Page:Transactions NZ Institute Volume 16.djvu/41

Rh To state it shortly, he claimed to have discovered the remains of five cities, one above another, the second from the bottom being the city described by Homer, and the fifth being the Greek city known as Ilium, built shortly after the founding of Rome. He admitted that the ruins of the fire-destroyed city which he identified with Troy, hardly corresponded with the palaces "with polished corridors adorned," described in the Iliad, but replied that the destruction took place long before Homer was born, and the description was added to by tradition and poetic license. The same spots were investigated last September by Mr. Jebb, Professor of Greek at the Glasgow University, and formerly Public Orator at Cambridge, and he has come to the conclusion that Dr. Schliemann's view—that he has discovered the very City of Priam, and proved that the Iliad was based upon real facts; that Ilium did really exist, and that Homer, even although he exaggerates, nevertheless sings of events that actually happened—must be definitely abandoned.

He admits, however, that the ruins of the five cities described by Schliemann exist; that one, or perhaps two of them, represents the Greek Colony of Ilium, and that the earliest, or possibly the earliest two—if we may distinguish between the city destroyed by fire and an earlier settlement—dates from pre-Hellenic times; that this may have been the town the siege of which gave rise to the poetic legend of Homer. But he contends that neither the ruins themselves, nor the surroundings, correspond with the poet's description; and arrives at the somewhat unsatisfactory conclusion, "that the Homeric data are essentially irreconcilable with each other, being, in fact, derived partly from Bunárbashi, and partly from Hissarlik." He adds that, in his belief, "Bunárbashi was the place where the oldest legends or lays, local to the Troad, placed Troy," and that "Hissarlik may have been the centre around which poets of the Ionian epic school grouped incidents or traits which they added to the original nucleus."

I may remark, however, that this is just the opposite to the order in which legends would seem likely to grow. I should rather have expected that the story would have been originally told about the city which was burnt, and afterwards, when the site was forgotten, have been transferred to some neighbouring locality where the surroundings are more imposing or romantic.

It must, at any rate, be admitted, that the discoveries of Dr. Schliemann, both in the way of ruined walls and buildings which he has found, and of pottery, jewellery, wrought metals, and armour which he has collected, are amongst the most valuable of the many additions that have been made in recent years to our knowledge of archæology, although he has probably gone too far in identifying the