The Hittites in the Trojan War

As Homer had not read the Bible, he would have probably called Hittites in his own words in his poetry. Two heroes that came as allies of the Trojans fit what we know about the Hittites and also fit some of the archaeology rather well.

[@dc4457]

An old name for Troy was Illios, the reason Homer's story is called the Illiad. An alternate name for Paris of Troy was Alexandros. We actually have a copy from one of the royal libraries of a treaty of friendship between the Hittites and a prince Alaksandus of Wilusa. It is an interesting coincidence at the least.

[@petrospetromixos6962]

Friendship ha?Their women must ve been ugly then

[@sagitta.ra19h26m]

I'm impressed with your knowledge about the ancients. Thanks for sharing! ❤

[@thareus20]

Very nice video. The Bronze Age Collapse has a mythical vibe to it, at least to me. Especially Troy/Troia/Ilion/Wilusa. It's such an amazing story.

[@mukan9]

All unclear things (Trojan war, sea people, vanishing of Hittites etc.) would only be solved by futures newly found Hittite cuneiform tablets. Luwians, Mycenaeans and Trojans didn’t have a tradition to record and archieve important events. Hittites had archieve rooms for cuniform tablets. Only %40 of the Hattusa is excavated. I hope the remaining part will include tablets includes information about unclear things.

[@brettmuir5679]

True. The site is large and has been a goat pasture for hundreds of thousands of generations of grazing animals upon the slope that once was the Capital City of the Hittites. Now only the wind blows the ghosts around the lonely mountain, and it whistles between the roofless monumental gates and over the leveled walls. Walk over its' hectares upon hectares and get thirty. You may find a spring of water that empties into a stone trough. There you may drink as the ghosts whistle around haunting your daydreams as you continue on your hike over Hattussas

[@gomahklawm4446]

There's reportedly 1000s already waiting for translation. Not many can do it.

[@alienlife7754]

@@brettmuir5679 impressive. Very descriptive. I like it! Lol.

[@brettmuir5679]

@@alienlife7754 Thank you. My day long solitude tramping around that ghost town is still the most haunted day of my life. I was so fortunate to have the entire city to myself but for one scant team of archaeologists. The sight is enormous and desolate as a wind swept heath. Yet a heath is english and wet. Hattussas is a pinnacle steppe of Asia minor and arid; and the late August hues of stone, sky, cloud, grasses and scrub brush reminded me so much of the shape and colors of my home in the new world across the Atlantic. The onset light of Autumn was crystal in the air and I wept a little as I recalled some Walt Whitman poems being similar to Rumi. Alas I could write a book about my wanderings and ponderings there & of how homesick I became as I found and drank from that spring. Being alone in Turkey is fun (surrounded by millions of strangers) until it is not anymore when you are in a solitude in the loneliness and oldest place you have ever been.

[@OrchestrationOnline]

I favour the hypothesis that the Achaeans attacked Troy in order to control the Strait of the Dardanelles - stupidly not realising that the Trojans had developed a large network of allies, familial connections, and trade relations across the region, upon which control relied. Once the Trojans were defeated, the Achaeans plundered the wealth of the city, which didn't give them enough capital to maintain the same kind of military force to guard the Strait - at which point, the peoples around the Black Sea who were being displaced by drought advanced southwards, easily overwhelming the Achaean guard on the Strait, and pushed into Asia Minor and Mycenae. This in turn destabilised all those kingdoms, causing many of them to collapse and be overrun. Some Achaean city-states may have already committed much of their resources in alliances with other Mediterranean states to assault and then resettle parts of Egypt and Canaan - and with their ships and warriors absent, their ports may have been easily taken by the Dorian invaders. Or the Dorians contributed pressure that motivated a mass relocation. Probably both in many cases.

[@Jorge-cf6xk]

Well done! I will subscribe. Thank you. Nice visuals and verbal descriptions!

[@edmundgrondine4393]

Very nice. We now know from tree rings that a climate collapse occurred in 1197 BCE. This may seem speculative to you, but this climate collapse was likely brought on by an impact in the Atlantic Ocean which shut down the Atlantic Conveyor current. So not only was there a climate collapse, the tin trade no longer took place so there was no way to trade tin for food. The ship borne trade had been wiped out. A nice summary of the records. Once again, thank you for this summary.

