Ancient Troy Bayard Taylor. 



3 



of 2,000 francs a year. FTe soon perceived the busi- 

 ness necessity of a knowledge of Russian, and set to 

 work to learn it. There was no teacher to be had ; 

 the only books ho could procure wore an old 

 grammar, a dictionary, and a Russian transla- 

 tion of Fenel< in's TtMinaque. His habit of 

 Studying aloud, in order to accustom his ear to the 

 eouml of foreign languages, was so annoying to the 

 tenants of the neighboring rooms that ho was sev- 

 eral times obliged to change his quarters, but in 

 spite of these disadvantages he was soon able to 

 write Russian letters and to converse with Russian 

 merchants who visited Amsterdam. In 18-10 the firm 

 scut him to St. Petersburg as its business agent. A 

 year af tenvard ho established a commercial house 

 of his own, and for eight years thenceforth devoted 

 himself with such energy to the building up of a 

 large business, that no time was left for the prose- 

 cution of further studies. Finally, in 1856, he was 

 so far successful that he yielded to the old desire of 

 learning Greek, the fascination or which he had 

 dreaded, as a possible interference with his other 

 duties. With the aid of two Athenians, he mastered 

 the chief difficulties of Modem Greek in six weeks, 

 and in three months afterward was able to read 

 Homer with ease. In two years more he was familiar 

 with nearly all the aucieut classics. In 1858, having 

 acquired wealth and leisure, he left St. Petersburg, 

 and spoilt more than a year iu travel, visiting Italy, 

 Egypt, Syria, and Greece, and adding the Arabic to 

 Lis catalogue of tongues. 



By the end of 1863 Schliemann found that he was 

 a rich man aud retired from business, resolved 

 to devote the remainder of his life to archaeological 

 studies. The following year ho started on a trip 

 around the world, visiting India, Cbiua, and Japan. 

 Returning in 1806. he settled in Paris, and prepared 

 himself for archaeological explorations in Greece 

 by three more years of hard study. 



FIRST RESEARCHES IN ITHACA AND THE TROAD. 



In the Summer of 1809, with the Iliad and the 

 Odyssey in his pockets, Schliemann started on his 

 lirst tour of research. Landing on the island of 

 Ithaca early iu July, he spent about a week in en- 

 deavoring to identify the localities of the Homeric 

 narrative. His own narrative, by the by, is almost 

 Homeric in its terse, picturesque simplicity. He 

 seems to have believed, in advance, that he should 

 fin' 1 ' ail which he went to seek, aud ho accordingly 

 finds them the palace of Ulysses, the Grotto of the 

 Nymphs, the home of the swineherd Eumaus, and 

 even ten of the twelve stalls for swine, in the neigh- 

 borhood of the fountain Arethusa. But this faith is 

 pardonable, when we consider the narrow limits of 

 the island, and the fact that, there remain only one 

 grotto, one fountain, aud one acropolis, which suit 

 the conditions of the story. In Ithaca, where the 

 people have no traditional history except that of 

 the Odyssey, where in every family, at this day, 

 the first-born daughter is always called Penelope, 

 the first son Odysseus and the second Telemachos, 

 Scblicmann. was hailed as a friend and benefactor. 

 Tho inhabitants of every village flocked together to 

 hear him read Homer, in return for which they 



gratuitously entertained him with the best they 

 had. He thus describes his visit to Leuke, on the 

 northern end. of the island : 



It was tioou when we reached tho villaeo, and since I 

 dosm-d to see tlio aucieut valley <>t Polls aud its acropo- 

 lis, I decided to make no stay in Leuke. But tlio people 

 bejrKed mo so earnestly to read some passages from the 

 Odyssey, that I was finally obliged to comply. Iu order 

 to be heard by all, I had a table placed, as a rostrum, 

 under a plane-tree in the center of tho village, and then 

 read with a loud voice the 23d Book of the Odyssey, from 

 the opening to the 247th verse, wherein it is related how 

 the Queen of Ithaca, the best and most chaste of women, 

 recoeuizes her beloved spouse after twenty years of 

 separation. Although I had already read the passage 

 numiierlcss times, I was always freshly moved whenever 

 I perused it, and tho magnificent lines made tho same 

 impression upon my auditors. All wept prof u.sely, aud 

 I was obliged to weep with them. After the reading 

 was finished, they begged me to remain at least a day 

 louiror. but this was uot possible. 



~* mif "^^ 



WOiESPON 1 " 



TOMBS OF 



|jj fiCHILLESAN 

 rA PATROELUS.' 



CO ,-- 



SIGEUMMf 



f ' as- 



iRUINS OF ALEXANDRIA THO A S 



MAP OF THE TROAD. 



Schliemann next visited Corinth, Mycenae and Ar- 

 gos, spent a week in Athens, aud then sailed for the 

 Dardanelles, in order to explore the Troad. This 

 preliminary survey of his future field of labor was 

 made during ten of the hottest days of August, 

 during which he thoroughly examined the plain of 

 Troy, from the shore of the Hellespont, at its north- 

 ern extremity, to the site of Alexandria Troas on tho 

 south, and the base of Mount Ida on tha east. Most 

 archaeologists had fixed upon the little Turkish ham- 

 let of Bounarbashi, some ten or twelve miles from 

 the sea, as the site of Ilium Vetua (Ancient Troy), 

 and persisted in considering the main stream the 

 Turkish name of which, Mendere, instantly suggests 



