The Real Man Behind Achilles? [26:08]

YouTube transcript reformatted at textformatter.ai *may* follow.

[description] We examine the historicity of Achilles and evaluate whether the Homeric hero may preserve memories of real individuals and events from the Late Bronze Age eastern Mediterranean. While Achilles is traditionally regarded as a literary figure, growing recognition that the Homeric epics contain authentic Late Bronze Age elements has renewed interest in the historical backgrounds of both the Trojan War and its principal protagonists.

The discussion begins with evidence for the name A-ki-re-u in the Linear B archives and reviews competing explanations for the etymology of Achilles, including Greek, Proto-Indo-European, and pre-Greek interpretations. It then assesses modern comparative approaches that seek to explain Achilles primarily through inherited mythological patterns. Particular attention is given to an alternative model proposed by Konstantinos Kopanias, who compares the legendary biography of Achilles with the historically attested exploits of Piyamaradu, a western Anatolian warlord known from Hittite diplomatic and administrative texts.

Drawing upon evidence from Ahhiyawa, Wilusa, Miletus, Lesbos, Lycia, and the wider Aegean world, the analysis highlights a series of geographic, political, and military parallels between the careers of Achilles and Piyamaradu. Rather than identifying Achilles with a single historical individual, the evidence suggests that Homeric tradition may have incorporated memories of real Late Bronze Age conflicts and personalities. The figure of Achilles may therefore represent a literary synthesis in which historical experiences, regional traditions, and epic storytelling converged to create one of antiquity's most enduring heroes.

Did the Trojan War Really Happen? [01/18/2026]

BBC documentary series presented by Michael Wood. In the Bronze Age the Mediterranean was ringed by great powers whose territory was protected by military strength and diplomatic alliance. So how would Agamemnon's ten-year war on the shores of Asia have been viewed by his neighbours?

Remarkable finds in central Turkey have unearthed the foreign office records of the Hittite emperors. With these clay tablets, now held in East Berlin, it is possible to reconstruct the diplomatic crisis which may have surrounded a real-life Trojan War. It includes a 500-mile 'campaign' through Turkey in the footsteps of the Emperor Hattusilis, and a confrontation with the 'Great King of Greece' himself.
In Search of the Trojan War
- 5. Empire of the Hittites (BBC) | 59:54
Culture Vulture Rises | 16.9K subscribers
5,970 views | September 18, 2023

Transcript [pt 1 & 2]

Achilles is a fictional character, but he hasn’t always been considered just a fictional character. But even if he is a work of fiction, he looms large in world history. Even if he only exists in the pages of epic poetry, his feats of military prowess have inspired warriors for millennia. So, is Achilles just a work of fiction? Is he just some Proto-Indo-European mythic figure? Or was there a person who actually lived and inspired the story of Achilles? Let’s dig in.

Academic consensus?

In the ancient world, no one doubted the historicity of the Trojan War. Heroditus believed Homer lived 400 years before his own time and that the Trojan War was 800 years before his time. So sometime in the 13th century, academic consensus? And it’s safe to say that while some modern scholars reject any historical background for the Trojan War in the works of Homer, many more would recognize Homer’s world matches well with the Mycenaean world of the late Bronze Age.

And while Homer doesn’t remember that world perfectly, the Trojan War and the heroes who fought in it match roughly with the 13th century. And with that said, most scholars are quick to remind that the works of Homer and stories of the Trojan War are just that, stories. There likely wasn’t a Trojan War the way Homer talks about it. But there’s wide acknowledgment that there was episodic conflict between the Mycenaean world and western Anatolia. There wasn’t one Trojan War, but there may have been many. There may have been real-world inspiration behind the mythic retelling.

So if that’s the case for the war, what about the heroes who fought in it? Achilles is in many ways the primary hero of the Trojan War. His rage is one of the primary themes of the Iliad. So if there may have been wars between the Mycenaeans and Troy, could a figure like Achilles have taken part? Many scholars will say no. And to try and find any figure from the Iliad is a fool’s errand.

