Emil Orgetorix Gustav Forrer (also Emilio O. Forrer; ; 19 February 1894 – 10 January 1986) was a Swiss

Assyriologist Assyriology (from Ancient Greek, Greek , ''Assyriā''; and , ''-logy, -logia''), also known as Cuneiform studies or Ancient Near East studies, is the archaeological, anthropological, historical, and linguistic study of the cultures that used cune ...

and pioneering

Hittitologist Hittitology is the study of the Hittites, an ancient Anatolian people that established an empire around Hattusa in the 2nd millennium BCE. It combines aspects of the archaeology, history, philology, and art history of the Hittite civilisation. Ther ...

. He was the first to point out the relevance of references to

Wilusa Wilusa () or Wilusiya was a Late Bronze Age city in western Anatolia (modern-day Turkey) known from references in fragmentary Hittites, Hittite records. The city is notable for its identification with the archaeological site of Troy, and thus its ...

in Hittite inscriptions to the accounts of the

Trojan War The Trojan War was a legendary conflict in Greek mythology that took place around the twelfth or thirteenth century BC. The war was waged by the Achaeans (Homer), Achaeans (Ancient Greece, Greeks) against the city of Troy after Paris (mytho ...

in the epics of

Homer Homer (; , ; possibly born ) was an Ancient Greece, Ancient Greek poet who is credited as the author of the ''Iliad'' and the ''Odyssey'', two epic poems that are foundational works of ancient Greek literature. Despite doubts about his autho ...

. Forrer was born in

Straßburg Strasbourg ( , ; ; ) is the prefecture and largest city of the Grand Est region of eastern France, in the historic region of Alsace. It is the prefecture of the Bas-Rhin department and the official seat of the European Parliament. The cit ...

, Alsace-Lorraine. Emil Forrer developed a deviant

interdisciplinary Interdisciplinarity or interdisciplinary studies involves the combination of multiple academic disciplines into one activity (e.g., a research project). It draws knowledge from several fields such as sociology, anthropology, psychology, economi ...

field of research (''Meropisforschung''), based on textual fragments of the Greek historian Theopompus of Chios, and dealing with assumed pre- or protohistoric contacts between the Old- and the

New World The term "New World" is used to describe the majority of lands of Earth's Western Hemisphere, particularly the Americas, and sometimes Oceania."America." ''The Oxford Companion to the English Language'' (). McArthur, Tom, ed., 1992. New York: ...

.Emil Forrer,
Homerisch und silenisch Amerika
', San Salvador (author's edition) 1975 Antithetic to the prevailing academic school of thought, Forrer advocated the idea that Theopompos of Chios’s " Meropis" was not a fictional parody of

Atlantis Atlantis () is a fictional island mentioned in Plato's works '' Timaeus'' and ''Critias'' as part of an allegory on the hubris of nations. In the story, Atlantis is described as a naval empire that ruled all Western parts of the known world ...

but an actual geographic entity. Forrer died in

San Salvador San Salvador () is the Capital city, capital and the largest city of El Salvador and its San Salvador Department, eponymous department. It is the country's largest agglomeration, serving as the country's political, cultural, educational and fin ...

Works

* Forrer, E. ''Neue Probleme zum Ursprung der indogermanichen Sprachen''. "Mannus", B. 26, 1934 * Forrer, E.
Homerisch und silenisch Amerika
', San Salvador (author's edition) 1975

References

Linguists from Switzerland 1894 births 1986 deaths 20th-century Swiss linguists {{switzerland-linguist-stub

Works

See also

References