|
|
 |
|
Information Related to the Text |
Text Analysis |
Questions for Consideration |
|
The Lucky Archaeologist
Just as the proverb goes ¡°Where there is a will, there is a way.¡± Heinrich Schliemann¡¯s
firm belief in the truth of Homer¡¯s epics and his perseverance enabled him to become a famous archaeologist
with many big finds. Read on and find out what he discovered.
1.
When he was a hungry, unhappy little boy Heinrich Schliemann had heard the story of Troy.
An old man had read him the poems of Homer. He accepted them at once as true stories and he never changed his mind,
and from that time he was determined to see the city himself. This became his main object in life.
2.
Homer¡¯s story was about the great King Priam of Troy. Priam¡¯s son, Paris, stole Helen, the beautiful wife of
another king, called Menelaus. Helen of Troy has never been forgotten. Her beauty started a long war between
two Greek cities, but nobody blames her; Homer praised her great beauty, and she is admired for being the most
beautiful woman in history.
3.
When Helen was captured Menelaus collected his friends together, and with the King of Mycenae,
whose name was Agamemnon, he sailed to Troy. However, Priam refused to return Helen and so the long war
began. Both sides fought with courage for years, but the Greeks were unable to break through the huge walls of Troy.
4.
Eventually they decided on a trick. They built a great, hollow, wooden horse outside the city, and the Trojans
believed this was some holy treasure valued by the Greeks. During the fighting, therefore, the Trojans stole the
horse and dragged it inside the city, not knowing that a few Greeks were hidden inside the horse.
When it was dark these men crept out of the horse and opened the city gates. The Greeks were ready to rush inside,
and so Troy was seized. King Priam, Homer writes, only had time to bury his treasure in the city before the Greeks killed him.
5.
Schliemann was determined to find the ruins of Troy. The way Homer had described the great city proved to him that
it was an actual place. He believed that it lay behind the protection of high walls, and he was sure that some of
these walls were still standing. His intention was to find them and to prove that the city of Troy was real.
6.
When Schliemann was forty-six years old he had amassed a large fortune, and so he had enough money to carry out
his intentions. In Homer¡¯s poem the place where Troy had stood was often mentioned, and Schliemann followed the
poet¡¯s directions for the journey. The directions led him to the coast of Turkey where there were several hills
which could contain the ruins of Troy. He was looking for a place near a port where the Greek ships could have come.
7.
Shliemann knew, the instant he saw it, that he had found the actual place where the ruins of Troy were buried.
A hill called Hissarlek stood one mile from the coast. Greek ships could have come into harbor near the city.
It was a good natural fort. Schliemann was sure that he had found the right place, and he started digging instantly.
8.
There was one strange difficulty in finding Homer¡¯s Troy. There were so many cities in the hill of Hissarlek that
it was impossible for Schliemann to know which one was Troy! Seven cities had been built here on top of each other,
and at the bottom of all these, there was a Stone Age village.
9.
In fact, Schliemann missed the actual Troy of Homer¡¯s poem. He dug too deeply and went down through the city for which
he was hunting ¡ª the walls he found were the walls of an older city. He did not have the knowledge that we now have,
and so he destroyed many important things. But he proved that the stories of Homer were about real history ¡ªTroy had
been an actual city, and perhaps Helen had been an actual woman. There had been a great civilization in Greece long before
Athens became famous.
10.
Schliemann, while digging at Troy, found many wonderful things, but he was still not satisfied when the end
of his work came near. One dream had not yet come true: he had hoped to find the treasure of King Priam. Homer
had written that the treasure had been hidden in fear and haste while the Greeks destroyed Troy. Schliemann
could never be really satisfied until he had found it. Although thousands of years had passed, Heinrich Schliemann
still expected to find Priam¡¯s treasure waiting for him!
|
|
|
 |