Transcript [pt 3]

Proto-Indo European background

In recent years, there’s been an interest in comparative mythology, and there have been productive studies in examining the Near Eastern context of Homer and what inspiration and source material may have existed for the poet to draw on. But there have also been studies linking themes and figures in the Homeric stories with Proto-Indo-European mythic patterns.

Proto-Indo-European is a proposed reconstructed language that is derived from comparative linguistics. Basically, Indo-European languages have similar linguistic characteristics, and these commonalities are projected back into a common language. With this common language is projected a common pantheon and mythology again derived from comparative linguistics.

It’s hypothesized the Proto-Indo-European speakers told stories about gods and heroes and that as their language diffused and evolved into all of the Indo-European languages that existed, so too did their pantheon and myths. So, commonalities and stories told in cultures which speak Indo-European languages are hypothesized to originate in a Proto-Indo-European mythos.

So with this theoretical background, scholars have identified Proto-Indo-European themes in the stories of Homer. Odysseus slaying the suitors is interpreted as a form of dragon slaying, overcoming a force of disorder. The suitors represent a major social disorder, and Odysseus, the hero who slays the dragon, brings order to that chaos. And Achilles has been the subject of reinterpretations as a mythic trope. His battle with the river deity’s commander has been seen as a hero slaying the sea monster but also citing Proto-Indo-European parallels. Achilles has been interpreted as not the slayer of the sea monster but the sea monster himself who is slain by Paris.

Now I think there’s a place for Proto-Indo-European, but my personal perspective is that its explanatory power may be overstated sometimes. Proto-Indo-European is theoretical. It’s important to remember that no culture ever actually looked the way Proto-Indo-European as hypothesized ever did. This is an academic theory to help make connections where they otherwise may be hard to make. And that’s not a bad thing. Using theory to fill gaps is fine. But maybe it shouldn’t be the go-to. My estimation is that most Proto-Indo-European studies have forgotten the advice of the linguist Franco Scotch to look for Latin etymologies first on the Tiber.

Transcript [pt 4]

Linear B and Etymology

So for Achilles, is it possible to find some evidence closer to the Tiber, as it were? And the answer is yes, maybe.

Achilles is a name which has been identified in the Linear B records from both Pylos and Knossos. It is a name which appears in both the nominative and dative cases. And while not all accept that this is the name of Achilles, it’s pretty widely accepted. However, the Achilles mentioned is not a king or a prince or even a warrior. So not the same as the Homeric figure, but we can at least say the name fits into the 13th century.

With the name in the right time period, scholars have looked to what the name may mean. And in general, there are three schools of thought, none of which are overwhelmingly convincing. The first is to see this as a Greek name, meaning we can make sense of the name as a compound word using Greek words. Some scholars have proposed the name is a combination of two words, aos and laos, words for grief and for the people or the army. The name would then mean something like he who brings grief to the people or, because of how laos is typically used, he who brings grief to the army.

Admittedly, this fits the role of Achilles in the Iliad, but linguistically it’s difficult. Using known Greek phonetic rules, it’s hard to connect these two terms and end up with something like the name Achilles. And so some argue this is a folk etymology, meaning this interpretation isn’t wrong, but it’s a later interpretation that fits the poetic background more than it fits etymology. And the folk etymology has forgotten the original meaning of the name. Another example of a folk etymology comes from Apollodorus. He tells the story of how Achilles’ mother sought to purge the mortality from her son named Ligiron, but was discovered by Pelus, who sent their son away. Because Ligiron had never nursed, his name was changed to Achilles, which Apollodorus says means no lips.

Now, other scholars have looked at these Greek etymologies and seen them as inconclusive. And so they propose that if it’s not strictly Greek, then it may have Proto-Indo-European roots. And even other scholars argue for a pre-Gnon-Indo-European origin. But this is less on the basis of a clear and convincing etymology than on the fact that Greek doesn’t have a convincing one. So if it’s not obviously Greek, then it must be something else. What it is, we don’t know. Leonard Palmer, who along with scholars like Gregory Nagy, argue for the he who brings grief to the army position. And they make the point that this is an inauspicious name. It’s an odd name to give to anyone. For a literary character who brings grief to the army, it’s a bit on the nose. But why would this name appear in the Linear B records? Palmer suggests the name may have already been associated with a heroic figure by the 13th century. The inauspicious quality of the name was eclipsed by its heroic association, suggesting the themes of the Iliad were present already in the 13th century. Now, this, as with the etymology, is inconclusive.

