Troy and Sparta In The Days of Moses

 Nadene Goldfoot                                                 

   Sparta in Greece (lower left) and Troy in Turkey (center)

The ancient Greeks believed that Troy was located near the Dardanelles and that the Trojan War was a historical event of the 13th or 12th century BCE, but by the mid-19th century CE, both the war and the city were widely seen as non-historical.  They must have thought it had just been a myth, as they started thinking about the Torah.  Today, excavations prove that the Torah is full of facts, proven facts. 

Troy as also been excavated.  "It is this record of a people and their city that is preserved in archaeology. Each layer of occupation, one on top of the other, represents a phase in the city's history, which archaeologists over the last 150 years have been exploring. These layers have been labelled  Troy I to IX, with Troy I being the earliest settlement and Troy IX the most recent. Much remains to be discovered, but we now know enough today to get a good sense of the city's development over time."   "Troy was situated at the entrance to the Dardanelles strait, and in ancient times lay much nearer to the sea than it does today – the coastline has changed as river deltas have silted up. Its position was key to its prosperity, as the city could trade by sea as well as by land. It may also be that ancient ships, waiting for the wind and currents they needed to pass through the straits, provided a captive market for Trojan goods and services." 

                                 Istanbul
  

The ancient, legendary city of Troy really did exist - and travelers can reach it easily with a one-hour drive from Istanbul.                            

Total War:  Menelaus, king of Sparta, and Helen's husband of Greece.  

In Greek mythology, the Trojan War was waged against the city of Troy of Turkey by the Achaeans (Greeks) after Paris of Troy took Helen from her husband Menelaus, king of Sparta. The war is one of the most important events in Greek mythology and has been narrated through many works of Greek literature, most notably Homer's Iliad. The core of the Iliad (Books II – XXIII) describes a period of four days and two nights in the tenth year of the decade-long siege of Troy; the Odyssey describes the journey home of Odysseus, one of the war's heroes.       

     The Trojan Horse fooling everyone:  The war stirred the imagination of the ancient Greeks more than any other event in their history and was celebrated in the Iliad and the Odyssey of Homer, as well as a number of other early works now lost, and frequently provided material for the great dramatists of the Classical Age. It also figures in the literature of the Romans (e.g., Virgil’s Aeneid) and of later peoples down to modern times.

Menelaus, son of the famed king Atreus, was the younger brother of Agamemnon of Mycenae and husband of Helen – the Spartan princess with which he ruled as king in Sparta. The two brothers rose to power after each married a princess of Sparta, thus securing an alliance with the Lacedaemonians.

Although not in his prime, Menelaus is still a mighty warrior who inspires awe and fear on the battlefield. Clad in heavy armour and wielding a great spear, he looks like the God of War’s equal.

Menelaus enters the Trojan War as the aggrieved party and is rightfully seeking bloody revenge on Prince Paris and his wayward wife. Even if it means bringing down the entire kingdom of Troy.    

Spear-famed Menelaus must answer the slight to his honour dealt by Paris, the Trojan prince who dared steal his wife!

This audacious deed has shaken the very foundations of Menelaus’ authority in Lakedaimon. So he must take Helen back and assert his authority once more!        

This would have happened during the lives of Amram and his wife, Jochabed, the parents of Moses, so it's going back pretty far.  Moses was born about 1391 BCE and died 1271 BCE.  They were slaves in Egypt during this period.  

It was much later in  333–332 BCE, Alexander's Macedonian forces conquered  Judea (Levant and Palestine. At the time, Judea was home to many Jews who had returned from exile  in 538 BCE in Babylon thanks to the Persians. They had been taken away in 597 BCE and then again more were taken away in 586 BCE.  At least they had had 205 years of peace in their own land before this next Greek attack.  

It was because of this Greek Attack and takeover of the Temple that we have Chanukah to remember this historic event.  

Resource:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maccabean_Revolt#:~:text=In%20333%E2%80%93332%20BCE%2C%20Alexander's,Babylon%20thanks%20to%20the%20Persians.

https://www.totalwar.com/games/troy/menelaus/

https://www.britannica.com/event/Trojan-War

https://www.britishmuseum.org/blog/search-lost-city-troy