The Tawagalawa letter (CTH 181) is an incomplete Hittite text from around the middle of the 13th century BC. It is important because it helps us understand how the Hittites and Greeks interacted during the Late Bronze Age. The letter also mentions a past disagreement about a city named Wilusa, which is usually thought to be the same as the ancient city of Troy.

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The Tawagalawa letter was written by a Hittite king to a king of Ahhiyawa around 1250 BC or earlier. Most scholars believe the writer was Hattusili III, though some think it might have been Muwatalli II. The letter is broken or incomplete, so the exact identities of the writer and the person it was written to are not certain. Nothing is known for sure about the person who received the letter.

In the letter, the Hittite king asked the Ahhiyawan king to help stop people who were working against the Hittites in Western Anatolia. He was especially worried about a warlord named Piyamaradu, who had fled to Ahhiyawa after failing to lead a rebellion in Lukka. Because Piyamaradu had a history of fighting against the Hittites, the Hittite king wanted to know what Ahhiyawa would do. He offered three choices: send Piyamaradu back to the Hittites, force him to leave Ahhiyawa, or allow him to stay only if he promised not to rebel again. No records show how the Ahhiyawan king responded. However, in the years that followed, Ahhiyawa gained more control over Western Anatolia, which suggests the request may have been ignored.

The letter is important because of the way the Hittite king spoke. Though he criticized the Ahhiyawan king for earlier helping Piyamaradu, the letter was polite and tried to be friendly. It used titles like "my brother," which were usually reserved for rulers of powerful empires such as Egypt and Babylonia. This has led scholars to believe that Ahhiyawa was becoming a stronger power in the region and was connected to places like Miletus. This idea was later supported by another letter called the Milawata letter, written around 1240 BC.

Scholarship

The letter is known by its common name because it briefly mentions Tawagalawa, the brother of the Ahhiyawan king (Hittite: 𒋫𒉿𒂵𒆷𒉿 Tawagalawa, 𒋫𒉿𒅗𒆷𒉿 Tawakalawa). His name is thought to be a Hittite version of the Greek name Eteocles (Greek: Ἐτεοκλῆς), which may have come from an older Greek form, Ἐτεϝοκλέϝης (Etewoklewes), written in Mycenaean Greek as E-te-wo-ke-le-we. Some scholars believe the Greek name entered Hittite through Luwian, possibly because the first vowel "e-" was removed (a process called apheresis). Early studies incorrectly believed the letter’s beginning described Tawagalawa’s actions. However, after a review by scholars Itamar Singer and Suzanne Heinhold-Krahmer in 1983, this part of the text was reinterpreted to refer to Piyamaradu, and most scholars now consider Tawagalawa to have a smaller role in the letter. Some challenges remain in accepting Piyamaradu as the person who requested to become the Hittite king’s vassal.

Piyamaradu is also named in the Manapa-Tarhunta letter (around 1295 BC) and, in past tense, in the Milawata letter (around 1240 BC). The Tawagalawa letter also mentions Miletus (called Millawanda) and its dependent city Atriya, as does the Milawata letter. It also refers to the governor Atpa, as does the Manapa-Tarhunta letter (though that letter does not specify Atpa’s territory).

Trojan connection

In the letter, the Hittite king mentions past conflicts between the Hittites and the Ahhiyawans over Wilusa, which have now been settled peacefully: "Oh, my brother, write to him this one thing, if nothing else: '. . . the king of Hatti has persuaded me about the matter of the land of Wilusa concerning which he and I were hostile to one another, and we have made peace.'"

Many scholars believe Wilusa is the same as Troy. This connection has led some to say the letter offers important information for scholars studying ancient stories about the Achaean attack on Ilios. However, the word used in the letter (ku-ru-ri-iḫ-ḫu-e-en) might describe sending strongly worded messages, starting a war, or something in between.