Ashton Kutcher

Kutcher also owns an Italian restaurant in Los Angeles named Dolce; he has two toes that are fused together on his left foot. Similarly Geoffrey of Monmouth traces the legendary kings of Britain to a supposed descendant of Aeneas called Brutus. Kutcher has been reported to celebrate traditional Jewish holidays [1], take time off from filming [2] and was married in a Kabbalah ceremony by a rabbi. The most famous is undoubtedly that promulgated by Virgil in the Aeneid, tracing the ancestry of the founders of Rome, and more specifically the Julio-Claudian dynasty, to the Trojan prince Aeneas. Both Kutcher and Moore are fairly devout followers of Kabbalah, a mystical off-shoot of the Jewish religion. Such was the fame of the Trojan story in Roman and medieval times that it was built upon to provide a starting point for various legends of national origin. Following his break-up with Murphy in mid 2003, Kutcher began dating actress Demi Moore, whom he married on September 24, 2005 in a lavish ceremony in Los Angeles, California. For many years also the site was unguarded and was thoroughly looted.

Kutcher has dated a variety of celebrities, including actresses January Jones (from 1998 to 2001), Ashley Scott (from 2001 to 2002), Monet Mazur (2002) and his Just Married co-star, Brittany Murphy, whom he dated from 2002 to 2003. The archaeological site itself is, as a recent writer said, "a ruin of a ruin," because the site has been frequently excavated, and because Schliemann's archaeological methods were very destructive: in his conviction that the city of Priam would be found in the earliest layers, he demolished many interesting structures from later eras, including all of the house walls from Troy II. Kutcher is also the producer of the reality-television show, Beauty and the Geek, which began in 2005. The visitor sees a highly commercialised site, with a large wooden horse built as a playground for children, then shops and a museum. In order to avoid the lawsuits, the videotaping of Rodriguez's prank was destroyed without any release and Vartan's prank has not been aired. A large number of tourists visit the site each year, mostly coming from Istanbul by bus or by ferry via Çanakkale, the nearest major town about 50 km to the north-east. The series involves various hidden camera tricks performed on celebrities; the series has sometimes led to controversy, as when New York Yankees' third-baseman Alex Rodriguez and actor Michael Vartan, both victims of the show's pranks, threatened to sue Kutcher. The archaeological site is officially called Troy by the Turkish government and appears as such on many maps.

In 2003, Kutcher used his status as a television star to produce and star in his own series on MTV, Punk'd. 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. His 2004 film, The Butterfly Effect, was an unusually dramatic role for Kutcher and was also deemed a box office success. Even though Homer was Ionian, the Iliad reflects the geography known to the Mycenaean Greeks, showing detailed knowledge of the mainland but not extending to the Ionian islands or Anatolia, which suggests that the Iliad reproduces an account of events handed down by tradition, to which the author did not add his own geographical knowledge. Kutcher achieved some stardom and was cast in a series of film roles; although he auditioned but was not cast in the role of Danny Walker in Pearl Harbor (2001), he starred in a few financially successful comedic films, including Dude, Where's My Car? (2000), Just Married (2003) and Guess Who (2005). Linguistically, a few verses of the Iliad suggest great antiquity, because they only fit the meter if projected back into Mycenaean Greek, suggesting a poetic tradition spanning the Greek Dark Ages. However, a month later, he was discovered in a bar in Iowa City, Iowa and cast in the television series That '70s Show, which became a success. Such a historical background gives a credible explanation for the geographical knowledge of Troy (which could, however, also have been obtained in Homer's time by visiting the traditional site of the city) and otherwise unmotivated elements in the poem (in particular the detailed Catalogue of Ships).

After some success in modeling, Kutcher had planned to move to Hollywood, but was asked to return to college by his mother. Much legendary material would have been added during this time, but in this view it is meaningful to ask for archaeological and textual evidence corresponding to events referred to in the Iliad. In 1997, he dropped out in order to pursue a modeling career, some of which involved working in underwear ads . In this view, the poem's core could reflect a historical campaign that took place at the eve of the decline of the Mycenaean civilization. Kutcher majored in biochemical engineering and was a member of the Delta Chi fraternity at the University of Iowa. Another view is that Homer was heir to an unbroken tradition of epic poetry reaching back some 500 years into Mycenaean times. He was expelled from Clear Creek-Amana, his high school, for underaged drinking, and arrested at age 18 for breaking into the school with a friend and stealing money from a vending machine. 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.

As a teen, Kutcher worked as a floor sweeper for a General Mills plant, and donated blood for money. 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. He grew up on a farm in rural Iowa. 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 civilization. Kutcher has an older sister, Tausha and a fraternal twin, Michael, who is younger by five minutes. 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. Kutcher was born in Cedar Rapids, Iowa to Larry Kutcher (an employee of General Mills) and Diane (who worked for Procter & Gamble); his ancestry is mostly Irish American, as well as distantly Native American and Bohemian (the origin of his surname). Some archaeologists and historians maintain that none of the events in Homer are historical.

