American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1876-12-23

ments which the tradition related by Pau
sanius indicates as the tombs of Agamem.
non, Cassandra, Eurymedon and their com
panions who were killed while feasting at ,
banquet by Clytemnestra and her lover
4Egisthus.
These tombs are surrounded by a double
parallel circle, with tablets undoubtedly
erected in honor of the victims. In these
tombs have found immense archa ologica
treasures and numbers of articles of pure
gold.
The treasure alone is sufficient to fill q
large museum, and the most splendid in
the world. In succeeding ages I 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 claims
to the treasure and offer it, with intense en-
thusiasm, entirely to Greece.
Sire, may these treasures, with God &
blessing, become the corner stone of an i'm :
mense national wealth. @L
DIR. HENRI SCHLIEMANN.
Mycena, November %, 1876.
IMPORTANCE OF THE DISCOVERIES.
The highest scientific authorities in
London declare DIR. Schliemann's dis
coveries to be the most Important yet
made in the history of archeologi-
cal investigation. They go back to the
Cyclopean era in architecture and to
the time of the destruction of Troy OF
to the Greece of almost s, 900 years ago,
when it was the first city of the Hell
lenes.
NOT MYTH.
Mycen@, the town of which DIR.
Schliemann speaks in this letter, is one
of the most ancient in the world. Long
before the Greeks joined together to
avenge the wrongs of Menelaus and to
recover the beautiful Helen from her
paramount, Paris, this city was great
center of government and civilization.
Homer calls it 'spopulous" and ''broad-
streeted," and it was its King
Agamemnon-the "King of Men"-who
was chosen to command the Grecian
forces at Troy. DIR. Schliemann, in
digging up these relics and exposing to
view the tombs of these heroes of long
departed ages, carries us back far be-
yond historic times, and to a great ex-
tent overturns the theories of several
modern writer's on history. The stories
VIII CHI have generally been considered
almost mythical of the return of Aga
memnon and his murder by his wife
Clytemnestra and her lover Egisthus
are now almost confirmed by the dis
covery of their tombs in positions which
70, To kI,a 1S
This story is one of the most tragical
that has been treated by the great poets
Of the golden age of Greek tragedy.
Eschylus in his "Agamemnon," So
phocles in his +" Electra" and Euripides
in his "Orestes" have each in turn
dramatized various phases of this re-
markable story. The legend, or, as we
may now term it, history, relates how
Agamemnon, on his return from the
siege of Troy, was foully murdered in
his own banqueting hall, and how his
wife and her paramour, who had muir
dered him, afterward intermarried.
THE STORY OF AGAMEMNON.
Agamemnon and Menelaus were sons
of Plisthenes and grandsons of Aureus,
King of Mycene. They were brought
up, together with their cousin Egisthus,
in the house of Aureus. After the muir
der of Aureus by Egisthus and Thyestes
the two brothers fled to Sparta, of
which place Menelaus afterward be-
came King. They married two sisters,
the daughters of Tyndarus, Agamem-
non espousing Clytemnestra and Men,
claus the far-famed Helen. At the con-
clusion of the Trojan war, whittier
Agamemnon had gone to assist his
brother in recovering his wife, he re-
turned to Mycene. Before leaving
Troy he had 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 insisted on Fastening back
to his "much loved" Mycene. On his
arriving there he found that his cousin
Egisthus, 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 Clytem-
nestra. The guilty couple Immediately
resolved to add to their other crime by
numbering him, and took the oppor-
tunity of a banquet given to celebrate. 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 vainly attempted to put it on she
felled him with blows of Ratchet,
while her lover, Egisthus, assisted. At
the same time several of his compan-
ions persisted, and among them Cas-
andra, who had warned him of his
late.
This murder forms the plot of the
"Agamemnon " of Eschylus, the first
of the great dramatic triumvirate,
while the return of Orestes and the
death of Clytemnestra at. his hands
form those of the "Electra " and
"Orestes."
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the top and fed from natural gas well,
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