Page:History of Art in Primitive Greece - Mycenian Art Vol 1.djvu/264

Troy. 241 the white clouds alluded to by Homer, we should have heard of it, in the same way as we have heard of the lyre which once belonged to Paris, and of the chess-board of Palamides.^ This particular passage then will not serve our purpose, and must be left out of account, inasmuch as it bears upon a phenomenon which has wholly disappeared. The presumptions, however, which make for Hissarlik as the probable site of Homeric Troy, are strong enough to determine our choice in favour of it. There must the city be sought. The ruins uncovered by Schliemann represent the Troy whose siege and fall hold so large, so abiding a place in Greek poetry ; whose name and tragic fate have been echoed in the poetic effusions of every cultured nation.^ It only remains to define the meaning of this affirmation. Out of the several groups that succeeded each other on the fortress-hill, which of them gave proof of greater technical skill, or was influential enough to have left so lasting a memory of itself in the minds of men ? Assuredly not the earliest, whose erections rest upon the rock, and whose appliances were of the most rudimentary character, whilst the 1 PoLEMON, Fragm, Hist, Grac., ed. C. Miiller. - In some notes {Exairsion d Troie et aux sources du MendM^ in Annuaire de r Association^ 6^r., 1874, p. 58) which appeared at the end of a Memoir by M. G. d'Eichthal (Lt site de Troie selon Lechtoalier ou selon M. Schliematifi) we expressed a different opinion, or rather sided with I^chevalier's theory. The notes, as will appear, were written long before Schliemann began to excavate. In 1882, however, our professional duties made it necessary that we should go into the question, and the result was a complete change in our views. We pointed out at the same time that all was not as yet proved, and that many difficulties were still in the way. These, for the most part, have been met by the late excavations, conducted by Dorpfeld. Out of the many works and articles dealing with the site of Troy, that written by Prof. Jebb : I. " The Ruins of Hissarlik " ; II. " Their Relation to the Iliad {Journal of Hellenic Studies^ t. iii. p. 185), will be found of peculiar interest. Criticizing certain assertions put forth by Schliemann, and his tendency to insist on finding in the ruins of Hissarlik every detail, even the slightest, of the Homeric topography, the Professor admits that the balance of evidence weighs rather towards the side of Hissarlik, and that the poet of the Trojan legend had this site in view rather than that of Bunarbashi ; but he points out certain physical qualities mentioned in the poem which would better suit Bunarbashi. In his estimation the Homeric landscape is eclectic ; the poets some- times appear to imagine a Troy far removed from the sea-shore. The reasons he adduces in support of his thesis are plausible, and evince great ingenuity; but they fail to convince us. We are loth to believe that popular imagination did not fix on some spot around which it gathered the stories told of this siege and of its many battles. VOL. I. K