[@jpdj2715]

The simple explanation, in my thinking, is the Santorini volcanic eruption that may have been more powerful than Krakatoa (Indonesia, was heard in South Africa). It caused a tsunami of some 30 meters high (98.4 feet). That wiped out coastal settlements, harbours, ships, and the people with it. It also released into the atmosphere a huge amount of dust that made the sky darker, the temperature cooler, and brought more rain. Imagine a shipwright higher up a hilly landscape along a river, above the 30 meters elevation. Call that man "Noah". We know from the Egyptian pharaohs that one of them sent his son to uncover the source of amber, because amber was an important amulet but the pharaoh felt he had to pay too much for it. That son went from Egypt to Crete, then the Balkan, Northern Italy, across the Alps (Switzerland), and proceeded through Germany (completely forested) to the Baltic region. Where he could buy loads of amber for little money because all the middle men had been cut out. In my imagination, Crete was a middle man in the sea routes before the tsunami. Copper from Spain or tin from England - trade routes already existed and ships bringing goods from England also brought goods to it. All barter trade. Crete must have been very wealthy from taking a % of that. Then the tsunami wiped it all out and the later sea peoples needed ages to build seafaring expertise again, reinvent trade and routes, and return goods. That was not a relatively peaceful trading thing any longer: sea peoples. By the way, in other Germanic languages, amber is called "burn stone". It burns when you light it. And, indeed, it's not stone. Leonard Bernstein (burn stone). In my thinking, the name of the Swiss city of Bern may have been a reference to it being an amber trade station a couple thousand years ago - the association of the city with a "bear" may just be hysterical (historically improper).

[@thomasmalacky7864]

Its BC not bce

[@edmundgrondine4393]

@@thomasmalacky7864Foe me BCE. Feel free to use BC for yourself.

[@BigNews2021]

@@thomasmalacky7864 Nah, BCE is preferable

[@Dragonette666]

@@jpdj2715 Santorini gets blamed for the end of the Minoans and the end of Troy, but I think it was a few centuries before either group fell apart.

[@davidgonzalez-herrera2980]

Can you please do more videos like this? You have a great narration skill and I believe over time more views will come. Thus exponentially growing the channel.

[@billthomas7644]

IMO the sack of Hattusa was just an episode of the Trojan war. Homer even recounts the "sea people" attack against Egypt in the Odyssey. The final part was civil war among the Achaeans.

[@minka866]

Homer talk about sea people? I have seen just egipties talking about him

[@billthomas7644]

@@minka866 Read the part of the Odyssey where Odysseus in disguise tells the swine herd about his adventures in Egypt. It is very close to the Egyptian description of the Sea People attack.

[@BlueSwampyCraft]

@@mukan9 do we know exactly if Hattusa was abandoned before or after the fall of Troy VII?

[@mukan9]

Sea people invasion of Hattusa doesnt seem to be logical. Sea people are seafaring people they only attacked areas that are closer to sea. Hattusa is not closer to Sea. Sea people ability to move inlands of Anatolia dont seem to be understandable. They will need a lot of horse, chariots etc. I dont think they had it. By walking it takes to much time and I dont think they had enough food for their travel. There was a famine in Anatolia at that time. Last Hittite king 2nd Suppiluliuma and noble class escaped from Hattusa by taking valuable materials and documents before the city was destroyed beginning of 12th century BC. Sea peoples are temporary attackers so, after sack of Hattusa Hittite nobles should have been returned back. I dont understand why they didnt come back to reset the city. Hattusa didnt resided by any tribes until Phrygians arrival at 800 BC (400 years later).

[@sauravsahu676]

@@billthomas7644 when did homer ever mention Egypt? besides the real Helen being in Egypt i have no knowledge of homer talking of it

[@seasnutz9741]

Thanks man, love your videos.

[@1cathexis]

I've been interested in the Homeric Question for a long time and enjoyed your video very much. I would really appreciate it if you would post your sources (maybe with links?) for the information you related. It doesn't matter if paper, video, or personal opinion; I would like you to be specific. If you haven't already read it, "Homer's Landscapes," by J.V. Luce goes a long way to demonstrating that however much of the Illiad was fiction invented by Homer he almost certainly had first-hand knowledge of the geography he was writing about. Fans of the Illiad will be surprised at how much that is assumed to be artistic license is actually rooted in real, identifiable places. A neat read! Well-made and illustrated book as well.Thank you for this post!

[@ShamanKish]

Poetry is cognitive tool. Myths and epics served the purpose of collecting knowledge and keeping it in one place.

[@ConradoMaleta]

Please read FROM HITTITE TO HOMER. THE ANATOLIAN BACKGROUND OF ANCIENT GREEK EPIC by Mary Bachvarova. And im sorry to tell you but this video is super .... well....

[@ConradoMaleta]

And Homer didnt invent the Illiad or the Odissey. No, didnt happen. He adapted to greek metrics a group of stories alreasy hellenized from north syria and hittite-hurrian origins. Some of them as old as 2300BC. Some of them with a plot basically identical to the homeric texts. Etc etc.

