Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Trojan |
TrojanAdjective1. Of or relating to the ancient city of Troy or its inhabitants; "Trojan cities". Noun1. A native of ancient Troy. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "Trojan" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1321. (references) |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
- A citizen of the ancient, destroyed city of Troy
- A specialized computer virus that enters via stealth or through another program and deposits and/or executes an often destructive bit of computer code, see Trojan horse.
- Trojan is also a video game released by Capcom for the NES.
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Trojan."
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
This article is about the city of Troy as described in the works of Homer, and the possible location of a historical city of that name. For other uses see Troy (disambiguation).
The walls of the supposed city of TroyTroy (Greek Τροιας) is a legendary city, the location of the Trojan War, as described in the Iliad, an epic poem in Ancient Greek. The poem was attributed by the Greeks to a blind poet called Homer, and was probably composed in the 8th or 9th centuries BC, although it contains older material. There are also references to Troy in the other work attributed to Homer, the Odyssey. The Homeric legend of Troy was elaborated by the Roman poet Virgil in his work the ''Aeneid.
The Greeks and Romans believed in the historicity of Troy, and believed it to have been located at a site in Asia Minor, now north-western Turkey, near the Dardanelles. This is shown by the fact that Alexander the Great and his companion Hephaestion visited the site in 334 BC and made sacrifices at the alleged tombs of the Homeric heroes Achilles and Patroclus.
With the rise of modern critical history, Troy and the Trojan War were consigned to the realms of legend. In 1870, however, the German archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann excavated a hill, called Hissarlik by the Turks, near the town of Chanak (Çanakkale) in north-western Anatolia. Here he discovered the ruins of a series of ancient cities, dating from the Bronze Age to the Roman period. Schliemann declared one of these cities to be the city of Troy, and this identification was widely accepted at that time.
Subsequent excavations have shown that were at least nine cities built one on top of other at this site. The first city was founded in the third millennium BC. During the Bronze Age, the site seems to have been a flourishing mercantile city, since its location allowed for complete control of the Dardanelles, through which every merchant ship from the Aegean Sea heading for the Black Sea had to pass.
The last city on this site, Ilium or Ilion, was founded by Romans during the reign of the emperor Augustus and was an important trading city until the establishment of Constantinople in the fourth century as the eastern capital of the Roman Empire. In Byzantine times the city declined gradually, and eventually disappeared.
Today there is a Turkish town called Truva in the vicinity of the archaeological site, but this town has grown up recently to service the tourist trade. The archaeological site is officially called Troy by the Turkish government and appears as such on many maps, and many history books confidently identify the site as the location of the Homeric city of Troy.
It is important to note, however, that no text or artefact has ever been found which clearly identifies this site as that of Troy, or indeed confirms that any such place as Troy ever existed. Some archaeologists and historians maintain that none of the events in Homer are historical. Others accept that there may be a foundation of historical events in the Homeric stories, but say that in the absence of independent evidence it is not possible to separate fact from myth in the stories.
The view from "Troy" Ancient Greeks historians placed the Trojan War variously in the 12th, 13th or 14th century BC. Eratosthenes said 1184 BC, Herodotus said about 1250 BC, Douris said 1334 BC. The archaeological layer known as Troy VII, which has been dated on the basis of pottery styles at 1275-1240 BC, is the most often cited candidate to have been the Troy of Homer. It appears to have been destroyed by a war, and there are traces of a fire. The problem is that Troy VII is a hilltop fort, not a city, and certainly not the city of the size described by Homer.
Even if there was a Bronze Age city on the site now called Troy, and even if that city was destroyed by fire and/or war at about the same time as the time postulated for the Trojan War, there is still no evidence that any of the events described by Homer ever took place. In particular, the name Troy does not appear in any of the Greek written records (admittedly not extensive) from the many Mycenean or Bronze Age sites excavated over the past century. If there was a major city called Troy anywhere in the Aegean area, no-one at Knossos or Mycenae or Pylos mentioned it.
In the 1920s the Swiss scholar Emil Forrester claimed that placenames found in Hittite texts - Wilusiya and Taruisa - should be identified with Ilium and Troia respectively. He further noted that a "Wilusian" king mentioned in one of the Hittite texts - Alaksandu - was quite similar to the name of prince Alexander or Paris of Troy.
These identifications were rejected by many scholars as being improbable or at least unprovable, but Trevor Bryce recently championed them in his book The Kingdom of the Hittites (1998), citing a recovered piece of the so-called Manapa-Tarhunda letter, which refers to the kingdom of Wilusa as beyond the land of the Seha (known in classical times as the Caicus) river, and near the land of Lazpa (better known as the Isle of Lesbos). This remains a speculative subject.
