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The Trojan War: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions) Illustrated Edition

by Eric H. Cline (Author)
4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 269 ratings
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The Iliad, Homer's epic tale of the abduction of Helen and the decade-long Trojan War, has fascinated mankind for millennia. Even today, the war inspires countless articles and books, extensive archaeological excavations, movies, television documentaries, even souvenirs and collectibles. But while the ancients themselves believed that the Trojan War took place, scholars of the modern era have sometimes derided it as a piece of fiction.

Combining archaeological data and textual analysis of ancient documents, this Very Short Introduction considers whether or not the war actually took place and whether archaeologists have really discovered the site of ancient Troy. To answer these questions, archaeologist and ancient historian Eric H. Cline examines various written sources, including the works of Homer, the Epic Cycle (fragments from other, now-lost Greek epics), classical plays, and Virgil's Aeneid. Throughout, the author tests the literary claims against the best modern archaeological evidence, showing for instance that Homer, who lived in the Iron Age, for the most part depicted Bronze Age warfare with accuracy. Cline also tells the engaging story of the archaeologists--Heinrich Schliemann and his successors Wilhelm Dörpfeld, Carl Blegen, and Manfred Korfmann--who found the long-vanished site of Troy through excavations at Hisarlik, Turkey.

Drawing on evidence found at Hisarlik and elsewhere, Cline concludes that a war or wars in the vicinity of Troy probably did take place during the Late Bronze Age, forming the nucleus of a story that was handed down orally for centuries until put into final form by Homer. But Cline suggests that, even allowing that a Trojan War took place, it probably was not fought because of Helen's abduction, though such an incident may have provided the justification for a war actually fought for more compelling economic and political motives.

About the Series:
Oxford's Very Short Introductions series offers concise and original introductions to a wide range of subjects--from Islam to Sociology, Politics to Classics, Literary Theory to History, and Archaeology to the Bible. Not simply a textbook of definitions, each volume in this series provides trenchant and provocative--yet always balanced and complete--discussions of the central issues in a given discipline or field. Every Very Short Introduction gives a readable evolution of the subject in question, demonstrating how the subject has developed and how it has influenced society. Eventually, the series will encompass every major academic discipline, offering all students an accessible and abundant reference library. Whatever the area of study that one deems important or appealing, whatever the topic that fascinates the general reader, the Very Short Introductions series has a handy and affordable guide that will likely prove indispensable.
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  1. ISBN-10
    0199760276
  2. ISBN-13
    978-0199760275
  3. Edition
    Illustrated
  4. Publisher
    Oxford University Press
  5. Publication date
    May 10, 2013
  6. Language
    English
  7. Dimensions
    6.8 x 0.3 x 4.3 inches
  8. Print length
    152 pages
  9. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

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"The author's writing is so clear and his arguments so well structured and complete that this book will appeal to both interested amateurs and those familiar with the extensive literature on this subject." -- D. A. Slane, CHOICE

"A concise, well written, highly informative guide to the legends, the history, and the archaeology of Homer's fabled city."--Trevor Bryce, Honorary Research Consultant, University of Queensland, and Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities

Book Description

A compact introduction to the Trojan War, sifting a wealth of evidence to determine if the war actually happened and whether ancient Troy has truly been found.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Oxford University Press; Illustrated edition (May 10, 2013)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 152 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0199760276
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0199760275
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 4.9 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.8 x 0.3 x 4.3 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 269 ratings