. It may be possible to establish connections between either story and real places and events, but these always risk to be subject to selection bias. Christopher Ashton Kutcher (born February 7, 1978) is an American actor. In both cases, an ancient writer's story is now seen by some to be true, by others to be mythology or fiction. interview, 2003, CinemasOnline. The ostensible historicity of Homer's Troy faces the same hurdles as with Plato's Atlantis. interview, 1/04, UnderGroundOnline. No scholars assume that the individual events in the tale (many of which centrally involve divine intervention) are historical fact; on the other hand, no scholars claim that the scenery is entirely devoid of memories of Mycenaean times: it is rather a subjective question of whether the factual content is rather more or rather less than one would have expected.

interview, 1/22/04, Filmmonthly. The story of the Iliad is not an account of the war, but a tale of the psychology, the wrath, vengeance and death of individual heroes that assumes common knowledge of the Trojan War to create a backdrop. interview, 3/05, About.com. The more we know about Bronze Age history, the clearer it becomes that it is not a yes-or-no question but one of educated assessment of how much historical knowledge is present in Homer. interview on "Guess Who", 3/05, BlackFilm. The dispute over the historicity of the Iliad was very heated at times. Historical Wilusa was one of the Arzawa lands, in loose alliance with the Hittite Empire, and written reference to the city is therefore to be expected in Hittite correspondence rather than in Mycenaean palace archives.

The Mycenaean Greeks of the 13th century BC had colonized the Greek mainland and Crete, and were only beginning to make forays into Anatolia, establishing a bridgehead in Miletus (Millawanda). A name Wilion or Troia does not appear in any of the Greek written records from the Mycenean sites. But even if that is accepted, it is of course no positive proof of identity with Homeric (W)ilion. Our emerging understanding of the geography of the Hittite Empire makes it very likely that the site corresponds to the city of Wilusa.

A single seal of a Luwian scribe has been found in one of the houses, proving the presence of written correspondence in the city, but not a single text. This is probably due to the planification of the former hillfort during the construction of Hellenistic Ilium (Troy IX), destroying the parts that most likely contained the city archives. No text or artifact has been found on site itself which clearly identifies the Bronze Age site. The events described in Homer's Iliad, even if based on historical events that preceded its composition by some 450 years, will never be completely identifiable with historical or archaeological facts, even if there was a Bronze Age city on the site now called Troy, and even if that city was destroyed by fire or war at about the same time as the time postulated for the Trojan War.

The identifications of Wilusa with archaeological Troy and of the Achaeans with the Ahhiyawa remain controversial, but gained enough popularity during the 1990s to be considered a majority opinion. Hittite texts mention a water tunnel at Wilusa, and a water tunnel excavated by Korfmann, previously thought to be Roman, has been dated to around 2600 BC. Recent evidence adds weight to the theory that Wilusa is identical to archaeological Troy. Trevor Bryce in 1998 championed them in his book The Kingdom of the Hittites, 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 (the Isle of Lesbos).

These identifications were rejected by many scholars as being improbable or at least unprovable. This people have been identified with the Homeric Greeks (Achaeans). 1320 BC wrote a letter to the king of the Ahhiyawa, treating him as an equal and implying that Miletus (Millawanda) was controlled by the Ahhiyawa, and also referring to an earlier "Wilusa episode" involving hostility on the part of the Ahhiyawa. The Hittite king Mursili II in ca.

He further noted that the name of Alaksandus, king of Wilusa, mentioned in one of the Hittite texts is quite similar to the name of Prince Alexandros or Paris of Troy. In the 1920s the Swiss scholar Emil Forrer claimed that placenames found in Hittite texts — Wilusa and Taruisa — should be identified with Ilium and Troia respectively. Korfmann died on 11 August 2005, and since the digging permit was tied to his person, it is uncertain how and when the excavations will continue. Possible evidence of a battle was also found in the form of arrowheads found in layers dated to the early 12th century BC.

It is claimed by Korfmann that the ditch may have once have marked the outer defences of a much larger city than had previously been suspected. Remains found in the ditch were dated to the late Bronze Age, the alleged time of Homeric Troy. In August 2003 following a magnetic imaging survey of the fields below the fort, a deep ditch was located and excavated among the ruins of a later Greek and Roman city. The question of Troy's status in the Bronze Age world has been the subject of a sometimes acerbic debate between Korfmann and the Tübingen historian Frank Kolb in 2001/2002.

