Trojan Past and Present

fany Greek cities absorbed the Tnojan myth into their own trad­itions; they may have claimed Trojan descent or a Trojan founder; they may have had a cult of a Trcojan hero or other ties with the mythical city. Often these are obscure cities which left little or no artistic or literary record, virtua1ly ignored by historians such as Herodotos, Polybios, and Livy, salvaged only by the comprehensive scrutiny of a geographer such as Strabo or a travel writer such as Pausanias. Then there are the many Greeks who gave their children the names of Trojan heroes. All this combines to produce a world in which Tnojans are by no means anathema. It is not, hmvever, monolithic and uniform, but full of variety as different cities approach the Trojan past in different ways. Some areas such as the ‘froad itself seem to have valued it particularly highly. Nonetheless, it is not the Troad that opens the present Chapter’s exploration of these numerous local traditions but rather the northern city of Aineia. This city is especially illuminating both because it provides the earliest evidence for the celebration of a Trcojan past and because it helps to highlight the problems of approach.

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