[@1cathexis]

Well, that's the theory held by some. But there's nothing in the way of the absolute certainty, as you assert. Yes, she is on my TBR list. Many cultures have similar myths, such as the Flood Myth. But that doesn't mean they were all the product of ancient Sumer. I agree that Homer was a real person and he made use of the existing bardic stock tales as a source for his compositions, but that doesn't mean he was a plagerist or did not create a brilliant set of compositions. Also, please note that the Hittite diplomatic records seem to support the idea that Greeks were warring against Anatolian states during this supposed time of the Trojan War. So even if the "tale" appeared first in Syrio-Hittite culture, it still involved the Greeks. But, I am sure you suggest interesting ideas and the book is likely a good read. Thx for your reply.@@ConradoMaleta

[@DemetriosKongas]

Ethiopian in Greek means burned face. Etho =burn and ops= face

[@achilles7607]

That's grotesquely beautiful.

[@macbatz6734]

@mukan9 " the sea people" is a generic term for a loose coalition of many different origins, and egyptian Reliefs show them often with ox carts carrying women and children. They were part of a major Migration movement , not some raiders or pirates like the vikings much later. (And even the vikings turned to settlement fairly soon...) . The bronze age collapse was akin to the migrations of germanic tribes 1500 years later that put an end ti the roman Empire.

[@alienlife7754]

I never knew the Hittites participated in the Trojan war. All I knew of them has always been tied to their conflicts with Egypt. But now I see how the Trojans would have been a pretty important trade partner for them.

[@TheRealTomahawk]

You’re the first person I’ve heard say that mythological king Priam is Piyamaradu the Hittite vassal or king. I like to watch wanax TV and he talked about Piyamaradu who is always fighting against the enemies of the Mycenaeans. Eventually he died but I wasn’t told how. I wouldn’t be surprised if he got killed in Troy.

[@mercianthane2503]

Priam is still a mythological chracter. He must be compared to Dhritarashtra from the Mahabharata, father of the Kauravas (the equivalent force to the Trojans). Yet, the name Priam has its basis in Piyamaradu.

[@TyZaTube]

Great video!

[@abdullamawlood5688]

Aga Mamnon means the leader Mamnon. We are still using the word "Aga" as some one gentleman or rich or head of tribe. The word "awa" like "arzawa" we are Kurd using it for area, ditrict or neighbourhooh. peaple were living in those area actualy Kurds.

[@geoffreyM2TW]

The problems with your reasoning are (1) Turkish was not spoken in the ancient world, (2) If Aga meant king, then everyone would be Aga according to Homer, AgaAchilles, AgaOdysseus, AgaMenelaus, AgaPriam, etc, but this is not the case, it is only the case with Agamemnon, (3) Greek/Mycenean personal names containing the noun agon usually indicate a leader or military leader (Agis, Agesilaus, Archagetas, Hagetas). Then the question is what Memnon might have stood for, if the name was a compound of Agon + Memnon. Another viewer proposed an etymology from agan and medomai : very steadfast. It is a possibility but (a) the original name should have been Agamedon and that name is not attested and (b) seems an unusual name and it is also strange that Agamemnon's name was not recognised to mean "very steadfast" in the classical period. On the other hand, Homer refers to Agamemnon as leader of kings and he is well known with that epithet, so it would make more sense that Memnon is a word meaning king or something similar in some unknown Bronze Age language or dialect.

[@christosvoskresye]

4:31 You lose a lot of crediblity when you refer to "the Hammurabi of biblical texts". Hammurabi is not found in Biblical texts, nor was he the author of any flood myth.

[@az-wr1lb]

It's strange the way events unfold sometimes. I speculated about the nature of the seas peoples in another KZbin video several months ago. Today this video appears on my KZbin stream

[@Mr.56Goldtop]

What city is at 22:02?

[@secularstones]

Nice vid. The relief you point at looks Hittite, but it is not really Hittite, it is Arzawan, according to modern research. I think that is a small difference. But either way, whether it is Hittitie or Arzawan, the facts are these: Herodotus was wrong about it being Egyptian. And the local people Herodotus reports on, who believed that it depicted Memnon, are also wrong, because it is not a king from east of Sardis, but a king from west of Sardis.

[@geoffreyM2TW]

Thanks for the thoughtful comments! The lands were Arzawan, but is that a depiction of an Arzawan king? The Hittites at one point in the past had raided Mesopotamia. So the overlord of the Hittite world may have been remembered as a king who had come back from Sousa or Mesopotamia, having conquered those lands. Or perhaps the Anatolian kings had intermarried over time and Memnon was a stereotype of Anatolian/Hittite or related royals. An epithet like Ethiopian (one who has the appearance of Heavens) would have been too much for Agamemnon, but was not for Memnon (it is curious that the word Memnon is also in Agamemnon).