Transcript [pt 5]

Konstantinos Kopanias

But the scholar Konstantinos Kopanias has offered a really interesting proposal comparing the exploits of Achilles known from mythic sources with those of a man named Piamaradu who is attested in historic Hittite sources. And his proposal is worth looking at in some depth. We will link his article in the description below and encourage you to go check it out. And as we compare the lives of these two figures, one from snippets of mythic biography and another from fragmentary historic texts, we’re going to tell their lives as best we can reconstruct them and give citations on the bottom of the screen for how we came to that position so you can check them out for yourselves.

Now to be clear, Kopanias is not arguing that Piamaradu is Achilles or anything like that, but he does make a pretty compelling comparison in that the historic Piamaradu did a lot of the same things and was associated with a lot of the same places as the mythic Achilles. If any one figure may have inspired the literary Achilles, we should start with Piamaradu.

Transcript [pt 6]

A Biography of Achilles

Achilles is known from the Iliad, but we also know there were other epics which are now lost which included stories of Achilles. There were stories in what is now known as the epic cycle. Stories about the origin, beginning, course of the Trojan War, and then the return of the heroes. And while the works of Homer are preserved and were highly regarded in classical antiquity, we see in the earlier archaic period, artists preferred to depict stories out of the epic cycle.

So these stories were well-known in the ancient world, but the actual works are now lost. We do have summaries of these stories and allusions and quotations of them by later authors, but we lack the actual works themselves. But it’s in these stories that we have a more developed biography of Achilles.

The figure of Achilles is presented as the son of the sea nymph Thetis and a mortal man, Pelus, king of Thea. The kingdom of Thea was founded by his grandfather in northern Thessaly. Interestingly, no urban center existed nearby in either the late Helladic, geometric, or archaic period. But as the story develops, for some reason or another, with different sources offering different explanations, Achilles was not safe in his homeland and was sent to be tutored by the centaur Chiron.

He was reared with Phoenix with the Dolopians near Atlia. And when he came of age, he conquered the island of Skios and married a girl there who bore him a son named Pius or alternatively Naptomos. Achilles’ parents famously wanted him to stay out of the Trojan War and even hid him on Skios. Later sources suggest Achilles did not conquer Skios but was just hidden there. And some sources suggest Achilles was hidden with maidens and was disguised as a woman to hide his identity.

Achilles was ultimately recruited to the war by Odysseus and left his family in Skios, curiously not with his father who ruled in Thea. And why neither Achilles nor his son ever ruled there is a matter of debate. Some have postulated Pelus was removed from the throne during the Trojan War, but a reason for this is never really stated. We are told he was blown off course when he tried to reach his grandson at Troy. But Achilles never rules in Thea. And after the Trojan War, his son journeys far afield, settling according to tradition in Epirus. So Achilles was a prince who never ruled a kingdom.

In the Kipria, a work which is now lost, but of which we have a summary, we are told that the Akans mustered to Alice and set off for war against Troy. They make their way across the Aian and attack the city of Tutras in Msia, mistaking it for Troy. Their king, Telopos, repels the attack, but Achilles injures him. And when they realize their error, the Akans sail back to Greece, and Achilles goes to Skios. The injured Telphos comes to Argos seeking a cure for his incurable injury. Achilles heals him and in return, Telphos offers to lead the Aans to Troy.

Upon arriving in the Troa, the Akans establish a beachhead and besiege the city, which lasts a decade. Upon taking the beach, Achilles performs one of his first heroic deeds, slaying the Trojan ally, Kiknos, king of Coloni. Kignnos means swan, which has been taken to refer to the king’s white hair or perhaps particularly pale skin or some lost mythic tradition of him being raised by swans. But later sources found it odd to have a heroic foe with such a domesticated name.