About the author

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Eric H. Cline

Eric H. Cline

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DR. ERIC H. CLINE is Professor of Classics and Anthropology, Director of the Capitol Archaeological Institute, and former Chair of the Department of Classical and Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations at The George Washington University, in Washington DC. A National Geographic Explorer, Fulbright scholar, and NEH Public Scholar with degrees from Dartmouth, Yale, and the University of Pennsylvania, he is an active field archaeologist with more than 30 seasons of excavation and survey experience in Israel, Egypt, Jordan, Cyprus, Greece, Crete, and the United States, including ten seasons at the site of Megiddo (biblical Armageddon) in Israel and eight seasons at Tel Kabri, also in Israel, where he is currently Co-Director. Winner of the 2014 "Nancy Lapp Award for Best Popular Book" from the American Schools of Oriental Research for his book "1177 BC: The Year Civilization Collapsed," which was also considered for a Pulitzer Prize, and winner of the same award again in 2018 for his book "Three Stones Make a Wall: The Story of Archaeology," he is also a three-time winner of the Biblical Archaeology Society's "Best Popular Book on Archaeology" Award (2001, 2009, and 2011). A popular lecturer who has appeared frequently on television documentaries, he has also won national and local awards for both his research and his teaching. He is the author or editor of 20 books, which have been translated into sixteen languages, as well as nearly 100 articles, and several recorded lecture courses. His previous books written specifically for the general public include "The Battles of Armageddon: Megiddo and the Jezreel Valley from the Bronze Age to the Nuclear Age" (2000); "Jerusalem Besieged: From Ancient Canaan to Modern Israel" (2004); "From Eden to Exile: Unraveling Mysteries of the Bible" (2007); "Biblical Archaeology: A Very Short Introduction" (2009); "The Trojan War: A Very Short Introduction" (2013); "1177 BC: The Year Civilization Collapsed" (2014; revised 2021); "Three Stones Make a Wall: The Story of Archaeology” (2017); and, most recently, "Digging Up Armageddon: The Search for the Lost City of Solomon" (2020).

Customer reviews

4.6 out of 5 stars
4.6 out of 5
269 global ratings

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RSL
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent and Concise. A Must-Read.
Reviewed in the United States on February 27, 2024
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An extremely well-written introduction to the Trojan War. Cline is an excellent historian and archeologist -- one of the best. This book presents a well-balanced view of all the evidence. Although billed as "very short," it really isn't and covers all important aspects of the topic in a nice level of detail. For most readers, this book will acquaint them with nearly all they need to know about the Trojan War. To dig deeper, one has to embark on the specialist literature.

Note that Cline is a coauthor of "The Ahhiyawa Texts" (2011) -- still the best resource on the known Hittite texts dealing with the Greeks. The fact that Cline co-wrote that book adds great depth to this one.

While I don't agree with all of Cline's conclusions (or lack of them), this book is a must read. I highly recommend reading it in conjunction with Barry Strauss' "The Trojan War: A New History," the other indispensable book on this topic.
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James B. Brinton
4.0 out of 5 stars Buy it
Reviewed in the United States on February 18, 2017
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Very well researched and quite well written. Cline is a first rate archeologist and ancient historian and it shows. Buy this; you;ll learn a lot that will surprise you.
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Petros Koutoupis
5.0 out of 5 stars Anything but a short introduction.
Reviewed in the United States on April 22, 2015
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Despite the name of this publication, it is anything but a short introduction as it provides a great wealth of information pertaining to the story we have come to know as the Trojan War, all packed into less than 120 pages.

What may catch most readers by surprise is that Homer’s Iliad covers no more than fifty days of the tenth year of the Trojan War. It is the later written and fragmentary Epic Cycle that fills the gaps leading up to the Iliad (and the Odyssey) and its aftermath. Cline begins this volume by introducing the reader to the entire Epic Cycle; that is, their titles, assumed authors, estimated timeframes for compilation, and a high level summary of each, some of which are a second and possibly third hand retelling of the tale as the complete manuscript has since been lost to time. By the end of the initial chapter, a much clearer picture is painted of this epic battle and the heroes that fought in it.

The following five chapters (six in total) dive straight into the archaeology and known history of ancient Aegean during the Late Bronze Age Period, focusing predominantly between the 15th to 12th centuries BCE. He tells of the discovery of Troy at modern day Hisarlik in Turkey, to the discovery and identification of the Mycenaean Greeks and their capital centered at Mycenae, in the Argolid in Greece, by Heinrich Schliemann, a simple man driven by his passion for Homer. Following its discovery, archaeologists and historians alike would attempt to locate Homer’s Troy buried within the location’s multiple settlement layers, and its fatal battle that pitted two almost legendary forces; each layer providing clues to its end whether it be through mother nature or the ravages of war. It would not be until the translation of various Hittite tablets that scholars would start to piece the details together.

Dr. Cline then shifts the focus to the Hittites, a kingdom that ruled to the East of Troy and over most of Anatolia, centered at Hattusa, near modern day Boğazkale (formerly, Boğazköy), Turkey. Following the decipherment of the Hittite language (an early Indo-European subset), historians identified a kingdom by the name of Wilusa (Greek: Ilios), another name for Troy and an ethnic group referred to as Ahhiyawa (Greek: Achaeans), Homer’s name for the Greeks. It immediately became clear that there existed a conflict between the Mycenaean Greeks and various locations on the Western coast of Asia Minor. It is these clues that Eric Cline uses to showcase the events that would later inspire poets to compile and retell the narrative later identified as the Trojan War.

