language of troy, alwin kloekhorst

7/22/2019 Language of Troy, Alwin Kloekhorst

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ITYHOMER

CHIEF EDITORSJorrit Kelder, Giinay Uslu , Orner Faruk ~ e r i f o gEDITORI L TE MRene van Beek, Floris van den Eijnde,GertJan van WijngaardenWITH CONTRIBUTIONS BYWillern J Aerts, Riistern Asian, Mithat Atabay,e ~ i r Ayvazoglu, Mathieu de Bakker, Pirn den Boer,Diederik Burgersdijk, Christiaan Caspers, Hein van Eekert,Floris van den Eijnde, Laurien de Gelder, Rudolph Glitz,Irene J F de Jong, Jorrit Kelder, Alwin Kloekhorst,Jacqueline Klooster, Marco Poelwijk, Winfred van de Put,Wendy Rigter, David Ri jser, Orner Faruk e r i f o g l uAli Sonrnez, ~ k r Tiil Giinay Uslu, Herbert Verreth,Willernijn Waal, GertJan van WijngaardenCOORDIN TIONPaulien Rete

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TROY CITY, HOMER AND TURKEY

THE L NGU GE O TROYALWIN KLOEKH ORST

In the second millennium BCTroy was an extremely prosperouscity, a bustling trading centre where traders from all corners ofthe world gathered and where a multitude of languages was tobe heard on the street. However, the question which languagethe inhabitants ofTroy themselves spoke during this period isnot easy to answer. There is simply no conclusive evidence. Notexts have been dug up in Troy it self, apart from a single sealwith a Luwian inscription (see page 59), nor do the historicalsources on Troy provide a clear answer. We will thus have rofocus on indirect clues to the possible origins of the languageof the Trojans.WESTERN ANATOLIA IN TH SECONDMILLENNIUM BC

In the second millennium BC Anatolia was dominated bythe Hittite Kingdom (see J .l) . All the information we haveavailable from this period about Troy and the rest of westernAnatolia is derived from the royal archives of the H ittites. Onthe basis of these texts we know that around the th centuryBC,western Anatolia consisted of various small kingdoms orstatelets. The most important of these, from north to south,were Masa, W ilusa, Seha, Arzawa, Mira and Lukka.

The area where Troy lies belongs ro the region referred to bythe H ittites as Wilu5a, and it is now generally accepted thatthis name corresponds to the Greek name for Troy, Ilios. TheH ittite name Wilusa may be analysed linguistically as wilw-fain which -fa is a suffix used in many country names, while the-w- automatically becomes a-u- when placed between two consonants. And the Greek Ilios, with its older variant Wilios, mayderive from the older *Wilwios. (The star indicates that we aredealing with a reconstructed form that has not been found assuch, but which may be assumed to have existed on linguisticgrounds.) Given that - ios is a well-known suffix in Greek forcountry names, *Wilwios may be analysed as wilw-ios. Clearly,both names have the same root witw-.

A land called Truisa also comes up a few times in the Hittitetexts. It lay close to Wilusa or was perhaps even part ofWilusa.It is n ow generally believed that this name corresponds to theGreek name Troie. In Hittite -iJa is a suffix, which means thatTrt:Hsa may be analysed as trii-ifa while the Greek word Troiepresumably derives from the older *Troe, which we may analyse as tro e. s Hittite did not have the osound, we may assumethat the Hittite tru and the Greek tro are the same.

WILUSAThe Hittite texts referring ro Wilusa provide no convincingevidence for the language was spoken in Troy although wemay make a number of assumptions on the basis of indirectevidence.

Firstly, a treaty between the Hittite and Wilusan kings thathas been found in the Hi ttite arch ives at Boghazkoy (see page45), indicates that Wilusa was a vassal state under H ittite suzerainty. As the H it tite king corresponded with his vassals inH ittite (the relevant treaty was drawn up in H ittite), there mustat the very least have been scribes working at the Wilusa courtwho were competent in Hittite. We could even imagine thatthere must have been Hittite diplomats living in Wilusa whodiscussed affairs with the W ilusan cou rt in Hi trite.

Secondly we know the names of wo Wi lusan kings from theHittite texts. t has not been possible thus far to convincinglylink the name ofone of these kings, Walmu , to any specific language. The name of the other king, with whom the treaty mentioned above was concluded, is Alaksandu, which has a muchmore familiar ring ro it. In the 1920s, when the tablet thatmentions it was dug up, Alaksandu was immediately linkedto the Greek Aleksandros, the name used in Homer s Iliad forthe Trojan prince Paris. The use of a Greek name by the royalfamily ofWilusa indicates that th e Wilusans must at the veryleast have had close links to the G reeks, and possibly even thatGreeks had married inro the royal family (which could possiblybe compared ro the legend of the Greek H elen who fell in lovewith Paris and left Sparta for Troy, causing the Greeks to launchan attack on Troy to get her back).

