Trojan war - Clytemnestra was Muwatti, Pollux was Telipinu, Castor was Piyassili, Leda was Malnigal

Trojan war - Clytemnestra was Muwatti, Pollux was Telipinu, Castor was Piyassili, Leda was Malnigal by Eulalio Diocson Eguia Jr.

This is the transcript to my Youtube video published on April 5, 2024.

The Trojan War was a legendary conflict in Greek mythology between the Achaean Greeks against the city of Troy. The war is one of the most important events in Greek mythology, and it 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 key to unlocking the historic Trojan war in my opinion, is to first identify who exactly the Trojans, the Amazons, and the Achaeans were in history because these were the major players in the Iliad. In my previous video titled “Historical Troy was in Eupatoria near the Amazon city of Themyscira on the Black Sea southern coast”, I talked about the alliance between the Trojans and the Amazons during the war, and how close was Themyscira, the capital of the Amazons, to the city of Troy (which I identified as Eupatoria), just 65 kilometers away from each other.  

In that video I concluded based on Homer’s descriptions that the city of Troy must be located near the conjunction of two rivers, namely, Scamander (which I identified as the Iris or Yesilirmak river) and the Simoeis river (which I identified as the Lycus or Kelkit river). And Eupatoria, just like Troy, was located just south of where the Lycus flows into the Iris river. Both Eupatoria and Themyscira were near the southern coast of the Black Sea in Turkey in a region also known as the Pontic region of Asia Minor  in northern Anatolia, Turkey. 

Also, in my other video titled “Troy was Hayasa, Amazon was Azzi, Anniya was Achilles & Mursili's eclipse on Trojan war's 10th year”, I identified the Trojan-Amazon alliance as the Hayasa-Azzi confederation located in the Pontic region of Asia Minor where also Eupatoria and Themyscira were located. I specifically identified Hayasa as Troy, and Azzi as Amazon.

I ended that video by saying that Mursili II’s historical solar eclipse was visible at the mouth of the Yesilirmak river (where according to Homer the Trojan war battles were fought) on August 2, 979 BC at 2:31:30 UTC just 17 minutes after sunrise. That day also marked the death of Patroclus, a close friend of Achilles, during the 10th year of the Trojan war. I dated Mursili’s eclipse using Stellarium in my video titled “Redating Mursili II's solar eclipse to August 2, 979 BC means Hittite chronology is 334 years too early”. This eclipse occurred in the latter part of Mursili’s 10th year. Thus, Mursili’s 1st year when he ascended the Hittite throne, coincided with the first year of the Trojan war. 

In my video titled “Historic Trojan war- Priam was Hakkani, Dymas was Tudhaliya, Otreus was Suppiluliuma, Asius was Zida”, I identified several historical personages and their associated character names in the Iliad which documented the Trojan war. Hakkani was a king of Hayasa who I believe to be the Trojan king Priam, while Tudhaliya and Suppiluliuma were Hittite Kings who I believe were the Phrygian kings Dymas and Otreus respectively. Zida was a Hittite prince who I believe was the Phrygian prince Asius. The Hittites called their kingdom Hattusa which in my research was also the Phrygia of Homer’s Iliad.  

Menelaus, Achilles, Agamemnon, and Odysseus were some of the main heroes of the Achaeans mentioned in Homer’s Iliad. And in my opinion, the key to identify their historical names is to first know exactly who the Achaeans were. The Ionians were one of the four major tribes that the Greeks considered themselves to be divided into during the ancient period; the other three being the Dorians, Aeolians, and Achaeans. Furthermore, the Ionian dialect was one of the three major linguistic divisions of the Hellenic world, together with the Dorian and Aeolian dialects. Note that there is no such thing as an Achaean dialect.

According to historians, the Achaeans inhabited the region of Achaea in the northern Peloponnese, and played an active role in the colonization of Italy, founding the city of Kroton. Unlike the other major tribes, the Achaeans did not have a separate dialect in the Classical period, but were instead using a form of Doric or Dorian. In my opinion, if the Achaeans in the northern Peloponnese spoke Doric Greek, then they should be considered as Dorians, not Achaeans. So who do I believe the Achaeans really were?

Because I identified Troy, Amazon, and Phrygia as regions in Turkey, namely, Hayasa, Azzi, and Hattusa respectively, I believe the Achaeans were ancient Greeks who migrated to western Turkey and its nearby islands of Imbros, Tenedos, and Lesbos. (Lesbos is one Greek island in the Aegean sea which is being claimed by Turkey). Greeks have been living in what is now Turkey continuously since the middle 2nd millennium BC. Following upheavals in mainland Greece during the Bronze Age Collapse, the Aegean coast of Asia Minor was heavily settled by Ionian and Aeolian Greeks and became known as Ionia and Aeolia.   

