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Where is the City of Troy?
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Pergamon matches the description of the Plain of Troy

The Plain of Troy is where the Trojan war occurred in The Iliad, and we are given a much more extensive description of this land compared to the city itself.

Context

In John Crowe's book 'The Troy Deception Vol 1 - Finding the Plain of Troy', he explains that there are more lines in Homer's Iliad that describe the plain of Troy than descriptions of the city itself. He, therefore, believes that it is easier and more reliable to find the plain of Troy, and this will lead us to the true destination of the famous city.

The Argument

In his book, John Crowe provides evidence that the Plain of Troy really did exist, and was not a myth. He argues that the Ancient Greek city of Pergamon must have been the location of the Trojan plain, and therefore the city of Troy could be at Bergama. The author John Lascelles, also wrote a book on the same topic called 'Troy: The World Deceived: Homer's Guide to Pergamum'. For 9 years, the Trojans confined the Greeks to a fortified beachhead on the shore.[1] Homer's description of the Trojan plain where the war took place correlates with Pergamon's location and landscape. It lies to the east of the island of Lesbos, and in between Lesbos and Phrygia, in 'the uplands'. Achilles says to Priam in Book 24, 'We hear that once you were happy; how of all that towards the sea Lesbos, the seat of Macar, encloses, and Phrygia in the upland, and the boundless Hellespont, over all these people, men say, you, old sit, were pre-eminent'. This means the southern tip of Lesbos had a view of the southern boundary of Troy. The island of Lesbos is opposite the modern city of Bergama, where Pergamon is situated, so this is very telling.[1] John Crowe claims the well-known features of the Trojan plain still remain at Pergamon today, such as the site of Kallikolone and the Wall of Herakles.[2]

Counter arguments

Not that many people have written about this topic, and there is a notable lack of scholarly material from classicists and other academics supporting this view. Therefore, the claims made by John Crowe and John Lascelles may just be the unfounded claims of avid Homer fans. Using Homer's Iliad as a guidebook to locate Troy and the battlefield could be taking his words a bit too literally. Ultimately, he is a poet and a storyteller, and the topography in the poem might not be accurate, especially thousands of years later.

Proponents

Premises

[P1] If we find the Plain of Troy, then we can locate the city. [P2] The Plain of Troy, as described by Homer, matches the topography of Pergamon. [P3] Therefore, the ruins of Troy are at modern Bergama.

Rejecting the premises

References

  1. https://books.google.co.uk/books?hl=en&lr=&id=53BVUaTD5OsC&oi=fnd&pg=PP6&dq=Troy:+the+world+deceived&ots=2kSy6oUzIT&sig=VV8DkDre16WOI9T8V0Vw2eMceA0#v=onepage&q=Troy%3A%20the%20world%20deceived&f=false
  2. https://thetroydeception.com/the-books/volume1
This page was last edited on Friday, 21 Aug 2020 at 00:31 UTC

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