“Trojæ renascens alite lugubri Fortuna tristi clade iterabitur.”
What is the light that is struggling to break forth from the varied mass of evidence, and the half-deciphered inscriptions, that are still exercising the ingenuity of the most able enquirers? Whatever may be the true and final answer to these questions--and we have had to put on record a signal proof that the most sanguine investigators will be content with no answer short of the truth[1]--the vivid narrative written by the discoverer on the spot can never lose that charm which Renan has so happily described as “la charme des origines.”
The Editor may be permitted to add, what the Author might not say, that the work derives another charm from the spirit that prompted the labours which it records. It is the work of an enthusiast in a cause which, in our “practical” age, needs all the zeal of its remaining devotees, the cause of learning for its own sake. But, in this case, enthusiasm has gone hand in hand with the practical spirit in its best form. Dr. Schliemann judged rightly in prefixing to his first work the simple unaffected record of that discipline in adversity and self-reliance, amidst which he at once educated himself and obtained the means of gratifying his ardent desire to throw new light on the highest problems of antiquity, _at his own expense_. His readers ought to know that, besides other large contributions to the cause of learning, the cost of his excavations at Hissarlik alone has amounted to 10,000_l._; and this is in no sense the speculative investment of an explorer, for he has expressed the firm resolution to _give away_ his collection, and not to _sell_ it.
Under this sense of the high and lasting value of Dr. Schliemann’s work, the present translation has been undertaken, with the object of laying the narrative before English readers in a form considerably improved upon the original. For this object the Editor can safely say, on behalf of the Publisher and himself, that no pains and cost have been spared; and Dr. Schliemann has contributed new materials of great value.
The original work[2] was published, at the beginning of this year, as an octavo volume, accompanied by a large quarto “Atlas” of 217 photographic plates, containing a Map, Plans, and Views of the Plain of Troy, the Hill of Hissarlik, and the excavations, with representations of upwards of 4000 objects selected from the 100,000 and more brought to light by Dr. Schliemann, which were elaborately described in the letter-press pages of the Atlas. The photographs were taken for the most part from drawings; and Dr. Schliemann is the first to acknowledge that their execution left much to be desired. Many of his original plans and drawings have been placed at our disposal; and an especial acknowledgment is due both to Dr. Schliemann and Monsieur Émile Burnouf, the Director of the French School at Athens, for the use of the admirable drawings of the terra-cotta _whorls_ and _balls_ made by M. Burnouf and his accomplished daughter. A selection of about 200 of these objects, which are among the most interesting of Dr. Schliemann’s discoveries, occupies the 32 lithographic plates at the end of this volume. With the exception of the first three Plates (XXI.-XXIII.), which are copied from the Atlas, in order to give a general view of the _sections_ of the whorls and the chief _types_ of the patterns upon them, all the rest are engraved from M. Burnouf’s drawings. They are given in the _natural size_, and each whorl is accompanied by its section. The _depth_ at which each object was found among the layers of _débris_ is a matter of such moment (as will be seen from Dr. Schliemann’s work) that the Editor felt bound to undertake the great labour of identifying each with the representation of the same object in the Atlas, where the depth is marked, to which, unfortunately, the drawings gave no reference. The few whorls that remain unmarked with their depth have either escaped this repeated search, or are not represented in the Atlas. The elaborate descriptions of the material, style of workmanship, and supposed meanings of the patterns, which M. Burnouf has inscribed on most of his drawings, are given in the “List of Illustrations.” The explanations of the patterns are, of course, offered only as conjectures, possessing the value which they derive from M. Burnouf’s profound knowledge of Aryan antiquities. Some of the explanations of the patterns are Dr. Schliemann’s; and the Editor has added a few descriptions, based on a careful attempt to analyze and arrange the patterns according to distinct types. Most of these types are exhibited on Plates XXII. and XXIII.