166 GEOLOGY AND HISTORY 



expected facts and questions respecting primitive 

 humanity. I propose in the present chapter to direct 

 attention to some points which may be regarded 

 as definitely ascertained in so far as archaeological 

 evidence can give any certainty, though I cannot 

 pretend, in so limited a space, to enter into details as 

 to their evidence. 



Before proceeding, I may refer by way of illustra- 

 tion to another instance brought into very promi- 

 nent relief by the publication of Schuchardt's work 

 on Schliemann's excavations. We all know how 

 shadowy and unreal to our youthful minds were the 

 Homeric stories of the heroic age of Greece, and our 

 faith and certainty were not increased when we read 

 in the works of learned German critics that the 

 Homeric poems were composite productions of an 

 age much later than that to which they were sup- 

 posed to belong, and that their events were rather 

 myths than history. How completely has all this 

 been changed by the discoveries of Schliemann and 

 his followers ! Now we can stand on the very 

 threshold over which Priam and Hector walked. 

 We can see the jewels that may have adorned Helen 

 or Andromache. We can see double-handled cups 

 like that of old Nestor, and can recognise the inlaid 

 work of the shield of Achilles, and can walk in the 

 halls of Agamemnon. Thus the old Homeric heroes 

 become real men, as those of our time, and we can 

 understand their political and commercial relations 

 with other old peoples before quite as shadowy. 



