these gorges, on all traffic passing through here to and from the coast and the interior. -the bow of Pandarus... ibex, recalls the Delmatae of this region, whose name means sheep.. -Pandarus breaks the peace (i.e, represents the internal disention which favoured conflict against Troy) from which the inferrence that he will have bee sympathetic to Odysseus of the many wiles who gave Neriton(peljesac)s to Danaan forces -an echo of the forgoeng is read in the Hittite document The Crimes of Mudawattas, who allied the Dalawa (*Dala-matai > Delmatae) along with the Hinduwa (Dindaroi?) in favour of man of Ahaia and against Hittite interests (i.e., alliance with Ttroy). DISTRICTS ASKANIA (district): the southern seaboard of Troy; the extension of this district, it could be said, was from the western tip of NERITON (Peljesac Peninsula), to the south, perhaps as far as Boka Kotorska. II; 862: And Phorcys and godlike Ascanius led the Phrygians from afar, from Ascania, and were eager to fight in the press of battle. The name appears to be derived from an Illyrian root ask-, apparently meaning ‘seed’, ‘semen’, and by extension, ‘testicles’, which seems in keeping with the general phallic associations that might be given the Trojan seaboard. From the meaning of this name would be understood an intrinsic sense of fertility and progeny in the name of Ascanius, son of Aeneas, as the seed from which, in later times, Roman patricians could claim a Trojan pedigree. DARDANIA (district): the inland country without any definite borders, but may be understood in a more literal sense as the country contained within the Skamandros' (Neretva's) delta-valley. XX; 215: At the first Zeus, the cloud-gatherer, begat Dardanus, and he founded Dardania, for not yet was sacred Ilios builded in the plain to be a city of mortal men.. HYPOPLAKIA (district): Jezero Kuti; a subdivision of the district of DARDANIA (Neretva delta-valley). VI; 395: ..Andromache, daughter of great-hearted Etion, Etion that dwelt beneath wooded Placus, in Thebe Hypoplakia, and was lord over Cilician men; for it was his daughter that bronze-harnessed Hector had to wife. The sense of the above lines is quite muddled, perhaps on account of an utter misunderstanding of the name Hypoplakia, 'Under Plakos', for it is in fact a compound-type word emphasizing a topographical feature, derived from the Illyrian roots sipo- connoting a very wet and marshy condition, + plak- dennoting 'cake' (and by extension a flattened islet), indeed an apt name for this marshy district. PHRYGIA (district): the northern seaboard of Troy; Phrygia extended, it could be said, from the western tip of Neriton (Peljesac), to the north, as far as the Sangarius (Krka). III; 184: Ere now have I [Priam] journeyed to the land of Phrygia... and there I saw in multitudes the Phrygian warriors... that were then encamped along the banks of Sangarius. For I, too, being their ally, was numbered among them on the day when the Amazones came, the peers of men. XXIV; 543: "And of thee, old sire, we hear that of old thou wast blest; how of all that toward the sea Lesbos, the seat of Macar, encloseth, and Phrygia in the upland, and the boundless Hellespont, over all these folk, men say, thou, old sire, wast preeminent by reason of thy wealth and thy sons." THYMBRA (district): Bacinsko Jezero. A subdivision of the district of Dardania (Neretva’s delta-valley). The name means ‘(place of) cisterns’, an allusion to the cistern-like indentations in the mountainside holding brackish and fresh water pools. The district was occupied by the Danaan Camp, a fact not altogether unknown to Odysseus who received the following babbling reply from his terrified captive— X; 430: Then made answer to him Dolon, son of Eumedes: "...Towards the sea lie the Carians and the Paionians, with curved bows, and the Leleges and the Caucones, and the goodly Pelasgoi. And towards Thymbre fell the lot of the Lycians and lordly Mysians, and the Phrygians that fight from chariots and the Maionians, lord of chariots. ...here apart be the Thracians, newcomers, the outermost of all..." Thymbre might be thought of as the topographical counterpart to Hypoplakia (Neretva delta's left bank). TROIA (TROY), 1 (the country): Troy, the ‘country’, had no definitive borders,...SANGARIOD, KARDAMYLE, ZELEIA though one could say it extended as far as the Krka river in the north, Boka Kotorska in the south, and perhaps as far inland as Sarajevo in the northeast. >geographical structure: >foreigners and autochthonous tribes Troy, as a cultural entity, was the product of both geographical accident and ethnic movements from the Balkan hinterlands and the world abroad into this area. A BRIEF HISTORY OF TROY History of Troy divided into three periods according to the discrete degree of historicity I. EARLY PERIOD: > early tribes (echo in Pygmies and Cranes... Perhaps also in post Homeric Batrachomyomachia >origins of name Troy was named, so later Greek lore says, after Tros, one of the builders of Ilios (Gabela), but if so, this should then make the name 'Trosia', or because the land was 'cut' into 'three' principal districts of Phrygia (the northern seaboard), Askania (the southern seaboard), and Dardania (the hinterland). II. MIDDLE PERIOD: >allies abroad >influence in Tyrhenian > its imprialism abroad, hence: I; 152: "I [Achilles] came not hither to fight by reason of the spearmen of Troy, seeing they are no whit at fault toward me. Never harried they in any wise my kine or my horses, nor ever in deep-soiled Phthia, nurse of men, did they lay waste the grain, for full many things lie between us—shadowy mountains and sounding sea. But thee, thou shameless one, did we follow hither, that thou mightest be glad, seeking to win recompense for Menelaus and for thee, thou dog-face, at the hands of the Trojans." III. LATE PERIOD: Troy did not, apparently, enter into a gradual process of political or economic decline. Rather, it plunged suddenly into oblivion. Troy, at its zenith near 1250 BC., was a mighty empire among other empires: Akhaiis (an Iberian folk?), established along Italy's western and southern coasts; Mykenai, in the southern Balkans; Crete, midway between the Aegean and Mediterranean seas, Hattussas, in north central Anatolia; and Egypt. But Troy was eventually humbled and brought to its knees, not only on the account of Helen, whom Paris took to Ilios (Gabela)1, but also because, one must think, the Trojan Alliance abroad represented something hateful to other neighbouring communities. Archaeological evidence of the Bronze Age in the West Balkan (Adriatic) Coast suggests that Troy developed more-or-less without great cultural changes through the Early and Middle periods, though the Late period (also thought of as a 'Transmission Phase' from Bronze into the Iron Age) shows marked changes in the cultural continuity between the 12th and 10th centuries B.C., which square with a would-be Trojan War and the settlement of a new way of life, which one might think of as the ethnogenesis of a new Illyrian Order. >Hattussas <spl> >Akhaian expansionism -Argo -Trojan War >Illyrian hegemony THE TROY LEGEND Troy was never-to-be again, though the pride of ancestry and glory of accomplishments was carried abroad: Trojans who migrated into the souther Balkans (Hellas) finished plunging the already decadent Mycenaean societies into abysmal poverty. These were known as Dorians (or Dorani), a name, it seems, associated with the Illyrian tribe of Daorisii. It would not be until about the 8th century B.C., when Hellas began to acquire a cultural identity of its own, that the first maritime contacts between Hellenes and Illyrians were made on the once Trojan islands of the Adriatic Archipelago. >Rome >England >France Displaced Trojans migrated over the face of Europe. Legend has it that the Franks were so called from a certain King Francio, of Trojan stock, who settled on the banks of the Rhine where a duplicate Troy was founded but never completed. And, a certain Brutus, grand-son of Aeneas, is claimed to this day to have been the first British king, and founder of New Troy, now called London2. 1. An overlooked fact about Paris' rape of Helen being the cause of the Trojan War—which the Greek historian Herodotus thought was not truly sufficient cause for mounting a war—is that, Pelasgians, ancestors of the Trojans, founded Argos (Caieta, now Gaeta, in the Lazio) which was subsequently overrun by Achaians, and Helen was an Argive, and hence, of Trojan loyalty. So, it could be put, was not in fact Menelaus, her 'legitimate' husband, the raper? 2. Western-styled classicism makes these Troy-based European folk-legends the product of a centuries-later Roman literary tradition, which, it would seem, utterly disregards the transmission of Troy folk-tales directly from their source. The implication is that the Roman Troy-tradition—from which patricians could claim a Trojan pedigree—is not to be thought of as the direct line of transmission, but, rather, a variation, or an off-shoot, of emminently cthonic Troy-legends ultimately derived from the seed of Assaracus, the only son of Tros who did not emigrate from Troy. ZELEIA [ZALEIA ?] (district); Jablanica Gorges: a distant hinterland subdivision of the district of DARDANIA (Neretva delta-valley)— II; 824: And they that dwelt in Zeleia beneath the nethermost foot of Ida, men of wealth, that drink the dark water of Aesepus, even the Troes, these again were led by the glorious son of Lycaon, Pandarus... IV; 100: “Nay, [says Athene] come, shoot thine arrow [Pandarus] at glorious Menelaus, and vow to Apollo, the wolf-born god, famed for his bow, that thou wilt sacrifice a glorious hecatomb of firstling lambs, when thou shalt come to thy home, the sacred heights of Zeleia.” The name of this sub-district, as Zaleia, would render a Greek understanding as a ‘(place of) very great plunders’, thus suggesting that a tariff or some other duty was summarily exacted by Troes, suitably ensconced in the many crags and ravines of these gorges, on all traffic passing through here to and from the coast and the interior. -the bow of Pandarus... ibex, recalls the Delmatae of this region, whose name means sheep.. -Pandarus breaks the peace (i.e, represents the internal disention which favoured conflict against Troy) from which the inferrence that he will have bee sympathetic to Odysseus of the many wiles who gave Neriton(peljesac)s to Danaan forces -an echo of the forgoeng is read in the Hittite document The Crimes of Mudawattas, who allied the Dalawa (*Dala-matai > Delmatae) along with the Hinduwa (Dindaroi?) in favour of man of Ahaia and against Hittite interests (i.e., alliance with Troy). PEOPLES TROES PHRYGES LESBIDES SINTIES SMINTHIES DARDANIOI AMAZONES KIKONES LELEGES PYGMAIOI ARI(E)MOI KADMEIOI KEPHALLENES KILIKES AMAZONES: ancestors of the Illyrian Liburni A people who occupied the banks of the SANGARIOS (Krka) in the northern border of Troy: III; 184: Ere now have I [Priam] journeyed to the land of Phrygia... and there I saw in multitudes the Phrygian warriors... that were then encamped along the banks of Sangarius. For I, too, being their ally, was numbered among them on the day when the Amazones came, the peers of men. VI; 186: "Next fought he [Bellerophon] with the glorious Solymoi... and thirdly he slew the Amazones, women* the peers of men.'' Hector's mother, Hecabe, was an Amazon, perhaps taken captive during Priam's foray in these regions (to subdue them?). Later Greek tradition says the Amazones came into the Trojan War some time after the death of Hector, and that Achilles, oddly, fell in love with Penthesilea, their leader. Their name was said to mean 'breastless' because this tribe of man-like women amputated a breast to facilitate the use of the bow and arrow. That they were breastless may, perhaps, be tinted with a shade of truth, reflecting a local ritual of men passing for women, or, even of practising total emasculation for the purpose of purification. In even later times, the Illyrian Liburni claimed descent from the Amazones. *An interpolation, surely to account for the Greek understanding of their name. ARIMOI: the Illyrian Manoi (?) A people of the marshy HELLESPONTOS (Neretva Delta), an area later occupied by the Illyrian Manoi. Aldus Manutius...fisher? Arimoi net-folk or armi-oi..manatee...porpoise hunters? II, 783: ...and the earth groaned beneath them, [the Danaans] as beneath Zeus that hurleth the thunderbolt in his wrath, when he scourgeth the land about Typhoeus in the country of the Arimoi, where men say is the couch of Typhoeus. That Typhoeos, who was said to