Troy might actually be in Cambridge

I've seen this mentioned a couple of times on various website and youtube videos and kind of left it well alone because, well we virtually all know the story of Achilles, Agamemnon, Hector and Helen etc. Infact i had to rewatch the movie Troy because I knew Odyseus was there but didn't remember seeing him in the movie, and indeed he is all be it for one scene. Sean Bean should get a second movie out of Homers writings.

One of the things that i couldn't get my head around was if Troy was in Turkey why did Odysseus take soooo long to get home when Troy was 400ish km away? I mean 10 years is a long time.

The translation of Homer's ILIAD by Walter Leaf, Andrew Lang, and Ernest Meyers (henceforth, "the LLM translation") has been hailed since its publication in 1883 as the most literal English translation on the market.
Iliad (LLM) version link here

Officially a guy called Heinrich Schliemann (wiki link) discovered it.....

Heinrich's interest in history was initially encouraged by his father, who had schooled him in the tales of the Iliad and the Odyssey and had given him a copy of Ludwig Jerrer's Illustrated History of the World for Christmas in 1829. Schliemann claimed that at the age of 7 he had declared he would one day excavate the city of Troy.

He, by all accounts was a bit of a rogue....

Schliemann went to California in early 1851 and started a bank in Sacramento buying and reselling over a million dollars' worth of gold dust in just six months. When the local Rothschild agent complained about short-weight consignments, he left California, pretending it was because of illness

Whilst he was digging in Hisarlik, Turkey, the now officially recognised site of Troy....

The day before digging was to stop on 15 June 1873, was the day he discovered gold, which he took to be Priam's Treasure trove

He later wrote that he had seen the gold glinting in the dirt and dismissed the workmen so that he and Sophia could excavate it themselves; they removed it in her shawl. However, Schliemann's oft-repeated story of the treasure's being carried by Sophia in her shawl was untrue. Schliemann later admitted fabricating it; at the time of the discovery Sophia was in fact with her family in Athens, following the death of her father.

Still being a bit of a rogue......

Smithsonian article....

the discovery of Priam’s treasure—failed to hold up under scrutiny. Archaeologists soon realized that the loot predated the Trojan War by some 1,250 years, meaning it belonged to an entirely different civilization than the one featured in Homer’s epic poem.

More than a bit of a dodgy geezer.....


.... Anyway, i stumbled across this video which bullet points the reasons why Troy could well of been in Cambridge and not Turkey.

These include the names of the 14 rivers mentioned in the Iliad are similar sounding to the names in Cambridge as opposed to the 4 or 5 rivers in Turkey.

Troy being next to a sea described as 'grey, black, turbulent misty, immense, and tidal. To which the Mediterranean is NOT.

This is just a couple to the reasons why Troy could be in Cambridge and not Turkey. Many more points are listed in this half an hour video....

I forgot to include this link...

A mosaic discovered in Rutland that is reported to be Roman when it obviously looks Trojan.

Morning, sorry I haven't had time to read you post in entirety.

The headline caught my eye - because I was talking to This man Mike Lambert a while ago about His-Story.

He told me what he had bee researching and is about to publish. Not seen anything yet...

Here is link to his website ----- his theory is Troy is the Isle of Wight in UK..

www.theshenclinic.com...

Ill have a proper read later

Using llm as a version is always problematic as it doesn't have any idea of concepts as we judge things by modern size as a big boat now would be a supertanker in size but to a Roman it would more of a river ferry in size at best.

And I'm sure the area around Cambridge has been messed with so much over the centuries finding the true ways the river went now is almost impossible.

And 10 years yo get home? There must of been thousands of stops on the way and the meetings of people which should of been recorded.

as thoughts go its one of those that undermines this idea of London/Washington/Rome, as London and Rome fight it out to be the inheritors of Troy, just as Washington tries to set itself as the new Roman Empire alongside similar claims from Moscow and Avignon.

so who are the inheritors of Troy.. it plays strongly with English myths and folklore which given the above also makes England GogMagog..

a reply to: MCurns

Historical Troy most definitely exists and it's not in the British isles... there must have been a sort of translation issues going on and interpretations of what they were familiar with.

Alexander the great made a visit to Troy, and specifically made it one of his campaign goals. It was well documented.

a reply to: McTech

Please do watch the video, i look forward to someone elses opinion on the evidence mentioned.

Ive had look on the internet about Troy and the Isle Of Wight and alas haven't found anything. Mike Lambert must still be diddling about with it. Possible new evidence???

a reply to: Maxatoria

I included the link to the LLM version of the Odyssey as it is billed as the most literal translation, as opposed to the new one by Emily wilson which is rated as "“ … an amazing achievement, a thrill to read, and the best English translation. Hers is the Odyssey my students will read from now on. It is a brisk, lively, often magical, version of the ancient epic that captures its enduring appeal and urgency."