In 1988 excavations were resumed by a team of the University of Tübingen and the University of Cincinnati under the direction of Professor Manfred Korfmann. These excavations have shown that were at least nine cities built one on top of each other at this site. After Schliemann, the site was further excavated under the direction of Wilhelm Dörpfeld (1893/4) and later Carl Blegen (1932-8). Schliemann declared one of these cities—at first Troy I, later Troy II—to be the city of Troy, and this identification was widely accepted at that time.

Here he discovered the ruins of a series of ancient cities, dating from the Bronze Age to the Roman period. In the 1870s (in two campaigns, 1871-73 and 1878/9), however, the German archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann excavated a hill, called Hissarlik by the Turks, near the town of Chanak (Çanakkale) in north-western Anatolia. With the rise of modern critical history, Troy and the Trojan War were consigned to the realms of legend. In Byzantine times the city declined gradually, and eventually disappeared.

The last city on this site, Hellenistic Ilium, 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. 1020 BC) appear to have been destroyed by fires. 1120 BC) and Troy VIIb₂ (ca. Troy VIIb₁ (ca.

However, only small portions of the city have been excavated, and the finds are too scarce to clearly favour destruction by war over a natural disaster. Three bronze arrowheads were found, two in the fort and one in the city. Partial human remains were found in houses and in the streets, and near the north-western ramparts a human skeleton with skull injuries and a broken jawbone. Until the 1988 excavations, the problem was that Troy VII seemed to be a hill-top fort, and not a city of the size described by Homer, but later identification of parts of the city ramparts suggests a city of considerable size.

It appears to have been destroyed by a war, and there are traces of a fire. The archaeological layer known as Troy VIIa, which has been dated on the basis of pottery styles to the mid- to late-13th century BC, is the most often-cited candidate for the Troy of Homer. Only a single arrowhead was found in this layer, and no bodily remains. Troy VI was destroyed around 1300 BC, probably by an earthquake.

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 first city was founded in the 3rd millennium BC. The layers of ruins on the site are numbered Troy I – Troy IX, with various subdivisions:. Once Troy fell, the Trojans on the European shore fled northward and ended up as the Etruscans in Italy.

During the Trojan War, the Greeks used a naval blockade to prevent Trojans on the European shore and on Lemnos from coming to the aid of Troy. After attacking and destroying the Hittite Empire, they came to control the Straits. Dillon argues [7] that the Trojans were originally a steppe people related to the Magyars. Historian Kenneth J.

Immanuel Velikovsky, while accepting the traditional geography of the Trojan War, argued [6] that the Greek Dark Ages never happened, and that the Trojan War was fought several centuries later than is now generally believed. Dr. Neither theory is generally accepted by classicists. Iman Wilkins has located Troy in England [4], while Felipe Vinci places it in southern Finland [5].

A small minority of contemporary scholars dispute the Anatolian location of Homer's Troy. Their conclusion was that there is regularly a consistency between the location of Troy as identified by Schliemann (and other locations such as the Greek camp), the geological evidence, and descriptions of the topology and accounts of the battle in the Iliad. The geologists compared the present geology with the landscapes and coastal features described in the Iliad and other classical sources, notably Strabo's Geographia. Luce from Trinity College, Dublin presented the results (see [1], [2], & [3]) of investigations into the geology of the region that had started in 1977.

Kraft from the University of Delaware and John V. In November 2001, geologists John C. Ancient Greek historians placed the Trojan War variously in the 12th, 13th or 14th century BC: Eratosthenes to 1184 BC, Herodotus to 1250 BC, Douris to 1334 BC. Alexander the Great, for example, visited the site in 334 BC and made sacrifices at the alleged tombs of the Homeric heroes Achilles and Patroclus.

The Greeks and Romans took for a fact the historicity of the Trojan War, and in the identity of Homeric Troy with the site in Anatolia. The Homeric legend of Troy was elaborated by the Roman poet Virgil in his work the Aeneid. Besides the Iliad, there are references to Troy in the other major work attributed to Homer, the Odyssey, as well as in other ancient Greek writings. The site of the ancient city today is some 15 kilometers from the coast, but the ancient mouths of Scamander, some 3,000 years ago, were some 5 kilometers further inland, pouring into a bay that has since been filled with alluvial material.

The city of Troy itself stood on a hill, across the plain of Scamander, where the battles of the Trojan War took place. In the Iliad, the Achaeans set up their camp near the mouth of the river Scamander (modern Karamenderes), where they had beached their ships. Aeneas landed there and Helenus foretold his future. Buthrotos (or Buthrotum) was a city in Epirus where Helenus, the Trojan seer, built a replica of Troy.

