THE ROYAL HOUSE OF TROY

 *THE ROYAL HOUSE OF TROY*

The traditional founder of Troy's famed royal house was Dardanus, a few generations prior to Tros and Ilus: "Dardanus, in Greek legend, the son of Zeus and the Pleiad Electra, mythical founder of Dardania on the Hellespont (the nearby strait separating Dardania from Hellas or Greece now called the Dardanelles). He was the ancestor of the Dardans of the Troad (the region surrounding Troy)...

"According to tradition ... Dardanus fled from Arcadia (in the middle of Mycenaean Greece) across the sea to Samothrace (a northern Aegean island). When that island was visited by a flood, he crossed over to the Troad ... Being hospitably received by Teucer (ruler of Phrygia), he married Teucer's daughter Bateia and became the founder of the royal house of Troy" 

("Dardanus, "Encyclopedia Britannica, Micropaedia, 1985, Vol.3, p.884).

In his acclaimed *Story of Civilization*, historian Will Durant writes: "Who were the Trojans? An Egyptian papyrus mentions certain 'Dardenui' as among the allies of the Hittites at the battle of Kadesh (1287 B.C); it is likely that these were the ancestors of the 'Dardenoi' who in Homer's terminology are one with the Trojans. Probably these Dardani were of Balkan (Greek) origin, crossed the Hellespont in the sixteenth century (B.C, though the 15th is perhaps more likely) ... Herodotus (Greek "father of history" of the fifth century B.C), however, identified the Trojans with the Teucrians (note the eponymous King Teucer already mentioned), and the Teucrians, according to (the first-century-B.C. Greco-Roman geographer) Strabo, were Cretans who settled in the Troad, perhaps after the fall of Cnossus. Both Crete and the Troad had a sacred Mt. Ida" (Vol.2; *The Life of Greece*, 1966, p.35).

This is all becoming much clearer. Again, these people were evidently Israelites - most likely Judahites or Jews. Indeed, even many of the Mycenaean royal houses of southern Greece appear to have sprung from the royal lineage of Crete, which seems to have been Jewish.

It is interesting to consider that, according to Homer, the shields of the Greek leaders in the Trojan War were decorated with heraldic eagles and lions. These were the Israelite tribal emblems of Dan and Judah respectively... The lion also appeared on the shields of the Trojans.

This is made all the more compelling by the following quote from Biblical Archaeologist magazine: "Lions, we may remark, are not frequent in Greece" (March 1996, p.17). And yet over the "Lion Gate" of Mycenae, an ancient relief of two very large lions flanking a pillar still greets tourists. Virtually the same emblem later appeared across the Aegean in Phrygia in Western Turkey - on the rock-cut tomb of Arslantas ("Lion Stone") near Afyon. Perhaps this was due to the symbol being carried by Mycenaean royalty, which was later evidently transferred to Miletus - the Milesians then influencing neighboring Phrygia.

*Is it possible that in these emblems we are seeing the lion of Judah?*

Added to the intriguing possibility is this fact from a Harvard travel publication:

"The excavated site of ancient Mycenae extends over a large tract of rough terrain tucked between Mt. Agios Elias to the north and Mt. Zara to the south" (Let's Go Greece and Turkey, 1998, p.146, emphasis added). In fact the royal palace sits right at the base of Mount Zara.

*Could Mycenaean royalty have been descended from Judah's son Zerah or Zarah - the child of the scarlet thread?*

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*The Ecumenican Church Nigeria*