be a monster with the face of a human and the body of a snake, had his couch below the summit of GARGAROS (Sveti Ilija (Biokovo) 770mts.), and whose equivalent was Enkeladus and likewise also said to have his lair under the volcano Aetna, connects these two monsters with volcanic activity, from which it is not difficult to imagine they represented the plumes of ash and gas of a violent eruption. Though no volcanic activity has ever existed in the Balkans (albeit disastrous earthquakes have been a common occurence since time immemorial), it may be inferred that the Arimoi should be reckoned, by an association with volcanic activity, as members of some special guild of smiths (perhaps to be archaeologically represented by the early Iron Age). Furthermore, Typhoeus, in whose name is the word foetus, might be thought of as representing a new-born babe still attached to the umbilical cord, from which one might likewise infer that the Arimoi ought also be thought of as dwarfs, or as an unusually small folk. From this may be understood that the lame Hephaestus—the tutelary god of smiths—was expelled from Olympus, as if aborted like a seven-month premature infant, forever after represented as the tiny constellation of the Pleiades, the hepta-aistos, 'seven banished-ones', which, if one looks carefully, appears to stand on one leg alone. DARDANIOI: Occupants of the interior hinterlands. One of the two main branches into which the Troes were divided (the other being the Phryges). They may be thought of as a folk occupying the interior hinterlands: II; 819: Of the Dardanians again the valiant son of Anchises was captain, even Aeneas, whom fair Aphrodite conceived to Anchises amid the spurs of Ida... VII; 414: Now they were sitting in assembly, Trojans and Dardanians alike, all gathered in one body waiting until Idaeus should come; and he came and stood in their midst and declared his message. The Dardanioi will have been so called after Dardanus, from whom was descended the line of Trojan kings down to Priam, and thus distinguished from the Phryges of the coastal districts who might, perhaps, on account of their maritime exposure, be thought of as descended from any number of undistinguished sources. KADMEIOI: A people descended from Kadmos and exclusive inhabitants of Thebe (Klek), a city (or fortification?) which he is said to have founded: IV; 376, et pas.: "Once verily [says Agamemnon] he came to Mycenae, not as an enemy, but as a guest, in company with godlike Polyneices, to gather a host; for in that day they were waging a war against the sacred walls of Thebe, and earnestly did they make prayer that glorious allies be granted them... So when they had departed and were got forth upon their way, and had come to Asopos with deep reeds, that coucheth in grass, there did the Achaeans send forth Tydeus on an embassage. And he went his way, and found the many sons of Cadmus feasting in the house of mighty Eteocles. Then, for all he was a stranger, the horseman Tydeus feared not, all alone though he was amid the many Cadmeians, but challenged them all to feats of strength, and in every one vanquished he them full easily... But the Cadmeians, goaders of horses, waxed wroth, and as he journeyed back, brought and set a strong ambush... But Tydeus even upon these let loose a shameful fate, and slew them all..." ..."Son of Atreus, utter not lies , when thou knowest how to speak truly. We declare ourselves to be better men by far than our fathers: we took the seat of Thebe of the seven gates, when we twain had gathered a lesser host against a stronger wall, putting our trust in the portents of the gods and in the aid of Zeus; whereas they perished through their own blind folly..." X; 285: "Follow now with me [Diomedes] even as thou didst follow with my father, goodly Tydeus, into Thebes, what time he went forth as a messenger of the Achaeans. Them he left by the Asopus, the brazen-coated Achaeans, and he bare a gentle word thither to the Cadmeians." The Kadmeioi, together with the Leleges, a folk descended from a certain Lelex, might, perhaps, be thought of as of foreign non-Dardanian stock, for neither Kadmos nor Lelex figure in the royal genealogy of King Priam. KEPHALLENES: the Illyrian Plerai II; 631: And Odysseus led the great-souled Cephallenians that held Ithaca and Neritum, covered with waving forests, and that dwelt in Crocyleia and rugged Aegilips; and them that held Zacynthus, and that dwelt about Samos and held the mainland and dwelt on the shores over against the isles. A people occupying the long and narrow Neriton (Peljesac) peninsula. Their name means 'headlanders', an obvious reference to the peninsula they occupied. In later times they were known as Plerai, a name which means 'ribbers', again an obvious reference to the peninsula they occupied. KIKONES: A Trojan tribe from the general area of Enope (Stobrec). Their name means 'stork', though perhaps originally in Illyrian, 'pelican', in keeping with the shiny and silvery sense of Enope, like that of a fish. II; 846: And Euphemus was captain of the Ciconian spearmen, the son of Ceas' son Troezenus, nurtured of Zeus. XX; 326: Over many ranks of warriors and many of chariots sprang Aeneas, soaring from the hand of the god, and came to the uttermost verge of the furious battle, where the Caucones [Cicones] were arraying them for the fight. In the Odyssey, the Kikones are the first people whom Odysseus visits, and from whom he obtains some sort of brevage inducing him to hallucinations and disorderly conduct. quotes The Greek understanding of the name Kikones as that of a stork-totem folk, yet the Illyrian understanding, ought, rightly, perhaps, be that of sipo-ones, a watery-sort of folk with whom Hyllas (whence ullao, wailing) will have had some connection. --the salt marshes of Salona ---the sinking of Trogir? not likely ...tragos, tragedy, some sort of spelt KILIKES: VI; 395: ...Andromache, daughter of great-hearted Etion, Etion that dwelt beneath wooded Placus, in Thebe under Placus1, and was lord over the men of Cilicia; for it was his daughter that bronze-harnessed Hector had to wife. VI; 414: "My father [Andromache's] verily goodly Achilles slew, for utterly laid he waste the well-peopled city of the Cilicians, even Thebe of lofty gates2. He slew Etion, yet he despoiled him not... but he burnt him in his armour, richly dight, and heaped over him a barrow; and all about were elm-trees planted by nymphs of the mountain... And my mother, that was queen beneath wooded Placus, her brought he hither with the rest of the spoil, but thereafter set her free, when he had taken ransom past counting; and in her father's halls Artemis the archer slew her." A tribe of Phryges which occupied Askania (the southern seaboard of Troy) as far as Kardamyle (Cavtat), and which is not to be confused with the tribe of Kadmeioi (inhabitants of Thebe, Klek), the descendants of Kadmos. The meaning of their name is obscure, for it is that of an emminently sea-faring folk which appears to be derived from the Illyrian root kilj- 'an ass', whence Greek kllos (but impossible Kllx, hence Klix), perhaps from their fame of transporting goods into the interior on donkeys and mules. 1. 'Thebe under Placus', that is, Thebe Hypoplakia, ought be regarded as a spurious, an editorial emmendation designed to distinguish the Trojan Thebes (Klek), the one beside Hypoplakia (Neretva delta's left bank), from the later Thebes in Attica, for the sense of Achilles raiding Thebes runs counter to the very notion of a Greek nation rising in arms against Troy. 2. The sense of this statement is that Achilles utterly laid waste the length of Askania (the southern seaboard of Troy), from Kardamyle (Cavtat) to Thebe (Klek) LELEGES: A folk of the northern seaboard, from PEDASOS (Oneum/Almissa, Omis) to LYRNESSOS (Ploce/Kardeljevo). XX; 89: "Not now for the first time shall I [Aeneas] stand forth against swift-footed Achilles; nay, once ere now he drave me with his spear from Ida, when he had come forth against our kine, and laid Lyrnessos waste and Pedasos withal; howbeit Zeus saved me, who roused my strength and made swift my knees. Else had I been slain beneath the hands of Achilles and of Athene, who ever went before him... and bade him slay Leleges and Trojans with spear of bronze." XXI; 86: "—Altes that is lord over the war-loving Leleges, holding steep Pedasos on the Satnioeis." The Leleges were perhaps a branch of the Lelexoi, a folk descended from a certainLelex who occupied the Sorrento Peninsula on the western coast of Italy, opposite the Phlegyes across the Bay of Naples. The name of Lelex—as well as that of the Leleges—breaks down as leg leg-, a reduplicative emphasizing 'talk' or 'talkative' and of the same type as Do(n)don-a and Gargar-os, and hence associated with the summits of IDA (Biokovo Range), + -es, plural ending. On a cue with the name of the Laistrygones (a not-so-fictitious folk of the SATNIOEIS/ Titius(?), Cetina delta), who's name means 'ant hill folk', and perhaps nothing more than an alias of the Leleges, whose territory they occupied, this reduplicative will have a definite connection with 'ant'-totem associations.Cicada... LESBIDES: inhabitants of the isle of Lesbos (Brac). IX; 128: "And I [Agamemnon] will give [to Achilles] seven women skilled in goodly handiwork, women of Lesbos, whom on the day when himself took well-built Lesbos I chose me from out the spoil, and that in beauty surpass all women folk." Of these folk it may be said they were of a generally pious nature (for there is no true evidence of their fabled misconduct). PHRYGES: Occupants of the coastal districts and islands II, 862: And Phorcys and godlike Ascanius led the Phrygians from afar, from Ascania, and were eager to fight in the press of battle. III; 184: Ere now have I [Priam] journeyed to the land of Phrygia... and there I saw in multitudes the Phrygian warriors... that were then encamped along the banks of Sangarius. For I, too, being their ally, was numbered among them on the day when the Amazones came, the peers of men. One of the two main branches into which the Troes (Trojans) were divided. The branch of the Phryges was subdivided into nine tribes, thus— ISLANDS SEABOARD AMAZONES KIKONES LELEGES LESBIDES SINTIES SMINTHIES KADMEIOI KEPHALLENES KILIKES This diversity of the Phryges (as distinguished from Dardanioi, the other branch of the Trojans, land-lubbers settled in the interior hinterlands), reflects the sea-faring character of these people, originally come from other lands and settled on Troy's coasts at different periods. PYGMAIOI: III; 1: Now when they were marshalled, the several companies with theircaptains, the Trojans came on with clamour and with a cry like birds, even as the clamour of cranes ariseth before the face of heaven, when they flee from wintry storms and measureles rain, and with clamour fly toward the streams of Ocean, bearing slaughter and death to Pigmy men, and in the early dawn they offer evil battle. But the Achaeans came on in silence, breathing fury... An early—perhaps non-Pelasgian—autochthonous tribe of the Hellespontos (Neretva's delta), already legendary in Trojan times. The lower Neretva delta-valley is the habitat for over three hundred species of birds, Hutovo Blato being a sanctuary for many varieties of water-fowl. The town of Capljina, just north of where the Trebizat enters the Neretva, means 'crane'. One may reasonable assume then, that the cranes 'bearing slaughter and death to Pigmy men' are the totem of some very early pre-Trojan tribe occupying the upper marshy areas of the Neretva, and that the Pigmaioi were likewise an early folk, perhaps a short—or even midget—people who occupied the Neretva's delta, and who, in the course of time, eventually became known as the ARIMOI (Illyrian Manoi?), a folk associated with Typhoeus and Hephaistos. SINTIES: Inhabitants of the isle of Lemnos (Vis) I; 590: "Yea, on a time ere this... he [Zeus] caught me [Hephaestus] by the foot and hurled me from the heavenly threshold; the whole day long was I borne headlong, and at set of sun I fell in Lemnos, and but little life was in me. There did the Sintian folk make haste to tend me for my fall." The Sinties, a sinister folk, by all counts (though they showed kindness to Hephaistos, the god of smiths), might be thought of as a clan of merchants—perhaps of diverse ethnic origins?