Now you might ask, if the Achaeans were living in mainland western Turkey, why do they have to board ships to go to northeastern Turkey where I believe Hayasa-Troy was located? Between western Turkey and northeastern Turkey, there were several kingdoms that the Achaeans of western Turkey had to cross first before reaching Troy. Foremost of these kingdoms was Phrygia or the Hittites who were allies of Troy, including the territories that the Hittites controlled way back then which was expansive. Thus the only safe course for the Achaeans to travel was through the Black Sea.

During Suppiluliuma’s reign (who I believe to be Otreus), he retook Arzawan territory as far as Hapalla. Arzawa was a region and political entity in Western Anatolia during the Late Bronze Age. In Hittite texts, the term is used to refer both to a particular kingdom and to a loose confederation of states. The Arzawa kingdoms had a tumultuous relationship with the Hittites, sometimes allied with them but other times opposing them. The chief Arzawan state, whose capital was at Apasa is often referred to as Arzawa Minor, while the other Arzawan kingdoms included Mira, Hapalla, Wilusa, and the Seha River Land. I believe the Arzawa kingdoms located in Western Turkey were the Achaean Greek confederation that invaded Troy during the Trojan war.

Now allow me to expound on the love-hate relationship between the Arzawa kingdoms and the Hittites. Suppiluliuma married his daughter Muwatti to Mašḫuiluwa of the Arzawan state Mira. Now the Hayasans also had a similar peace treaty with the Hittite king Suppiluliuma which was sealed by a marriage between Hakkani and Suppiluliuma’s unnamed sister. Thus the Hayasans and the Arzawa kingdoms were both allies of the Hittites that time.

Suppiluliuma had two wives and the first wife who served as his queen was a woman named Henti. A badly damaged text from the reign of her son Mursili II implies that Queen Henti may have been banished by her husband to the land of Ahhiyawa. An advantageous marriage with a Babylonian princess named Malnigal (daughter of Babylonian king Burna-Buriash II) might have resulted in her banishment, according to historians. But in my opinion, Suppiluliuma’s desire to marry Malnigal was the reason behind the banishment of Queen Henti.  

In my research, Suppiluliuma (or Otreus) was the father of Clytemnestra who Homer also named Tyndareus. Clytemnestra was Suppiluliuma’s daughter Muwatti who he married to Mašḫuiluwa of the Arzawan state Mira (who I believe to be Agamemnon). Muwatti was the daughter of Suppiluliuma with his Babylonian wife Malnigal. Now you might ask, why would Homer give one person two different names, namely, Otreus and Tyndareus? The Hittites, just like other ancient cultures, had the tradition of giving their newly ascended kings a regnal name, or the name used by monarchs and popes during their reigns which became their historic names. Since ancient times, some monarchs have chosen to use a different name from their original name when they accede to the monarchy.

As proof that the Hittites use regnal names let me mention Piyassili, a Hittite prince and a middle son of King Šuppiluliuma who gave to Piyassili the Hurrian name Sarri-Kusuh and the territory of Ashtata and Carchemish, formerly belonging to Hanigalbat, when Hanigalbat became a vassal state of the Hittites. Thus, I believe Otreus was the Greek birth name of Suppiluliuma, while Tyndareus was the Greek regnal name of Suppiluliuma. This is quite evident In Book 3, lines 180-190 of the Iliad, when the aging Trojan king Priam told Helen of his war campaign together with Otreus and his Phrygian army against the Amazons when he and Otreus were much younger. 

 

The reason why Tyndareus was described by Homer as king of Sparta instead of king of Phrygia, is because Suppiluliuma expanded the Hittite realm to include the whole Arzawan territory which was occupied by Greek migrants to Turkey that time. And for Homer, Tyndareus’ control of Greek Sparta is more relevant in his story than Tyndareus’ control of Phrygia. 

If my conclusion was correct that Suppiluliuma was indeed Tyndareus, then this would explain why during the Trojan war, Suppiluliuma’s successor Mursilli II, the king of Phrygia at that time, was not present in the frontline of the battle. This is because the Hittites had peace treaties with both opposing sides, namely, the Hayasans (or Trojans) and the Arzawans (or Achaeans). 