[@secularstones]

@@geoffreyM2TW The image is known as the Karabel Pass Relief. Sadly, it was destroyed in 2019. A Turkish article about it (that did translate to English for me using google translate): arkeofili.com/defineciler-karabel-kaya-kabartmasini-parcaladi/ The wiki article on the karabel pass relief says that the inscription on the monument gave the name of the king of Mira, along with his father and grandfather. I am surprised you did not mention the size of Memnon's army. There would have been few kings who could have brought such a large army.

[@geoffreyM2TW]

@@secularstones - I had not realised the relief was destroyed. What a shame! I also did not know that the inscription had been deciphered. I still think it might be possible that the rulers of some of the Hittite vassals had intermarried into Hittite royalty.

[@deanfirnatine7814]

@@geoffreyM2TW Intermarriage with vassal royalty is almost certain

[@joek600]

@@geoffreyM2TW AΓΑΜΕΜΝΩΝ= AΓΑN excessive, + MΕΜΝΩΝ (participle of the verb ''I stay'') insisting, remaining. In a free translation ot could mean the one that is extremely stubborn or fixed on a cause. Ethiopia litteraly means land of the (sun)burned faces. ΑΙΘΙΟΠΙΑ= ΑΙΘΩ (Ι Burn) + ΟΨΙΣ (opsis)(Face)

[@bensondavido4525]

Very interesting. Great video. I’ve never heard this translation of the name Aethiopian that way but it makes sense in the story. I always thought Memnon was a memory of the 25th dynasty of Egypt one of the Kushite dynasty’s that ruled Egypt. But it makes way more sense that Memnon was a Hittite King related to the royal family of Troy coming to the aid of Priam. Have you ever read of the alternative versions of the Trojan war where Helen and Alexander stayed in Egypt and Troy is actually Egypt?

[@geoffreyM2TW]

As Troy has been found and agrees geographically with the description found in Homer and as the other settlements mentioned have mostly been identified, it is unlikely there is a complete confusion with an attack on a fortified city in Egypt. There are mentions in the epics of attacks on Egypt by the Achaeans, including one by Menelaus, but these are peripheral to the central story of the Iliad.

[@MrMalvolio29]

The archaeological , historical, *and* literary problem with your theory is that the Achaeans/Mycenaean Culture end up appearing as *both* the perpetrators of the great Bronze Age Collapse *and* as *victims* of that collapse…For in Homer, for example, Nestor, an Achaean helping besiege the Hittite vassal-state of Ilium, is the king of *Pylos,* an Achaean/Mycenaean citadel/port/city we know from archaeology to have been sacked during the Bronze Age Collapse (like *every* major Mycenaean site). Perhaps you should not be so dismissive of the idea that the so-called “Sea Peoples” were at least partially responsible for the Collapse. We know there had been drought and famine throughout the Mediterranean basin in the last yrs of the Bronze Age; we also know from Egyptian texts from the reign of Pharaoh Rameses III (who defeated the Sea Peoples in the Nile Delta) that the “Sea Peoples” were actually a loose confederacy of *many* different ethnic groups from throughout the Mediterranean who had been displaced by the threat of starvation brought on by climate change. The account in THE ILIAD is doubtlessly a mythopoetic attempt to explain the convulsive and widespread socioeconomic and political changes and migrations of peoples at the end of the Bronze Age, but the text invariably represents Achaea (Mycenaean Greece) as a peaceful, *stable* place from which the ten-yr assault on Asia Minor had been launched, and we *know* this was not true. THE ILIAD additionally claims that Classical-Age Greek city-states not yet in existence in the 13th and 12th centuries BCE (such as Athens and Sparta) sent troops to aid in the attack on Asia Minor and the siege of Ilium, yet this is obviously the fancy of a later traveling rhapsode that was recorded in a later written Classical-Greek literary culture preserving random pieces of a largely lost oral-tradition in the 8th and 7th centuries BCE. It is unwise and folly to try to disentangle fact from fiction in a mythopoetic text such as the ILIAD or from the even later *nostoi* such as THE ODYSSEY. Your etymological and linguistic analyses *are*--it must be conceded--intriguing.

[@Zenmyster]

Events do turn into stories. There was no such thing as the six o'clock news. Just travelling players telling stories, and if the current story is boring; either embellish or get a new one. A poet like a Homer would have worked the same way

[@gamelot12093]

Question: If the Trojans were vassals of the Hittites, why didn't they help Troy during the siege? My opinion is that, given a Trojan leader called Piyamaradu is mentioned as a rebel, who had fled to territory of the "Ahhayiwa" (possibly the Mycaneans/Achaeans), the Hittites may have felt they didn't owe them any help. The Hittites may have been glad that the Trojans had fallen out with the Mycaneans.

