How much of the *Iliad* was confirmed scientifically?
score:1
This subject is treated in detail in the 1959 book History and the Homeric Iliad by Denys Lionel Page (Sather classical lectures, volume 31).
This book, among other things, summarizes the extremely detailed information on the "Catalog of Ships" collated by the German classicist, Viktor Burr: Neon katalogos. Untersuchungen zum homerischen Schiffs-Katalog. Dieterich, Leipzig 1944.
The ship catalog is the study of the places and kings named in Homer. In general, over half of the named places are authenticated historically. The nature of the catalog is such that it appears impossible that it was fabricated, therefore, Page draws the conclusion that Homer's description must have accurately depicted Mycenaean Greece.
Archaeologically speaking, the main find (besides the remains of Troy) is that the Mycenaean megarons described by Homer have been confirmed as an actual architectural type and are well documented.
Upvote:9
In the story of the Trojan War, if not necessarily in the text of Homer's Iliad, Agamemnon's wife Clytemnestra learns of the fall of Troy via a relay of fire beacons. In Aeschylus' Agamemnon, she's said to have received the news in Mycenae (approximately 400 miles away) the very same night that Troy fell, and Aeschylus describes the path of the transmitted message. Two men in the 20th century, one a German historian and the other a communications engineer, each traced that path and deemed the relay as being feasible. This is briefly mentioned in James Gleick's The Information and described in somewhat greater detail here (see the section "Fire Beacons").
This may not meet the definition of scientific or archaeological confirmation, but it does lend some additional credence to the ancient texts.
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Source: stackoverflow.com
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