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I. The Ruins at Hissarlik: II. Their Relation to the Iliad

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 December 2013

Extract

Unanimous recognition has justly been accorded to the rare energy and devotion by which Dr. Schliemann has achieved his enterprise of excavating the mound of Hissarlik, once the acropolis of the historic Greek Ilium. Whatever views may be held as to the origin of the older remains, or their significance in relation to the epic of Troy, there is only one opinion as to the interesting and valuable nature of the service which the sustained enthusiasm of the explorer has rendered to the study of antiquity.

The problem of Hissarlik involves two separate issues. It is the omission to distinguish these which, more than anything else, has impeded a clear view. The first issue is:—What are the ruins that have been found at Hissarlik?

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies 1882

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References

page 187 note 1 These two ‘Ansiedelungen’ ‘die beiden einzigen sind, bei deren Anlageeine durch den ganzen Hugel hindurehreichende horizontale Baufläche durch Planiren der unteren Trümmerhausen hergestellte wurde’: Dr. W. Dörpfeld, Allgemeine Zeitung, Sept. 29, 1882.

page 187 note 2 Mr.Newton, (Halicarnassus, p. 121)Google Scholar notices a series of zigzag strata on the eastern side of the platform within the peribolus of the mausoleum at Halicarnassus. This series might have been formed ‘by shooting into the deeper parts the rubble as it accumulated in levelling the site and dressing the stones;’ and its effect is to form an artificial prolongation of the platform. Similar disturbing causes may well have been at work on such a site as Hissarlik, where buildings of all sorts, large and small, were constructed and destroyed on so many occasions in the course of long ages.

page 190 note 1 See ‘Homeric and Hellenic Ilium,’ Journal, Vol. II. pp. 22 ff.

page 191 note 1 A friend writes to me:—‘The Roman analogies in favour of your view are striking. I was recently watching the excavations in the Via Nazionale, and was struck with the enormous mass of stratified deposit of comparatively modern date, i.e. since the Christian era.’ I gave the outline of my view in the Athenaeum and the Academy of Dec. 2, 1882. In the Academy of Dee. 9, 1882, Prof. W. W. Goodwin writes, with reference to Dr. Dörpfeld's discrimination of the strata: ‘It tends strongly to what I have always believed would be the ultimate conclusion about Hissarlik—that the only two important settlements there have been, first, a large prehistoric city which made Hissarlik its acropolis, and extended far out on the plateau behind it; and, secondly, the historic Ilium in its three phases of a primitive Aeolic settlement on the acropolis, the Macedonian city, and the more elegant Roman Ilium.’ On the other hand, Prof. A. H. Sayce declares that ‘any one, however inexperienced in questions of archaeology,’ must see that all traces of the Aeolic Ilium cease at six feet below the surface of Hissarlik (Academy, Nov. 5, 1881).

page 192 note 1 P. 73.

page 196 note 1 Highlands of Turkey, i. 39.

page 197 note 1 Journal of a Tour in Asia Minor, p. 279.

page 197 note 2 Journal kept in Turkcy and Greece, p. 174.

page 199 note 1 This is well brought out in ‘Notes on Bunárbashi and other sites in the Troad,’ printed as an Appendix to Mr. J. T. Clarke's admirable Report on the investigations at Assos in 1881, pp. 142—165 (Papers of the Archaeological Institute of America, 1882). The author of these Notes, Mr. W. C. Lawton, has given an excellent description of the ground which he traversed,—marked alike by fine scholarship and graphic power. It should be read by those interested in the question, and can be obtained through Trübner.

page 201 note 1 Daily News, October 19, 1882.

page 202 note 1 ‘Das von Hrn. Schliemann bisher als ‘Wohnung des Stadthauptes’ bezeichnete Haus ist noch das beste in dem kleinen und ärmlichen Dorfe’: Dr.Dörpfeld, , Allg. Zeitung, Sept. 29, 1882Google Scholar.

page 202 note 2 North Ameritan Review, Oct. 1882, p. 348.

page 204 note 1 Academy, Aug. 5, 1882.

page 204 note 2 Mr. Mahaffy's five pages on this subject (Ilios 686—690) added nothing of moment to Grote, vol. i. ch. xv. pp. 436—451. As to Demetrius of Scepsis, the development is curious to trace. (1) Grote, I.c. p. 443, merely suggested that the favour of Rome to the Ilians may have aroused some jealousy ‘on the part of their neighbours at Scepsis and Alexandria Troas.’ (2) Dr. Schliemann (Troy, p. 41,1874) next stated positively that Demetrius ‘envied the Ilians the honour of having been the metropolis of the Trojan kingdom. He therefore put forward the following theory,’ &c. (3) Mr.Mahaffy, (Ilios, p. 690, 1880)Google Scholar, reverting to Grte's hint, then expressed the charge in this forcible language:—‘The argument of Demetrius is merely that of a malevolent pedant, who hated the Ilians on account of their recent good fortune, and sought to detract from their respectability on antiquarian grounds,’ &c.

page 205 note 1 Dionys. i. 48.

page 207 note 1 In Leocraiem, § 62.

page 209 note 1 Athen, xiii. 603, A, B; Müller, , Fragm. Hist. ii. 241Google Scholar.

page 210 note 1 Academy, August 5, 1882.

page 210 note 2 Brentano, , Troia und Neu Ilion, p. 1Google Scholar, who refers to Lycophron, , Alex. 29Google Scholar, and the scholion.

page 212 note 1 Mr.Calvert, F. in Ilios, p. 708Google Scholar.

page 213 note 1 Highlands of Turkcy, ii. 354.

page 214 note 1 Her. vii. 202; ix. 28.

page 215 note 1 Rawlinson, , Herod, vol. iv. 390, Note A.Google Scholar

page 215 note 2 On this title, Mr. Mahaffy wrote as follows (Academy, Oct. 21, 1882): ‘Demetrius of Scepsis…with profound but unconscious irony called his Work Τρωικὸς διάκοσμος. διάκοσμος, indeed! Τρωικὴ διατάραξις would have been nearer the mark!’

Mr. Mahaffy evidently supposed the title to mean ‘An ordered topography of the Troad’—his point being that the book merely produced confusion. But the title meant ‘The Marshalling of the Trojans’—Demetrius basing his topographical survey on the Catalogue in Iliad ii., which was often called ὁ διάκοσμος: cp. Strabo xii. 542, (Il. ii. 855).

page 216 note 1 Academy, October 21, 1882.