BR. HENRY T. SGHLIEMANN. 805 



found something remarkably interesting and important, as well 

 as very ancient, and that possibly the real Troy was somewhere 

 in the heap. Convincing testimony to the value of the investi- 

 gation was given by Dr. Virchow, who visited the place and ex- 

 amined it, and by a commission of archaeologists, who made a 

 special report upon the subject. Dr. Schliemann next turned his 

 attention to Mycenae, the capital of Agamemnon and the kings 

 of the house of Atreus. Following the directions of Pausanias, 

 he selected a spot, dug, and found, if not the tombs and the treas- 

 ury of the Atridae, five tombs of royal rank, with sarcopjhagi and 

 death-masks, and a treasure-chamber, which he decided to be of 

 equal age. Dr. Manatt says that when the first skeleton came to 

 light in these royal tombs, " he fell upon his knees before it, ex- 

 claiming, ' Thus have I imagined my hero ! ' " The results of this 

 work were described and published in another splendid book on 

 Mycenae and Tiryns. He next excavated Tiryns, which he had 

 already partly explored and described in connection with his work 

 at My cense, and laid bare the walls and a prehistoric palace and 

 citadel, with the gates, court-yard, hall, chambers, and bath-room. 

 Another volume, corresponding in style with the previous ones, 

 was devoted to the discoveries made here. Dr. Schliemann sub- 

 sequently made excavations at Orchomenos, the mound of Mara- 

 thon, and other important ancient sites, and was contemplating 

 further work of a similar character. The value and accuracy of 

 his discoveries have been subjected to unfriendly criticism and 

 much active discussion ; but, while he could not prove that the 

 second prehistoric city at Hissarlik was identical with Troy itself, 

 or that the tombs and treasures at Mycenae actually belonged to 

 the Agamemnon who was murdered by JEgisthus, he was able to 

 repel all efforts to discredit the results he got, and to convince the 

 most accomplished antiquaries and archaeologists that, if not 

 these, he had found something very like and very near in time to 

 them. Every kind of hypothesis was tried, as the Saturday Re- 

 view says, by those who doubted the genuineness of the discovery 

 of Mycenae, "but only Dr. Schliemann's fitted the case. The 

 bronze blades of the poniards, when the patina was removed, 

 were found to be beautifully chased in various-colored gold, such 

 as Homer describes, with scenes of war and the chase. The art 

 was clearly inspired by Egyptian reminiscences : here were men 

 hunting wild ducks, for example, in a papyrus marsh ; here were 

 pictures of such huge shields as Homer attributes to his heroes. 

 The figures, on the other hand, were far more free in execution 

 than those of the earliest known Greek art. In brief, new mate- 

 rials and a new problem were offered to archaeology, and the 

 evidence of tradition was once more proved to be more trust- 

 worthy than any one had expected." The grandeur of this dis- 



vol. xxxviii. 56 