During the siege, Achilles leads raids against Troy’s allies. He looted 23 cities, including the islands of Tenados and Lesbos. The conquest of Lesbos was apparently not just a raid, but actually resulted in the island becoming an ally of the Akans. And the ruling elites on Lesbos later traced their heritage back to Agamemnon.

Traditions vary, but while attacking Lesbos, Achilles killed Trombolos. Trombolus was the son of Telmon, who was the brother of Pelus. Again, mythic family trees can have some gnarly vines in there, but in Achilles’ estimation, this made Trombolos his cousin. To purge himself of the guilt of this death, Achilles went to Mitus. Other traditions say Trombos was king in Mitus, but either way, Achilles makes his way to the city to be cleansed of this killing. Later, while at Troy, Patrick, but importantly wearing the armor of Achilles, kills Sarpedon, one of the Trojan allies. He was not a Trojan, but he came from Lysia. And after his death, Zeus had his body taken away to be buried in his homeland. A point which we’ll come back to here in a moment. There are other heroic deeds attributed to Achilles in the Athopus like the Kipria, a part of the epic cycle which is now lost but told the story of the Trojan War.

Among these deeds is the killing of Pentha, the queen of the Amazon. Some traditions say there was a brief love affair between the two resulting in a son named Ephesus who founded the city by the same name. Achilles is also said to have fought and defeated Menon in single combat. And yet after all these heroic victories, Achilles is himself slain by Paris and not in heroic single combat but with an arrow.

Paris, also called Alexander, has a negative portrayal in Homer. Yet there are hints that the figure of Paris may have a more heroic background. Even the name Alexander, defender of men, felt too heroic for some classical sources who tried to supply a heroic origin story for that persona. But even in the Iliad, Hector speaks highly of Paris. And in a moment of crisis, Hector requests Paris return to battle to save the Trojans. And some scholars have suggested another mythic tradition involving a more heroic Paris was at least partially incorporated into the Iliad.

Transcript [pt 7]

A Biography of Piyamaradu

So, Copana suggests that the outlines of this story map quite closely onto the life of a real person who lived in the 13th century. A renegade known from Hittite sources with the Louisian name Piamaradu.

He is known from a number of Hittite texts and was apparently a real nuisance for the Hittite kings who were balancing relations between their West Anatolian vassals and client states. We don’t know much about him as an individual. We know he had a brother named La Horzi. We know he was the father-in-law of Atpa, the ruler of Milawanda, which is the Hittite name for Mitus.

He is never called either a king or a prince. Most scholars think he was either a Hittite noble or the son of a West Anatolian king. One possible candidate which fits the data well but is still speculative is that Piamaradu was a grandson of Uhaziti, a king of Arzawa who with the aid of the king of Aiyiawa fought unsuccessfully against Merculia II. Uhiti was forced out of his kingdom and found refuge with the king of Aiyiawa with Aiyiawa being the Hittite name for the Minian world. It’s possible he found refuge on either roads or coasts.

His son Pyama Karuna tried to regain the kingdom but failed and the Hittites requested Piamakura be extradited to them and it’s likely the king of Aiyiawa obliged but this may have left a son or sons to continue to meddle with Hittite interests in western Anatolia. Whoever he was or may have been related to, we first see him attacking the island of Lesbos.

The island had been a point of contention between Aiyiawa and the Hittites in the past. From some careful reading of Hittite sources, it seems the island was given as a dowry when a king of Ashua, that is a confederation of West Anatolian cities and kingdoms from the late 15th century, married his daughter to a king of Aiyiawa. So the king of Aiyiawa claimed the island as his and this became an issue centuries after the fact during the reign of Muatali II in the 13th century. Muatali could rightly claim that his ancestor had defeated Ashua and so the island was his by right of conquest while the king of Aiyiawa could claim that it had been gifted to his ancestor.

