Product Description

In this book Joachim Latacz turns the spotlight of modern research on the much-debated question of whether the wealthy city of Troy described by Homer in the Iliad was a poetic fiction or a memory of historical reality. Earlier excavations at the hill of Hisarlik, in Turkey, on the Dardanelles, brought no answer, but in 1988 a new archaeological enterprise, under the direction of Manfred Korfmann, led to a radical shift in understanding. Latacz, one of Korfmann's closest collaborators, traces the course of these excavations, and the renewed investigation of the imperial Hittite archives they have inspired. As he demonstrates, it is now clear that the background against which the plot of the Iliad is acted out is the historical reality of the thirteenth century BC. The Troy story as a whole must have arisen in this period, and we can detect traces of it in Homer's great poem.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #431765 in Books
• Published on: 2004-10-28
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 362 pages

Times Literary Supplement, April 15, 2005
This story is well told, with excellent maps, chronological tables and illustations: the reader is kept on tenterhooks throughout.

Review
...intellectually challenging. (Ian Rutherford, Journal of Hellenic Studies )

spellbinding ... Latacz's Troy and Homer offers undergraduates, graduates, and professors a compelling synthesis that whets our desire to learn more. (Adele J. Haft, Scripta Classica Israelica )

This is a vigorous, lucid, up-to-date and, on the whole, convincing book...it is destined to become a classic for our time. (Dr Donald F. Easton, Minerva )

The story is well told, with excellent maps, chronological tables and illustrations; the reader is kept on tenterhooks throughout. (TLS )

Joachim Latacz, the best Homeric scholar writing in German, brings the field up to date. The story is well told, with excellent maps, chronological tables and illustrations; the reader is kept on tenterhooks throughout. He draws attention to, and revives, the insights, many long since neglected, of scholars in the ancient world itself. (TLS )

Latacz's book is a substantial contribution (Joshua T. Katz, Journal of the American Oriental Society, 125.3 )

[Latacz's] expositions bring clarity to many problems, and scholars of Antiquity, too, both young and old, will find ample instruction herein. (G.L. Huxley, Hermathena, Vol. 179 )

Here is to be found much intellectual reward for readers who persevere; many of them will wish to keep a copy of Troy and Homer on their shelves. (G.L. Huxley, Hermathena, Vol. 179 )

About the Author
Joachim Latacz is Professor Emeritus at the University of Basel.

Customer Reviews

Thorough and Enjoyable
This is a really exciting book. Those who, like me, were inspired by Michael Wood's brilliant TV series and book, In Search of the Trojan War, will find here a more rigorous, academic approach but with conclusions that will leave you just as awed.

I wouldn't recommend this as an introduction to the subject, but for those who are already aware of the debate about the historicity of the Trojan War this book provides a comprehensive overview of the latest evidence adding to the slowly building consensus that the Trojan War, in some form, was a historical event.

The return of Troy to a history beyond myth
This is a completely compelling book, well argued and exceptionally well presented (by both the author and translator).

Latacz takes the reader on a journey that presents the evidence, so far a-massed, for the reality of Troy / Ilios and its place in history as opposed to the oft supposed fiction of the city ignited by Homer's epic.

With deviations into philology, ancient history, regional geography and linguistics the chapters build the body of evidence that gets tantalisingly close to declaring the Trojan War a reality. But being an academic Latacz falls short, thankfully, of over-stating his case by stretching or fantasising the evidence to fill the final void that would conclusively prove the 'war' or its consequences. However, his explanation and presentation of the latest thinking and research is genuinely exciting, intellectually stimulating and enlightening (I spent as long looking up references as I did reading the book). This book is a MUST for all lay classicists and students of ancient history.

Literary approach to the Trojan War
I purchased and used this book while studying the Trojan War as part my Ancient History studies and found it most useful. Latacz tackles the question of the reality of the war from the literary perspective (i.e. as described in the epic poetry attributed to Homer).

Even without the study excuse, I found the book fascinating reading.