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 -----
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.