If Mursilli chose to side with the Hayasans during the war, it was because the Hittite capital Hattusa was closer to Hayasa than Arzawa, and the Hayasans would therefore pose a greater risk of invasion to the Hittites than the Arzawans. During the Trojan War, the Phrygian king was visibly absent and the only Phrygians (or Hittites) sent to aid Troy were led by Ascanius and Phorcys, the sons of Aretaon. Asius, son of Dymas and brother of Hecuba, is another Phrygian prince who fought before Troy. Quintus Smyrnaeus mentions another Phrygian prince, named Coroebus, son of Mygdon, who fought and died at Troy.

Leda, wife of Tyndareus, was an Aetolian princess who became a Spartan queen. According to Ovid, she was famed for her beautiful black hair and snowy skin. Leda was admired by Zeus, who seduced her in the guise of a swan. Historians currently identify Aetolia to be a mountainous region of Greece on the north coast of the Gulf of Corinth. However, in my opinion, this was not the Aetolia of Homer. As Greek settlements began to expand starting in the sixth century BC, Greek colonists would often try to connect their new homes, and the native people they found there, to their pre-existing mythology. Note that I dated the Trojan war at 979 BC which was much earlier than the sixth century BC when the Greek colonies were named.

Because I believe Tyndareus was Suppiluliuma who married a Babylonian princess named Malnigal (daughter of Babylonian king Burna-Buriash II), this means in my research, Malnigal was also Leda, the wife of Tyndareus. Mursili, son of Suppiluliuma, accused his stepmother of seriously abusing her power over the Hittite kingdom and of “standing day and night before the gods and cursing his wife” who died as a result. In other words, Mursili was accusing his wicked stepmother of black magic or witchcraft. 

According to Mursili his stepmother also turned all of his father’s estate over to the house of the Protective god, the Stone House of the gods, which she let come from Babylon. It is clear from this statement that Mursili’s stepmother referred to the Babylonian wife of his father, Malnigal, and not the mother of Mursili’s wife who was his mother-in-law. This explains why Mursili’s Babylonian stepmother cursed his wife to death (who was not her daughter), and tried to dethrone him (who was not her son). I believe Mursili was the son of Suppiluliuma’s first wife Queen Henti who may have been banished by Suppiluliuma to the land of Ahhiyawa.

KUB fragmentary text 14.4: (22.) Now the queen repeatedly [curs]ed me, my wife (and) my son [in front of] the goddess Ishara, (23.) and sacrificed against(?) us. Then my wife died because of this. (24.) [When] I was marching [toward the land of A]zzi-now the Sun-god (had?) made an omen-but the queen (25.) [acted with malice and] repeatedly said: "That omen which the Sun-god made- (26.) [did it con]cern [the king's wife?] Did it not rather concern the king himself? Now, if (27.) [it is so,... the great] ones of Hatti. with regard to the lordship, [ select] another (28.) [man as king]"  

Zeus seduced Leda and as a swan, Zeus fell into her arms for protection from a pursuing eagle. Their sexual consummation, on the same night as Leda lay with her husband Tyndareus, resulted in Leda laying two eggs. If a medieval priest reads Leda’s story, he will immediately conclude that Leda was a witch. During the European Witch Craze (circa 1450-1650 AD) tales of the "witches' sab-bat" circulated across the continent. These tales included lurid details of sex and debauchery conducted between women and demons, supported by numerous confessions given by accused women.

Leda was the daughter of King Thestius of the Pleuronians in Aetolia, according to Greek mythology. In my research, King Thestius corresponds to the Kassite Babylonian king Burna-Buriash II. The Kassites were people of the ancient Near East, who controlled Babylonia at a time which historians dated to 1531 BC until 1155 BC (using the short chronology). This was after the fall of the Old Babylonian Empire. They gained control of Babylonia after the Hittite sack of Babylonia in 1531 BC. 

In other words, the Kassites were non-Babylonians who invaded and took control of Babylon with the help of the Hittites. Thus in my research, the Kassites were the Pleuronians in Aetolia according to Greek mythology. This means that while the Kassite Babylonian monarchs were ruling over Babylon, they simultaneously kept their hold on Aetolia. But where exactly was Aetolia? 

Suppiluliuma has a son named Telipinu who is known from a decree appointing him as a priest of Kizzuwatna which was an ancient Anatolian kingdom in the 2nd millennium BC. Several ethnic groups coexisted in Kizzuwatna and their culture represents a fusion of Luwian, Hurrian, and Hittite elements. The Hurrians predate the Hittites and Luwians in the area, which means the Hurrians were the original natives of Kizzuwatna. In my opinion, Aetolia was Kizzuwatna. The Kassite language’s relationship with or membership in the Hurro-Urartian family has been suggested. It could be surmised that the Kassites were merely a tribe of Hurrians that expanded from the north (which I believe to be Kizzuwatna) into the south and settled in Mesopotamia. 