—who, because of the advantageous situation of their island, caught sea-traffic and did brisk trade with much-sought-after copper goods from Arisbe (classical Arretium, now Arezzo) in central Italy, as well as iron wares from Troy itself. Slaves and wines were bought and resold by these people, often restocking Agamemnon's camp when supplies ran low. SMINTHIES: Inhabitants of ZAKYNTHOS (Mljet) I; 37: ''Hear me, [Chryses] thou of the silver bow, who dost stand over Chryse and holly Cilla, and dost rule mightily over Tenedos, thou Sminthian..." Of these folk it may be said they were—like the LESBIDES (inhabitants of Lesbos, Brac) in the north—of a generally pious nature. It has for long been though that sminthos is an ancient word meaning 'mouse'. The guess is close enough, for it most likely means 'mongoose', a fast darting weasel-like animal, the natural predator of snakes and reptiles, common only to the island of ZAKYNTHOS (Mljet) (whence its name, 'very dog-like). It is obvious that Sminthian Apollo did not rule too much over TENEDOS (Korcula), for had he done so, Philoctetes, surely, would not have been bitten on the foot by a poisonous snake. It is obvious, also, that the Sminthies, by holding the mongoose in the regard as they did, differed from the common Trojan ethos of venerating the snake as a symbol of Life. TROES: Trojans. The collective name of several tribes organized under a common ethos or cultural identity. The TROES or Trojans were divided in two main phyla, these being the sea-faring PHRYGES (occupantas of the coastal districts and islands), and the land-bound DARDANIOI (occupants of the interior hinterlands)— II; 816, et pas.: The Trojans were led by great Hector of the flashing helm, the son of Priam, and with him were marshalled the greatest host by far and goodliest, raging with the spear. Of the Dardanians, again the valiant son of Anchises was captain, even Aeneas, whom fair Aphrodite conceived to Anchises amid the spurs of Ida... And they that dwelt in Zeleia beneath the nethermost foot of Ida, men of wealth, that drink the dark water of Aesepus, even the Troes, these gain were led by the glorious son of Lycaon, Pandarus... And Phorcys and godlike Ascanius led the Phrygians from afar, from Askania, and were eager to fight in the press of battle. ORIGIN OF THE TROJANS The TROES were so called, evidently, after the name of their eponymous ancestor, Tros: The names of Skamandros and Kadmos (and of many others external to the canon of the Iliad and Odyssey) figure prominently in the early history of Troy. However, only through the genealogy of the royal house of Priam may one detect a notion about the chronology and transmission of tenets, which, in the course of time, became consolidated under a common Trojan ethos or cultural identity— XX; 215: At the first Zeus, the cloud-gatherer, begat Dardanus, and he founded Dardania, for not yet was sacred Ilios builded in the plain to be a city of mortal men, but they still dwelt upon the slopes of many-funtained Ida. And Dardanus in turn begat a son, king Erichthonius, who became richest of mortal men. Three thousand steeds had he that pastured in the marsh-land... And Erichthonius begat Tros to be king among the Trojans, and from Tros again three peerless sons were born, Ilus, and Assaracus, and godlike Ganymedes that was born the fairest of mortal men... And Ilus again begat a son, peerless Laomedon, and Laomedon begat Tithonus and Priam and Clytius, and Hicetaon, scion of Ares....CONTINUE QUOTE What may be adduced from this genealogy, as literary ethnological theory goes, is that the consolidation of Troy, which is to say a 'federation' of Trojans, was an integration of a wide diversity of ethnic groups from everywhere, and, consequently, of character traits. The process began, it could be said, with the Early Bronze Age—developing throughout several comings and goings in and out of Troy— and culminating, near 1250 B.C., in the Early Iron Age— DARDANUS: Arrived in Troy—possibly from Gortyn (later called Rome), though commonly thought to have come from Cortona in Central Italy—and founded the district of Dardania. He established religious rites (in later times erroneously thought to be the so-called Samothracian Mysteries). His name perhaps means 'dart man'. ERICHTHONIUS: Established the Temple of Athene on KALLIKOLONE (Gabela, Stari Grad) after which he emigrated and founded Athens (which later became Taras/Tarentum), taking with him horse-lore which became popular throughout all Apulia. His name, which means 'wool of the earth' was likely inspired by the hairy tarantula. TROS: Arrived in Troy from Athens (Taras/Tarentum), where he was born. He founded the city of Ilios which he called after the name of his son, Ilos. ILOS: He named the land Troia after the name of his father Tros, because it was 'divided' into 'three' districts, and set up on Ilios (Gabela) the image of Athene which had fallen from heaven (the fabled palladium which, after the Trojan War, was taken to Rome). He emigrated, leading a Pelasgian colony to Italy's Tyrhennian coast, where they settled in the fertile valley of Larisa (the classical Liris, today Garigliano) and founded Pelasgian Argos on the coast (classical Caieta, today Gaeta). His name means 'mud man' or, by extension, 'wasp man', because wasps build their sarcophagus-like dwellings out of ilo-, 'mud'. LAOMEDON: Arrived in Troy from Italy's Tyrhennian coast, where he was born. He brought with him elements of Sardianian nuraghic culture, as might have been the walls of Ilios (Gabela, Stari Grad) and as, most certainly, the walls of Troia [Taroia] (Daorson) suggest. The ethnic complexity of this genealogy may be further appreciated in the identification—again, as purely literary ethnological theory goes—of Iapetos, father of Dardanos, with the Biblical Japheth— Genesis, 10: 2 The sons of Japheth; Gomer, and Magog, and Madai, and Javan and Tubal, and Meshech, and Tiras. 3 And the sons of Gomer; Ashkenaz, and Riphath, and Togarmah. 4 And the sons of Javan; Elishah and Tarshish, Kittim, and Dodanim. THE ILLYRIAN ETHNOGENESIS It was from these comings and goings into and out of Troy that, over an extended period of time—perhaps some three or four centuries—at the time of the Trojan War (near 1200 B.C.), several tribes formed a closely-knit federation under the name of Troes (or Trojans)— ISLANDS SEABOARD INTERIOR AMAZONES KIKONES LELEGES LESBIDES SINTIES ARIMOI/ PYGMAOI SMINTHIES KADMEIOI KEPHALLENES KILIKES The Iliad's authorship, it seems, was fully aware of the need of connecting those tribes which had been known as Trojans with tribes, which, after the Trojan War, would henceforward be known as Illyrians, and appears to have made a special proviso for such a connection. Of all the Phrygian tribes, it is only in the names of the Leleges and Kadmeioi where an idea of a 'fostered progeny' might be detected. In the name of the Leleges, is the eponymous ancestry of a certain Lelex from the Tyrhennian coast, and in the name of the Kadmeioi is the eponymous ancestry of Kadmos from the Adriatic's headwaters. So it is that, in the wake of the Trojan War, the House of Pelops, under Agamemnon, finally took the islands of the Adriatic Archipelago which became known as the 'Peloponessos' (a name not until much later transferred to—or taken by—Hellas), and those formerly called Trojans became Illyrians, who, in later times, were historically documented as follows— The Illyrians, properly said, retained an ethnic identity until the Coming of the Slavs in the 6th and 7th centuries AD. after which, it would be fair to assume, intermarriage eventually produced those whom, today, call themselves Southern Slavs: Yugoslavians. (Albeit the entire population of Gabela claims—and rightly so— direct ancestry from king Priam himself!). TOWNS THE THREE CITIES OF TROY (TROIA) ILIOS: [Kapela/Gabela?] Drijeva/Gabela Ilios is the only polis, 'city', in the entire Iliad that was given a set of props to describe its various places (which invites speculation that the site, presumably already in ruins by the time the Iliad was strung together, inspired sufficient awe as to be regarded as an important monument of the not-too-distant pas)t. And, it is obvious, the Iliad's authorship knew the site well, indeed, intimately—which should forever dispel the popular notion of 'Homer's' blindness-—and that, in fact, it carefully tailored the descriptions of these props to suit its odd phallus-like morphology. So it is that, while the site of Ilios is to be determined by its geographical situation relative to the locations of rivers and mountains and so on, the study of its shape and of its several places is a topographical problem concerning the relationship of these relative to each other. ILIOS THEN AND GABELA TODAY Since the course of the Neretva is one of the major routes between the coast and the hinterland, the importance of Gabela's unique strategic location underscores the reason for its existence throughout all phases of its history, from remotest antiquity to relatively recent times. It was a site conveniently situated on an outcropping in the plain, affording the safety of its elevation, and naturally defended by the surrounding marshes, as well as being as apt a place as any to stop and tax traffic going up or coming down the river's highway (no doubt accounting, in a measure, for King Priam's fabled wealth). Today Gabela is on the 'wrong' side of the river, so to speak, for traffic to and from the coast and the interior is along the road skirting the Neretva's left bank. And, there is little reason to cross over, other than to visit and chat about the Iliad and the Odyssey with any of the some 3000 descendants of King Priam who now live there, or, simply, with a silent perusal of the site, pay a fitting homage to the follies and toils of men from which, eventually, emerged our Western Civilization. THE FOUNDATION OF ILIOS The Iliad's account about the foundation of Ilios appears to reflect the arrival of the Bronze Age through various ethnic migrations into and out of this area and the world abroad— XX; 215: At the first Zeus, the cloud-gatherer, begat Dardanus, and he founded Dardania, for not yet was sacred Ilios builded in the plain to be a city of mortal men, but they still dwelt upon the slopes of many-funtained Ida. And Dardanus in turn begat a son, king Erichthonius, who became richest of mortal men. Three thousand steeds had he that pastured in the marsh-land... And Erichthonius begat Tros to be king among the Trojans, and from Tros again three peerless sons were born, Ilus, and Assaracus, and godlike Ganymedes that was born the fairest of mortal men... And Ilus again begat a son, peerless Laomedon, and Laomedon begat Tithonus and Priam and Clytius, and Hicetaon, scion of Ares. Later stories, based on the above genealogy, give many additional details of other personages involved in the foundation of Ilios, sometimes at variance with each other, but, in the main, represent Tros as the founder of Troy and Ilos as the founder of Ilios. However, none explains how there came to be a Troia, the country, and a Troia, the city, as well as an Ilios. But on a cue with with Genesis IV 17, where Cain founded a city and 'he named the city after the name of his son Enoch', one may adduce that Tros was the eponymous ancestor of the Troes, the collective name of several independent tribes federated in a commonwealth, after whom Troia, the name of a country, was so called. Also, one may adduce that Tros founded Ilios and called his son Ilos after the name of the city, and that Ilos founded Troia, a city, which he called after the name of his father Tros. THE ETYMOLOGY OF ILIOS Though the Illyrian roots ili- and ilj- (> Gk. ill-) are phonetically similar, they have dissimilar connotations: the one, that of 'mud', the other, that of 'serpent'. In the name of Ilos is an association with 'mud', as conferred by the name of the Ileian Plain (Hutovo Blato) which is indeed muddy, and in the very Serbian ilo, meaning 'mud'. By extension, Ilos may well have been a totemic 'wasp-man' who built mud-brick habitations not unlike the wasp builds mud nests, and Ilios an important agglomeration of mud huts or even of palacial dwellings. But in the name of Illyrus, son of Kadmos, the eponymous ancestor of the Illyrians, is an association of a magical snake which is said to have transferred its powers by winding itself around him. This story perhaps reflects the entwined mating of snakes—and thus the name of Illyrus may well mean 'serpent'—for, indeed, in Greek illo is 'to roll', 'twist', 'wind', and illos 'a rope, band' (from threads twisted around). Thus a common denominator, or link, between the roots ili- and ilj- may be found in the easy Freudian association of 'mud' as the semen-stuff of life, and 'serpent' as the life-giving