The daily gazette., 1876-12-12
A MAGNIFICENT OFFERING
To His MAJESTY KING GEORGE

the monuments which the tradition rela-
ted by Pausanius indicates as the tombS
of Agamemnon, Cassandra Eurymedon
and their companions who were killed
while feasting at banquet by Clytem-
nestra and her lover -Egisthus.
These tombs are surrounded by dou-
BILE parallel circle, with tablets undoubt-
edly erected in honor of the victims. In
these tombs have found immense arch
geological treasure and numbers of arti-
cles of pure gold.
The treasure alone is sufficient to fill
large museum, and the most splendid in
the world in succeeding ages am sure it
will attract to Greece thousands of stran-
gers from abroad. AS am laboring sim
ply for the love OF science / waive all
claim to the treasure and offer it. with in
tense enthusiasm, entirely to Greece.
Sire, may these treasures, with Gods
blessing, become the corner stone of an
immense national wealth.
DIR. HENRI SCHLIEMANN.
MyCENAE, November 2S, 1876.
IMPORTANCE OF THE DISCOVERIES.
The highest scientific authorities in
London declare DIR. Schliemann's discov-
cries to be the most important yet made
in the history of archaeological investiga-
tion. They go back to the Cyclopean era
in architecture and to the time of the de-
struction of Troy, or to the Greece of al
most 5000 years ago, when ii was the
first city of the IIellenes.
NOT A MYTH.
Mycenc, the town of which DR.. Schile-
man speaks in this letter, is one of the
most ancient in the world. Long before
the Greeks Joined together to avengc the
wrongs of Menelaus and to recover the
beautiful Helen from her paramour Paris
this city was great centre ofgovernment
and civilization. Homer calls it "popu-
lous" and oad.streeted," and it was its
King AgamemnOD-thc "king of Men
who was chosen to command the Grecian
forces at Troy. DIR. Schilemann, in dig
ging up these relics and exposing to view
the tolnbs of these heroes of long-depart-
ed ages, carries us back far beyond histor-
ic times, and to great extent overturns
the theories of several modern writers on
history. The stories which have gener-
ally been considered almost mythical of
the return Of AGamemnon and his murder
by his wife Clytemnestra and her lover
.Egisthus are now almost confirmed by
the discovery of their tombs in positions
which tend to prove the truth of the
legend.
This story is one of the mort tragic
that has been treated by the great poets
of the golden age of Greek tragedy Kscn
lus in his "Agamemnon," Sophocles in his
"Electra" and Euripides in his "Orestes''
have each in turn dramatized various
phases Of this remarkable story. The
legend, or as we may now term it,history.
relates how Agamemnons on his return
from the seige of Troy, was foully MUIR
dered in his own banqueting hall, and
how his wife and paramount, who had
murdered him, afterwards intcrmauied.
THE STORY OF AGAMEMNoN,
Agamemnon and Menelaus were SONS
of Plisthenes and grandsons of Atreus,
King of Lycenae. They were brought up
together withtheir cousin Egisthus, in the
house of Atreus. After the murder of
Atreus by IEgisthus, and Thyesies the
two brothers fled to Sparta, ofwhich place
Menelaus afterwards became King. They
married two sisters, the daughter of
Tyndarus, Agamemnon espousing Cly-
temaestrn and Menelaus the far-famed
Helen. At the conclusion of the Trojan
war whittier Agamemnon had gone to as
sist his brother in recovering his wife, he
returned to Mycenae. Before leaving
Troy he lad obtained as his share in the
spoils Cassandra, the prophetic daughter
of Priam. She frequently foretold to
him the sad fate which awaited him
should he return; but blind to fate, he in
sisted on fastening back to his "much |
loved" Mycenae. On his arrival there he |
found that his cousin Hgisthus, whom he |
had left as the guardian of his kingdom |
and of his wife, had basely betrayed his |
trust and was living in adultery with |
The guilty couple imme-
dieately resolved to add to their other /
crime by numbering him, and took the |
opportunity of a banquet given to cele-
brate his safe arrival. 1t is related that
as he came from the bath Clytemnestra
gave him tunic with the sleeves sewn
up, and as he yainly attempted to put it
Oh she felled him with blows of hatchet
while her lover, Egisthus, assisted. At |
.he same time several of his companions
and among them Cassandra, who
1ad warranted him of his fate.
This murder forms the plot of the saga
nemnon" of Eschylus, the first of the
great dramatic triumvrate, while the re-
urn of Orestes and the death of Clytem-
lestra at his hands from those of the
Electra" and "Orestes."
THE SITE OF THE EXrLoRA TIoNs.
Mycenn,the sccnceofthis tie rrible TRACE
ly, was an ancient town in Argolis, about |
six miles TO the northeait of Argos, and !
; situated on little hill at the head of a
narrow valley. During the reign of Aga