THE CRISIS OF THE SEA PEOPLES (6)

MYCENAEAN MILITARY POWER IN THE YEARS OF THE SEA PEOPLES CRISIS

by Carlos J. Moreu (2024)

 

ABSTRACT

Many important events that took place in the eastern Mediterranean are usually dated “around 1200 BC”, although this should be understood as a period datable between 1220 and 1180 BC. The destruction by fire of Troy VIIa undoubtedly occurred in those years, as well as the destructions of several Mycenaean palaces in southern and central Greece. However, since the quoted period covers four decades, it is very likely that most Hellenic cities were destroyed about 20 years earlier than Troy, and thus the Mycenaean Greeks probably had enough time to recover their military power before undertaking a naval expedition against the Trojans and their Asiatic allies, as was recorded by the Greek oral tradition. Moreover, there were many Hellenic lands (such as East Achaea, Arcadia, Elis, Locris, Euboea, Phthiotis, Aetolia and the Ionian islands) that did not suffer destruction in the same period, and they were included in the Homeric “Catalogue of the Ships”.

It cannot be a mere coincidence that some internal conflicts, which occurred in southern Greece and Boeotia some 10 or 20 years earlier than the legendary Trojan War, were also recorded by the Greek tradition. These conflicts are the first destructive raid into the Peloponnesus by the Heraclids (or the sons of the famous hero Heracles) and the attack on Thebes by the Argives, who were led by seven heroes called “the Epigons”.               

 

INTRODUCTION

1200 BC is probably the most cited date in the prehistory of the Mediterranean world. Many important events are dated approximately to that year, such as the crisis of the “Sea Peoples”, the end of the Hittite empire, the destruction of Ugarit in Syria and the devastating fire of Troy VIIa. Other destructions that took place in Greece have been also related to this date and, therefore, there are scholars who believe that the collapse of Mycenaean palatial society occurred at practically the same time.

However, what is generally agreed is that those historical events occurred around 1200 BC, but not in 1200 BC properly. This should be understood as a period datable between 1220 and 1180 BC, since the dates cannot really be determined with greater precision. Therefore, it is possible (for example) that the Hellenic city of Pylos was destroyed some decades earlier than the Syrian city of Ugarit, although both destructions have been usually dated “around 1200 BC”.

Now, if we focus our attention on Troy VIIa, the Anatolian city that was identified by the archaeologist Carl Blegen as the legendary fortress attacked and burned by the Achaeans, it is interesting that Manetho, a Hellenized Egyptian historian, dated the outcome of the Trojan War during the last reign of the 19th Dynasty. Following the Egyptian high chronology, this event occurred between 1202 and 1200 BC, when Egypt was ruled by Queen Twosret (whose name was very similar to that of Pharaoh Thuoris, cited by Manetho). In the low chronology, instead, the date would be recorded between 1188 and 1186 BC, which matches very well the period accepted by the archaeologist Manfred Korfmann to date the end of Troy VIIa (1190-1180 BC) and is also very close to the date of 1184 BC that Eratosthenes pointed out in the third century BC. As is well known, Eratosthenes of Cyrene became director of the Great Library of Alexandria and he was also able to calculate the Earth’s diameter.

Another striking coincidence can be found in a text written by Strabo (I, 3, 17), quoting other ancient authors, in which he said that Troy had been destroyed by an earthquake and seaquake in the age of Tantalus, who was the great-grandfather of Agamemnon (according to Greek mythology). Modern archaeological research has proven that the end of Troy VIh was really due to an earthquake, which took place between 70 and 100 years before the destruction of Troy VIIa by fire. It is not justified, therefore, to deny the existence of a historical background in the stories preserved by the Greek oral tradition during the so-called Dark Ages.

However, the main objection usually made to the identification of Troy VIIa as the city burned by the Achaeans or Mycenaeans, at the end of a historical Trojan War, is the fact that several cities in Mycenaean Greece (including the most important and powerful) were also attacked and destroyed “around 1200 BC”, and thus it is frequently assumed that the Achaeans were not able to undertake a great military expedition, during those years, against the Trojans and all their Asiatic allies.