[@geoffreyM2TW]

Yes, that is probably true, however, the previous attack on Teuthrania would have been an attack on another Hittite vassal in Asia and the Hittites might have been involved in that siege if they were the Ceteans mentioned in the epics and/or if the Hittite Telepinu was the Homeric Telephus defending Teuthrania. The 10 year war against Troy starts with an initial attack on Teuthrania, allegedly 9 years before the siege of Troy and the Iliad also says that Lyrnessus had been besieged among other settlements that were either belonging to Troy or were Hittite vassals. Even if the Hittites had abandoned the Trojans, they may have been involved in the broader context of those wars. My argument is that they are present in the epic cycle as opponents of the Achaeans, even if they were not strictly speaking defending the Trojans.

[@johnord684]

You shoud read David Gemmill's Trojan series ,fantastic read.

[@douglaskingsman2565]

But really great on the Hatti statue, probably of the Storm-God.

[@BlueSwampyCraft]

Hatti?

[@RC15O5]

@@BlueSwampyCraft Hatti, another word for Hittites. The capital city of the Hatti was Hatusa.

[@binxbolling]

Could the sea people have been Ionians and Dorians?

[@Celtokee]

Exceptionally well done. Convincing.

[@davidaulds7031]

The Sea Peoples were one of the Main factors. They not only were looking for New Lands to start over on, but they were looking wealth as well.

[@gold333]

Wiluša is pronounced Wilusha in Hittite, not Wilusa

[@vespasian266]

I think we need to look at the expansion of the indo europeans moving into southern europe pushing those already there into systematic collapse..

[@josegregoriocontrerasvarga5693]

There any book of this history?

[@M.athematech]

Something that historians need to re-examine is the actual location of Carchemish. What you show on your map is the location according to 19th century revisionists who dismissed the traditional identification with Circesium arguing that the latter name is Latin while ignoring that this Latin is based on the presumably older Greek name Kirkesion and that the elements Circe/Kirke- are cognates with Carche- denoting an encircling protective fortress, just as noticeable to Greeks and Romans as to later linguists. All the evidence points to the 19th century identification actually being Tapsuhu / Thapsacus / Tiphsah not identical to Carchemish but presumably part of the Kingdom of Carchemish which covered a considerable region. (Note that modern day Karkamis is the Turkish era village of Yunis presumptuosly renamed by politicians which actually lies a distance west of the Thapsacus site. Touching the Thapsacus site is actually Jarabus (Europas) which is clearly a rebuilding of the destroyed earlier site and addionally historically identified as the successor city of Thapsacus. Here more confusion comes in as Jarabus is also referred to (now even officially) as Jarabulus despite this actually being a corruption of a different name Hierapolis, which is a different location viz. Manbij. Additionally a corrupt copy of Pliny led to a misconception that Europas has subsequently been renamed Amphipolis when this is merely yet another city listed along a route.)

[@geoffreyM2TW]

That's an interesting idea.

[@M.athematech]

A further point. Historians don't necessarily deny that the site of the forerunner of Jarabus/Europas is Thapsacus, they instead have the bizarre view that Thapsacus was another name for Carchemish. This would mean that two different names were in use during the same era of history which is unlikely. In the OT we have mention of both Thapsacus / Tiphsah and Carchemish and an interesting thing to note is that Carchemish is described as being on the P'rath (Euphrates) while Tiphsah is descibed as being on the Nahar (River). The OT never uses P'rath/Euphrates for the Upper and Middle Euphrates north of where it joins with the Khabur - it uses it for the river south of this point and for the Khabur itself whose name comes from the term Habor (Confluence) of the river Euphrates, which in the OT does not denote the actual Khabur but the series of streams such as the Gozan river that flow together to form it and which imply that the joint Khabur itself was viewed as the principal stream of the Euphrates and called such. (The term Euphrates one finds used in various works throughout history inconsistently for the Firat/Upper Euphrates, Karasu, Murat, Sajur, Balikh and the Khabur). In the OT the Firat/Upper Euphrates before joining the Khabur is always called Nahar and the term Naharaim in the area name Aram Naharaim also refers to this (the term does not mean Mesopotamia). The Thapsacus site is indeed on the Upper Euphrates / Nahar , while Circesium is indeed on the Euphrates proper / P'rath, supporting my contention that Thapsacus and Carchemish are distinct with the traditional identification with Circesium being correct.

[@Mr.56Goldtop]

It seems incredible and nearly impossible for a group like the "sea peoples" to sack all of those powerful cities

[@AetherNoble]

Just look at our world today and imagine what would happen if you no longer had 3 meals a day. People would fan out in all directions but due to the lack of food, total societal collapse will happen. Even if farmers started over, it would take at least a season before anything was harvested, meanwhile people starve after about 1-2 weeks.

[@alanb8884]

I get the impression that perhaps the Sea People were pillaging Achilles and his ilk.