In recent years scholars have suggested that the Homeric stories represented a synthesis of many old Greek stories of various Bronze Age sieges and expeditions, fused together in the Greek memory during the "dark ages" which followed the fall of the Mycenean civilisation. In this view, no historical city of Troy existed anywhere: the name derives from a people called the Troies, who probably lived in central Greece. The identification of the hill at Hissarlik as Troy is, in this view, a late development, following the Greek colonisation of Asia Minor in the 8th century BC.
Today a large number of tourists visit the site, mostly coming from Istanbul by bus or by ferry via Çanakkale. The visitor sees a highly commercialised site, with a large wooden horse built as a playground for children, then shops and a museum. The archaeological site itself is, as a recent writer said, "a ruin of a ruin," because Schliemann's archaeological methods were very destructive and the site has been frequently excavated ever since. For many years also the site was unguarded and was thoroughly looted.
The Roman city of Celeia (now Celje in Slovenia) has been referred to by some writers as Troia secunda - the second Troy.
Related articles
- Bronze Age
- Heinrich Schliemann
- Homer
- Lost cities
- Mycenae
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Troy."
Synonyms: TrojanSynonyms: Dardan (n), Dardanian (n). (additional references) |
Crosswords: Trojan |
| English words defined with "Trojan": Aeneas, Aeneid, Agamemnon, apple of discord ♦ Cassandra, Clytemnestra, Cyclic poets ♦ Hector, Helen, Helen of Troy ♦ Ilion, Ilium ♦ Laocoon ♦ Menelaus ♦ Patroclus, Penelope ♦ Sarpedon ♦ Troic, Trojan horse, Trojan War, troy ♦ Wooden Horse. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "Trojan": Cressida ♦ Degenerate ♦ Fatal Gifts, Fons et Origo, Friar John ♦ Harmonia's Necklace, Horse. ♦ LAOCOON, Lavinia ♦ Pandarus, Philoctetes ♦ Trojan asteroids, TRUSTY TROJAN, TRUSTY TROUT ♦ Westmoreland, William, Wooden Horse of Troy. (references) |
| Etymologies containing "Trojan": Troic. (references) |
| Non-English Usage: "Trojan" is also a word in the following languages with English translations in parentheses. Albanian (trojan), Serbo-Croatian (triune), Swedish (trojan). |
| Domain | Usage | |
Movie/TV Titles | The Trojan Women (1971) Trojan Warrior (2002) D4: The Trojan Dog (1999) Trojan (1986) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title | ||
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Books |
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Periodicals |
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Theater & Movies | |||
Music |
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Consumer Goods | |||
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit |  | Before the Trojan horse is admitted the puzzled citizen will have to be shown a little more fully. Credit: Library of Congress. |
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits. | |||
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| "Trojan" by Michelle Kwajafa Commentary: "A cardboard trojan horse in front of the washington monument at the world bank / imf protests in washington dc." |
Source: photographs selected by the editor, with permission from the photographers. |
| Author | Quotation |
Lord Byron | I should like to know who has been carried off, except poor dear me -- I have been more ravished myself than anybody since the Trojan war. |
Virgil | I make no distinction between Trojan and Tyrian. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | |
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Lexicography | Devil's Dictionary | DEGENERATE, adj. Less conspicuously admirable than one's ancestors. The contemporaries of Homer were striking examples of degeneracy; it required ten of them to raise a rock or a riot that one of the heroes of the Trojan war could have raised with ease. Homer never tires of sneering at "men who live in these degenerate days," which is perhaps why they suffered him to beg his bread -- a marked instance of returning good for evil, by the way, for if they had forbidden him he would certainly have starved. |
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| "Trojan" is generally used as an adjective (general or positive) -- approximately 88.46% of the time. "Trojan" is used about 78 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Adjective (general or positive) | 88.46% | 69 | 40,280 |
| Noun (singular) | 6.41% | 5 | 157,705 |
| Noun (proper) | 5.13% | 4 | 175,879 |
| Total | 100.00% | 78 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
| The following table summarizes the usage of "Trojan" based on a population census conducted in the United States. Ranks and frequencies are based on all names reported and classified. |
| Name | Usage/Gender | Usage per 100 million Persons | Rank in USA |
| Trojan | Last name | 1,000 | 17,106 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits. | |||
| Country | Name |
| Canada | Trojan Technologies Inc |
| (more examples...) |
Source: compiled by the editor from Icon Group International, Inc.