phallus. THE PHALLIC SHAPE OF ILIOS The hillock of Ilios—a natural geological caprice—was shaped, if you wish, like a trinacria, a three-legged, sun-faced device (a rebus for the sun's three major positions on the meridian throughout the year: low in the sky in winter, high in summer, and midway between in spring and autumn). But more than a trinacria, one can hardly miss its obvious phallic shape, which is the key for understanding the names and the ritual functions of its three principal parts. It should be clearly understood that the Iliad's authorship, which went to special efforts to tailor Troy's geography with seventy-two geonyms—thus showing this geography had a special, even mystical, literary value—also capitalized on the fact that Ilios was shaped like a phallus, and consciously imbued it—as a holy place that it was—with spiritual values and tenets symbolizing the generative powers of nature, far removed from what might otherwise seem subconscious or excessive penis-preoccupations, or simple prurient sexuality. It should be noted that such a phallic image and association of ideas was not exclusive to the shape of Ilios, for it also extended to the general topography of mountains which were regarded as a length tipped with some outstanding prominence, from which one may adduce—among the many things to ponder about the Iliad—that such an insignificant detail as, say, the birthplace of Aeneas, someplace amid the slopes of Ida, was likely some precinct homologous with the glans penis. THE THREE PRINCIPAL PARTS OF ILIOS Ilios est omnis diviso in partes tres. 1. PERGAMOS: The collective name for the western hill of Avala (so called from the Arabic havalah, 'hill') and the adjacent northern hill of Djerzeles (so called from the name of a local folk-hero). A classification of the instances in which the name of Pergamos is mentioned in the text of the Iliad reveals there were two distinct sections: The two hills of Pergamos are homologous with the testicles, and from this may be understood its meaning in Greek as 'scrotum'—for sufficient information is wanting to remit an etymology directly to the Illyrian—derived from pera, 'a leathern pouch', 'wallet', and gemos, 'a load' (and by extension, 'to be full of'). Pergamos had an easy, natural, association of ideas with the sense of 'progeny', thus of 'the future', as may be adduced from the idea of 'forecasting' predictable astronomical phenomena at the Palace of Priam, and the 'foretelling' by Helen of the likewise predictable actions and fates of the Trojan War participants in the Rooms of Alexander. Thus the Iliad, in a sense, is also about its very own composition, for which reason its human actors, like automatons, obey willy-nilly to the forces of celestial divinities (hence man, to find the happiness of a state of Grace, must develop a particular and suitable harmony between Will and Fate). 2. [SKAIA]: The name of the southeastern spur, along which the town of Gabela proper is today situated, though nowhere mentioned in the text of the Iliad, it may be inferred from the name of the Scaian Gates at the bottom of the spur (hence so written in square brackets to denote an editorial comment). It is homologous with the shaft of the penis, and the name appears to be derived from the Illyrian root sca- (for the conventional Greek meaning 'left'--of what?--makes no sense) connoting 'unwanted', 'undesirable', and perhaps denoting 'expunge', 'expurgate', 'extirpate', associated with the 'circumcision' of the prepuce with which the Scaian Gates are homologous, as preserved in the Serbian skidati, 'to take off', 'peel off', 'to rip out (a page from a book)', 'denude'. Such an etymology could account for Priam and Hecabe's THALAMOS TREASURE CHAMBER (see below) 'cut' or 'excavated' under [SKAIA], somewhere in the vicinity of the SKAIAN GATES. 3. KALLIKOLONE: The tip of the southeastern spur, at the distal end of 'the topmost citadel' of PERGAMOS (Avala and Djerzeles), today the site of a Turkish fortress in ruins called Stari Grad ('Old City'): XX; 51: And over against her [Athene] shouted Ares, dread as a dark whirlwind, calling with shrill tones to the Trojans from the topmost citadel, and now again as he sped by the shore of Simos over Callicolone. The hill of Kallikolone is homologous with the glans, and together with [SKAIA] and Pergamos, completes the unmistakable phallic shape of Ilios. The name, in Illyrian, a compound-type word to accentuate its topography, means 'callus-hill' (that is, 'rough-hill like a callus'), though in Greek departs far from the original sense, and may be rendered as 'Beauty Hill' (still an apt name, perhaps, for those who might be inclined to think so). Upon a time Kallikolone was enclosed by the famous WALLS OF ILIOS, which are not to be confused with those of the city Troia (Troy). They were erected under the aegis of King Laomedon to house within them the the sacred TEMPLE OF ATHENE (founded earlier by King Erichthonius, who later founded Athens). The associations this goddess had with all wet or humid places, such as springs, wells, swamps, and the like, strongly suggests her precinct will have been a cistern—or sacred well—and that it will have had an intimate (literary?) association with whatever was produced on Pergamos. THE SITES ON ILIOS The prize of the Trojan War was Ilios, and not so, as one might think, the city of Troy which might be thought of as the seat of the country's civil administration. Though the site was well protected by natural defenses, it was not beyond the taking by a concerted military effort, thus the story of a long siege rings as though the Trojan War was a holy war, and that the taking of Ilios obeyed to some ritual, such that the destruction of its precincts will have been on the order of their desecration by unholy acts. Little now remains of Ilios as described in the Iliad, for in the course of some three thousand years and more since the Trojan War, the site has seen continuous occupation. Consequently, only inferences may be drawn from the descriptions about this or that place, until that time when archaeological investigation may yield specific information. 1. THE PALACE OF PRIAM (ALSO, SANCTUARY OF APOLLO): On the summit of Avala (the western spur) is the almost intact oval platform of a megalithic observatory. Its major axis is aligned due east, and in the center is the small chapel of Sveti Stephan. A short distance behind the chapel are the remains of a rectangular construction of a much later date —most likely a look-out post—and, up until some decades ago, were twelve Bogomil stecci—large limestone blocks, almost always hewn into the shape of a house—surrounding the chapel. These have since been removed, and contemporary graves now surround the platform. Here was the site of the Palace of Priam, also called the Sanctuary of Apollo— V; 446: Aeneas then did Apollo set apart from the throng in sacred Pergamos where was his temple builded. There Leto and the archer Artemis healed him in the great sanctuary, and glorified him... VI; 242: ...was now come to the beauteous palace of Priam, adorned with polished sun halls and in it were fifty chambers of polished stone, built each hard by the other; therein the sons of Priam were wont to sleep beside their wedded wives; and for his daughters over against them on the opposite side within the court were twelve roofed chambers of polished stone, built each hard by the other; therein slept Priam's sons-in-law beside their chaste wives... The 'twelve roofed chambers of polished stone' is an obvious reference to the twelve zodiacal constellations representing a 'house' along the ecliptic. 2. THE PROTHYRON AND ECHOING PORTICO: The landing at the intersection of Avala (the western spur) and Djerzeles (the northern spur), where a short lane and a long trail leading up from Priam's Stables converge, opening the way to the Palace of Priam, the Rooms of Alexander, and to the City and Central Avenue along the length of [Skaia] (the southeastern spur). The site, which might be said to be the axis on which the trinacria shape of Ilios spins, was like a vestibule— XXIV; 322: Then the old man made haste and stepped upon his car, and drave forth from the gateway and the echoing portico... But when they had gone down from the city and were come to the plain, back then to Ilios turned his sons and daughters' husbands... The 'echoing portico' is a reference to the convex, amphitheatre-like intersecting of the spurs, which form a kind of 'hall' or 'portico', and so captured all sounds from Priam's Stables below, perhaps even magnifying them. 3. PRIAM'S STABLES: The plain between the adjacent western and northern spurs of Pergamos is a natural V-shaped pen naturally suited for containing animals, from which there leads up a lane along either side of the slopes: XXIV; 263: "Will ye not make me ready a waggon, and that with speed, and lay all these things therein, that we may get forward on our way?" So spake he, and they, seized with fear... brought forth the light-running waggon drawn of mules... And for Priam they led beneath the yoke horses that the old king kept for his own and reared at the polished stall. 4: ROOMS OF ALEXANDER: On the summit of Djerzeles (the northern spur) are to be found the ruins of a Turkish building laid out at right angles, like a letter L, with a round tower at the corner. The site (but not so the ruins) answers to the Rooms of Alexander: VI; 313: ...but Hector went his way to the rooms of Alexander; the fair ones that himself had builded with men that were in that day the best builders in deep-soiled Troy; these had made him a chamber and a room and court hard by Priam and Hector in the city height. VI; 503: Nor did Paris tarry long in his lofty house, but did on his glorious armour, dight with bronze, and hastened through the city... even so, Paris, son of Priam, strode down from high Pergamos... It was in these rooms where the first draft of the Iliad was set up (ostensibly from information about future events collected at the Palace of Priam) and so, in a way, one may think of the Iliad—among the many other things that one may think about it—as a hymn to its own composition: III; 125: She found Helen in the hall where she was weaving a great purple web of double fold, and thereon was broidering many battles of the horse-taming Trojans and brazen-coated Achaeans... 5. HOUSES OF HECTOR AND ANDROMACHE: A set of royal dwellings, situated on the border of [Skaia] with Pergamos, which may be thought of as symbolic of other similar but less important dwellings scattered along the length of [SKAIA]: VI; 369: ...Hector of the flashing helm departed [from the Rooms of Alexander] and came speedily to his well-built house. But he found not white-armed Andromache in his halls... So Hector, when he found not his peerless wife within, went and stood upon the threshold, and spake amid the serving women... 6. THE 'CITY' AND CENTRAL AVENUE: Dwellings on [Skaia] will have been of an undetermined number—though an agglomeration large enough to be thought of as a 'city'—and of an unspecified sort—though perhaps of mud-bricks—which most likely were alloted to the priestly elite of King Priam's family: VI; 390: ...and Hector hastened from the house back onto the same way along the well-built streets. When now he was come to the gates, as he passed through the great city, the Scaian, whereby he was minded to go forth to the plain... Common folk will have been relegated to live elsewhere, anywhere, but Ilios. The enormous number of Trojans seeking refuge from the Danaans' onslaught may well have been temporarily accommodated within the Walls of Ilios—though uncomfortably so—but certainly not in the 'city' dwellings on a permanent basis. 7. THE THALAMOS TREASURE CHAMBER: One must imagine the former existence of an underground labyrinthine sort of passage located below Pergamos, in the vicinity of the Skaian Gates, which may be inferred from the following instances: VI; 288: But the queen herself went down [from her hall and the city] to the vaulted treasure-chamber wherein were her robes, richly broidered... Of these Hecabe took one... Then she went her way. XXIV; 191: And himself he went down [from the Palace of Priam] to the vaulted treasure-chamber, fragrant of cedar wood and high of roof that held jewels many... No such chamber or labyrinthine passage is now known to exist under the town of Gabela, though it is a fact that 'proteus fish', blind salamanders living in underground recesses and common to the Yugoslavian Adriatic coast, have occasionally been brought up by those townspeople drilling wells. The Thalamos Treasure Chamber seems to have been fitted with a pair of swinging doors, perhaps hinged at a slant such that they might swing, yet never remain open, adduced from the following allusion: XXIV; 315: Forthwith he [Zeus] sent an eagle, surest of omen among winged birds, the dusky eagle, even the hunter, that men call also the black eagle. Wide as is the door of some rich man's high-roofed treasure-chamber, a door well fitted with bolts, even so wide spread his wings to this side and to that; and he appeared to them on the right, darting across the city. And at sight of him they waxed glad, and the hearts in the breasts of all were cheered. The eagle is surely the constellation Aquila, whose wing-tip stars Alshain and Tarazed flank Altair, as would two hypothetical swinging doors situated on either side of the Central Avenue. 