[@douglaskingsman2565]

Too many ungrounded associations & speculations. Ammurapi of Ugarit is much, much later than Hammurabi of the Babylonian Amorites. The Hittite king was still communicating with the king of Ugarit. The latter was a vassal-king so there was no war between them. In fact, Ugarit troops and navy were busy protecting the Hittites. Whoever attacked Ugarit was unknown both to Alasiya and to Ugarit so the polyglot so-called Peoples of the Sea remain the best candidates. Citing Huxley (1960), very dated. Please catch up with Trevor Bryce.

[@geoffreyM2TW]

Yes about Hammurabi, I was thinking of the name - you are right about the timeframe. About Ugarit and the Hittites, we do not have enough of the history. Of course I was speculating and Ugarit was possibly attacked by the Sea Peoples when it was destroyed but why was the fleet away? If the Sea Peoples were the threat, the fleet of Ugarit would have stayed at home, so there must have been a different threat.

[@douglaskingsman2565]

@@geoffreyM2TW The fleet was away on the orders of Suppiluliuma II, the Great King of the Hittites. It was still engaging against the invaders at Alasiya (or maybe joining them) and in Lukka lands. It's a novel idea that the Hittites attacked Ugarit, but why would they attack their own vassal kingdom when they need it for its navy and merchant ships? No one at the time had any idea of the identity of this new "enemy" for they were not from any single nation. Ammurapi sought help from the Hittites but th “Among the hardened clay tablets found burnt & hardened in Ugarit: There is an urgent message to Ammurapi, the last Ugarit king, from ‘My Majesty, your lord’. From that, it is clear that the message is from the Great King of the Hittites. ... The message opens with the customary ‘With the My Majesty, all is well’, but Ammurapi is not even accorded the ... good wishes which custom demands, and is berated for his failure to come to the Hittite court to do his obeisance as vassal. However, the message acknowledges that Ammurapi has sent food and supplies to the Hittites at great privation to himself. Most important, the damaged text contains words about an enemy...: “‘The enemy advances against me and there is no number. ... our number is ... . send whatever is available, look to it and send it to me’.” -Manuel Robbins, *Collapse of the Bronze Age: The Story of Greece, Troy, Israel, Egypt, and the Peoples of the Sea*, 2001, p. 201, (Robbins is citing from Tablet: RS-18.39: C. A. Schaeffer, *Mission de Ras Shamra- Tomb XI. Palas d’Ugarit*. Paris: Library Klincksieck, p. 62.) The Hittite vassal-king in Carchemish responds to a plea for help from Ammurapi with verbal upbraiding but offers nothing concrete: “As for what you have written me: ‘Ships of the enemy have been seen at sea!’ Well, you must remain firm. Indeed for your part, where are your troops, your chariots stationed? Are they not stationed near you? No? Behind the enemy, who press upon you? Surround your towns with ramparts. Have your troops and chariots enter there, and await the the enemy with great resolution!” -Trevor Bryce, & Adam Hook, illustrations, *Hittite Warrior*. Osprey Publishing, 2007, p. 47. (Bryce cites from: C. A. Schaeffer (J. Nougayrol et al., trans), *Ugartica V. Mission de Ras Shamra* Tome XVI (Paris, 1968), pp. 85-86, No. 23.) Anyway, good video over all, and it's always interesting to raise questions. Respectfuilly, DK

[@ConradoMaleta]

Agree. Video is not good.

[@ricardomartins286]

From what game/mod is the video from

[@supremrtn]

The war of troy was for the Achaeans probably the most important event ever, and it's not for nothing. Probably the father of Agamemnon started the war, but died or something. Then as peace treaties were being established, Paris kidnaped Helen and the war became even bigger. They raided the Mediterranean coast, and as it became lucrative other minor allies joint. No ship no soldiers to protect your cities ? Haha Crazy times. 10 year of total war from the Achaeans weakened their ennemies but also them self. Dorians came to fill the void, the rest is history.

[@geoffreyM2TW]

My feeling is that comes close to what has happened. If Priam was Piyamaradhu, at some point when he was ousted by the Hittites, it is said in a tablet that he took refuge with the Ahiyawa across the sea, which may be how his son Paris became a guest of Menelaus in Sparta. The vassal king the Hittites put in place of Piyamaradhu was murdered, at which point probably Priam returned to Troy as king, with Paris probably eloping with Helen of Sparta to Troy sometime after.

[@brettmuir5679]

Is there not a Hittite stella in central Syria near the battlefield of Kadesh where Egyptians and Hittites clashed? The high kingdoms of Egypt and the Hittites were equals yet we remember Egypt pirmarily bacause they built in stone and the Hittites built in clay bricks. 3500 years has not been kind to the memory of the Hittites. Thank the storm god that the Hittite library was burned and the clay tablets were baked into ceramic.