So under these circumstances with this tension, Piamaradu first attacks the island which was under the administration of the king of the Seaha Riverlands. Piamaradu took some dyers from the island and took them to Milawanda. Notably, Atpa was a vassal of Aiyiawa at the time. So, this attack may be considered as a roundabout way of the king of Aiyiawa getting his perceived patrimony back. He had the ambitious and capable warrior Piamaradu operate on his behalf and loop the island of Lesbos. It’s also recorded that Piamaradu humbled the king of the Siha Riverlands and he was subjected to Atpa. Humbled here is a diplomatic euphemism for a major defeat of the Hittite vassal and his subordination to the Aiyawan aligned king of Milawanda.

Copanis makes the point that because Piamaradu did not simply remove the king and claim the kingdom for himself, it may suggest Piamaradu was acting on behalf of another king as an agent of Milawanda and by extension Aiyawa. Muatali, king of the Hittites, was forced to take action. He sent an expeditionary force to his vassal Manapa Tarhunta in the Seahar Riverlands and together they were able to reassert his independence from Atpa and the king of the neighboring Meera requested the return of the dyers from Lesbos.

Additionally, the Hittites prepared for an attack on Woosa which is widely regarded as equivalent to Homeriic Ilios or the kingdom of Troy. Manapata Tarhuta was unable to participate and so our record of what happened and why is brief but the king of Usa had some troubles and as a vassal of the Hittites, the Hittites intervened. A later vassal treaty between Muatali II and Alexandu, the king of Usa, can fill in a few gaps but there are a few outstanding questions.

We know from this treaty that a prior king of Woosa was named Kukuni and that the Hittites regarded Woosa as a loyal ally going back to the Hittites’ first foray into western Anatolia at the end of the 15th century. Kukuni was apparently succeeded by Alexandu in an uneventful transition of power suggesting Alexandu was the son and heir of Kukuni. But Alexandu, a contemporary of Muatali, experienced some troubles that required Hittite intervention. On the way to assist, the Hittites destroyed the kingdom of Masa and were able to keep Alexandu on the throne.

Piamaradu and Aiyiawa may have been involved in these attacks on Musa, but it’s not stated. Aiyiawa is reasonably cited as being involved, but this is mostly due to references in later tablets. Piamaradu does reappear in the so-called Tawagalawa letter. This is usually dated to the reign of Hatushi III, but may still date to the reign of Muati II. From the letter, we read that some people from Luca had been removed from their land by Piamaradu. Some of these people appealed to the Hittite king for assistance, but others had apparently requested intervention from the king of Aiyiawa, who sent Piamaradu to collect those who were resistant to Hittite presence there.

The Hittites interpreted Piamaradu as a fomentor of anti-Hittite sentiment in the region. Now, a fragmentary passage in Hatushi the third’s annals makes reference to a major rebellion in Luka. And at least one scholar has suggested that the contents of this letter are in reference to one in the same event. Hittite forces had cornered Piamaradu in a fortress called Yalanda, but he was able to escape to Milwanda. The Hittites pursued him, but by the time they got to the borders of Milwanda, Piamaradu was safely inside the city. And by the time envoys reached Apa and requested the extradition of Piamaradu, he had escaped via ship. And this prompted the Hittite king to write directly to the king of Aiyiawa, producing the Tawagalawa letter.

In the letter, the Hittite king refers to prior hostilities between the Hittites and Aiyiawa over Woosa. And this is why Alexander’s request for aid against a now unknown enemy has been posited to be Aiyawa. And we know the Aiyian often had Piamaradu act on their behalf. So many scholars have argued Piamaradu attacked Woosa on behalf of Aiyiawa and that they were ultimately defeated by the Hittites. At least one scholar has even suggested Piamaradu temporarily claimed the throne of Woosa before the Hittites intervened.

The Hittite king was eager to resolve the issue of Piamaradu. He says he knows Piamaradu’s plan, stating he knows Piamaradu says, “I will cross over to the land of Masa or the land of Kia, but I will leave behind the civilian captives, my wife, children, and household.” He knows it’s only a matter of time before Piamaradu attacks other kingdoms of Anatolia. He even overlooks a major diplomatic faux pas wherein the king of Aiyia refuses to return captives. The Hittite king just wants this resolved. He proposes Piamaradu turn himself over to the Hittites with guarantees of his safety. He could stay in Aiyahan territory with the understanding he would not be permitted to continue his endeavors in Hittite lands or finally he could be compelled to settle with his family in a new land.