We know from archaeological and Hittite sources that fromaround 1400 BC Greeks (that is to say Mycenaeans, referredto by the H itt ites as the people ofAhhiyawa, or rather Achaeans ), settled at certain points in western Anatolia, primarily inMillawanda Milerus) and on the island Lazpa (Lesbos).A great deal ofMycenaean potte ry has also been found in Troy,especially from phases ofhabitation in the 13th century BC suggesting the presence of - or in any event acquaintance with- Greeks. This presence evidently left its mark on the Wilusanroyal famiJy. Nevertheless it is unlikely that the Wilusans wereoriginally Greeks themselves. The Hittite texts reveal thatW ilusa was certainly under the in fluence ofAhhiyawa, but notpart of t.


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OTHER WESTERN N TOLI N ST TESND THE LUWI N HYPOTHESIS

The language or languages that were spoken in other western Anatolian states cannot be determined conclusively fromsources dating back to the second millennium BC. There iscertainly indirect evidence tha t some of these states must haveused Luwian as their language. Luwian is an Indo-Europeanlanguage closely related to H i ttite that we know from a numberof texts contained in the royal archive ofH attusa, and more especially from later hieroglyphic inscript ions from sout h-easternAnarolia and Syria that date to around noo-700 BC. The mostimportant indications that Luwian was used are the following:I Old Hittite texts dating to around r6oo BC refer to a land

called Luwiya that may poss ibly be located in western Anatolia, and more specifically in the vicinity of the state Arzawa/Mira. If the language is called Luwian Luwili in H ittite) after the land ofLuwiya it is also probable that Luwianwas spoken in this region, in any event around r6oo BC.

2. The names of various kings from western Anatolian states,in the form that we know them from H ittite texts, appear tobe of Luwian origin.

The only texts found in western Anatolia itself are a numberof rock inscriptions written in Luwian hieroglyp hs. Someof these inscriptions consist solely of the names of people,which do not really have to be in a specific language . How-

A typical Aegean landscape: view from Keros towardsKoufonisi in tile Cyclades_ n the background the mount insof Naxos are visible_On th t island there was an import ntMycenaean sett lement Naxos nd other smaller islands intile Aegean formed a conven ient springboa rd for shippingbetween Anatolia and the Greek m inland_

ever, a recently found inscription includes several Luwianwords, thus conclusively proving the use ofLuwian. As maybe seen on the language map, these inscriptions are foundprimarily in the region of Arzawa/Mira and the southernpart of Seha.

We may assume on the basis of these arguments that Luwianwas spoken in any event in Arzawa/Mira and possibly also inpart of Seha in the second millenn ium BC. Some experts havefor this reason argued that it is certainly possible that Troy alsoused Luwian as its language. One expert (Calvert Watkinshas even at temp ted to ident ifY Luwian etymologies for Trojannames as they occur in Homer s Iliad. Foe example, the na meof the Trojan king, Priam, is analysed as *priya-muwa-, whichin Luwian wou ld mean something like pre-eminent in power .The hypothes is that Luwian was spoken in Troy receivedsupport in 1995, with the discovery at Troy ofa second millennium BC seal, bearing the name of a scribe and his wife written

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TROY CITY, HOMER AND TURKEY

in Luwian hieroglyphs (see chapter 4). Unfortunately this sealdoes not conclusively prove that Luwian was used in Troy. Theseal itself dates to the 13th century BC, but it was found in alayer of destruction from around a century and a half later.However, as many foreign traders were present in second millennium BC Troy, the possibility that this seal belonged to anon-Trojan cannot be excluded.

The Luwian analysis of names like Priam is also inconclusive, as it is simply impossible to prove that the Homeric namesdid indeed originate in second millennium BC Troy. And evenif the name is authentic and should be interpreted as Luwian,th is does not of tself say anything about the language situationin Troy. Just as in the case of AlakSandu/Aleksandros, it doesnot necessarily suggest more than the fact that the Trojan royalhouse had l inks with Luwian-speaking states (an extremelylikely possibility given the proximity of Arzawa/Minl, whichwas as we have seen probably Luwian-speaking) .

Taking everything into account, we may conclude that it isentirely possible that there were Luwian speakers in Troy, withthe seal as evidence, bur that it cannot be proven that the cityas a whole was Luwian-speaking. t should be borne in mindthat Luwian-speaking Arzawa/Mira and surroundings, despiteits relative proximity still lies at the considerable distance fromTroy ofaround 200 kilometres to the south. Moreover, the language situation in a single western Anatolian stare cannot beprojected across the whole ofwestern Anarolia without furtherevidence. As we will see below, other languages must have beenspoken alongside Luwian in the western Anarolia of he secondmillennium BC.AROUND 12 BC CRISISAround 1200 BC, the entire eastern Mediterranean region descended into crisis: Mycenaean civilisation collapsed and TroyVI la was destroyed, while the Hittite Kingdom also disappearedduring this period. With the collapse of Hittite supremacy thecuneiform rcadirion disappears from Anarolia.We have no clearview of what happened in western Anarolia between ca. qand Soo BC.