Next we are going to analyse this important question.                                               

ATTACKS ON MYCENAEAN PALACES (BEFORE THE LH IIIC PERIOD)

The destructions of several Mycenaean cities, most probably caused by war, have been dated to the last years of the Late Helladic IIIB period, including a transitional period LH IIIB2-LH IIIC Early, basing on the study of Mycenaean pottery that was found in those cities. However, the transitional period between the LH IIIB and the LH IIIC periods lasted 20 years, according to Penelope Mountjoy. This specialist also studied the pottery from Troy and she dated the destruction of Troy VIIa at the end of the transitional period. Therefore, the destructions in Greece occurred earlier, in all cases, than the destruction of Troy.

Guy Middleton has dated the attacks on Mycenaean cities to the years 1225-1190 BC, and Manfred Korfmann (who followed the study by Mountjoy) believed that Troy VIIa was burned down in 1190 BC, at the earliest. We can conclude that Thebes, Mycenae and Pylos must have been destroyed between 10 and 30 years before the attack on Troy by the Mycenaean Greeks. The long duration of the legendary siege of Troy (10 years) can be simply considered a poetic exaggeration, but even if it were true, we can assume that 10 or 15 years passed from the destructions that took place in Greece and the beginning of the Trojan War.

When talking about wars that occurred more than 3000 years ago, it seems that 10 or 20 years mean nothing, and thus any of these events can be dated “around 1200 BC”. However, if we think about a much more recent time, we can notice that only 21 years passed between the end of the First World War and the beginning of the Second World War. In those two decades, Germany had enough time to recover its great military power.

Turning back to Mycenaean Greece, the destruction by war only affected some regions, although they were as important as Boeotia and the Argolid. The archaeologist Klaus Kilian believed that Tiryns was destroyed by an earthquake, but more recent research, carried out by Joseph Maran, has shown that the city was attacked by an enemy army, as occurred in Mycenae and Midea, which were also located in the Argolid. In Boeotia, Thebes and Gla suffered attacks and destruction, as well, and Orchomenos may have been abandoned by its inhabitants. Other archaeological sites in the Peloponnesus, such as Teichos Dymaion, Pylos and the Menelaion, were also destroyed. And the same can be said of Krisa in Phocis, and Dimini in Thessaly. In most of Greece, there was probably a population decline in the 12th century BC, but this may be due to the migrations that occurred immediately after the Trojan War (to southern Anatolia, Cyprus and Syria), which were also recorded by Greek tradition and have been confirmed by the archaeological research.  

Notwithstanding, there were Hellenic regions that did not suffer destruction during this period, and it is noteworthy that three prominent heroes of the Trojan War (Odysseus, Achilles and Ajax) precisely came from some of those regions: the Ionian Islands, Phthiotis and the island of Salamis. A Mycenaean palace has been identified at the archaeological site of Kanakia, in Salamis, which flourished during the 13th century BC. Although this palace was abandoned in about 1200 BC, or a few years later, it is unlikely that the inhabitants of Kanakia were under pressure from an enemy army. Actually, the findings in Kanakia fit the epic tale quite well, according to which King Ajax of Salamis, son of Telamon, did not survive the Trojan War, and his half-brother Teukros finally settled in Cyprus with his followers.

Other Greek lands that were not attacked flourished in the first half of the 12th century BC, such as Euboea and Locris, and the latter was the homeland of another hero whose name was also Ajax, the famous son of Oileus. In the Peloponnesus, Arcadia and Elis did not suffer destruction, as well, and both regions were included in the so-called “Catalogue of the Ships” that can be read in the Iliad. Also the region named Aetolia, in western Greece, was not damaged.

With regard to the kingdom of Agamemnon, who commanded the Achaean army against Troy, we can read in the Catalogue of the Ships that his territory extended from Mycenae to the north and northwest, through the region of Achaea, since the rest of the Argolid constituted another different kingdom, actually ruled by Diomedes. Mycenae was undoubtedly attacked by the end of the 13th century BC, and its citadel was destroyed,   but a long building named “Palace VI” was erected on the ruins. Therefore, Mycenae continued to exist during the 12th century BC.

Also Tiryns and Midea, in the Argolid, were rebuilt after their destruction. In Tiryns, the area occupied by the city and its population even increased in the 12th century BC. The so-called “Building T” replaced the old megaron in the citadel, and a new megaron was built in the Lower Town. In Midea the megaron of the destroyed palace was remodeled. Argos and Asine also prospered throughout the LH IIIC period, and thus the idea that the palatial society “collapsed” around 1200 BC can be questioned. It is very likely, at least, that the ruling elites of the Argolid and some other regions continued to live in the same cities during several decades.