We don’t know what happened to Piamaradu. He appears in a few fragmentary texts including a prayer wherein the wife of Hatushi III offers votives to the gods if they would deliver Piamaradu to her. It’s unclear if the Hittite Queen’s divine invocations worked, but Piamaradu does disappear from the historical record.

....was a heel.

Transcript [pt 8]

To [sic] similar to be an accident?

Copanas argues the similarities between the historic Piamaradu and the fictional Achilles are too great to be accidental. While we don’t know for sure about Piamaradu, it’s reasonably suggested he, like Achilles, was the son and grandson of kings, but was never a king himself. Both found refuge on Aiyian islands where they kept their families safe while they engaged in militaristic raids.

Both were in service to Akan kings. Both had some measure of autonomy from the Aan king. Both found safety in Mitus. Notably, Piamaradu fled there after his journeys in Laha classical Lysia, and Achilles after he killed his cousin, who in some traditions was linked with Lysia. Others have linked the story where Patrick, wearing Achilles’ armor, slays Sarpedon with an Achilles and Lysia tradition.

Both figures were capable and feared military leaders who operated throughout the West Anatolian coast. They both attacked Lesbos. They both fought beneath the walls of Troy. Kucuni was king in the TR when Piamarati was there, and Achilles defeated Kiknos. And more than one scholar has suggested the names here are more than accidentally similar.

But both were ultimately bested by Alexandu or Alexander. And this Alexandu may have been a late Bronze Age king who, like other great Bronze Age warrior kings, was practiced with the bow. Again, Piamaradu is not Achilles, but it isn’t too hard to imagine how the life and exploits of this one man, a man who was unparalleled in his ability to single-handedly disrupt the plans of the Hittite Empire, may have been commemorated in song, maybe even during his own lifetime.

Certainly, not everyone in Western Anatolia loved the Hittites, and Piamaradu would have made for a potent image of resistance and heroism. So, Piamaradu may not be the actual Homeric hero, but we can imagine how his life may have been one piece of a mosaic that later poets used to build the masterpiece that is the epic cycle. We don’t necessarily need to find Achilles in the theoretical myths of Proto-Indo-European mythology. And we don’t need to imagine Achilles springing fully formed from the head of Homer. Instead, we can imagine a poetic tradition springing up around Piamaradu and singing about the rage of the Hittites.

I’ll bet no-one ever dared call him a heel.

They rushed him to Dr Scholl, but it was too late.

In times of war, you can count on me to be behind you in battle.

Interview with Michael Wood from the DVD featuring his 1985 BBC documentary series "In Search of the Trojan War", which came out in 2004
In Search of the Trojan War: extra Michael Wood Interview (2004) | 24:54
rob | 71 subscribers | 5,655 views | February 15, 2022

I think all the Greek and Roman heroes and mythological figures were once real people, but their actions have been mythologized where what they really did cannot be recognized.

That was a good movie... I think I’ll watch that tonight!!

I see what you did there.

It's worth recalling that despite Linear B and Hittite cuneiform, almost everyone in the Bronze Age Aegean was illiterate, and that illiterates have fantastic auditory memory because that's the only way they can remember information they receive from someone else. This should also make us realize that's why swearing a public oath had such force: literally everyone could remember it or being told that, and why a skilled liar or trickster like Odysseus was feared like a sorcerer.

So stories, including many details about bronze age figures would have persisted for centuries. In the past, Homeric tales about boars' tusk helmets and wrap-around bronze armor were scoffed at until confirmed by archaeology. Even the names of cities contributing the Achaean host were thought to be mythical. I remember one British scholar in the early 20th century traipsing around Greece near where Homer had placed some "mythical" city. He asked the local villagers and they just said, "Oh yes, it's on that hill over there."

It's like at Vienne in France when archaeologists were astounded to find a large Roman amphitheater under medieval houses. The locals, of course, had always called the street, "Rue du Theatre." LOL