The weekly democratic statesman. [volume] (Austin, Tex.) 1871-1883, 1877-03-01
The Trojan War not n NITth.

The Trojan War not n VI Tth.
DR.. Schliemann in his last letter 10
the London Times thus simply and
clearly repeats his Homerlc faith, and
gives his reasons for believing the
tombs discovered at Mykenn to be
those of Agamemnon and his compan-
ions:
The Trojan war has for long time
past, by many eminent scholars, been
regarded as a myth, of which, how
ever, they vainly endeavored to find
the origin in the Rigveda. But in all
antiquity the siege and conquest Of
1lium by the Greek army under Aga
memnon has been considered as an
undoubted historical fact, and as such
it is also accepted by the great author
ity of Thucydldes. The tradition has
even retained the memory of many de-
tails of that war which have been
omitted by Homer. For my part, l
have always firmly believed in the Tro-
jan 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 discovery
va ivy ITO llCdSuiCs I1ONGNBI,
the want of ornamentation on the Tro-
jan jewels, the handmade, uncolored
pottery, with impressed or engraved
ornamentation, and, finally. the want
of iron and glass, convince me that the
ruins of Troy belong to such remote
antiquity as to precede by ages the
ruins of Mykepe, the date of which 1
thought l could fix by the re-
suit of the thirty-four shafts which
| sank in the Acropolis in February,
1874. therefore believed that Homer
had only known by an ancient tradi-
ton, commemorated by preceding
poets, the siege and destruction of
Troy, and that, for favors received, he
putin bis contemporaries as actorsin his
great tragedy. But / never doubted
that king of Mykene, by name Aga
memnon, his charioteer Eurymendon,
Princess Cassandra, and their follow
ers had been treacherously murdered
either at dinner by Kgisthus, as Hoo
mer says, or in the bath by Cytemnes.
ira, as the later tragic poets pretend,
and firmly believed in the statement
of Pausanias that the murdered per-
sons had been inferred in the AcrOpo-
lis, differing in this respect from w.
NJ. Leake, w. Mure, Edward Dodwell,
Ottrled Muller, Ernest Curtius, w.
Cell and Prokesch, who all had misun-
derstood the statement of Pausanias,
and thought that he meant t.e MUIR
dered persons had been buried in the
lower town.
My firm faith in the traditions made
me undertake my late excavations in
the Acropolis, and led to the discovery
of the five tombs with their immense
treasures. Although found in these
tombs, in technical point Of view, a
very high civilization, yet, as in IlIum,
found there only handmade pot
terry, and no trace of glass or of
iron. Further, writing was known
in Troy; for l found there a num-
Der of short Greek inscriptions, in very
ancient Cypriote characters (see my
Troy and its Remains" PIP. 303 372);
whereas we have the certainty now that
the alphabet was not known in My
kene. Had it been known, the Ny
keDen goldsmiths, who were always
endeavoring to invent some new orna-
mentation, would joyfully have availed
themselves of thenovelty to Intervene
the strange characters in their decora-
ton. Besides, in that remote antiquity
to which the Homeric rhapsodies and
the tradition of the Mykenen tombs
refer there was as yet no commercial
intercourse. Nobody travelled except
on warlike or pirRtical expeditions.
Thus there may have been a very high
civilization at Mykene, while at the
very same time the arts were oniyin-
their fret dawn in Troy, and writing
with Cypriote characters may have been
in use in Troy more than 1000 years
before any alphabet was known in
Greece. / have not the slightest obiec-
tion to admit that the tradition which
assigns the tombs in the Acropolis to
Agamemnon and his companions, who,
on their return from Hum, were treach-
erously murdered by ClytemDestra or
her paramour, Egisthus, may be per-
fectly correct and faithful. lam 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 cal
cined pebbles below each Of them, the
marks Of the fire TO the right and left
on the internal walls Of the tomb, the
undisturbed state OF the ashes and tho
charred wood on and around the bod
les, give US the most unmIstakable
proofs in this respect. Owing TO the
enormous depth Of these sepulchers
and the close proximity Of the bodies
70 each other, it is quite impossible
that three or even FIVE funeral piles
could have been dressed at different iy
tervals Of time in the same tomb. T
identity Of the mode OF burial, the = =.
feet similarity OF all the tombs, g =
very close proximity, the impossi
OF admitting that three or I've roy -
personAges of immeasurable wealth,
who had died a natural death al long
intervals OF time, should have been
huddled together in the same tomb;
and finally, the great resemblance OF
all the ornaments, which show exactly
the same style Of art and the same
epoch--all these facts are so many
proofs that all the twelve men and
three women had been murdered ST.
muItaneously and burnt al the same
time.
The nfffrsaI