8. THE SKAIAN GATES: The formal accesses to and from the plains, at the bottom of [Skaia] (whence they are so called): VI; 237: But when Hector was come to the Scaian gates and the oak tree, round about him came running the wives and daughters of the Trojans... VI; 392: ...now he was come to the gates, as he passed through the great city, the Scaian, whereby he was minded to go forth to the plain... The Skaian Gates might be thought of as a complex of three pairs, thus: 9. THE SANIDES GATE: The walls overlooking the Skaian Gates were broken at the middle, opposite the Central Avenue, by an entrance to the enclosure within (not to be confused with Theano's Gate, below): XVIII; 274: "...the city [height] shall be guarded by the walls and the high gates and the plank-doors [sanides, whence the name for this gate] fastened together, large, well-smoothed, fixed-fast, bolted shut." 10. THE WALLS OF ILIOS: Walls of the Turkish fort of Stari Grad now run along the perimeter of Gabela's southeastern promontory. It was within this massive and ample fort that the walls which Laomedon built also traced a circuit along the perimeter of Kallicolone. The story of their construction is a puzzle: XXI; 442: ...what time we came at the bidding of Zeus and served the Lordly Laomedon for a year's space at a fixed wage, and he was our taskmaster and laid on us his commands. I verily built for the Trojans round about their city a wall, wide and exceedingly fair, that the city might never be broken; and there, Phoebus, didst herd the sleek kine of shambling gait amid the spurs of Ida, the many ridged. To think of Poseidon and Apollo as two personages, noted for whatever building skills may have distinguished them, and who acquired a divine stature at some time between Laomedon's reign and the Trojan War, does not ring true. And, to suspect that they may represent a coral-like stone quarried on the island of Lesbos (Brac), which is soft when cut into blocks and hardens when left to dry in the sun, may only be confirmed by archaeological investigation. But perhaps the best explanation is that Poseidon and Apollo—on a cue with their deeds in later days—represent alluvial silt brought up from the plain to fill in and level off the enclosure: XII; 24: ...of all these [tributaries of the Scamander] did Phoebus Apollo turn the mouths together... And the Shaker of Earth... was himself the leader and made all smooth along the Hellespont, and again covered the great beach with sand... Thus were Apollo and Poseidon to do in the aftertime... One enters the enclosure within the walls through the Sanides Gate. At the western corner of the walls, overlooking the Skaian Gates, is a belvedere which offers an unrestricted view of the Troic and Ileian Plains in the distance. It was to this place of watch, in earlier days, at the onset of the Trojan War that: III; 149: ...they that were about Priam... sat as elders of the people over the Scaian Gates... like unto cicalas that in a forest sit upon a tree and pour forth their lily-like voices, even in such wise sat the leaders of the Trojans upon the wall. Later, it was to this place that Helen was was called forth and asked to sit with King Priam and the Elders and identify the host assembling on the nether side of the Troic Plain (Glibusa Marshes), towards the Hellespontos (Neretva's delta): III; 162: "...sit before me [Priam], that thou mayest see thy former lord and thy kinsfolk and thy people..." It was also from here, that, still later, during the anxieties of mid-crisis, King Priam and others watched, aghast and horrified, the chase that Achilles gave after Hector: XXII; 131, et pas.: So he [Hector] pondered as he abode, and night to him came Achilles... But trembling gat hold of Hector when he was aware of him, neither dared he any more abide where he was, but left the gates behind him, and fled in fear; and the son of Peleus rushed after him... Past the place of watch, and the wind-waved wild fig-tree they sped, ever away from under the wall along the waggon track... But hard upon Hector pressed swift Achilles in ceaseless pursuit... Oft as he strove to rush straight for the Dardanian gates to gain the shelter of the well-built walls, if so be his fellows from above might succor him with missiles, so oft would Achilles be beforehand with him and turn him back toward the plain, but himself sped on by the city's walls. 11. THE TEMPLE OF ATHENE: Nothing now remains of the precinct within the Walls of Ilios, excepting strong reminiscences by way of association of ideas: VI; 297: Now when they were come to the enclosure of Athene on the city height, the doors were opened for them by fair-cheeked Theano... for her had the Trojans made priestess of Athene... Then with sacred cries they all lifted up their hands to Athene; and fair- cheeked Theano took the robe and laid it upon the knees of fair-haired Athene... Given the generally watery connections of Athene with places such as springs, wells, sources of rivers, marshes, and the like, and the homology of Kallicolone with the glans, and of her precinct with the urinary meatus, one might easily adduce that her temple may have been a sacred well, or reservoir of some sort, or, on a cue with Hecabe's propitiatory offering of her finest robes, perhaps even a tannery. These robes—of an indeed very special sort—were likely designed and produced at Pergamos (Avala and Djerzeles), and, they likely were broidered with information about the future—hence Hecabe, in offering them, wished to learn about the fate of Ilios from the image of Athene. Could the image—which moved, for it answered negatively—have been a tortoise, whose aegis or shell was symbolic of literature? 12. THEANO'S GATE: The watery associations of Athene's temple seem strengthened even further in the suggestion that a cloacal drain serviced a reservoir, necessarily fitted with a sluice-gate, opened after Hecabe and her retinue came within the walls, suggesting that only by draining a reservoir will Hecabe have had access to the image of Athene. THE POST-TROJAN HISTORY OF GABELA The major event which brought the Trojan War to a close was that of the well-known incident of the Trojan Horse (now in the province of legend, and for which there is no positive proof other than reasonable conjecture). After this, Ilios was never to be again. From this time up to the present, it could be said, the region has undergone the following major changes in social and political structures— THE ILLYRIANS: The Danaan conquest of Troy caused the political collapse of the seaboard, but, it seems, left the Balkan interior, which had never really belonged to the Trojan federation, relatively untouched. In due course, the ethnic identities of diverse Illyrians tribes emerged as a highly segmented culture. And, it was in this context that the Iliad and the Odyssey came about as full-fledged epic narratives, a fact which points towards Ithaka, where these works are likely to have been composed, having acquired a superlative political and economic stature. THE ROMAN DOMINATION: The Neretva valley fell to Roman domination in 228 B.C. after the defeat of Queen Teuta, who, in her disastrous zeal for conquest abroad, paved the way for Rome to gradually acquire control of all Illyricum, such that, by the 3rd century A. D., when the Roman Empire faced crisis, Illyricum was the bulwark from which it drew support. One may conjecture that it was through the close political association of Rome and Illyricum (in contrast to former Illyrian tribes and Greek colonies scattered here and there) that a tradition about Troy had a stamp of credible historicity otherwise wanting in the general Greek approach to Homeric questions. A would-be 'genealogy' of 'Homer', made in Hadrian's time, distinctly connects the Iliad and Odyssey's authorship with Troy by making 'Homer' a native of ZAKYNTHOS (Melita, Mljet) because of his sweet voice. THE MIDDLE AGES: The ethnic character of Illyricum was drasticly modified by the arrival of the Slavs in the 6th and 7th centuries A.D., such that, by the Middle Ages, the former site of Ilios, which had become Kapela, now went as Drijeva, a name derived from the Serbian drvo meaning 'wood' or 'boat' (cognate with with Greek drys meaning 'oak', not unlike Brigesta, a name derived from that of an oak-like tree from which the brigantine was made). THE DUBROVNIK REPUBLIC: Drijeva was referred to in Latin documents as forum mercator Narenti, 'the market-place of the Neretvans' when it was a mercantile center servicing the coast and hinterland. The name Drijeva was first mentioned in a contract of 1186 between the Serbian Duke Stevan Nemanja and his brothers Stracimira and Miroslav, by which Dubrovnik was given the guarantee of non-taxable commerce. Drijeva's marketplace was spread from today's village of Trsana (across Gabela, on the Neretva's left bank) to the village of Visic. Remains of walls show its precise location at the railroad bridge between Trsana and Visici. Here, there was a seher or 'town', where, according to local legend, 77 locks opened the 77 shops of different commercial activities. The buildings were mainly of wood, and the town was surrounded by a dike to protect it from the river's periodic disastrous floods. In the 1320s Drijeva fell under the rule of Bosnia and became the possession of feudal lords and remained part of this kingdom until the beginning of the 1400s. From 1410 it belonged to Sandalj Hranic Kosaca, and later, to his nephew the hertzog Stjepan Vukcic. Slave trade flourished during the 1300 and 1400s, and Drijeva was the most important slave market of these regions, from where they were sold into larger market places in Apulia, Sicily, Genoa and Venice. But the frequent complaints of Bosnian kings and lords, eventually brought the Great Council of Dubrovnik to issue a decree in 1416 banning all commerce with slaves and of their transportation in Dubrovnik's vessels. Dubrovnik leased the customs-house and salt production from the lords of Drijeva, and exported great quantities of salt from Grus, Sipan and nearby Ston through the Neretva all the way to Kosovo, deep in the hinterland where cattle breeders required it. The market place Drijeva, on the left bank, and the town Kapela, on the right, show that Venice reconstructed the place after 1452, although Hungarians, after the death of the hertzog Stjepan in 1466, took over some cities (Pocitelj) on the lower Neretva, while the remaining Herzegovinan lands were still held by Stjepan's son Vlatko, who was in constant clashes with his cousin Vlatkovic. On the 10th of October of 1492, Dubrovnik's Council of Appeasement issued an edict that all subjects who lived on Kapela's colony of Osobljani ('personality') or Oslobjani ('freeman'), which had an autonomous government and court of law, had to move to Ston. THE TURKISH DOMINATION: >material on Avala dated to 1400's...