About fifty years after Israel entered Canaan under Joshua, the Philistines moved into the southern coastal plain and took over the cities of Timnah and Ekron (Judges 14:1–2; 1 Samuel 5:1–10). The Philistines were part of the Sea Peoples, who may have left the Greek mainland and islands because of a northern invasion. The Sea Peoples also invaded and destroyed the Hittite Empire north of Israel. Some scholars believe that Homer’s Iliad reflects this movement.