Greek authors form an important source of information onwestern Anarolia in the first millennium BC. Following the fallof the H ittite Kingdom Greek peoples settled in this regionin increasing numbers, and halfway th rough the first millennium the largest parr of the western Anatolian littoral had become Greek-speaking. On the basis ofworks by Greek authorsoriginating from that area (fo r example H erodotus, who wasfrom Halicarnassus), we know a lor about the political situation in the region. We are able to make our the following smallkingdoms: Mysia, Lydia, Caria, Lycia, Birhynia, Phrygia andPisidia. The city ofTroy and its surroundings fell under Mysia,which is also known as Phrygia-on-the-H ellespont.

From around Soo BC, alphabetic script came into use in thewestern Anatolian region, and most of the small kingdoms referred to above used their own variant of the alphabet to com-municate in the local language. Texts written on perishable materials have unfortunately been lost, bur we certainly have manyrock inscriptions and inscriptions on stone monuments. Onthe basis of hese texts we are able to draw up a language map ofwestern Anarolia in the first millennium BC (Greek and Romaninscriptions have for the sake of convenience been ignored).Each dot indicates the spot where one or more inscriptionswere found. On this basis we have a relatively good idea of thelanguages of Lydia, Caria, Lycia and Phrygia. We have onlya single inscription from Mysia, and the inscriptions fromPisidia, in two differing languages, Pisidian and Sideric, are alsoextremely scanty. We have no inscriptions at all from Birhynia.POPULATION MOVEMENTS AROUND 12 BCOf course, one cannot simply project the language map of thefirst millennium BC backwards to the second millennium. Thecrisis that rook place n 1200 BC was so extensive that t is likelythat various population movements rook place at this time.This is also what the Greek authors tell us. According to theseauthors, the Mysians, Phrygians and Birhynians originatedfrom Thrace, the region to the norrl1 of he Sea ofMarmara.

From a linguistic point of view these tales may well be true.The language of the Ph rygians (of these three languages theone we know best) is certainly an Indo-European language, burit does nor belong to the same branch as Hittite and Luwian,the Indo-European languages spoken in Anarolia in the secondmillennium. Ph rygian appears rather to be closely related toGreek. Given that Phrygian could not have come from Greeceitself, which was already Greek-speaking, it is extremely likelythat it was originally spoken to the north-east ofGreece, for example in modem Bulgaria. The Phrygians must have migratedto Anarolia at a certain point, as the Greek sources relate, raking their language with them. The fact that a memory of thisPhrygian invasion continued ro exist suggests that it could nothave taken place roo far in the past. A dare around 1200 BCcould well fir with these facts. It appears safe to assume that thePhrygians invaded Anatolia via Thrace following the collapseof the H ittite Kingdom, or more probably after indications ofits pending collapse. The sole Mysian inscription that we knowsuggests an extremely close relationship with Phrygian, and wemay perhaps assume that the Mysians and Phrygians spoke different dialects of one and the same language. Compare alsothe alternative name for Mysia: Phrygia-on-the-H ellespont.)We know nothing about Bithynian, bur as the story about theMysian and Ph rygian invasion ofAnarolia appears to be true,this may also apply to the Bithynians.


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The other languages found in western Anatolia - Lydian.,Carian, Lycian, Pisidian and Sideric - are also Indo Europeanlanguages bur belong to the same branchas H itti te and Luwian .They are so closely related to Luwian that we regard this groupoflanguages as a sub-branch, the Luwian branch. t s rhus veryprobable that these languages are completely indigenous, andit is generally assumed that they or their precursors were spo-ken in western Anatolia as early as the second millennium BC.H owever, this does not mean t hat at the rime these languageswere spoken in precisely rhe same places as in rhe first millennium. s we have no ted, the collapse of the H ittite kingdomallowed various population groups to invade the region fromnorther n Anatolia, and it is entirely possible that groups withinAn.atolia were also forced to move. For example a convincingcase has been made by the Leiden language expert Beekes) thatthe Lydians must have lived further to the north ofLydia in thesecond millennium BC, in rhe region called Masa during tflisperiod. They would then have been forced to migrate fi.lfthert the south fo llowing the invasion of the Phrygians, Mysiansand Birhynians.THE LANGUAGE OF TROY: LYDIAN?Whenever we zoom in on Troy and view irs immediate surroundings, we observe the following situation. No inscriptionsfrom the first millennium BC have been found in the vicinityof Troy itself. The closest languages are Phrygian, Mysian and

