The Trojan War (32 page)

A selection of literature from New Kingdom Egypt is available in Miriam Lichtheim,
Ancient Egyptian Literature: A Book of Readings,
vol. 2,
The New Kingdom
(Berkeley: University of California Press, 1976). A good historical introduction can be found in Donald B. Redford,
Egypt, Canaan, and Israel in Ancient Times
(Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1992) while Redford, ed.,
Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt
(New York: Oxford University Press, 2001) is a valuable reference source. P. H. Newby,
Warrior Pharaohs: The Rise and Fall of the Egyptian Empire
(London: Faber & Faber, 1980) is very readable.

For the royal inscriptions of Assyria, see A. K. Grayson,
Assyrian Royal Inscriptions,
vol. 1,
From the Beginning to Ashur-resha-ishi
(Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz, 1972) and Grayson,
Assyrian Rulers of the Third and Second Millennia
BC
(to 1115
BC
)
(Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1987). For an introduction to the history of Assyria see H. W. F. Saggs,
The Might That Was Assyria
(London: Sidgwick & Jackson, 1984).

Anthologies concentrating on texts from ancient Mesopotamia include B. R. Foster,
Before the Muses: An Anthology of Akkadian Literature
(Bethesda, Md.: CDL Press, 2005) and A. Leo Oppenheim,
Letters from Mesopotamia
(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1967). Two volumes of Mesopotamian poems about war and destruction are Piotr Michalowski,
The Lamentation over the Destruction of Sumer and Ur
(Winona Lake, Ind.: Eisenbrauns, 1989) and J. S. Cooper,
The Curse of Agade
(Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1983). Among a number of good introductions to ancient Mesopotamia, one of the best is A. Leo Oppenheim,
Ancient Mesopotamia: Portrait of a Dead Civilization,
revised edition completed by Erica Reiner (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1977); for an update on more recent discoveries, see Stephen Bertman,
Handbook to Life in Ancient Mesopotamia
(New York: Facts on File, 2003). Stephanie Dalley and A. T. Reyes write about the impact of Mesopotamia on Bronze Age Greece in Stephanie Dalley et al.,
The Legacy of Mesopotamia
(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998), 85–94.

For the Amarna Letters, see William L. Moran, ed. and trans.,
The Amarna Letters
(Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1992). For an analysis of the international relations system illustrated in these letters, see Raymond Cohen and Raymond Westbrook, eds.,
Amarna Diplomacy: The Beginnings of International Relations
(Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2000). See also Trevor Bryce,
Letters of the Great Kings of the Ancient Near East
(London: Routledge Taylor and Francis Group, 2003) and Mario Liverani,
International Relations in the Ancient Near East, 1600–1100
B.C.
(New York: Palgrave, 2001).

A selection of texts from Ugarit can be found in Michael David Coogan,
Stories from Ancient Canaan
(Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 1978); S. Lackenbacher,
Textes Akkadiens d'Ugarit: Textes Provenants des vingt-cinq Premières Campagnes
(Paris: Les Éditions du Cerf, 2002 [in French]). For a brief introduction to Ugarit and Bronze Age Canaan, see Cyrus H. Gordon and Gary Rendsburg,
The Bible and the Ancient Near East,
4th edition (New York: W. W. Norton, 1998), 82–95.

The identification of the Hittite “Alashiya” as Cyprus is a virtual detective story. See Y. Goren et al., “The Location of Alashiya,”
American Journal of Archaeology
107 (2003): 233–55.

Much new research has been done in recent years on the Sea Peoples, and a good deal of it is available in Eliezer D. Oren, ed.,
The Sea Peoples and Their World: A Reassessment
(Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2000). See also the essays in Seymour Gitlin et al.,
Mediterranean Peoples in Transition: Thirteenth to Early Tenth Centuries
BCE
: In Honor of Professor Trude Dothan
(Jerusalem: Israel Exploration Society, 1998). An older but still valuable work is N. K. Sandars,
The Sea Peoples: Warriors of the Ancient Mediterranean, 1250–1150
BC
(London: Thames & Hudson, 1978).

M
any people on three continents helped me to write this book. Chapters were generously read in draft and improved by Judith Dupré, Mark Levine, Kim McKnight, Marcia Mogelonsky, Jan Parker, and Meredith Small. My mentor, Donald Kagan, offered valuable advice at the outset of this project. Getzel Cohen opened doors at Troy. I am greatly indebted to him and to the staff of the Troia Project, and in particular to its late director Manfred Korfmann; and to Peter Jablonka, Rüstem Aslam, Gerhard Bieg, and Hans Jansen. Mustafa A
kin led me through the Troad; Selma and Iskender Azloglu were hosts and guides to Mount Ida; and Serhan Güngor is Turkey's
guide extraordinaire.
Allen Ward introduced me to Elias and Maria Tomazos, who brought me to a conference on the recent excavations at Pellana, Greece, generously hosted by the local community; there I met Ralph Gallucci, Matthew Dillon, and the excavation director, Theodore Spyropoulos, who offered valuable scholarly advice. My Cornell colleagues John Coleman, Peter Kuniholm, Sturt Manning, Jon Parmenter, Hayden Pelliccia, Pietro Pucci, Hunter Rawlings, Eric Rebillard, Jeffrey Rusten, and James Weinstein shared their knowledge of matters ranging from Thucydides to Anatolian trees to Native American religion. Among scholars at other universities who helped me are Günhan Borekci, Paul Cartledge, Eric Cline, Peter Dorman, Elizabeth S. Greene, Victor Davis Hanson, Simon Hillier, John Lee, Joseph Manning, Michelle Maskiel, Adrienne Mayor, Josiah Ober, Geoffrey Parker, Stephen Radentz, and Katerina Zacharias. Suzanne Lang provided invaluable secretarial and logistical assistance. Elizabeth Shedd did photo research and Susan Dixon designed and produced my Web site.

I would also like to thank Diane Barcelo, Nina Barclay, Stephan Blum, Susanne Bocher, Matthias Cieslak, Çiler Çilingiroglu, Robert A. Graham, Pavol Hnila, Martin Loicano, Alison Minton, Bill Patterson, Kevin Rooney, Rabbi Eli Silberstein, Sevim Karabiyik Tokta, Sinan Unur, Steffen White, Janis Whitlock, and Chaya Rivka Zwolinksi.

The Department of History of Cornell University granted me leave to write this book. I am grateful to them, to Cornell's Department of Classics, and to the staff of Cornell's John M. Olin Library. I owe a debt to my students past and present, at Cornell and elsewhere, for their stimulation and support.

The people of Greece and Turkey proved as generous as ever.

I am greatly indebted to the wisdom and patience of my editor at Simon & Schuster, Bob Bender. His counsel is present on every page. I would also like to thank his assistant, Johanna Li, as well as Phil Metcalf and Tom Pitoniak. I am greatly indebted as well to my editor at Hutchinson, Paul Sidey, for his thorough, perceptive, and productive reading of the manuscript. I would also like to thank his assistant, Tiffany Stansfield. Without Howard Morhaim, best of literary agents, advisor, and friend, this book would not have come about.

My greatest debts are to my family. My mother continues to encourage me, as does the memory of my late father. The support and affection of my wife, Marcia, and my children, Sylvie and Michael, have made this project an odyssey and not a marathon. My brothers and sisters, both by birth and by marriage, are the greatest of friends, and I dedicate this book to them.