Expressions using "Trojan": like a Trojan ♦ trojan horse ♦ trojan war. Additional references. | |
| Hypenated Usage | |
Ending with "Trojan": pre-trojan. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day | Expression | Frequency per Day |
trojan | 2,822 | trojan removal | 63 |
trojan remover | 856 | soundtrack trojan war | 57 |
the trojan horse | 831 | irc trojan | 57 |
trojan condom | 699 | remove trojan | 56 |
anti trojan | 494 | trojan scan | 54 |
trojan virus | 385 | trojan war movie | 52 |
trojan war | 372 | 6.0.1 remover trojan | 50 |
trojan horse virus | 249 | free remover trojan | 49 |
back door trojan | 248 | trojan anti virus | 46 |
trojan download | 242 | trojan horse remover | 45 |
create trojan | 212 | dialer horse trojan | 43 |
trojan battery | 171 | trojan removers | 42 |
trojan scanner | 139 | 5.5 anti trojan | 40 |
usc trojan | 124 | usc trojan football | 39 |
trojan boat | 116 | trojan virus download | 39 |
trojan cleaner | 94 | download seven sub trojan | 37 |
guarder trojan | 88 | trojan record | 35 |
trojan hunter | 87 | trojan killer | 34 |
sub seven trojan | 79 | downloads trojan | 34 |
back door trojan virus | 76 | trojan technology | 32 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Language | Translations for "Trojan"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Albanian | trojan. (various references) | |
Arabic | طروادي, الطروادي أحد أبناء طروادة. (various references) | |
Bulgarian | троянски, троянец. (various references) | |
Czech | trojský, trójan. (various references) | |
Danish | trojansk hest (Trojan horse), trap-door indgang (trap door entry, Trojan horse), løngang (trap door entry, Trojan horse), faldlem (trap door entry, Trojan horse). (various references) | |
Dutch | Trojaan. (various references) | |
Esperanto | trojano. (various references) | |
Finnish | troijalainen. (various references) | |
French | Troyen. (various references) | |
German | Trojanisches Pferd (Trojan horse), Schleichweg über Lücken im Betriebssystem (trap door entry, Trojan horse), Eingangsschleuse (trap door entry, Trojan horse). (various references) | |
Greek | γενναίο και φιλεργό άτομο, τρωϊκόσ, τρωόσ, τρωάσ. (various references) | |
Hungarian | trójai. (various references) | |
Italian | cavallo di Troia (Trojan horse). (various references) | |
Japanese Kanji | トロイヤ群 (toilette, tongs, ton-kilometer, Tonkin, Toronto, Trojan group, trolleybus, trombone, trompe-l'oeil, TRON, trophy, tropical, tropical drink, tropical fish, tropical fruits, tropical plant, trot, Trotskism, Trotskist, truck, tunnel, tunnel diode, twilight, you and I), トロイの木馬 (Tholoide, troika, Trojan horse). (various references) | |
Japanese Katakana | トロイヤぐん (Trojan group), トロイのもくば (Trojan horse). (various references) | |
Pig Latin | ojantray.(various references) | |
Portuguese | troiano, pessoa que trabalha. (various references) | |
Romanian | troian (drift, heap, snow drift, wall). (various references) | |
Russian | троянский, троянец троянский, троянец. (various references) | |
Serbo-Croatian | trojanski, trojanac, odlučan (crucial, decided, decretory, determined, point blank, purposeful, resolute, resolved, settled, spirited, stalwart), hrabar čovek (ironsides). (various references) | |
Spanish | entrada mediante trampa (trap door entry, Trojan horse), caballo de Troya (trap door entry, Trojan horse). (various references) | |
Swedish | trojansk, trojan. (various references) | |
Turkish | truvalı, truva. (various references) | |
Vietnamese | người chiến đấu dũng cảm. (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
| Language | Period | Translations |
| Latin | 500 BCE-Modern | frygiam, Tros. (various references) |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
Misspellings | |
"Trojan" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: Tarija, Tirajana, Tirjohn, Torbjorn, Torkan, Torran, trnjani, Troarn, Troiani, Troja, Troma, Troman. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "a-j-n-o-r-t" | |
-1 letter: trona. | |
-2 letters: jato, jota, nota, rant, rato, roan, rota, tarn, taro, tora, torn. | |
-3 letters: ant, art, jar, jot, nor, not, oar, oat, ora, ort, raj, ran, rat, rot, taj, tan, tao, tar, ton, tor. | |
-4 letters: an, ar, at, jo, na, no, on, or, ta, to. | |
| Words containing the letters "a-j-n-o-r-t" | |
+1 letter: janitor. | |
+2 letters: janitors. | |
+3 letters: juniorate. | |
+4 letters: abjuration, adjuration, janitorial, journalist, juniorates, trajection. | |
+5 letters: abjurations, adjournment, adjurations, conjectural, conjuration, jargonistic, journalists, objurgating, objurgation, rejuvenator, trajections. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Modern | 5. Usage: Commercial 6. Images: Slideshow 7. Images: Photo Album 8. Images: Digital Art | 9. Quotations: Familiar 10. Quotations: Non-fiction 11. Usage Frequency 12. Names: Frequency | 13. Names: Company Usage 14. Expressions 15. Expressions: Internet 16. Translations: Modern | 17. Translations: Ancient 18. Derivations 19. Anagrams 20. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