Suppiluliuma’s son, Telipinu, was practicing his priesthood in Kizzuwatna instead of Hattusa, the capital of the Hittite empire. It  implies that it was Malnigal (daughter of the Kassite Babylonian king Burna-Buriash II) who sent him there and not Suppiluliuma. In my research Telipinu was Pollux, the demigod son of Leda with Zeus, and probably one and the same person as Dares the Phrygian who according to Homer was a Trojan priest of Hephaestus. Dares the Phrygian may have been Pollux’s priestly ordination name, and he was thought to be the author of an account of the destruction of Troy. This means Telipinu, or Dares the Phrygian, was alive during and after the 10th year of the Trojan war.

Castor was the mortal son of Tyndareus with his wife Leda. During the 10th year of the Trojan war, Helen was looking for his brothers Castor and Pollux (Iliad Book III lines 235-239). This means Castor and Pollux must have died shortly before or shortly after the 10th year of the Trojan war for Helen to expect to see them among the Achaean army. I dated the start of Mursili’s reign coinciding with the start of the 10 year Trojan war. Which means that Castor and Pollux must be alive shortly before or shortly after the 10th year of Mursili’s reign.

Mursili had 4 known step-brothers with his step-mother Malnigal who I identified as Leda. Arnuwanda II died of a plague shortly before Mursili started his reign. Zannanza, was sent to Egypt in response to the Dakhamunzu letter and was murdered en route. Zannanza’s murder happened shortly before Mursili became king. This leaves only Telipinu and Piyassili, as the only candidates for Castor and Pollux. Piyassili fell ill and died before the ninth year of Muršili's reign, and I believe Piyassili was Castor. This is because I already concluded earlier that Telipinu was Pollux who survived the Trojan war and made an account of it as Dares the Phrygian.

Leda’s father, the Aetolian King Thestius, was allied with Tyndareus and Icarius against Hippocoon. According to Strabo, Tyndareus and his brother Icarius, were banished by their other brother Hippocoön from their homeland (which I believe to be Hattusa the capital of the Hittites). They went to Thestius, the king of the Pleuronians at Aetolia (which I believe to be Kizzuwatna, located 255.5 kilometers from Hattusa). 

In my research, Hippocoon corresponds to Tudhaliya the Younger, Tyndareus to Suppiluliuma, and Icarius to Zida - all brothers and sons of the Spartan King Oebalus who I believe was one and the same as king Dymas of Phrygia. In other words, Oebalus was the Spartan name of the Phrygian king Dymas.

Historians believe Suppiluliuma “retook” Arzawan territory as far as Hapalla when he started to reign. This means the Achaean controlled Arzawan territory (which included Homer’s Sparta) was once under the control of the Hittites before Suppiluliuma’s reign. And according to historians, this happened as early as the Hittite Old Kingdom ruler Hattusili I when he raided Arzawan territory. 

Sometime during the reign of Tudhaliya, father of Suppiluliuma, Arzawa conquered a large portion of Western Anatolia, reaching as far as the border of the Hittite homeland. Thus, making the Arzawan states independent from Hittite dominance. However, before this happened, Tudhaliya was still in control of the Arzawan states, and therefore during that time, he can be called not just king Dymas of Phrygia but also king Oebalus of Homer’s Sparta, with Oebalus being the local Spartan name of Dymas. Apasa (or Ephesus) was the capital of Arzawa, and I believe it was Homer’s Sparta.

According to Bilgin (2018) (based on the words of Mursili II), Tudhaliya the Younger, was the son and the intended heir of the Hittite king Tudhaliya, who was also the father of Suppiluliuma. Yet he was ‘eliminated’ by his brother Suppiluliuma on his way to kingship and was killed by a group of officers that included his usurper Suppiluliuma. History tells us that Suppiluliuma assassinated his brother Tudhaliya the Younger, but did not tell us that, according to Greek mythology, Suppiluliuma and his other brother Zida, was first exiled by Tudhaliya the Younger who may have done this to eliminate possible contenders for the throne of the Hittite empire.

To summarize this video, in my research of Greek mythology combined with Hittite history, Hippocoon was Tudhaliya the Younger, Tyndareus was the regnal name of Suppiluliuma I, who was also Otreus when he was still a Phrygian prince, and Icarius was the regnal name of Zida, brother of Suppiluliuma, who was also Asius when he was still a Phrygian prince. The Spartan King Oebalus (who I believe was one and the same as king Dymas of Phrygia) was Tudhaliya, father of Suppiluliuma I. Furthermore, Clytemnestra was Muwatti, Pollux was Telipinu, Castor was Piyassili, and Leda was Malnigal.