Attarsiya

Attarsiya was a 15th–14th century BCE military leader of Ahhiya. In the Hittite archives of circa 1400 BCE, he is described as a "man of Ahhiya", a country identified with the Achaeans and Mycenaean Greece. The campaigns of Attarsiya, as well as his conflict with the Hittite vassal, Madduwatta, represent the first recorded Mycenaean Greek military activity on the Anatolian mainland, as well as the first conflict between Achaeans and Hittites. He finally withdrew from Anatolia after Hittite intervention, but later launched a campaign against Alashiya (Cyprus).

Contemporary Hittite accounts about the campaigns of Attarsiya and the Ahhiya in general may indicate that there was a possible Mycenaean empire centered on late Bronze Age Greece. Moreover, Attarsiya might be a possible Hittite reconstruction of the Greek name Atreus, a king of Mycenae according to Greek mythology.

Background

The activities of Attarsiya are recorded in the Hittite archives, in particular in the Indictment of Madduwata. He is described as a "man of Ahhiya", which was a typical Hittite way to refer to an enemy king. This makes Attarsiya the first known Achaean leader, but his exact authority inside the Achaean world remains unclear. The Hittite descriptions seem to agree that he was a local Achaean ruler in western Anatolia, rather than a High king of all the Achaeans.