[@geraldpoole274]

Sea people were from ireland/scotland... tuathdedanan

[@Fatherofheroesandheroines]

So why were they even in the MEDITERRANEAN...that makes no sense.

[@mercianthane2503]

Lmao what the fuck?

[@brettmuir5679]

Tin. Tin was abundant in Britain and they were seafaring people. Bronze Age people had an abundance of copper in Anatolia but lacked Tin. Call it ancient capitalism

[@MichaelLeBlanc-p4f]

Read a saga (ca 30 yrs ago) about what I believe were the 3rd group (?) to settle Ireland. Had origins in Black Sea area, involved with Troy, then Egypt, then Spain, where from a tower they espied Ireland and then conquored it. Sure wish I could find the story again. Believe a monk recorded it ca mid 700s.

[@MichaelLeBlanc-p4f]

​@@FatherofheroesandheroinesSee below

[@ConradoMaleta]

Please read FROM HITTITE TO HOMER. THE ANATOLIAN BACKGROUND OF ANCIENT GREEK EPIC by Mary Bachvarova. After that and several other books u should redo this video

[@carlosaugustodinizgarcia3526]

Great video.Strange that a relation between Hittites and Aethiopia never crossed scholars minds. Some greek writers as Diodorus Siculus argued that Memnon was a Assyrian general and that eastern empire was once overlord of all Anatolia. If you change Assyria for Hittite empire it would match the information. It would not be the only occasion where greek writers mixed the history of different empires.Ninus of Assyria was supposed to be the first emperor of Mesopotamia and had the same role as Sargon the great .

[@douglaskingsman2565]

O please.

[@uncannyvalley2350]

12 heroes 12 villains. Troy is an astrological allegory, the venom snake that bites Philostetes' ankle is used to strike Archilles heel. This is a description of Eradinus and Orion. Paris is also a name for Taurus and Pleiades, (Par and Isis) ie the the Golden Gate, where souls enter the underworld. The battle of Troy also occurs at the same time as Solomon and his battles with Akkad, and the famous battle of Ur and Carchemish, seems to me the Hittites became the Assyrians, the Ugarites Phoenicians. In fact Troy Babylon may have been Tyre Lebanon, as it shares a great many similarities, and is just offshore from Urshu Shalom, City of the New Moon, the root word of Jerusalem. Even israel is the Phoenician name for Saturn, or El, Fruit of isis and Ra. The island Philostetes is shipwrecked on is Lemnos, associated with the cult of Hephaestus and the Brazen Serpent. The ship he sails with the Argonauts is also a constellation.

[@joebombero1]

You have to read "The Secret Code of the Odyssey". You will love it.

[@minka866]

You travel so far!

[@binxbolling]

You're reaching.

[@taylorhubenthal17]

It’s also said that the return of Odysseus back to Ithaca from his Odyssey coincided with a solar eclipse around 1178 BC.

[@Opa-Leo]

Ilion NOT Ilios

[@muadhib001]

1.25X speed is perfect

[@RyanLahiff-l9e]

I think there may be evidence that Hittites were recorded in Greek mythology as the Amazons. It's not my original theory, but it really adds up.

[@kungfulegend8222]

I believe having read somewhere that according to Hittite texts, the Kaska people were described as being patrimonial and matrimonial. Hercules voyage to Colchis with the Argonauts tells us that the Amazons lived between Sinope and Colchis which also corresponds to the lands of the Kaska.

[@Fatherofheroesandheroines]

Hammurabi can't be from Ugarit. He was Babylonian.

[@geoffreyM2TW]

I was thinking of the ethnic origin of the name

[@eleftherialogou]

Homeros doesn't mention Hittites isn't it interesting ?

[@armandberan9739]

find a speaker

[@kristakaufman-y6j]

all of you get it wrong it is so obvious when you fail by adding modern day borders as the ancient ones did not fit where current border are realize this fact.

[@markfred9778]

you leave out the united kingdom of Israel on your maps Egyptian sources of the time use that name....

[@PeaceRespect-m9q]

We should not confuse Homer's Mythical Trojan war with the historical war of Wilusa. They are not the same. Hittites did NOT play a role in Homer's epic the Iliad and the Trojan war.

[@geoffreyM2TW]

Why do you think the Hittites did not play a role when they are mentioned by name in the Iliad?

[@PeaceRespect-m9q]

​​​​​​@@geoffreyM2TW they are Not mentioned in the Iliad. Homer never mentioned "by name" as you say Hittites nor does he mention Wilusa. The word Hittite and Wilusa don't NOT exist in Homer's epic poem the Iliad. Simple. What are you talking about?? Have you ever read Homer's Iliad??