It is difficult to believe that such a large amount of detail could be summarized into such a small volume, but Cline is successful in his efforts and provides the reader with a single and concise publication around Homer’s timeless epic.
18 people found this helpful
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N. Trachta
5.0 out of 5 stars A great tradition to the Trojan War
Reviewed in the United States on July 3, 2016
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A growing interest of mine has been the late Bronze Age and a friend had recommended that I read 1177BC by Professor Cline. i decided I wanted to read a different piece by him prior to ordering 1177BC so I could sample his work. Because this piece would be a foundation toward 1177BC and would provide a good sample of his writing style I decided to order The Trojan War: A very short introduction.
I'll open by saying this is great introductory piece; welly thought out with good divisions for presenting to readers. Each section is its own complete story that build upon the previous section to provide a complete introduction to the Trojan War. Professor Cline is very good at presenting the the various sides of a story and while some readers might not like this I do because it provides addition input for the reader to think on to provide their own conclusions (yes, Professor Cline does lead us to some degree but I feel the leading enables the reader to draw their own conclusions about deciding if they want to learn more about the Trojan War or not). Readers should remember this book is not designed to provide you with all information but rather to open a door and leave you with new/additional thoughts or desires to learn more on the Trojan War.
4 people found this helpful
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Massimo Pigliucci
5.0 out of 5 stars Slim book, great topic
Reviewed in the United States on July 31, 2017
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Though not quite as thorough as Cline's 1177 BC: The Year Civilization Collapsed (highly recommended, by the way), this very short introduction to the Trojan War is a pleasure to read. The author begins with recounting the story as told in the Iliad, but then expands the historical context to the complex interactions among Mycenaeans, Hittites, Trojans, and the mysterious "Sea People" that may have contributed to the above mentioned collapse of civilization at the end of the Bronze Age. In the second part of the booklet, Cline takes up the Homeric question, i.e., a discussion of what we know about Homer, whether he existed, and whether he was more than one person. Chapter 4 is one of the most intriguing ones, canvassing the sparse but tantalizing parallel records of the Hittites, which do seem to confirm the occurrence of the Trojan war(s), and possibly even the historical existence of some of the Homerian characters. The last section of this short introduction then turns to the archeological evidence, beginning of course with the highly controversial figure of Heinrich Schliemann, and concluding with the most recent archeological digs. The mystery remains, but the story is fascinating.
5 people found this helpful
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blooms
4.0 out of 5 stars A brief dip into the pre-history past
Reviewed in the United States on August 7, 2014
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Very well written, as are his other books. Packs a lot of information into a small space, reads fast. Thoroughly enjoyable.
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Top reviews from other countries

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rafaestellaa
5.0 out of 5 stars Magnifico y entretenidksimo.Cline además de un gran historiador es un magnífico escritor
Reviewed in Spain on November 1, 2021
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Todo magnifico historiador y magnifico escritor Cline .Recomiendo también suibro 1176 el año que la civilización desapareció.Amnis son de divulgación....avan ada
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Mrs. Valerie Taylor
5.0 out of 5 stars Very informative and easy to read.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 31, 2021
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I bought this book after reading Pat Barker's 'The Silence of the Girls, as I wanted to learn more about the Trojan Wars. It was just what was needed.
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根上 幸夫
4.0 out of 5 stars 新鮮な見方
Reviewed in Japan on April 10, 2021
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同一著者の’紀元前1177年’もそうだったが、古代東地中海、アナトリアの現在の知見に基づく情勢分析と古典中の古典と関連付けて説明していることに説得性がある。ページ数が少ないのは読みやすくて良いが、もっと掘り下げた著作も見てみたい。言葉も平易でほとんど辞書を必要としない、良い本です
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johnwilsonauthor
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in Canada on May 23, 2016
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As with other books in this series, a clear, concise introduction to a complex topic.
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Dagmar
5.0 out of 5 stars A must have book
Reviewed in Italy on July 7, 2013
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for anybody interested in the beginning of European History. The Trojan war is the starting point for Greece and Rome, the anchor on which the counting of time starts.
The book belongs to the Oxford series "A Very Short Introduction" and explains the story itself and it's place within the interaction of Mycenaean Greeks, Hittites, the migration of the Sea Peoples
It explores the Hittite texts relating to the story, explaIns the Schliemann excavations and the research of Schliemanns followers.
It is accompanied by good maps, pictures of artifacts and gives a good glossary
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