Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XVI.djvu/18

 10 TKOY beginning of the 7th century B. 0. The .for- mer was afterward designated as Old Ilium, and the latter as New Ilium. The name was shared also by a third place in the same region the b 'V"6> " the village of the Ihans te K W "> about 8m. from New Ilium, which claimed to occupy the site of the original Ilium. Accord- ing to the legend, Dardanus was the mythical ancestor of the Trojan kings, who were of the Teucrian race, closely connected with the My- sian (SeeMTSiA.) Dardanus's son was Lnch- thonius, who was succeeded by Tros, and 1 by Ilus, who founded in the plain of Iroy the city of Ilium. Ilus was succeeded by Laome- don, and to him Neptune and Apollo became temporarily subject by command of Jupiter. The former built the walls of the city, and the latter took care of the herds; but when their time of service had expired, Laomedon treach- erously refused to pay what was due them. In revenge Neptune sent a sea monster to kill the Trojans and ravage their fields, and the treach- erous king in consequence made a public offer of the immortal horsea given by Jupiter to Tros to any one who could rid the land of the monster. The oracle declared that a virgin of noble blood must be given up, and the lot fell on Hesione, Laomedon's own daughter; but ohe was rescued by Hercules, who came at this time and killed the monster. Laomedon gave the hero mortal horses, and the latter, indig- nant at this perfidy, collected six ships, at- tacked and captured Troy, killed Laomedon, and placed on the throne Priam, who alone of Laomedon's sons had remonstrated against the perfidy of his father. To him were born by his wife Hecuba a large number of chil- dren, one of whom, Paris, brought on by his abduction of Helen, the wife of Menelaus, the memorable siege of Troy. To revenge this outrage, the Greeks spent ten years in the col- lection of a vast armament, and at the end of that time a fleet of 1,186 ships, containing more than 100,000 men, was assembled at Aulis in Boeotia, and placed under the command of Agamemnon. The Trojans and their allies were driven within the walls of their city, and nine years were spent by the Grecian host in the reduction of the neighboring towns. But the gods now brought on the quarrel between Agamemnon and Achilles, which proved so disastrous to the Greeks, and with which the narrative of the siege in the Iliad opens, Among the principal Greek heroes in the struggle, besides Agamemnon, Menelaus, and Achilles, were Ulysses, Ajax the son of Tela- mon, Diomedes, Patroclus, and Palamedes; and, among the bravest defenders of Troy, Hector, Sarpedon, and ^Eneas. The valor of Achilles, who slew Hector in revenge for the death of Patroclus, and the cunning of Ulysses finally prevailed, with the aid of Juno, Mi- nerva, and other divinities hostile to the Tro- jans; and after a siege of ten years (generally placed at about 1194-1184 B. C.), Troy was utterly destroyed, ^Eneas and Antenor alone escaping with their families. The opinions of the principal authorities on the question whether the destruction of Troy was a his- torical event have been given in the article [!OMEK; we shall confine ourselves here to reviewing the various attempts made to iden- ify the site of Old Ilium, on the supposition hat it once existed. Though it was the popu- ar belief of antiquity that New Ilium had been auilt on the ruins of the Old, yet that town never rose to importance, and Demetrius of Scepsis and Hestirea of Alexandria maintained that the remains of Priam's Ilium were to be found rather in the "village of the Ilians," which opinion was supported also by Strabo. All were agreed that the ancient city stood on the right bank of the Scamander, the modern Mendereh. New Ilium was on the Scamander near the junction of the Simoi's, which is sup- posed to be represented by the Gumbrek or Dumbrek, about 12 m. long, now entering the Hellespont by a separate channel. The ruins of New Ilium are near the village of Hissarlik, on a small hill. The ancient historians Hel- lanicus, Xenophon, and Arrian identified this hill as the citadel of Pergamus; and Xerxes and Alexander, and the Roman consuls and em- perors, here offered hecatombs to the Minerva of Ilium and the Trojan heroes. But Horace and Lucan, as well as other Roman authors, were firmly convinced that the knowledge of the site of Homeric Troy had entirely perished. In 1785 Le Chevalier discovered on the left bank of the Menderoh, near the village of Bunar- bashi, about 5 m. S. of New Ilium, a hot and a cold spring or fountain, which he supposed to be those mentioned in the Iliad. Beyond these springs is a hill, the Balidagh, steep and lofty, with some ruins on its summit, which he identified with ancient Troy and the citadel of Pergamus. His view was speedily adopted by Heyne, and afterward by Welcker, J. G. von Hahn, Choiseul-Gouffier, Texier, Forchham- mer, Tozer, Leake, E. Curtius, and the majori- ty of Greek archaeologists and philologists, who until recently warmly defended it as the only possible means of harmonizing the Homeric text with the chorography and topography of the Troad. But the excavations made on the Balidagh brought to light only a few terra cotta figures, lamps, pottery, and coins of no ancient date, without revealing the foundations of a town or city. In 1871-'3 the German traveller Schliemann undertook to excavate at his own expense the hill of Hissarlik. (See SOHLIEMANN.) He dug to a depth of about 50 ft., and encountered several layers of ruins, each of which he considered to be the remains of a distinct city, one built on the ruins of the other. He unearthed a vast number of arms, household utensils, and ornaments of various degrees of workmanship and kinds of material. He produced a treasure of vases and various ornaments of gold, amber, and silver, which he thinks belonged to Priam, the Trojan king. He maintains that he has laid bare the palace