In Achaea, a territory clearly related to the kingdom of Mycenae by Homer, some burials of warriors, dated to the 12th century BC, have been found. The only city of Achaea that suffered destruction was Teichos Dymaion, but it was located to the west, on the border with Elis. Achaea flourished and probably increased its population after 1200 BC. The trading route to the gulf of Taranto, in southern Italy, may have been one of the causes of its prosperity. Also Arcadia, another Peloponnesian land that allied with the kingdom of Mycenae (according to the Catalogue of the Ships) was not attacked, and thus it was probably prosperous after 1200 BC.

The survival of a Mycenaean military power during the first half of the 12th century BC is proven by the frequent depictions of warriors and battles in the decorated vessels of the LH IIIC period. Furthermore, the Mycenaeans used new weapons of European origin from the late 13th century BC, such as the flange-hilted sword (of Naue II type) that surely was more effective in combat. In conclusion, Mycenaean Greece did not suffer, in all its geographical extension, the consequences of the attacks that took place at the end of the LH IIIB, and most of the destroyed Mycenaean cities may have been partially or completely rebuilt before the beginning of a historical Trojan War, seeing that a period of 10 or 20 years must have passed from the conflicts in Greece until the date of the Achaean expedition against Troy. Therefore, we have verified that the basic historicity of the Trojan War (or the destruction of Troy VIIa by the Mycenean Greeks) is really plausible, according to the available archaeological data.

Now it is interesting to study the stories compiled by the Greek tradition, relating to the internal wars that occurred in Greece one or two decades before the Trojan War, in order to also evaluate its possible historical background.                                                     

THE LEGEND OF THE HERACLIDS

The epic cycle of the Herakleidai, or the Heraclids, who were the sons and descendants of the famous hero Heracles, covers a long period because it spans four generations of men. This story begins as a confrontation between two branches of the Perseids (the branch of King Eurystheus, son of Sthenelus, and that of Heracles, son of Amphitryon) and it ends with the final invasion of the Peloponnesus by the Dorians, led by the last Heraclids. According to the Greek historian Thucydides (I, 12), this event occurred 80 years after the Trojan War, and according to Herodotus (IX, 26) 100 years after the death of Hyllus, son of Heracles. In the epic tale, Hyllus died on the Isthmus of Corinth, fighting against the Arcadian hero Echemus, king of Tegea, who had joined an army commanded by King Atreus of Mycenae, the successor of Eurystheus and father of Agamemnon. This matches very well the date of Hyllus’s death that we can deduce combining the information provided by Thucydides and Herodotus: 20 years before the Trojan War. And the story also fits the final destruction of Mycenae at the time of King Tisamenus (grandson of Agamemnon) and his son Cometes, which has been archaeologically identified and dated to the end of the 12th century BC.             

The events that occurred shortly before Hyllus’s death are also of great importance to our study. According to Greek tradition, King Eurystheus of Mycenae had attacked the Heraclids, his enemies, in the land of Attica, where they took refuge after the death of Heracles, but Eurystheus was defeated. Then the king of Mycenae and all his male sons were killed, and immediately afterwards the Heraclids entered the Peloponnesus, according to Pseudo-Apollodorus (II, 8, 2), taking and plundering the main Mycenaean cities. However, the Heraclids could not stay for long in the conquered territories, due to the spread of an epidemic, and thus they returned to their lands of refuge in eastern Greece and later went to consult the Delphic oracle of Apollo. Then they were informed that their final conquest of Peloponnesus would occur after waiting for “the third fruit”, and they logically interpreted it as the third harvest. Three years later, the Heraclids attempted to cross the Corinthian Isthmus again, but were opposed by the army led by Atreus, the founder of a new dynasty at Mycenae. Atreus was a Greek descendant of Tantalus the Lydian, whose son Pelops had settled in southwestern Greece and gave his name to the Peloponnesus. As we already know, Hyllus was vanquished and killed by Echemus of Tegea and, therefore, his attempt of invasion failed.

