Anatolian Civilizations and Historical Sites - TEDA

ANATOLIAN CIVILIZATIONS:10x19 antik kentler 8/1/11 10:50 AM Sayfa
Troia
The location and the remnants of this very important antique city, which
is also known as Ilios or Ilion, is at the southern entry of the Dardanelles
Strait, on a small hill overlooking the plain, and is 30 km. from the
provincial center of Çanakkale.
No other antique city has been as famous as Troia in history. Many legends
have been developed around this city, which is defined by history as the
‘home of love, heroism and civilization’, and these legends perpetuated
Troia to today. The founders of Troia were the children and
grandchildren of Dardanos who established the first settlement in the
province of Çanakkale. A legend regarding the establishment of the city
tells that Ilos, who came from the lineage of the king Dardanos, won a
mottled cow in a competition, the oracles advised him to establish a city
wherever the cow would stop, the cow went as far as today’s Hisarl›k Hill
and stopped there, and thus Ilos established a city there and named it
Ilion.
Like the establishment of the city, the famous Troian War is also based on
a mythological story. Eris-the goddess of strife-was not invited to
Olympos to the wedding ceremony of King Peleus (father of Achilleus who
was the best warrior of all time) and the sea fairy Thetis. To take revenge,
she wrote on a golden apple ‘for the most beautiful one’ and threw it on to
the table of the goddesses, thus causing a fight among the goddesses who
claimed to be the most beautiful one. They asked the chief god Zeus to
arbitrate. He selected Paris, who was a shepherd on the Ida Mountain, as
the arbitrator. Paris, who was considered as a future ill-omen to Troia was
left to die in the Ida Mountain years ago, but was raised by a female bear
and grew into his youth, and he was the son of the Troian King Priamos.
Athena, Hera and Aphrodite made various promises to Paris for him to
give the golden apple to them, which is accepted as the first bribery in
history. Paris gave the golden apple to Aphrodite who had promised him
‘the most beautiful woman of the world’ and then the onerous destiny of
Troia began to be drawn. The other gods, who became upset with this,
lamented Paris and made an oath to bring the greatest disaster on his land.
When it became clear that Paris, who arrived in Troia, was actually the
prince who had been left in the Ida Mountains, he was invited to the
palace. After a while, Paris went to Greece together with his envoys, and
in the Sparta Palace, he met Helene who was the beautiful wife of
Menelaos and fell in love with her. The two lovers escaped with the help
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