St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1876-10-20
A Week in the Troad.
I Continued from last reek. !

Continued from last Ueek.
My Investigations i'll the Troad con
vinced me of two things, viz, if Troy
existed at all as Homer describes it.
Bounarbashi WAS the place.-hut if
there never was such Il city, II rds no
doubt at HiSsarlik.
As | have said, the principal aIgu
mcnt in its favor is tradition. From
very early times llium has been con
as | know the tradition can not hc
traced back to the time of Homer by
several hundred wears. Nothing in the
Had shows us that an llium existed at
the time when the poem was written.
and it is probable To my mind that the
site was fixed upon Il long time after
wards. No doubt it WAS we'll known
that the great Trojan war. of which the
wandering minstrels sang. took place III
p"rtance that sprang up on the banks
of the Scamander would Ice likely to
arrogate to itself the name of the sacred
city. In time its claims would he ad-
mitted. and the very fact of its hearing
the name would he considered is proof
of its identity. The fact that NerNcs
and Alexander considered it to be the
site of ancient Troy proves nothing, ex-
cept the existence at their time of the
popular belief. In their capacity of con
querors rather than critical antequaIians
they would choose rather to crafty the
people by accepting the ordinary belief,
than to offend them by proving that
their tradition was Il hoax.
Taking tradition then for what it is
worth. we must base our conclusion
upon the cloSeness with which this site
will meet the requirements of the Had.
In the first place, then. its most ar
dent advocate. DR.. Schlicmann, after
working tor Il long time to prove that
Ilium was the site of Troy. at last has
come to the conclusion that 1.-THE city
of Priam WAS scarcely one twentieth
part us large as might be expected from
the statements of the Iliad." Again hc
SAYS, Even If we assume the houses Il
have been of three Storevs" (Which il
more than improbable) land standing
close by the side of one another. tn,
town can nevertheless not have con
tanned more than 5000 inhabitants. and
cannot have mustered more than 5Ot
soldiers"
Now while | admit that all this i.
possible, that we do not demand o
an epic poet that his statements ano
descriptions shall all be compassed 10y
| the limits of truth.-that from the
length of time the tradition had had t,
grow before the time of Homer. it woul,
veLy likely have become somewhat en-.
larged, i still am 10th to consider st
insignificant Il place rs Hissarlik tn,
site of Troy. when there is another %
magnificent proportions which so wei
fulflls the conditions of the Iliad.
The whole size of the site of Ilium i:
not more than 700 by $50 feet. shoulC
! Judge, and in this diminutive space DIR
Schliemann pretends to have discovered
the "palace of Priam" with its "reterun
penetruiia regum," and its'quin qua gintc
halami' of which Virgil speaks,-th'
temple mon egu9 Palladis"to which the
Trojan matrons went with beatel
breasts and dishevelled hair the
Scaean Gates, and all the objects thai
he thinks necessary to identify the place
The rufus of the palace of Priam III,
about eighteen feet long by twelve
wide, and the temple of Pallas mus
have been some eight feet square if ",
may Judge from what is left of it. Th,
lofty Pergamus is no where to be found
and Indeed no part of the city conlo
have been more than twenty feet above
sea level. 1t must have taken fertile
imagination indeed that could have ap,
piled Homer's numerous adjectivcs. n.
lofty" .'wind-swept," ''well- defend
ed" TO the insignificant Ilium.
Moreover the rivers near it do not IA
all coincide with the statements of til,
Iliad, there are not the waterspring'
in front of it.-and it was in all prOba
bility nearer the sea than Troy really
was. At present it is some three milei
from the HellespOnt, but without doub
there has been large alluvial deposit
carried down 10y the river Scamande
since the time of Homer.
There are quite good many things
however, that may be said in its favor
If it is too near the sea, Bounarbashi il
too far. Mt. Ida can be plainly seeI
from it, and there would be fewer i'm
pediments in the way of the race aroun,
it, which Homer speaks of as performe,
by Hector and Achilles.