[@PeaceRespect-m9q]

​​​​​@@geoffreyM2TW like I said before. You are mixing history with mythology. Homer's Iliad has nothing to do with the historical events that happened 300 before Homer. The Iliad is a Hellenic myth based on Hellenic Mythology and related to Hellenic culture. Not a documented historical event. Was Homer inspired by that great war that took place 300 years ago? Probably. But that doesn't mean that the Trojans in Homer's epic poem are Hittites. The Iliad is a Hellenic mythical approach from the views of the Hellens and Homer himself. Not a historical event. Like I said before, Homer never mentions by name the Hittites or Wilusa.

[@PeaceRespect-m9q]

​​​@@geoffreyM2TWplus may I also add 10:30 the letters you are presenting as Greek or Hittite is not Greek or Hittite. Those are Latin letters. In Greek it would be "Τέλεφος" or "Τήλεφος". You are using Latin to support your argument but it doesn't work that way. In order to justify and validate your argument, you have to take the words from their original ancient mother language not by using modern English. You are literally confusing and mixing everything together.

[@geoffreyM2TW]

@@PeaceRespect-m9q - It looks like you have not read the Iliad and you have also not watched my video. The Hittites are mentioned in the Iliad. Phi did not exist at the time as the original poems were not in Attic, but the epic cycle poems as rendered in Attic are still approximately the same language. Instead of the letter phi. there is a pi followed by eta in archaic Greek scripts (or just a pi), so Telephus is close enough to Telepinu, it would be almost unrealistic to hope for anything more similar. In any case, these are the views of experts in the field collected into one narrative. If you disagree, start a new line of research in Bronze Age archaeology and invent other theories of your own.

[@michaeltriantafyllou4642]

Ethiopia in Greek means the country of dark skinned people and is referenced already in Homer. If the ignorance of the authors of this video on this topic is a sign, you can ignore all the rest of the "historical truths" it purports to report.

[@Kidraver555]

The collapse of all the empires at about the same time points to plague.

[@siegfriedlechler7412]

About this time, 1100 BC, Troy was an Assyrian colony, Assyrian had an army of 20,000 men, under the commander Memnon, at Troy. The rest of the Hittites were Assyrian around this time. The Hittites and the Assyrians were related. They all came from the second wife of Abraham the Kethura = Chattu = Het, and the Asshurim.

[@nikosatsaves3141]

Trojan war never happened, it was actually a tale about the wrath of Achilles that was later on enriched with ficticious hollow horses and stuff but miracusly Hittites were involved.

[@user-dw9vq9vd9f]

No offense buddy, but the way you read is very annoying. To much stress is put on you "T's" and "S's", you read like you're whispering. I'm assuming you're from England, probably north of London. Other than that you've get some interesting evidence, but I don't believe the Hittites participated in the battle of Trojan war. Madison Grant in particular mentions the invasions of the Achaeans, Dorian Spartans, and _Danaoi_ around 1194 or 1184 B.C., so that is pretty close to the date you gave of 1183 B.C.

[@FergusJohnston]

Your comment is an offensive comment. Here is another one, and no offence, "Buddy" : The reader has an accent which could only be taken by an ignoramus to be an English accent, when it is obvious that the reader is not a native speaker of English. If someone's accent causes you so much offence, turn on the subtitles and turn down the sound - Or maybe you can't read?

[@oldskoolafc]

i'm a londoner born and bred and can tell you [100%] that the narrator is not english [let alone from north london].

[@BlueSwampyCraft]

you should've just shut up. what a stupid comment.

[@GoGreen1977]

I'm an American and this man definitely is not a native English speaker.

[@tbq011]

The hitties are ancient greeks from Crete !

[@ThakurKunalSingh-wg5kp]

And I thought Hitler was a Hittite.

[@Morph3as]

Its nice to know that the Hittites had Greek names so they were consequently Greeks !

[@soiah]

Back then there were no Greeks, only the people(Aheans etc) that were yet to mix with the locals and become Greeks. Therfore the correct affirmation would be: Greeks have Hitit names therefore Hitit culture must have had a huge influence.

[@Morph3as]

@@soiah so if that`s true what does Hellas, Pelasgos, Makedon, Eleutheria mean in the Hittite language ?

[@soiah]

@@Morph3as Pelasgians were the locals that I am speaking of.

[@pandemonium7120]

@@soiah your 'correct affirmation' is ludicrous! ludicrous (adjective: causing laughter because of absurdity; provoking or deserving derision; ridiculous; laughable)

[@danielmclaughlin5546]

What qualifies a nation as being an empire? The so called Hittite Empire is about the size of Bulgaria. Let's just call it a country.

[@a.morina3845]

well ....i you want to learn about Ancient History first you have to forget the word "greece" !