Page "Achaeans (Homer)" Paragraph 8

Some Hittite texts mention a nation lying to the west called Ahhiyawa.

In the earliest reference to this land, a letter outlining the treaty violations of the Hittite vassal Madduwatta, it is called Ahhiya.

Another important example is the Tawagalawa Letter written by an unnamed Hittite king ( most probably Hattusili III ) of the empire period ( 14th-13th century BC ) to the king of Ahhiyawa, treating him as an equal and suggesting that Miletus ( Millawanda ) was under his control.

It also refers to an earlier " Wilusa episode " involving hostility on the part of Ahhiyawa.

Ahhiya ( wa ) has been identified with the Achaeans of the Trojan War and the city of Wilusa with the legendary city of Troy ( note the similarity with early Greek Wilion, later Ilion, the name of the acropolis of Troy ).

However the exact relationship of the term Ahhiyawa to the Achaeans beyond a similarity in pronunciation is hotly debated by scholars, even following the discovery that Mycenaean Linear B is an early form of Greek ; the earlier debate was summed up in 1984 by Hans G. Güterbock of the Oriental Institute.