Re: [tied] Quandoque et bonus...

From: Piotr Gasiorowski
Message: 8631
Date: 2001-08-20

I was being only half serious, but there are a few points worth making (sorry for the slip I made, BTW: Wilusa- is Luwian and Wilusija- is Hittite). First, the identification of Wilusa (*wi:l-us-) with Ilios/Ilion (i:lio- < *wi:l-ijo-) is quite unproblematic (cf. Message #4348) and supported by parallel formulaic collocations ("steep Wilusa/Ilios") in the Iliad and in a Luwian poem, and the Hittite reference to Alaksandus of Wilusija mentioned in Joseph's posting.
 
As for Troy <tro:ia:, troïa:>, in Homer's usage the term may stand for both the region of the Troad and for the city that was its capital, identified with Ilios. But if it could be argued that Taruisa = Troy, this would mean that Troy accidentally lent its name to Ilios -- a different city in the Troad, of central importance to the plot of the Iliad and therefore usurping the place of the regional capital in the imagination of the Greeks. The initial <ta-ru-> in <ta-ru-i-sa> may well be a representation of /tru-/ in Hittite orthography, and since there are variable correspondences involving i/e, u/o and e/a between late Luwian dialects and Greek, something like *tru-is- might plausibly underly the name of Troy (perhaps via *truis- ~ *trois-ija: > *troihija:).
 
Piotr
 
 
 
 
 
----- Original Message -----
From: cas111jd@...
To: cybalist@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Monday, August 20, 2001 3:44 PM
Subject: Re: [tied] Quandoque et bonus...

Actually, Homer may easily be interpretted as referring to Troia as a
state or people, with the city definitely as Ilion. As the people
there in classical times were Thracian-speaking Hellespontine
Phrygians or Dardanians. The latter seems more accurate, especially
given the Egyptian reference to the 'Drdn' vassals of the Hittites at
Kadesh. Troas/Troia/the Troad was a regional appellation, IMO, which
could have been the name of a league of city-states in the area.

As for Taruisa, I doubt it was synonymous with Troy. I believe that
it should, instead, be indentified with the classical city south of
Sardis, found on classical maps variously as Tira and Tyrrha, which
was in the region known as Torrhebis (Cayster valley east of
Ephesos). This name is uncannily similar to that of the
Tyrhennians/Etruscans.