The altar of Panomphaean (‘source of all oracles’) was dedicated to Jupiter the Thunderer (Tonatus) near Troy. Mount Ida ("Mount of the Goddess") in Asia Minor, is where Ganymede was abducted by Zeus, where Anchises was seduced by Aphrodite, where Aphrodite gave birth to Aeneas, where Paris lived as a shepherd, where the nymphs lived, where the "Judgement of Paris" took place, where the Greek gods watched the Trojan War, where Hera distracted Zeus with her seductions long enough to permit the taking of Troy, and where Aeneas and his followers rested and waited until the Greeks set out for Greece. This law was adopted by King Dunvallo Molmutius (from Brutus) in his code and is still in effect today in Britain. Gordon allowed queens as well as kings.

A Trojan law mentioned by E.O. Pegsis was the naiad of the River Grenikos near Troy. The Aisepid nymphs were the naiads of the Trojan River Aisepos. Some of the Trojan allies were the Hittites and the Amazons.

Kapys, Boukolion, Aisakos, and Paris were Trojan princes who had naias wives. Some famous Trojans are: Dardanus (founder of Troy), Laomedon, Ganymede, Priam, Paris, Hector, Teucer, Aesacus, Oenone, Telamon, Tithonus, Antigone, Memnon, Corythus, Aeneas, Brutus, and Elymus. The Persians invaded in 546 BC. The Ionians, Cimmerians, Phrygians, Milesians of Sinope, and Lydians moved into Asia Minor.

Trojan rule in Asia Minor was replaced by the "sons of Herakles" dynasty in Sardis that ruled for 505 years until the time of Candaules. The Trojan ships transformed into naiads, who rejoiced to see the wreckage of Odysseus' ship. The Maxyans were a west Libyan tribe who said that they were descended from the men of Troy, according to Herodotus. During his reign, the Mycenaean Greeks invaded and captured Troy in the Trojan War (traditionally dated to 1193 BC-1183 BC).

Priam later became king. One generation before the Trojan War, Heracles captured Troy and killed Laomedon and his sons, except for young Priam. Pestilence came and the sea monster snatched away the people of the plain. When Laomedon refused to pay, Poseidon flooded the land and demanded the sacrifice of Hesione to a sea monster.

Poseidon and Apollo built the walls and fortifications around Troy for Laomedon, son of Ilus the younger. Zeus gave Ilus the Palladium. Ilus, son of Tros, founded the city of Ilium (Troy) that he called after himself. Upon Dardanus' death, the Kingdom was passed to his grandson Tros, who called the people Trojans and the land Troad, after himself.

Eventually Dardanus married Teucer's daughters, and founded Dardania (later ruled by Aeneas). Teucer was himself also a coloniser from Attica, and treated Dardanus with respect. Dardanus, the legendary founder of Troy, crossed over to Asia Minor from the insland of Samothrace, where he met Teucer. The Trojan royal family was started by Electra and Zeus, the parents of Dardanus.

Troy was known for its riches, gained from port trade with east and west, fancy clothes, iron production, and massive defensive walls. According to Greek mythology, the Trojans were the ancient citizens of the city of Troy in the Troad area, in the land of Asia Minor (or Little Asia, now Turkey). The story of the Trojans first began in myth and legend. .

While such an identity is disputed, the site has been successfully identified with the city called Wilusa in Hittite texts; Ilion (which goes back to earlier Wilion with a digamma) is thought to be the Greek rendition of that name. One of the earlier cities (Troy VII) is often identified with Homeric Troy. Later excavations revealed several cities built in succession to one another. In the 1870s the German archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann excavated the area.

The Roman city of Celeia (now Celje in Slovenia) has been referred to by some writers as Troia secunda ("the second Troy"). It flourished until the establishment of Constantinople, and declined gradually during Byzantine times. A new city of Ilium was founded on the site that many believed to be the location of the legendary Ilion in the reign of the Roman Emperor Augustus. Troy (Truva, Hissarlik 39°58′N 26°13′E) is also the name of an archaeological site, the traditional location of Homeric Troy, in Asia Minor or Anatolia, close to the seacoast in what is now northwest Turkey, southwest of the Dardanelles under Mount Ida.

Troy (Turkish: Truva, Greek Τροία Troia also Ἰλιον; Latin: Troia, Ilium) is a legendary city, scene of the Trojan War, part of which is described in Homer's Iliad, an epic poem in Ancient Greek, composed in the 8th or 7th century BC, but containing older material (Iliad means "epic of Ilion"). Troy IX: Hellenistic Ilium, 1st century BC. Troy VIII: around 700 BC. 950 BC.

Troy VIIb₃: until ca. Troy VIIb₂: 11th century BC. Troy VIIb₁: 12th century BC. 1300 – 1190 BC, most likely candidate for Homeric Troy.

Troy VIIa: ca. Troy VIh: late Bronze Age, 14th century BC. Troy VI: 17th – 15th centuries BC. Troy V: 20th – 18th centuries BC.

Troy I – Troy IV: early Bronze Age (3rd millennium BC).