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According to ancient Greek historians the fall of Troy is dated to sometime between the middle of Thargellion and the middle of Skirophorion.

 

Eusebius in Preparation for the Gospel, Book 10 states "'And in the eighteenth year of the reign of Agamemnon Troy was taken, in the first year of the reign in Athens of Demophon son of Theseus, on the twelfth day of the month Thargelion, as Dionysius the Argive says. 'But Agius and Dercylus in their third Book say, on the eighth day of the last decade of the month Panemus: Hellanicus says, on the twelfth of Thargelion; and some of the writers of Athenian history say, on the eighth of the last decade, in the last year of the reign of Menestheus, at the full moon. The poet who wrote The Little Iliad says: ‘At midnight, when the moon was rising bright.’ But others say, on the same day of the month Scirophorion.”

 

Since the ancient Greeks used a lunar calendar, the full moon can only occur in the middle of the month by definition, which indicates that the reference to the last decade of the month by the Athenians above must be referring to the second decade of the month, since there are only two full decades in a lunar month and the 28/29 of the month would be nowhere near a full moon.

 

According to the Parian Marble Troy is taken on the 7 days before the end of the month of Thargelion or the 22 of the month in the 22 year of Menestheus.

"24) From when Troy was taken, 945 years, in the <2>2nd year that [Menesthe]us was king of Athens, on the 7th day before the end of the month Th[argelio]n."

According to Diodorus, Troy is captured in the year 1183/82 BC. According to Jerome it is taken in the year 1181/80 BC. According to the Parian Marble Troy is capture 9 years after the war begins which corresponds to 1182/81 BC when the reign of Demophon and the start of the war is synchronised with Jerome.

 

The majority of the ancient Historians quoted above agree that the capture of Troy took place some time in Thargelion but do not agree on the precise year.

 

Using the facts at our disposal it is possible to resolve this problem.

 

Agamemnon returns to Mycenae on the 13 of Gamelion and by this time Cassandra is supposed to have given birth to twin fathered by Agamemnon after the capture of Troy. For the birth to take place Troy must have been captured 9 months of 38 weeks before Agamemnon’s return and the conception must have taken place at that time. This 38 week gestation time can only be fulfilled if the capture of Troy took place in the month of Thargelion and is only possible if the year in which Troy was captured required a second inter-calendary month of Poseideon. Since we know that a total solar eclipse took place on 12 January 1183 BC (visible at the western edge of Crete) which can only occur on the day of a new moon (since the moon must be in front of the sun), which also signifies the start of the month in a lunar calendar, it is easy to work out the luner calendar for the years 1184 to 1180 BC by comparing them with a luner calendar of today at the HMEPA website. This shows that 1184/83 BC is the equivalent of the year 2012/13 AD (since the new moon of 1st Gamelion in the 4th year of the 697 Olympiad is 12/13 January 2013) and so on and so forth with the other years. Since the year 2014/2015 AD requires a second Poseideon then so must 1182/81 BC.

 

Troy is therefore captured at 0318h (using Online Bible data) on the night of the full moon of 14/15 May 1182 BC (1183/82 BC) which is 15 Thargelion (based on approximating this year with the calendar for 2013/2014) and is only 3 days later than the date given by Hellanicus. Agamemnon’s return to Mycenae takes place on 13 Gamelion which is 02/03 February 1181 BC (equivalent to 2014/2015 AD), so taking Hellanicus date of the 12 of Thargelion for the capture of Troy and assuming the rape of Cassandra took place on the day after, along with conception then this gives 266 days until 13 Gamelion or exactly 38 weeks. Using the Pregnancy Due Date Calculator and assuming the first day of the last menstrual period was on April 28, the estimated date of conception would be on May 12 (13 Thargelion) and the estimated date of birth would occur on February 2 which in 1181 BC and corresponds to 13 Gamelion in the Athenian calendar. Alternatively conception could have taken place a day earlier on the day Troy was captured and the birth of Cassandra’s twins could have occurred the day before Agamemnon’s arrived in Mycenae.

 

Comparing these dates to those of Diodorus, Jerome, and the Parian Marble indicates that Diodorus has given the correct year for when Troy was captured, ie. 1183/82 BC. Since Thargelion is only 2 months away from the end of the year the Parian Marble dates the capture of Troy to the start of the following year or 1182/81 BC and should be amended so it reads “on the 7th day before the end of the month Thargelion in the previous year.” Jerome on the other hand dates the end of the Trojan war to the start of the first full year in which Aegisthus rules over Mycenane and Demophon over Athens.

 

 

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