When the Heraclids consulted the Delphic oracle again, they were informed that the “third fruit” did not mean the third harvest or the third year, but the third generation of Heraclids born after Hyllus, predicting in this way the final invasion of the Peloponnesus by the Heraclids, allied with the Dorians from northern Greece, which took place about 100 years later.

Therefore, we can see that two invasions of the Peloponnesus were actually included in the story known as “the return of the Heraclids”. The first one occurred some 20 years before the Trojan War, which coincides with the destructions dated to the late 13th century BC (in Mycenae, Tiryns, Midea, Menelaion, Pylos and Teichos Dymaion), and the second one dated to the late 12th century BC, or to the end of the LH IIIC Middle, which can be properly called the Dorian invasion. The epic cycle also fits the information provided by some Mycenaean tablets from Pylos, according to which the Pylian ships were watching the Aetolian coast, shortly before the destruction of this city, because they probably feared an attack from the Gulf of Corinth. In fact, this was an alternative route to the Peloponnesus that the Heraclids and the Dorians used during their second and more successful invasion, by the end of the 12th century BC. Moreover, the important role played by the Arcadians in the Isthmus of Corinth, when his king killed Hyllus, matches the proven fact that Arcadia had not been devastated a few years earlier, during the first raid of the Heraclids into the Peloponnesus, and thus they were powerful enough to support King Atreus of Mycenae.

Another interesting coincidence, relating to the origin of the Atrid dynasty of Mycenae (who supposedly descended from Tantalus the Lydian), is the story that we can find in some Hittite tablets dated to the first half of the 13th century BC. An Anatolian nobleman called Piyamaradu, who was an ally of the Achaeans or Ahhiyawa, confronted the powerful Hittites but he was finally defeated and, therefore, he had to take refuge in the land of the Achaeans with his family and his servants. In parallel, the legendary Tantalus (who was born in a Lydian city named Tantalis, close to mount Sipylus) was the enemy of a Trojan king who lived earlier than Priam and Laomedon, according to Diodorus Siculus (IV, 74, 4), and Piyamaradu was also involved in a conflict of unknown consequences, related to the city of Wilusa or Ilios (Troy), according to the Hittite tablets. Therefore, Tantalus (or the one “from Tantalis”) may have been a byname applied by the Greeks to Piyamaradu himself. And one of his sons, who settled in Greece, probably was the legendary Pelops.

With regard to Atreus, son of Pelops, perhaps he was also involved in some conflicts that took place in western Anatolia (when he was not yet the king of Mycenae) if the Hittite tablet that mentioned Attarissiya as the man of Ahhiya dates to the age of Arnuwanda III, as was originally believed, and not to the age of another Hittite king named Arnuwanda I. Be that as it may, it cannot be denied that the coincidences between archaeological and documentary data and the stories of Greek tradition are numerous and, therefore, it is very likely that most of those stories were based on historical facts.                            

MYTHICAL WARS BETWEEN ARGIVES AND THEBANS

Like the epic cycle of the Heraclids, the legendary enmity between the Peloponnesian Argives and the Thebans who lived in Boeotia is reflected in two similar conflicts but, in this case, only one generation of men passed between both episodes. The first conflict is known as the war of “the Seven against Thebes” and the second is the final conquest of this city by the so-called Epigonoi (or Epigons), the successors of those seven heroes. One of the Epigons was the son of Tydeus, named Diomedes, who also fought several years later in the Trojan War.

Therefore, we can link the destruction of the Theban citadel named Kadmeia, as well as the probable attacks on Gla and Orchomenos, with a military campaign of the Argives in Boeotia, which may have occurred about 10 years later than the first raid of the Heraclids into the Peloponnesus, and some 10 years earlier than the Trojan War.

The major consequence of these wars between Argives and Thebans, according to the epic tale, was the replacement of King Laodamas of Thebes, who was the son of Eteocles and died in battle, by his cousin Thersandrus, son of Polynices. Both Polynices and Thersandrus had gained the support of the Argives in a dynastic struggle between two branches of the Theban royal family.

But there is also the circumstance that Heracles was born in Thebes because his father Amphitryon, prince of Tiryns, had to leave Argolid for exile some years before, and the Thebans offered him refuge. This is why the Thebans must have supported the Heraclids for some time, together with their Athenian neighbours.

