The War that Killed Achilles by Caroline Alexander [reviews]

The Guardian, New York Times ^ | October 13, 2009 -- December 18, 2010 | Tom Holland, Vera Rule, Steve Coates, Dwight Garner

[SunkenCiv]

The real Helen would be much younger.

[bushpilot1]

Was assigned to Izmir 79-80 when I was in the army. Met several archaeologists during my travels.

They were interested in Sardis, Ephesus, Miletus and others...not the site believed to be Troy.

Homer..the Illiad and Virgil the Aeneid.

Two years..in the area was a dream for me..

[SunkenCiv]

Mmmm.... Genevieve Bujold...

[Tijeras_Slim]

The real Helen would be much younger.

And her face launched ships, not lunches.

[668 - Neighbor of the Beast]

Maybe blaming the snatching of Helen for the Trojan War is like blaming the assassination of the archduke for WWI.

It’s also simpler when you’re sitting around the campfire singing. Running off with the king’s wife makes for better lyrics than a long dissertation about socioeconomic disequilibrium.

On the other hand, they could’ve sung Rock Island Line ;)

IMO the big factor was Troy sitting at one end of the Dardanelles (access to the Euxine cities), pinching everybody for tolls both ways.

But when a queen is taken, the story takes on heroic dimensions you just can’t apply to being fed up with paying off a gauntlet of pirates.

[ZULU]

Hattusas and the Hittites are interseting too.

Anatolia is a treasure trove of ancient history.

[Little Bill]

Thanks for the reminder, I have been meaning to read “War Before Civilization” for a couple of years. This thread jogged my memory just down loaded the kindle edition.

[gusopol3]

I’d seen it at a public library; it sounded good on the dust jacket!

[Larry Lucido]

Achilles? He was such a heel!

[Larry Lucido]

Achilles? He was such a heel!

[Hacksaw]

I liked the Brad Pitt version.

[LadyDoc]

actually Troy has been discovered, and more recently a German archeologist named Korfman found that the hillside mound excavated by Schliemann was merely the hillside fortress, but a large town dating to 1200 BC confirms it was there.

Michael Wood's "in search of the trojan war" speculations are now considered accurate 20 years later...you might want to buy the series (I downloaded it from a Chinese yuku video site, if you google you might find it) or watch it on streaming video .

link

and check out LINK

[Bratch]

The face that launched a thousand ships

[Ole Okie]

The face that sunk a thousand ships!

[texas booster]

I lived at Cigli AFB near Izmir during the late 60’s. Loved going on Boy Scout hikes thru the ruins. Totally amazed that the local Turks had no appreciation for them, except as ways to gain greenbacks from tourists.

By the time we left, the poppies were growing just past the base fences and there was no love for Americans if they ran out of dollars.