If you were to watch the video you'd see the names of the rivers mentioned and how similar they do sound to ones mentioned in the Illiad. It is true that the course of the rivers change, especially over the length of time we are talking here. But, the rivers name is something to which the local inhabitants would still know.

You are indeed correct about the landscape being changed over the years, especially since the coast has receded so far away - still watch the video, or at lease put it in on the background and go back when something pricks up your ears.

a reply to: strongfp

The video is focusing on things which are named in the Iliad like the rivers only as an example, plenty of more references which go against the the turkey connection. May be more than one Troy..... There are still a many hundred of years between the different reference points in history.... Troy...Homer..Alexander.......

There is a strong case that people moving would name new places after their old homes.....

Infact just around the corner from me in cheshire there is an area called 'Nova Scotia' which is only about a field big. Just a short walk from an old cistercian abbey called Vale Royal Abbey. The only reasons i've been able to find about this particular naming is it might of reminded some Scots of home when they moved south into a new homes.

a reply to: MCurns

Names of rivers across Europe are going to overlap... I highly doubt back even in Alexander's day the rivers were known by their modern Anglo - romanized names.

Here in Canada the province of Alberta is littered with Scottish names, Banff national park is named after some small place in high north Scotland.

a reply to: strongfp


Ive got the time so here are the names mentioned in the video....

Homeric name ... Modern name

Aesupus ... Ise
Rhesus ... Rhee
Rhodius ... Roding
Granicus ... Granca
Scamander ... Cam
Simois ... Great Ouse
Satniois ... Little Ouse
Larisa ... Lark
Cayster ... Yare
Thymbre ... Thef
Heptaporus ... Tove
Callicolone ... Colne
Cilla ... Chillesford
Temese ... Thames

The names are going to be a lot less similar compared to Canada and Scotland.

This area of Cambridge names and places would of been influenced by the following peoples

0 Homer (8th Century BC)
1 old Welsh Brythonic/Gauls name, possibly two distinct peoples (pre 47AD ish)
2 then the influx from Roman invasion (47+ AD ish)
3 Angles, Jutes and Saxons ---- all having their own accents from their versions of West Germanic (450 AD+ ish)
4 Norman Invasion, french and scandanavian (1066+ AD)
5 and then the last 1000 or so years to the modern names

Considering the possible mis pronounciations and sheer amount of time since. I don't think alot of the names are that far from the earlier versions considering the difference language changes since. Please do watch the video, its described more clearly in there with a lot more information. Its only half an hour long......

a reply to: MCurns

I am neck deep in work, interesting thread. There is a legend that Brutus, a Trojan heir, after the fall of Troy, eventually founded Britain and the city now known as London, as Troia Newydd, New Troy.

Britain had long been known as a significant source of tin for the manufacture of bronze, so likely it was visited by the Mycenaeans prior 1600 bc.

After the fall of Troy and some years following:

Brutus and his army sailed away and stopped in a few parts of Africa, then they sailed through the Pillars of Hercules (Straits of Gibraltar) and arrived in Gaul where they picked up some Trojan exiles. They fought some battles against the Gauls, then returned to their ships and sailed to their intended destination, an almost empty island to the north of Gaul known as "Alban" (Albion), which means "White Island". Those who came with Brutus were called "Britons", and the island became known as "Britain". The date of their arrival is calculated to be 1074 BC, according to a footnote by Peter Roberts in his translation of Tysilio's "Chronicle of the Kings of Britain" (1).

Brutus was a Trojan on his father's side and Latin on his mother's side. He was married to a Greek, so his descendants were Trojan, Latin and Greek. He was the first of a long line of kings, some of whom intermarried with other European royal families.

New Troy

Brutus founded a city on the Thames and called it "Troia Newydd" (New Troy). It retained the name for a long time, but later became corrupted to "Troynovant" or "Trinovantum".

Source- www.annomundi.com...

I don’t know, as a native Greek speaker and a linguist, those names for rivers are well known names in Greek in both Ancient Greek and modern Greek. I mean, the first word is simply Aesop!

a reply to: MCurns
The journey home was long because winds sent by angry gods kept pushing him in different directions, and because he stayed for many years in one place. It's all in the story.

There is a rational reason why Greeks should be fighting at Troy (control of the entrance to the Black Sea, source of wheat). There is no rational reason why the Greeks should have gone to Cambridge. I took my driving test in Cambridge, and I still have nightmares over the hideously complicated one-way system. I'm not sure there is a rational reason why anyone should want to go to Cambridge.