A Theory about Troy

When Troy fell is a common subject in revised Chronology.  But Velikovsky also questions if the current proposed site of Troy fits the geography of Homer.

I however have come to think that regardless of where Homer thought Troy was, perhaps the origin of the Legend of Troy wasn’t in Turkey at all?

The myth of Laomedon (Priam’s father) and Herakles has been noted to strongly resemble that of Perseus and Joppa/Jaffa.  A Princess being offered as a sacrifice to appease a Sea Monster, and a Greek Hero who’s a son of Zeus saves the day.  The oldest version of the Trojan Horse legend also refers to a sea monster off the coast of Troy.

Greek Mythology also has three Flood Legends.  So it’s possible there are other cases of different myths based on the same historical inspiration, yet later given distinct points on the mythical timeline.  So could Joppa and Troy be the same city?  Or different cities of the same kingdom?

Joppa is located in Israel, the Book of Jonah also affiliates it with a Sea Monster, (in the Septuagint and New Testament it’s referred to as Cetos).  Which Kingdom it was part of during the Divided Kingdom period is difficult to tell, it possibly changed over time as the borders shifted, in Jonah it’s seemingly part of the North.  And the story of Omri's rise to power implies the original Danite allotment was under the Norther's control since the north was battling the Philistines over Gibbethon.

There is an 18th Dynasty Egyptian text known as The Taking of Joppa.  In which an Egyptian general named Djehuty captures Joppa by offering them a gift of many baskets and claiming he was surrendering but hidden in the Baskets were his soldiers.  The similarity of this to the Trojan Horse legend has been noted before.  In any Chronology however this event predates the fall of Troy, and was certainly before Homer and any other written accounts of Troy.

Djehuty is independently verified to have lived during the reign of Tuthmosis III.  But Egyptologists now suspect the campaign that is the story’s intended setting is from the reign of Amenhotep II.

Could the name of Troy possibly be connected to Tirzah?  A City that sometimes served as the royal capital of the Northern Kingdom.   I've suggested before the Teresh of the Sea People could have come from Tirzah, and I think others have suggested connecting the Teresh to Troy.

Memnon in the Prose Edda.  Some people question if Memnon was in fact who’s meant.  The spelling it uses is “Munon or Mennon”, which could instead refer to Menon, a Trojan soldier mentioned in The Iliad.  In Greek translations of the Old Testament the Hebrew name Menahem sometimes becomes Manaem or Manaen.  A name most notably associated with a Northern Kingdom ruler near the end of it's history who came from Tirzah.

But the name Memnon itself could be viewed as referencing the first two letters of the Hebrew spelling of Menahem.  Memnon was a king of the mythical "Aethiopia" which was also linked to Joppa and thus the same dynasty as Cepheus and Andromeda.

The Prose Edda is just one of many examples of European Royalty claiming descent from Troy (many Norse and Anglo-Saxon royal houses traced their ancestry to Odin).  It seems before British Israelism made Ephraim popular, it was Troy the nations of Western Europe sought to use to give themselves a more ancient/classical heritage.  Virgil and Livy weren’t the first to connect Aeneas to Rome, Homer himself directly supports no such connection, but does imply people will descend from Aeneas.  Nennius and Geoffrey of Monmouth further connects the Britons to Aeneas.  Geoffrey of Tours traced the Franks back to Helenus and Andromache.

But it is in the Prose Edda we see an early clue this descent from Troy may have been code for, or a middle stage of, descent from Israel all along.  Because the Prose Edda says Troy was 12 Kingdoms with one High King.  And it says Troy was in the middle of the Earth, a location traditionally given to Israel in Judeo-Christian thinking, justified by it being where Africa and Eurasia meet.

Given my past speculations of a connection between the Ketos of Greek Mythology and the creature that swallowed Jonah.  And the fact that Jonah, Amos, Hosea (and traditionally Joel) were all contemporaries of Jeroboam II.  I think Laomedon and Cepheus may both be Greek mythological corruptions of the memory of Jeroboam II. And thus all royal families who claimed descent from either the House of Laomedon or Andromeda were descendants of the House of Jehu.  And all tracing descent back to Mennon were the House of Menahem ben Gadi.  And the Dorians were of those of Manasseh who dwelt in Dor, while the Thesselians were of Asher and their royal family of the governor of Dor who married Solomon's Daughter.  And those claiming descent from Perseus and/or Herakles were Danites or Ephraimites.  Sometimes Hercules rather then Mars is given as the father of Romulus and Remus.

Some writers wanting to argue for Troy actually being in the British isles say they find the claimed presence of Chariots in the Trojan myths implausible for a north western Asia Minor setting. Chariots are definitely present in Biblical Canaan/Israel, being associated with Solomon, Ahab and Jehu.  Solomon is just the oldest example I can think of of the Israelites using them, the Canaanites Joshua was warring with had them, which is strategically why he started by capturing the mountainous regions.