(where is report?) After the death of Matija Korvin in 1490, the Turks took Drijeva and its environs in 1493. From this period is the following in the putopis 'travelogue' of Evlija Celebija: THE CITY OF GABELA: Beside the River Neretva there is a strong rectangular city. In these provinces it has no equal, although it is small. It has a disdar ('commander') and kadija ('judge'). He lives in the town of Gabela, because that is where the main ferry and the Sunday fair is. But on the side where the city is, there is where the overlord is, and the janicari ('regular army') commander, the notary, and the customs officials. A bit further from the river, on the wide and sandy plain in an inaccessible green field, is the building of Sultan Fatih. The marshes cannot harm it and also excavation is impossible because wherever one digs water wells up. On the four angles it has four towers, each a castle. Towards the lake there is an iron gate, and in the interior there are about 20 houses all roofed with slate, a small mosque of Sultan Fatih (Fatih the Conqueror), a wheat silo and a munitions tower. Since this area was small, it was necessary to widen it because of the rebelious population and Venetian attacks. The Sultan Ibrahim gave it to Gengis Pasha who rebuilt the Fatih tower. The towers in the four corners are stronger than the old castle. It has 23 small, big, and other canons. To the west there is a big town called Citluk. The perimeter of the fort is 550 paces. Its inhabitants go armed and, according to needs, they serve [in the army] as far as Sicily, and rob. They speak Bosnian. At the south of Gabela's town there is a small field. It is not cultivated, but before it was used for cultivating rice. Close to the Neretva there are three different strong buildings roofed with shingle and with fortified windows. By the command of the Sultan Suleiman small ships are always nearby. The town has three mihrab Muslim shrines, one tekia, two hann inns, about 30 stores and 150 houses roofed with slate. Citluk is out of the city to the west, close to the river on a fertile green plain, and has up to 300 houses, all covered with slate, firmly built, and some houses have towers. It has three mahala quarters, three shrines, and one mosque. Its environs are stony, its people fiery and strong, of sound body, good-looking and good oarsmen. People drink goat's milk. Here we mounted our horses and crossed the river between the stones and came to the tower on Kor [probably the Krupa tower]. This tower was built by Fatih's commander, Kodje Mustapasha, and the village of Citluk is his legacy. The tower is in a narrow canyon, and has five storeys with big canons turned towards the river, it is very solid and the doors are to the north. It has a commander with a troop of 80 men. We showed the orders of our emperor to the overseer of the salt plant and in the seriyatic sidil the following text was written: "According to the Padishak's will no tax shall be taken on Dubrovnik's salt, and regarding the salt it should be dealt with as previously". I said goodbye to these people and went to the city of Pocitelj. THE VENETIANS: According to the Bosnian begler-bey Ibrahim Pasha Memibegovic, in 1624 Gabela had 300 inhabitants. But when the Venecians took it during the Candian wars (1645-69), they found 3000 Turks, 24 big bronze canons, and much food and munitions. All efforts of the Turkish court to reconquer Gabela were unsuccessful. Afraid that the town might again fall under Turkish control, the Venetians destroyed it in 1715. It was never rebuilt, although the territory fell under Turkish rule again in 1718, and Gabela became part of Turkey with the peace of Pozarevac of 1718. Until 1778, it was an important frontier-site between Herzegovina and Dalmatia, though the role of Gabela as a fortification was taken by Pocitelj, a few kilometers up-stream the Neretva. THE NAMES OF DRIJEVA AND GABELA Ilios, under the Illyrians, having lost its former religious magic in favour of 'pragmatic' mundane affairs, became Kapela, meaning both 'chapel' and 'head' (as a 'capital' or seat of authority) on a cue with the former Temple of Athene, and on Kallikolone's phallic homology with the glans (cf. Italian capezzolo, 'nipple', 'teat'). Eventually, Kapela became, by popular usage, Gabela, a patently Illyrian word, for it is on record that it was the name given to a section of Risan, in Boka Kotorska, from where the Illyrian Queen Teuta reigned—that is, from the then 'capital' of the Illyrian queendom. A millenium-and-a-half later, the port facilities at Gabela became known as Drijeva, after the name of a small cargo vessel much used in this area, derived from drvo, 'oak', (cf. brigesta, 'a hard wood' whence 'brigantine'). Then, under the Turks, the name of Gabela became closely associated with the Arabic kabalah, a term for the rationalization of diverse taxes and duties which at that time levied on salt and slaves traded there, from where is derived the current Italian word gabella, a 'tax' or 'duty'. ITHAKA: Donja Vrucica Little, archaeologically, is still known about Ithaka, situated at the end of a narrow fertile valley towards the western end of NERITON (Peljesac), below the summit of SAMOS (Sveti Ilija 961 mts.): II; 631: And Odysseus led the great-souled Cephallenians that held Ithaca and Neritum, covered with waving forests, and that dwelt in Crocyleia and rugged Aegilips; and them that held Zacynthus, and that dwelt about Samos and held the mainland and dwelt on the shores over against the isles. III; 200: "This again is Lartes' son, Odysseus of many wiles, that was reared in The land of Ithaca, rugged though it be, and he knoweth all manner of craft and cunning devices." A BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF ITHAKA The site of Ithaka is currently recognized simply as that of a vinograd, the name for small terraced vinyards on the slopes of barren hillsides (which, oddly, are to be found only along the Adriatic seaboard corresponding with what was once Troy). But several tell-tale details scattered here and there throughout the site, such as drain cannals, paved roads, massive walls and doorways, betray a distinct habitational rather than agricultural origin. On a meditated view of the site, the would-be vinograd plotsevade their function because of their restricted areas, and, furthermore, on a statistical basis, the man-hours of labour represented fall well in excess of the man-hour labour parameters of other vinograds. A paved road, from the fields of Donja Vrucica, becomes forked and trisects the site: to the left is the way down to a ravine, and to the right, likewise to the same ravine, enfolding, as it were, an elevation overlooking the ravine, on which is a grid of narrow alleys and some 20 rooms or so. The road to the left passes, on the left side, another grid of rooms, and, on the right side, a lesser side-street running parallel with a massive, fortress-like wall, broken approximately in the middle with a conical doorway. The road to the right passes, on the left side, what appears to be the inside of a fortress, and, on the right side, still other grids of alleys and rooms, some large enough to be thought of as small plots of land. DESCRIPTIONS OF ITHAKA FROM THE ODYSSEY: > QUOTES THAT DESCRIBE BUILDINGS, ETC... >ANALYSIS OF ALL QUOTES THE ORIGINS OF ITHAKA ODYSSEUS AND THE DANAOI THE NEW ILLYRIAN ORDER THE PRE-EMINENCE OF ITHAKA Ithaka, it could be said, is that it was a literary centre, of exceptional distinction, for it underscores in a subtle way the entire literary contents and historical background of both the Iliad and the Odyssey, as follows: The phallic shape of ILIOS (Gabela) parallels the Trojan coast, such that the length of [SKAIA] (the town of Gabela proper) is analogous with the length of NERITON (Peljesac), and the Thalamos Treasure Chamber at the Skaian Gates (where Hecabe kept her precious robes), corresponds neatly with the site of Ithaca represented by the remains of a vast and complex town-like vinograd, or terraced 'vinyard'. This analogy allows one to infer that Helen's broidering with scenes of the Trojan War, which, if you wish, Hecabe might have put away with her other precious robes at the Thalamos Treasure Chamber, has a distinct parallel with Penelope's own weavings during Odysseus' absence. Furthermore, 'weaving' or 'stitching' is associated with literary endeavours, as might be said in 'the thread of a story', suggesting that it was in Ithaka where the Iliad and the Odyssey, once their formats had been established, were set to verse and polished into formal epic units. Still another inference may be made about Ithaka as a literary centre, and that is, that, in terms of a general chronological order, the bulk of myths of the Heroic Age which come suddenly to an end with the Trojan War, what survived to become an indelible rebus of world-history in the various constellations and their respective stories. THE COMPOSITIONS OF THE ILIAD AND ODYSSEY >letters not foreign to trojans: hittites and writing >kadmos Samothes, samothea -geography -history... a> trojan recollection b, foreign preserved.. astronomy... a>instances in Iliad and Odyssey b> constellations.. chess... b> places where written a> differences between them -------- Ithaka was a literary center, or a college,if you wish, of intense intellectual endeavours. The concept of writing was not, most certainly, foreign to Trojans. Internal evidence of this is in Belleropho's tablets (xxx 000), and external, the fact that Hittites had correspondence with Trojans... musings about Kadmos (at this point without the benefits of some methodological scheme for adequate inquiry...The stories about Kadmos and his would-be introduction of the invention of writing to the Greek language There is an insinuation in the Iliad—a tenuous one, perhaps—about the circumstances of its composition (which one could construe as a celebration to its own glory) in ... Helen is shut up in the ROOMS OF ALEXANDER on Djerzelez, where she broiders future events about the Trojan War. Her source of information about what these events will be is obtained from the megalithic observatory at the PALACE OF PRIAM on Aval. Thus, the two hills of PERGAMOS are homologous with the testicles, and hence with progeny, are associated with prediction of future events. These assembled sets of facts will have been stored in the THALAMOS TREASURE CHAMBER, along with other valuable broiderings, and offered, under special circumstances, to Athene. (Sybeline oracles) The Odyssey , it seems, also is composed under more-or-less similar circumstances, *Among other inventions, the game of chess is said to have been invented by a certain Palamedes, companion of Odysseus, as a distraction from the long hours of boredom during the Trojan War. TROIA (TROY), 2 (the city): Daorson Troy, the 'city',1 as distinguished from various other ISLAND PORTS or MAINLAND PORTS by virtue of its unique situation, might be thought of as a 'capital' or seat of civil administration (as opposed to ILIOS (Drijeva/Gabela) which was a religious center, and ITHAKA (Donja Vrucica) which was a literary center). However, archaeological investigations to date have brought to light the former use of this site as a necropolis LOCATION The archaeological remains of Troia are located at the hill-top site of Daorson, in the vicinity of Osanici, a village about 3 kms. northwest of Stolac. The site is approached from the base of the hill along a well-trod path, about 1 km. or so, past a few farm houses, and here and there among the stone walls of animal pens, are the remains of ancient masonry against the hillside. At the top, towards the bottom of a flat, earthy field, may be seen the monumental limestone walls of Troy, behind which was the city. Troy was strategically but precariously perched in several levels—perhaps some 25 to 50 mts.—on a cliff-side affording it natural protection, one side overlooking the Radimlja, a tributary of the RHESOS (Bregava), and the other the open valley of Stolac. >age of the ruins 3-archaeologically ancient, suggests a picture of locals in hinterlands with some benefits from the sea THE RUINS OF TROIA [TAROIA] 1. CITY WAL: Of cyclopaean masonry (so called because only the Cyclopes could have lifted such enormous stones), they are made of huge, squared, mortar-bound limestone blocks, some 3 mts. long. It runs for 63 mts., about 2.50 mts. wide, and in places is more than 4 mts. high. 2. TOWERS: Two square towers were positioned at the ends of the wall. One, immediately overlooking the CITY GATE, the other, distant, lying in rubble, was perhaps? an addition of a much later date (3rd to 1st century BC). 3. CITY GATE: About 2 mts. wide, it pierces the wall beside one of the towers. The masonry is so grooved and notched as to betray the use of a door. 4. ACROPOLIS: Inside the wall was an agora (marketplace), also streets and public and residential buildings in several layered levels, downwards from the CITY GATE. 5. CISTERN: One of the imperatives for the safety of the site will have been an adequate (if not ample) water supply. A cistern, holding some 216 mts.3, serviced by stairs running to the valley below, recalls and gives meaning to Hectors words about Andromache's certain fate: VI; 456: "Then haply in Argos shalt thou ply the loom at another's bidding, or bear water from Messes or Hypereia, sorely against thy will..." ? 