The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1877-02-20
sCHLIEMANN AND AGAMEMNON.
The Trojan War Not Myth-Foun.
dations OF Faith In HOmer-Secrets
OC the Five TOmbs.

The Trojan War Not Myth-Foun.
dations OF Faith In H0mer-Secrets
oIthe Five Tombs.
DR.. Schliemanp, in his letter 10 the
London Times, thus simply and clearly
repeats his Homeric faith, and gives his
reasons for believing the tombs dlscov-
cred at Mykons to be those OF Again
emnon and his companions.
The Trojan war has for long time
past by many eminent scholars been re.
garded as myth, of which, however,
they vainly endeavored to find the origin
in the Rlgveds. But in all antiquity the
seige and conquest of Ilium by the
Greek army under Agamemnon has
been considered as an undoubted histor-
ical fact, and as such it is also accepted
by the great authority of Thucy bides.
The tradition has even retained the
memory of many details of that war
which have been omitted by Homer.
For my part, l have always firmly be-
lieved in the Trojan war; my firm faith
in Homer and IN the tradition has never
been shaken by modern criticism, and to
this my faith | am indebted for the dis
covery of Troy and its treasure. How
ever, the want of ornamentation on the
Trojan jewels, the handmade uncolored
pottery, with impressed or engraved or
namentation, and, finally, the want OF
iron and glass, convince me that the
ruins of Troy belong To such a remote
antiquity as to precede by ages
the ruins of MykenS, the date OF which
| thought could fix by the result of the
thirty-tour shafts which l sunk in the
Acropolis IN February, 1874. | there
fore believed that Homer had only
known by an ancient tradition. COM
memorsted by preceding poets, the
seige and destruction of Troy, and that,
for favors received, he put in his cotem
poraries as actors in his great tragedy.
But never doubted that King Of Ny
kena, b. name Agamemnon, his chario-
teer Eurymedon, q Princess Casssndra,
and their followers had been treacher-
ously murdered either at dinner by
IEgisthus, as Homer says, or in the
bath by Clytemnestra, ss the later tragic
poets pretend, and firmly believed in
the statement of Psusanias the murdered
persons had been inferred in the Aero.
polls, differing IN this respect from w.
NJ. Leake, WI. Mure, Edward Dodwell,
Ottried Muller, Ernest Curtus, w. Cell,
and Prokesch, who all had misunder-
stood the statement Of Pausanias, and
thought that he meant the murdered
persons had been murdered In
the lower town.
NV firm faith in tho traditions made
me undertake my late excavations IN
the Acropolis, and led to the discovery
of the five tombs, with their immense
treasures. Although l found in these
tombs, in a technical point OF view, u
very high civilization, yet, as in llium,
l found there only handmade pottery,
and no trace of glass or of iron. Further,
writing was known in Troy; for l found
there number of short Greek inscrip-
tions, in very ancient Cypriote charact-
ers (see my "Troy and its Remains" PIP
363-S72;) whereas we have the certainty
now that the alphabet was not known IN
Mykens. Had it been known, the My
lensn goldsmiths, who were always en-
deav oring to invent some new orr amen
tation, would joyiully have awaited
themselves of the novelty to lnterwesVe
the strange characters IN their decoration.
Beside. in that remote antiquity to which
The Homeric rhapsodies and the tradition
OF the Mykene tombs refer, there was
as yet no commercial intercourse. No.
body travelled except on warllke or
piratical expeditions. Thus there may
have been very high civilization OF
MykeDr, while ut the very same time
the arts were only in their first dawn in
Troy more than 1000 years before any
alphabet was known in Greece. l have
not the slightest objection to admit that
the tradition which assigns the tombs in
the Acropolis to Agamemnon and his
companions, who, on their return from
Ilium were treacherously murdered by
Clytemnestra or her paramour, E gis.
thus, may be perfectly correct and faith.
full. am bound to admit this so much
the more as we have the certainty that,
to say the least, all the bodies OF each
tomb had been burnt simultaneously.
The calcined pebbles below each Of
them, the MARKS Oi tuo nEo W tuo riRut
and left on the internal walls OF the
tomb the undisturbed state of the ashes
and the charred wood on and around
the bodies, give us the most ur mistak-
able proofs in this respect. Owing to
the enoi nous depth Of these sepulchers
and the close proximity ofthe bodies to
each other it is quite impossible that
three or even five funeral piles could
have been dressed at different intervals
of time in the same tomb. The identi-
1, of the mode of burial the perfect
similarity of all the lombs, their very
close proximity, the imposslbihty OF ad'
hitting that the three or five royal per-
sonsges of Unreasonable wealth, who
had died a natural death at long inter.
walls of time, should have been huddled
together in the same tomb and finally,
the great resemblance OF all the orns
menis, which show exactly the same
STYLE of art and the same epoch-sll
these facts are so many proofs that all
the twelve men and three women had
been murdered simultaneously and
burned at the same time.
oo;.Ily timeIy hook vet one to