TROY AND ITS NEIGHBOURS

Phrygian arian Lemnian ycian0 Lydian MysianPisidic Sidetic

Linguistic map f Anatolia in the 1st mil lennium BC

Lydian. We have seen rhar the Phrygians and Mysians invadedAnatolia only after rhe fall of the H ittite kingdom. Thus, neither Phrygian nor Mysian could have been the original language spoken in Troy. H owever, this does not apply to Lydian.This language, which belongs to the same linguistic branch asH ittite and Luwian, which was very probably spoken in Anatolia in the second millennium BC, is the language found closestto Troy during the first millennium in the Lydian capital atDaskyleion), and is rhus a candidate for having been rhe language ofTroy. A number of experts advocate th is view including the eminent linguist GUnter Neumann but there is another- and in my view better - candidate.THE LANGUAGE OF TROY:LEMNIAN ETRUSCAN?Alongside Phrygian, Mysian and Lydian, there is yet anotherlanguage found in the vicinity ofTroy, namely Lemnian. Th islanguage is named for Lemnos, rhe Aegean island that lies immediately west of Troy. Two stelae and a few pottery shardswith inscriptions in Lemnian have been found on the island.An interesting point is that Lemnian reveals extensive s imilarit ies with Etruscan. These similarities are so significant that we

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TROY CITY HOMER AND TURKEY

may regard the two languages as closely related dialects. Howare these facts to be interpreted historically?

The origin of the Etruscans has long been one of historysgreat unsolved puzzles. As already in antiquity the Etruscanswere thought nor to be native to Italy, but to have originateddsewhere, namely in Lydia. This was long dismissed as a mythwith little historical basis, bur the realization that the Etruscan language is closely related to the language of Lemnos hasagain sparked the debate. Professor Beekes ofLeiden Universityrecently published a lengthy article in which he listed 4 arguments that provide strong evidence that the Etruscans did infact come from Lydia. However, according to Beekes, this doesnot refer to classical Lydia (as per H erodotus), bur rather to theregion the Lydians inhabited in the second mille nnium BC thatis to say the region that was then called Masa. The Etruscansare thought to have left there by ship in response to the crisis of1200 BC and ended up in Italy.

I almost completely share Beekes' conclusion that the Etruscans must have originated in western Anatolia. I propose to alter his hypothesis in just one respect. Classical sources mentionvarious locations in western Anatolia and the northern Aegeanregion where Etruscans, referred to in Greek as Tursenoi, livedat the time or had previously lived. In his article Beekes provides a summary of these locations. We see that some of theselocations do in fact lie in the region where Masa was situated,bm the majority of them are in the region around Troy/Wilusaand on islands to the west. I would like to conclude on thebasis of this information that the Erruscans/TU Csenoi inhabited

A stele from the 6th century BC. This funerary monument wasfound on Lemnos in 1885. TM Lemnian language was possiblyrelated to that of the Etruscans After the conquest of Lemnosby Athens in 510 BC. it was replaced y Attic Greek and Lem-nian died out

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Troy Wilusa and the islands to the west as their core territorywith an offshoot to the southern coast of the Sea of Marmara.To the east this region overlaps the region where the Lydianslived in the second millennium BC and that could very wellbe d1e reason why in classical antiquity it was believed that theEtruscans originated in Lydia.

Apart from Beekes' 24 arguments in favour of why the origins of the Etruscans must have lain in this region, two additional arguments may be adduced to support the link betweenthe Etruscans and Troy. Firstly, the root of the name Troy inH ittite, mt (Truisa), and in Greek, tro- (Troie), appears to beidentical to that in the name for the Etruscans, which is tru-.(The e in 'Etrusc' is a vowel prefixed to facilitate articulatingthe initial consonant cluster tr-. Compare thee-less variant turin the Greek word Tursenoi, and the Latin Tuscia derived fromthe earlier *Turskia.) Secondly, the myth that Aeneas, a Trojanprince, ends up in Italy by way ofextended wandering after thefall ofTroy, and settles down after fighting a ba ttle with the indigenous people there, as described in Virgil's Aeneid, may haveits origins in a migration from the region of Troy to centralItaly. Wi thout doubt many names and events have been addedto this tale over the course of time, just as with the Iliad, burthe 'core' of his tale may well relate to real (Bronze Age) events.All in all, it appears to me entirely possible that the originallanguage ofTroy was a precursor ofEtruscan. It should be em-phasized, however, that in the absence ofclear textual evidencefrom Late Bronze Age Troy itself, the language ofTroy remainssubject of conjecture.


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language of troy, alwin kloekhorst

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