AI Summary
5 min readIn the 1870s, a German businessman named Heinrich Schliemann stood at a mound in northwest Turkey called Hisarlık, convinced he had found the Troy of Homer’s Iliad. He dug a massive trench straight through the site, throwing out the very Bronze Age palace he had come to find, and later claimed to have discovered “Priam’s Treasure”—which was neither Priam’s nor a treasure. Schliemann is the man archaeologists love to hate, but he was also, as Dr. Eric Cline puts it, “the luckiest man alive” in archaeology. He found the right place for all the wrong reasons, and his work opened a century-long debate about whether the Trojan War actually happened, and if so, what really took place.
The story and its sources
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What you'll learn
- 1 (03:26) **Introducing the Trojan War Question** - Tristan Hughes welcomes Dr. Eric Cline to explore the historicity of the Trojan War, framing it as a gateway to the Late Bronze Age.
- 2 (06:21) **The Myth of the Trojan War** - Eric recounts the core story, stripping away the gods to focus on the human drama of Paris, Helen, Menelaus, and Agamemnon.
- 3 (11:03) **The Homeric Question and Oral Tradition** - The episode explores who Homer was and how the story was transmitted over 500 years before being written down.
- 4 (14:33) **The Epic Cycle and Missing Sources** - The Trojan War story is not just from Homer; it comes from a lost set of poems called the Epic Cycle.
- 5 (16:26) **The Late Bronze Age World** - Eric describes the interconnected, globalized Mediterranean world that formed the backdrop for the war.
- 6 (20:49) **Troy the Place: Archaeology and Location** - The conversation turns to the archaeological site of Troy (Hisarlik) and the evidence for its existence.
- 7 (26:00) **The Schliemann Story** - Eric details the life and legacy of Heinrich Schliemann, the amateur archaeologist who discovered Troy.
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Show Notes
The story of Achilles, Odysseus and the siege of Troy has captivated audiences for millennia, but behind the legends lies a deeper mystery. Was this epic war a myth, a memory of a real Bronze Age conflict, or something in between?
Today Tristan Hughes is joined by Eric Cline to explore the reality behind Homer’s greatest tale. From the legendary heroes of The Iliad to the ruins of Troy, discover what archaeology and ancient texts reveal about the Trojan War, and whether the story of Helen, Paris and the fall of Troy truly has a historical foundation.
MORE
Troy
The Bronze Age Collapse
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Presented by Tristan Hughes. Audio editor is Aidan Lonergan. The producer is Joseph Knight. The senior producer is Anne-Marie Luff.
All music courtesy of Epidemic Sounds
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