Alaksandu

Alaksandu or Alaksandus was a king of Wilusa who sealed a treaty with Hittite king Muwatalli II ca. 1280 BC. This treaty implies that Alaksandu had previously secured a treaty with Muwatalli's father, Mursili II, as well.

Biography

Alaksandu was a successor of one Kukkunni, although it is not known if he was his immediate successor. Muwatalli recalls the friendship of Kukkunni with his own grandfather, Suppiluliuma I, and further evokes over three centuries of friendship between the Hittites and Wilusa dating back to the reign of Hattusili I.

Muwatalli in his letter downplays the importance of royal ancestry, suggesting that Alaksandu had come to power by other means than regular succession, so that Alaksandu is not necessarily a blood-relation of Kukkunni's. This has been taken as a hint that he may have been an early Greek ruler called Alexander, and he has been associated with Homer's Alexandros of Ilion, who is better known by his nickname Paris, of Troy. However this is uncertain, since Alaksandu lived at least half a century before the generally agreed date of the Trojan War,[1] although the name Alaksandus, which does not conform to the Anatolian onomastic tradition, must be a transcription of the Greek name Alexandros.[2] One of three gods guaranteeing the terms of the treaty on the side of Alaksandu is the "Stormgod of the Army", Apaliunas (DA-ap-pa-li-u-na-aš), who is usually equated to Apollo. Apollo is portrayed in the Iliad as the foremost champion of the Trojans and the one who helped Paris kill Achilles. Another deity in the letter was a local goddess of springs named Kaskalkur.

This chronology is consistent with the archaeology of Troy (assuming its identity with Hisarlik), which shows that Troy VI was destroyed by an earthquake, around 1300 BCE, after over 300 years of occupation, and then rebuilt.

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ Said, Suzanne; Webb, Ruth (2011). Homer and the Odyssey. Oxford University Press. p. 77.
  2. ↑ Güterbock, Hans G. (1986). John Lawrence Angel; Machteld Johanna Mellink, eds. Troy in Hittite Texts?. Troy and the Trojan War: a symposium held at Bryn Mawr College, October 1984. Bryn Mawr Archaeological Monographs. p. 42. ISBN 978-0-929524-59-7.

References

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