, 1872-12-29
HOMER INDICATED,

The researches OF DR.. Henry Schliemann, the
German saran! in Asia Minor, already promise
to establish great historical fact nnd to confirm
the truth OF the grand Homeric poem. Travel
lers and archnologists for years have disputed
over the location OF Troy, and OF late years it
has come to bo very generally accepted that
Troy is myth, existing only in the Imagination
Of the poet, and that the heroes Of the Trojan
war, who for ten years dofed tho united arms Of
all Greece, were but pictures drawn by tho fancy
Of the wandering bard as he travelled from city
to city, There have been those, however, who
have been unwilling to surrender to the Trojan
iconoclasts, and have chung tenaciously to tho
heroes and he7oines who lore,
and plot, and fight in the Homer
ic page. II they have net believed that
tho fair, frail Helen was SO unkind to hor royal
spouse, Menelaus rs to dofond her conduct With
the gay young Paris BY laying down the duties
Of "U On mari sage" after the OTenbachian YER
sion, etill they have been 10th to give up the
story that the Spartan beauty cloped with Paris,
ind henco
Achilles wrath, to Greece the direful spring
Of woes uunun.bered.
To Or. Scllieman belongs the credit Of having
rescued from tho realms Of fiction not only
Helen and Paris, but Achilles tho great Theasa-
lia1 Captain; Agamemnon, commander of tho
Greeks; tho venerable Priam; Hector, tl>, bold
warrior; and Andromacho, tho mournful maiden,
who from prinm's tower saw tho champion OF
Him rn 1afcr 41,a ,f,,1 Ao1,
We can now bclioyo with some de-
greo Of confidence in that remarkable
banding together ct tho Argives, the Neleills,
the Dnotians, and Thessalians, to revenge the
insult to the King Of Sparta; the tedious ten
years siege; tho furious quarrel between
Achilles and Agamemnon, by which the Greeks
were driven back to tho sea; tho reconciliation
Of the two chieftains; the episode Of the wooden
horse, which has pointed SO many morals for sus-
piclous persons; and tho final victory, sac&ing,
and destruction OF the city which form the staple
Of the Post Homerica; and the Cyclic poems, from
which Virgil in turn borrowed his hero Eneaa,
"Trojm qui primus ab oris." DR.. Schliemann
has invested the entire uomeric story with an
air Of probability by tho discovery of the site Of
tho ancient city, in the plain between
tho sir>os and the Sca1nandor where
tho tides Of battle raged SO furious}y
year after year. The geographical clea1ncss Of
! the great bard has been verified. Dr. Schlio-
mann first satisfied himself that the plateau at
,, the bend Of the Scamandor near tho village Of
Brunabashi, which has usually been accepted as
! the sight OF the PergamuB Of Priam, could not
be tho locality, and then turned his attention to
plateau, several miles north OF Brunnbaahi,
| which was admirably adapted for the sito OF a
large city. Ho made his first excavations in 1870.
and discovered somo rich remains Of architecture
and pottery, which convinced him that he vas
| On the right track He ut once made elaborate
preparations for e1cavating, and his lAbore
during 1871 and 1872 have been crowned With re-
| markablo SUCCESS. His cuttings bave revealed
to him ruins Of different ages in regular Strata
ThoRe OF historic times he found about seven
feet below tho surface. At the dapth Of fifteen
feet, be found calcinod ruins, showing that, tor
many years preceding the historic era, wooden
houses were used. At depth Of fourteen to
twenty-four fect, he came upon stone imple-
mcnts and fragments OF pottery, tho houses
being made Of small stones Joined together with
clay, showing that the inhabitants we're A1yans.
His later operations, conducted in June last.
which form tho staple OF exceedingly inter-
| estin2 letter to the New York Herald, brought