6. OUTLYING WALLS: Of lesser size—but still of Cyclopaean masonry—vestiges of outer walls incorporated into the cliff-side among boulders, suggest a continuation of the CITY WALL. 7. STAIRS: A long, narrow, and winding set of steps hugging the cliff-side lead from the CISTERN to the base of the mountain. Their onlyfunction seems to have been that of servicing the CISTERN, for the main access to the site from the plain below (wide enough to accommodate a horse-drawn vehicle, if you wish, and at an easier slant) was the usual way up to the site. ECHOES OF TROIA THE 'CITY' IN THE ILIAD Hitherto, it has been difficult to distinguish the names of Troia and Ilios from each other as those of entirely separate entities, such that it is a forgone conclusion that Troia was the name of the country as well as of a city also called Ilios (Ilion being a variation). Such ambiguity is natural, for the Iliad—supreme authority on all Trojan matters—has never seemed altogether clear on this point, and, it was not until 1985 that, in the archaeological context of a Troy = Yugoslavia equation, it became apparent that Troia was both the name of a country and a place (Ilios being the name of still another place), of which Daorson is a distinct echo— Remarkably little topographical information on Troy, but then again, one must bear in mind, that, according to the Iliad, it was Ilios which was the site of siege, and not Troy. I; 129: "...we Achaeans [Achilles, addressing Agamemnon] will recompense thee threefold and fourfold, if ever Zeus grant us to sack the well-walled city of Troy." VII; 71: "...either ye take well-walled Troy or yourselves be vanquished beside your sea-faring ships [says Hector to the Achaeans]." VIII; 241: "...upon all [altars of Zeus] I [Agamemnon] burned the fat and the thighs of bulls, in my eagerness to lay waste well-walled Troy." II; 140: "...let us flee with our ships [says Agamemnon] to our dear native land; for no more is there hope that we shall take broad-wayed Troy." XXIV; 774: "...for no longer have I [Helen] anyone beside in broad Troy that is gentle to me or kind; but all men shudder at me." XVI; 698: Then would the sons of the Achaeans have taken high-gated Troy by the hands of Patroclus, for around and before him he raged with his spear, has nor Phoebus Apollo taken his stand upon the well-builded wall thinking thoughts of bane for him... Thrice did Patroclus set foot upon a corner of the high wall, and thrice did Apollo fling him back... XXI; 544: Then would the sons of the Achaeans have taken high-gated Troy, had not Phoebus Apollo aroused goodly Agenor... LINGUISTIC EQUATION: [TAROIA] = TARUISA Hittite clay documents of about 1250 B.C.—the only references yet come to light attesting to the historical reality of Troia external and prior to the Iliad—tell of a falling out between Hattussas, and the Assuwa who were in league with the Lukka. These Assuwa were Paeonian colonists from Thessalonika, settled at the mouth of the Axios (the Tiber) on Italy's western coast, who, with the Lykioi (Lucanians) of southern Italy, formed part of the mighty Trojan Alliance abroad. The result was that formerly cordial diplomatic relations between Hattussas and Taruisa—in which context a certain Alaksandus of Wilusija is mentioned—and Ardzawa (the later Illyrian Vardzaei), became strained and came to an end. Soon after, the Hittite Empire collapsed, never to arise again. The reference in these documents to Alaksandus of Wilusija can hardly be missed for that of Alexander of Ilios. And the name of Taroia—later contracted to Troia, whence our modern term Troy—was recorded in Hattian (that is, 'Hittite') as Taruisa: TAROIA TARUISA DAOR(I)S(I)ON TROIA DAORSON TROY Of the Ardzawa, a certain Kupantakal, sounds like Pandarus who hailed from ZELEIA [ZALEIA] (Jablanica gorges), the region up-stream the Neretva held in later times by the Illyrian Vardzaei. 7-survival late into historical times THE FATE OF TROIA Later Greek tradition preserved accounts of the destruction of TROIA (Daorson), which must not be confused with the desecration and looting of ILIOS (Gabela). It would be reasonable to assume that, because of the resolute Danaan intention of utterly annihilating the Trojan nation, the site of Troia, in the wake of its destruction, was abandoned to the desolation of wind and dust, and that, not until a much later time, was the site again occupied by the Illyrian Daorsi (or Daorsioi or Daorizoi), a people who might be thought of as of mixed Danaan and Trojan stock. But there is also reason for suspecting—principally because the Iliad's story of a siege on Ilios seems to insinuate strong religious undertones, such that a suggestion of a gradual 'cultural domination' rather than an outright war—that Troia was not, through Danaan intervention, altogether abandoned, and that whatever population survived into later times, was of mixed Danaan and Trojan stock. However, this hypothesis cannot at this time be developed further without the benefit of a fuller archaeological investigation of Daorson. 8-exploration, but not sufficient. PORT-TOWNS, ON THE ISLANDS AND MAINLAND AIPEIA: Milna The site is to be sought somewhere in the vicinity of Milna, at the western end of LESBOS (Bracõ). It was one of the seven towns offered by Aga-memnon to Achilles (who himself had captured these at the onset of the Trojan War): IX; 149: "And seven well-peopled cities will I [Agamemnon] give him [Achilles], Cardamyle, Enope, and grassy Hire and sacred Phare and Antheia with deep meadows and fair Aepeia and vine-clad Pedasos*. All are nigh to the sea on the nethermost borders of [the] sandy Pylos [i.e., 'bay']. -The name means "grassy...(?) -scene of Odysseus' visit to Kirke -moly *troubled passage, inverted epithets? ANTHEIA [ANTREIA]: Vela Luka An sland port-town situated at the eastern end of Tenedos (Korcõula), it was one of the seven towns offered by Agamemnon to Akhilleus— IX; 149: "And seven well-peopled cities will I [Agamemnon] give him [Achilles], Cardamyle, Enope, and grassy Hire and sacred Phare and Antheia with deep meadows and fair Aepeia and vine-clad Pedasos. All are nigh to the sea on the nethermost borders of [the] sandy Pylos [i.e., 'bay']. The name of Antheia is more than likely a corruption of Antreia, so called from the cavern in the hills behind Vela Luka occupied from earliest times.On the uselessness of this gift to Akhilleus see PEDASOS (Oneum/Almisa, Omisõ), and, as for its cult-ritual function, it appears to have been connected with Hyllas, youthful companion of Herakles, who—it was said in later times—wandered too far from the ship Argo in search of fresh water, and, falling into a well, was never again seen, hence the name of the bay during classical times, the .................. DOULICHION: Brijesta A mainland port-town situated in the environs of Brijesta (if not this town itself) within the cove by the same name which indents the northern shores of NERITON (Peljesac): II; 625: And those from Dulichium and the Echinae, the holy isles, that lie across the sea, over against Elis,* these again had as leader Meges, the peer of Ares, even the son of Phyleus, dear to Zeus, begat—he that of old had gone to dwell in Dulichium in wrath against his father. The Illyrian meaning of the name is probably on the order of 'anchored (at bay)', inspired from the cluster of islets Galicak, Pucenjak, Dubovac, Tajan, and other even smaller rocks enclosed within the cove, and whence in Greek 'slavish' or 'servile' (from being held 'captive'). *This statement is confusing, from which, perhaps, an interpollation may be adduced, its sense being that the isles that lie across the sea, over against Elis are to be thought of as the Adriatic Archipelago across the sea from Elis, the district-type name for the environs at the latitude of Ancona, on the Adriatic's Italian coast. ENOPE: Epetium, Stobrec. The northernmost of the mainland port-towns, located a few kilometers to the east of Split, it was one of the seven useless towns offered to Achilles by Agamamenon, for its great distance from Kardamyle (Cavtat), the southernmost of the mainland port-towns, rendered the gift-package utterly wanting of any strategic importance: IX; 149: "And seven well-peopled cities will I [Agamemnon] give him [Achilles], Cardamyle, Enope, and grassy Hire and sacred Phare and Antheia with deep meadows and fair Aepeia and vine-clad Pedasos. All are nigh to the sea on the nethermost borders of [the] sandy Pylos [i.e., 'bay']. The name, whatever it's elusive meaning, is a metathesis of Epone, with a typically Illyrian place-ending -one. In classical times this place went under the name of Epetium. HIRA: Bogomolj One of the seven towns offered to Achilles by Agamemnon, it is located toward the eastern half of Lekton (Hvar): IX; 149: "And seven well-peopled cities will I [Agamemnon] give him [Achilles], Cardamyle, Enope, and grassy Hire and sacred Phare and Antheia with deep meadows and fair Aepeia and vine-clad Pedasos. All are nigh to the sea on the nethermost borders of [the] sandy Pylos [i.e., 'bay']." XIV; 283: To many-fountained Ida they [Hera and Hypnos] came, the mother of wild creatures, even to Lectum, where first they left the sea; and the twain fared on over the dry land, and the topmost forest quivered beneath their feet. There Hypnos did halt, or ever the eyes of Zeus beheld him, and mounted up on a fir-tree exceeding tall, the highest that then grew in Ida; and it reached up through the mists into heaven. Thereon he perched, thick-hidden by the branches of the fir, in the likeness of a clear-voiced mountain bird, that the gods call Chalcis, and men Cymindis. Hira means 'divine' or 'wonderful' (and by extension 'holy'), a meaning survived in that of Bogomolj, which, for some obscure reason, is to be associated with that of Drvenik on the mainland opposite, in which is the Serbian root drvo, meaning 'wood'. KARDAMYLE: Epidaurum, Cavtat The southernmost of the mainland port-towns, located a few kilometers north of Dubrovnik, within the cove of Zaton. It was one of the seven useless gifts offered to Achilles by Agamamenon, for its great distance from Enope (Stobrec), the northernmost of the mainland port-towns, rendered the gift-package utterly wanting of any strategic importance. The name, meaning 'cardamom mill' (abundant in these hills) is echoed the name of Mlini, meaning 'mill'. KHRYSA: Sobra. Situated in the eastern half of Zakynthos (Mljet), this town is most likely to be identified with the village of Sobra, within a cove by the same name and ideally suited for anchorage, on the island's northern shores. I; 37: "Hear me, [says Chryses] thou of the silver bow, who dost stand over Chryse and holly Cilla, and dost rule mightily over Tenedos, thou Sminthian..." I; 430: ...Odysseus came to Chryse bringing the holy hecatomb. When they were now got within the deep harbour, they furled the sail... and rowed her with oars to the place of anchorage. Then they cast out the mooring-stones and made fast the stern cables, and themselves went forth upon the shore of the sea. Here, presumably, will have been a sanctuary of Sminthian Apollo, who will have held sway—according to Chryses' invocation—from the eastern to the western end of the island, as well as the whole of neighbouring Tenedos (Korcula). Ironically, Odysseus, years later, attempted sailing these very waters, though now reduced to a makeshift raft.............. KILLA: Polace. An island port-town situated at the western end of ZAKYNTHOS (Mljet) within a deep and narrow cove— I; 37: "Hear me, [Chryses] thou of the silver bow, who dost stand over Chryse and holly Cilla, and dost rule mightily over Tenedos, thou Sminthian..." Chryse's invocation of Sminthian Apollo sweeps geographically from the eastern to the western end of Zakynthos, including the whole of neighbouring TENEDOS (Korcula). The Greek understanding of Killa makes the name akin with killos, 'an ass', but neither the language nor the meaning are are adequatley phased with a necessary meaning in Illyrian that might convey some sort of topographical information. That Polace is a port indeed invites a derivation from pyl- > pul-, though pyl-, whence Pyl-os (thus its inhabitants are Pyl-es and not Pyl-i-oi, cf. tro-, Troes), thus Pyli-oi < pylj-/kylj- 'ship-wright' (obviously, at a port facility). Whether pylj- > kilj- might be put to doubt, thus Killa requires a derivation from an independent root Ill. kilj- the notion of 'ship's hull', 'keel' (whence Sp. quilla, cognate with Fr. quai, Eng. key) transcribed Gk. kill-, but > pilj- > polj- whence Sr.