Chapter 7, The Hittites in the Trojan Myths of Greeks, occupies in this part of the book a special place, since the Hittites have not been inhabitants of Troad. However, Greek tradition which places in Mysia (in Caicos) during the time immediately following the events of the «Pseudo-Iliad» the powerful people of the Ceteans/Keteioi (Kt^tclol), fully corresponds to the evidence of the Hittite annals concerning Hittite army’s entry in the River Seha Country from where Ahhijawa’s king had just been ousted. Homer’s words (Od. XI.5I9-521) concerning the Ceteans coming at the close of the war to Troy’s help and perishing «because of the women’s gifts» remarkably tally with the prescription of Hittite law about a «payment to a woman» ($A SAL kuSSan) which was given to a widow of a killed mercenary. In Posthomerica by Quintus of Smyrna (that writing reflects the cyclical tradition) the Ceteans emerge as a powerful people ruled by the «great king» (n^yac (îaaiAeüç = Hitt. LUGAL GAL). The Ceteans appearing on stage, the Trojans as Greeks’ adversaries fade into the background. It is not impossible that tradition about the Ceteans reflects an unsuccessful attempt of the Hittites to affect the course of the Trojan war at its final stage.

However, this historical reminiscence is complicated by mythological motifs whose provenance is to be sought in Asia Minor. Thus, tradition makes the Cetean king Eurypylus a son of the Mysian demigod Telephus who was a hero participating in the events of «Pseudo-Iliad». Telephus while fighting the Achaeans gets his feet entangled in a vine and being severely wounded in the thigh, flees overseas to Greece to show the Greeks the way to Troy in exchange for their healing his wound. The above story is doublessly a Greek revision of the Western Anatolian version of the Hattie and Hittite myth about the fertility god Telepi/Telepinus who shuns tie world, sick and getting healed, furious and then placated. Under the influence of this calendar myth intruding in thé historical legend, the «women’s gifts» for which the Ceteans-Hittites perish, turn into the fabulous golden grapevine which had supposedly been presented by Priam to the Cetean queen and became the bane of Eurypylus. The memory about the fighting between the Greeks and their fell Hittite foes (cf. the story of Hercules fighting the KfjToc-monster) merges with the motifs which had come to Greeks from traditions of the peoples of Asia Minor living near Troy.