According to Greek tradition, Thersandrus died at the very beginning of the Trojan War, when the Achaeans were trying to land on the coast of Mysia, a region located south of the Troad. Therefore, the command of the Thebans in this war passed to a certain Peneleus, who was also regent of Thebes during the minority of the son and heir of Thersandrus.

Another hero named Tlepolemus, who must have been one of the youngest Heraclids, had migrated to the island of Rhodes and thus he commanded the Rhodians who fought on the Hellenic side during the Trojan War, according to the Homeric Catalogue of the Ships.             

In conclusion, it seems that the internal conflicts between Argives and Thebans and between Heraclids and Peloponnesians had ended at the time of the Trojan War, or perhaps a truce was agreed during the great expedition against Troy, in order to confront a common powerful enemy: western Anatolia and the Hittite empire (seeing that the Trojans and their allies were usually vassals of the kings of Hatti).

FINAL REMARKS

We have verified that the naval expedition undertaken by an Achaean coalition to fight against the Trojans and other Anatolian peoples is a very plausible event, since the Mycenaean Greeks had the military power that was necessary to carry out this campaign “around 1200 BC”. And we have noticed that some internal conflicts, which occurred in Greece one or two decades before the Trojan War, are also recorded in the stories compiled by the Greek tradition.   

Now, it is noteworthy that Thebes is called “Hypothebes” in the Catalogue of the Ships, probably referring to the lower town, instead of the citadel that was destroyed by the Argives during the attack led by the Epigons. A segment of the wall that surrounded the ancient Theban fortress was found by the archeologists, who dated its construction to the LH IIIB1 period (or the first half of the 13th century BC). According to Greek mythology, the builder of this wall was King Amphion of Thebes, whose wife was Niobe, daughter of Tantalus and sister of Pelops. Therefore, Niobe is another possible daughter of the historical Piyamaradu, who took refuge in Greece during the reign of the Hittite king Hattusili III. If Agamemnon was indeed the grandson of Pelops and he was a Greek descendant of Piyamaradu, this also agrees with a date of the Trojan War coinciding with the destruction by fire of Troy VIIa, which undoubtedly took place during the reign of Suppiluliuma II, the last king of Hatti and grandson of Hattusili III.

It is possible that Amphion of Thebes was the king of Ahhiyawa addressed by Hattusili III in the so-called Tawakalawa Letter, seeing that the name of Tawakalawa, applied to the brother of that king, is very similar to Eteocles, which was used by the royal families of Thebes and Orchomenos. The Anatolian nobleman Piyamaradu is also cited in the same Hittite letter as a refugee in the land of Ahhiyawa (or Greece), together with his family, and coincidentally, the Greek tradition recorded that King Amphion married Niobe, daughter of Tantalus the Lydian.

Shortly after the fall of Troy, other coastal cities of southern Anatolia and Cyprus were put to the torch. The best examples are Tarsos in Cilicia and Enkomi in Cyprus. We find again a correspondence with the Greek legend, seeing that the Achaeans who had taken Troy (or some of them at least) later moved to Pamphylia, Cyprus, Cilicia and Syria as far as the borders of Phoenicia. One of their leaders was the seer Mopsos, who founded a dynasty in Cilicia according to some inscriptions dated to the Iron Age, and who was buried in Cilicia, according to the Hellenic tradition. Another legendary hero was Teukros, the half-brother of Ajax, who was a Greek nobleman born in the island of Salamis, although he was named Teukros because his mother was a Trojan princess. Teukros migrated to Cyprus and he founded a city called Salamis, which may have been the rebuilt city of Enkomi, surely inhabited by the Mycenaean Greeks. In the Marmor Parium, an ancient stele, this event was dated 7 years after the fall of Troy. Other Hellenic heroes from various regions of Greece (named Leonteus, Polypoetes, Amphilochos, Agapenor, Acamas and Demophon) settled in southern Anatolia and Cyprus. The archaeological finds show that, during the 12th century BC, Mycenaean IIIC pottery was locally made in many cities of western Anatolia, southern Anatolia, Cyprus and Syria (including cooking pots). Other cultural innovations, related to the Mycenaeans, appeared in that regions at the same time. Furthermore, the archaeologist Vassos Karageorghis always believed that the hellenisation of Cyprus began precisely in the 12th century BC.

 

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