-Cr. polje, 'a vale', 'valley'. Polace is likely the place Odysseus delivers Chryseis quote Place where Odysseus builds raft and sails away KROKYLEIA: Corcyra Melaina, Korc¼ula. An island port-town situated at the estern end of TENEDOS (Korc¼ula), it fell to the dominion of Odysseus— II; 631: And Odysseus led the great-souled Cephallenians that held Ithaca and Neritum, covered with waving forests, and that dwelt in Crocyleia and rugged Aegilips; and them that held Zacynthus, and that dwelt about Samos and held the mainland and dwelt on the shores over against the isles. Krokyleia is a metathesis of Korkyleia, whence the classical and modern forms of the name. The root kor- connotes 'spongy', 'corky' in a negative context, or 'hard', 'rocky' in a positive context, and thus the name appears to have been inspired on the 'wandering' Planktai (Planjak, et al.), of which Krokylaia itself was the closest to the island, like bobbing corks in the sea. The name became extensive to the island itself, surely on the oddity of the cork-tree found only on this, of the many isles in the Adriatic Archipelago, or on the importance of the Illyrian settlement of Blato, situated towards the western end, a name likewise denoting 'spongy', 'marshy'. The earliest settlement of Krokyleia—perhaps dating from the middle Bronze Age?— will have been on the off-shore islet where the mediaeval town now stands, a practice also detected in KARDAMYLE (Epidaurum, Cavtat) and Butua (Budva). The most common explanation for such an arrangement is that of safety from marauders, and this may well be so on the mainland where some hostile folk may have wandered aimlessly, but such a situation would seem to have been precluded by the safety afforded by an island. It seems likely, then, on a cue with the name of Butua, that Krokyleia acquired its importance functioning as a pen, not unlike Korax (Stari Grad), situated across the straights, where animals could be shut in and kept from wandering hither and thither. LYRNESSOS: Ploce (now Kardaljevo) II; 688: For he lay in idleness among the ships, the swift-footed, goodly Achilles, in wrath because of the fair-haired girl Brises, whom he had taken out of Lyrnessus after sore toil, when he wasted Lyrnessus and the walls of Thebe, and laid low Mynes and Epistrophus, warriors that raged with the spear... XX; 89: "Not now for the first time shall I [Aeneas] stand forth against swift-footed Achilles; nay, once ere now he drave me with his spear from Ida, when he had come forth against our kine, and laid Lyrnessos waste and Pedasos withal; howbeit Zeus saved me, who roused my strength and made swift my knees. Else had I been slain beneath the hands of Achilles and of Athene, who ever went before him... and bade him slay Leleges and Trojans with spear of bronze." A mainland port-town located in Thymbre (Neretva delta's right bank) below the heights of Gargaros (Sveti Ilija, Biokovo). The meaning of the name may be only partially understood, for the first element of the word lyr- must mean something other than 'lyre', which makes neither geographical nor topographical sense, though the second element, -nessos, 'island', is a clear reference to the several rocky out-croppings in the marshy environs, like islands, or crannogs, used for erecting safe dwellings. MAKAROS: Muccurum, Makarska A mainland port-town situated opposite the eastern tip of Lesbos (Brac), at the norhern end of a bowl-like vale under the high walls of IDA (Biokovo Range). XXIV; 543: And of thee, old sire, we hear that of old thou wast blest; how of all that toward the sea Lesbos, the seat of Macar, encloseth, and Phrygia in the upland, and the boundless Hellespont, over all these folk, men say, thou, old sire, wast preeminent by reason of thy wealth and thy sons. The name, in Illyrian, means 'bowl' (whence Spanish mucura, 'a water jug') which reflects the local topography, though in Greek it means 'happy', or 'blessed', and is said to have been the name of a legendary king of Lesbos whose daughter, Issa, subsequently gave her name to the island of Vis. PEDASOS: Oneum, Omis¼ A mainland port-town situated at the mouth of the SATNIOEIS (Cetina)— VI; 33: ...and the king of men, Agamemnon, slew Elatus that dwelt in steep Pedasos by the banks of fair-flowing Satnioeis. XX; 89: "Not now for the first time shall I [Aeneas] stand forth against swift-footed Achilles; nay, once ere now he drave me with his spear from Ida, when he had come forth against our kine, and laid Lyrnessos waste and Pedasos withal; howbeit Zeus saved me, who roused my strength and made swift my knees. Else had I been slain beneath the hands of Achilles and of Athene, who ever went before him... and bade him slay Leleges and Trojans with spear of bronze." XXI; 86: "—Altes that is lord over the war-loving Leleges, holding steep Pedasos on the Satnioeis." Pedasos, not only 'steep' (so known on account of the deep gorge through which the Satnioeis flows) but also 'vine-clad', was the last of the seven useless towns that tied up the package offered by Agamemnon to Achilles, valued like a 'petard' or a 'farthing', as if with this he emphasized his contempt of Achilles and the insignificance of the offer— IX; 149: "And seven well-peopled cities will I [Agamemnon] give him [Achilles], Cardamyle, Enope, and grassy Hire [read Killa] and sacred Phare and Antheia with deep meadows and fair Aepeia and vine-clad Pedasos. All are nigh to the sea on the nethermost borders of the sandy bay. ISLAND PORTS MAINLAND PORTS 6-AIPEIA 2-ENOPE SKYROS 7-PEDASOS 4-PHARE MAKAROS HIRA LYRNESSOS Neriton (Peljesac) Skamandros (Neretva) 5-ANTHEIA THEBE KROKYLEIA DOULICHION 3-KILLA PLAKOS KHRYSA 1-KARDAMYLE On second thought, the gift-package was not so insignificant, for, had Akhilleus accepted it, he would have gained virtual control of the Trojan coast, and thus the woes and wanderings of Odysseus in these waters might have taken entirely different course when he stopped/visited LAISTRYGONES-LELEGES ARTAKIA-PEDASOS, TELEPYLOS-SATNIOEIS PHARE: Pharos, Hvar Located at the western end of LEKTON (Hvar), it was one of the seven towns within the bay of PHRYGIA (northern seaboard) offered to Achilles by Agamemnon. Phare means 'light house', a name as good as any other for any outward lying point. PLAKOS: Mlini VI; 395: ...Andromache, daughter of great-hearted Etion, Etion that dwelt beneath wooded Placus, in Thebe Hypoplakia, and was lord over Cilician men; for it was his daughter that bronze-harnessed Hector had to wife. VI; 414: "My father verily goodly Achilles slew, for utterly laid he waste the well-peopled city of the Cilicians, even Thebe of lofty gates. He slew Etion, yet he despoiled him not... but he burnt him in his armour, richly dight, and heaped over him a barrow; and all about were elm-trees planted by nymphs of the mountain... And my mother, that was queen beneath wooded Placus, her brought he hither with the rest of the spoil, but thereafter set her free, when he had taken ransom past counting; and in her father's halls Artemis the archer slew her." A mainland port-town intimately associated with THEBE (Klek), may have been any one of several archaeological sites in the hillsides overlooking Neum. Plakos may have been a cemetery, and thus a 'town', even if so of the dead, so to speak, for the name is consistently associated with a lower level, or something below, and perhaps means nothing else than 'barrow', from the cake-like piling of stones in a circle to mark a grave, a usual custom of the Late Bronze and Early Iron Ages. SKYROS: Pucisca IX; 666: And Patroclus laid him down on the opposite side, and by him in like manner lay fair-girdled Iphis, whom goodly Achilles had given him when he took steep Scyros, the city of Enyeus. XIX; 326: "...nay, nor though it were he that in Skyros is reared for me [Achilles], my son well-beloved—if so be godlike Neoptolemus still liveth. For until now the heart in my breast had hope that I alone should perish far from horse-pasturing Argos, here in the land of Troy, but that thou shouldest return to Phthia, that so thou mightest take my child in thy swift, black ship from Skyros, and show him all things—my possessions, my slaves, and my great high-roofed house." Located in the northeastern part of Lesbos (Brac), it was one of the seven towns within the bay of Phrygia (northern seaboard) offered to Achilles by Agamemnon. THEBE: Klek II; 686: For he lay in idleness among the ships, the swift-footed, goodly Achilles, in wrath because of the fair-haired girl Brises, whom he had taken out of Lyrnessos after sore toil, when he wasted Lyrnessos and the walls of Thebe... In sore grief for her lay Achilles idle; but soon was he to rise again. IV; 376, et pas.: "Once verily [says Agamemnon] he came to Mycenae, not as an enemy, but as a guest, in company with godlike Polyneices, to gather a host; for in that day they were waging a war against the sacred walls of Thebe, and earnestly did they make prayer that glorious allies be granted them... So when they had departed and were got forth upon their way, and had come to Asopos with deep reeds, that coucheth in grass, there did the Achaeans send forth Tydeus on an embassage. And he went his way, and found the many sons of Cadmus feasting in the house of mighty Eteocles. Then, for all he was a stranger, the horseman Tydeus feared not, all alone though he was amid the many Cadmeians, but challenged them all to feats of strength, and in every one vanquished he them full easily... But the Cadmeians, goaders of horses, waxed wroth, and as he journeyed back, brought and set a strong ambush... But Tydeus even upon these let loose a shameful fate, and slew them all..." OJO—— ..."Son of Atreus, utter not lies , when thou knowest how to speak truly. We declare ourselves to be better men by far than our fathers: we took the seat of Thebe of the seven gates, when we twain had gathered a lesser host against a stronger wall, putting our trust in the portents of the gods and in the aid of Zeus; whereas they perished through their own blind folly..." VI; 395: ...Andromache, daughter of great-hearted Etion, Etion that dwelt beneath wooded Placus, in Thebe under Placus, and was lord over the men Cilicia; for it was his daughter that bronze-harnessed Hector had to wife. VI; 414: "My father [Andromache's] verily goodly Achilles slew, for utterly laid he waste the well-peopled city of the Cilicians, even Thebe of lofty gates. He slew Etion, yet he despoiled him not... but he burnt him in his armour, richly dight, and heaped over him a barrow; and all about were elm-trees planted by nymphs of the mountain... And my mother, that was queen beneath wooded Placus, her brought he hither with the rest of the spoil, but thereafter set her free, when he had taken ransom past counting; and in her father's halls Artemis the archer slew her." XIV; 113: "Nay, but of goodly father do I [Diomedes] too declare that I am come by lineage, even of Tydeus, whom in Thebe the heaped-up earth covereth." (Damned by Zenodotus and Aristophanes.) A mainland port-town, well ensconced in the natural protection of a cove within the Klek-Neum Bay— The history of Thebe is long, and convoluted: it was founded by the celebrated Kadmos, to whom, among his several inventions, we owe the invention of the alphabet; his progeny, the Kadmeioi (masters of Thebe) will have conducted the town's political policies, while the Kilikes (a Phrygian tribe), of the environs, will have been other, lesser, folk; among its rulers was the famous king Oedipus, and, about a generation or so before the Trojan War, it was attacked and sacked by the Seven Against Thebes under the leadership of Tydeus, father of Diomedes; again attacked and sacked, this time by Achilles, it was here that he established his camp, away from where Agamemnon had his. Thebe, so penned within a cove, had only exposure towards the Klek-Neum Bay. Consequently, the idea of any of the gates of its walls opening towards the mountain behind it should be corrected in favour of seven 'wharves', one next to the other, as lent by the multiple meanings of the word pylos and its topographical applications as 'gate', 'door', 'port', and so on. The etymology of Thebe is complex, for one possibility is that the name may be akin with Hebrew tebitu, 'boat', (Egyptian tebu), simply because the Klek-Neum Bay was ideally suited for building boats. But another, perhaps preferable possibility, is that Thebe uses the Greek theta to represent the 'th' sound of Zebe,* quite likely meaning 'seven', a number often associated with Thebe. *cf. Illyrian Samoz (th) (whence the English giant Samothes) = Greek Samos (s). |
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