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Schliemann's Diary: Greece and the Troad, 1868

David R. Turner
The Annual of the British School at Athens / Volume 102 / November 2007, pp 345 - 391
DOI: 10.1017/S0068245400021511, Published online: 27 September 2013

Link to this article: http://journals.cambridge.org/abstract_S0068245400021511

How to cite this article:
David R. Turner (2007). Schliemann's Diary: Greece and the Troad, 1868. The Annual of the British School at
Athens, 102, pp 345-391 doi:10.1017/S0068245400021511
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SCHLIEMANN'S DIARY: GREECE AND THE TROAD, 1868 1

I. SCHLIEMANN IN GREECE

difficult for the traveller today to imagine the extent to which, in 1868, the
transition from Italy into Greece signified a passage not only from the western to the eastern
part of the Mediterranean, but also from the cosmopolitan, the 'known' world of Western
Europe, to the relatively alien world of the East, of the Ottomans and the Byzantines, of the
ancient Greeks and, as Schliemann was to show the world, of the Mycenaeans. Schliemann
marks his excitement on entering Greek waters by changing in mid-sentence from Italian into
modern Greek in his diary entry for 5 July (though he continued to employ the Gregorian
calendar). Till the end of the trip, he kept his diary in that tongue, as much to practice the
language as anything else. The long-awaited visit to Ithaca was at last to be realized and places
he had become acquainted with in his readings and dreams for over a decade would finally
take more than just imaginary shape. That the visit itself, especially the sojourn in the Ionian
islands, was in many respects the culmination of a personal Odyssey for Schliemann,
estranged as he was from his wife, divided from his children, and ever distant from his father,
IT IS PERHAPS

David Turner died on 26 July 2003. Among

numerous works death cheated him from seeing through
to publication is a manuscript co-authored with Mark
Lehrer, entitled 'Drifting towards Troy: a tide in the
affairs of Heinrich Schliemann', completed in 1993. Dr
Lehrer has kindly agreed to the publication here of two
chapters of that work under David's own name, as he was
primarily responsible for writing those chapters. Although
Schliemann scholarship may be said to have moved on in
the intervening 13 years, the present work remains
significant in that it is based on a close reading of the
original sources in the Gennadius Library in Athens, and
presents new material and insights. No attempt has been
made to update the bibliography, which would inevitably
have entailed entanglement in recent controversies: the
bibliography reflects the state of scholarship in 1993. The
following is taken from the original acknowledgements:
'In the diary excerpts I have preserved some nineteenthcentury place-name spellings (Hissarlik, Bunarbashi) in
preference to those currently in use. I have many people
to thank. First and foremost, the director of the
Gennadius Library at the inception of this project,
Professor George Huxley; likewise, the Schliemann
archivist at the Gennadeion, Mrs Christina Vardas. The
Library and its parent institution, the American School of
Classical Studies, are gratefully acknowledged for
providing permission for the reproduction or translation
of previously unpublished material from the Schliemann
archives. Thanks are also due to the British School at
Athens and the librarian there Mrs. Penny WilsonZarganis, for help in using the considerable holdings, in
particular the fine collection of old travel books in the
School's archives.' For this publication, the editors thank
Dr Natalia Vogeikoff-Brogan, the Head Archivist at the

Gennadius Library of the American School of Classical

Studies at Athens, for permission to reproduce
translations of the Schliemann papers held there.
The following special abbreviations are used:
BBB = copies of Schliemann's outgoing correspondence in the Gennadius Library.
Bulletin = Bulletin de la Societe de Geographie (now La
Geographie).

Calder-Traill = W. M. Calder and D. A. Traill (eds),

Myth, Scandal, and History: The Heinrich Schliemann
Controversy and a First Edition of the Mycenaean Diary

(Detroit, ig86).
Cook = J. M. Cook, The Troad: An Archaeological and
Topographical Study (Oxford, 1973).
Hahn = J. G. von Hahn, Die Ausgrabungen auf der
Homerischen Pergamos: in zwei Sendschreiben an Georg Finlay

(Leipzig, 1865).
IPT= Heinrich Schliemann, Ithaque, le Peloponnese, Troie:
recherches archeologiques (Paris, 1869).

Lascarides = A. C. Lascarides, The Search for Troy

(Bloomington, IN, 1977).
Lehrer-Turner = M. Lehrer and D. Turner, 'The
making of a Homeric archaeologist', BSA 84 (1989),
221-68.
Murray = Sir G. F. Bowen, Handbook for Travellers in

Greece, 4th edn. (London: John Murray, 1854).

Nicolai'des = G. Nicolaides, Topographie et plan strategique

de I'lliade (Paris, 1867).

Traill 1984 = D. A. Traill, 'Further evidence of
fraudulent reporting in Schliemann's archaeological
works', Boreas, 9 (1984), 295-316.
Traill 1985 = D. A. Traill, 'Schliemann's "Dream of
Troy": the making of a legend', Classical Journal, 81
(1985), 13-24.

346

TURNER

is nothing new in Schliemann scholarship. In this paper I present Schliemann's movements

and apparent objectives during his sojourn in Greece and the Troad just as they appear in the
unpublished diary, divorced from the account of his travels he would write up after returning
to Paris. The discrepancies between the diary and the subsequent published work, far from
representing any purely deceitful intent, reflect the logical transformation of the summer
tourist into the amateur scholar of the autumn. 2
Schliemann's curiosity could at last be satisfied after his abortive attempts to visit the major
Homeric sites in 1859 and 1866. In Odysseus, he found not only a Homeric hero but also a
mirror image, a character with whom he could sympathize and, more importantly, identify.
The parallels are obvious: in the wanderings of the retired businessman we see reflected those
of the ancient hero whom the gods (Schliemann's Fortune) always saved in the nick of time.
The mortal merchant saw in the semi-mortal hero a companion in arms, and battled his
various adversaries as Odysseus had raged against slightly more formidable odds in the
Homeric epics. Both men had been estranged from their wives, one by personal circumstance,
the other by the will of the gods; both longed after their children and a renewed relationship
with their fathers.
Schliemann's visit to Ithaca, often forgotten now that the other Homeric sites have become
so closely associated with his name, represents in many ways the high point of the 1868 tour.
In a sense, Schliemann was a pilgrim, guided by his faith in Homer. Of course, 'faith' is not
the same thing as mere 'belief. For the Schliemann of 1868, 'faith' in Homer did not
constitute a strand of naivete in his intellectual makeup, but acted as a powerful link between
the innocence of his childhood days when he had been hypnotized by the sound of ancient
Greek, and the grim reality of his present lonely situation. Unlike most men, Schliemann was
gifted, not burdened, with an ability to overcome the weighty constraints of rational thinking
and, ignoring the sarcastic asides of his 'betters', to give substance to his dreams. More
importantly, in the process he gave substance to himself. Thus the entire sojourn in the Ionian
Islands (Corfu, Cephalonia, and Ithaca) provided him with a degree of self-assurance and a
suitable respite from the realities of his European home as he headed toward Troy.
Schliemann had already developed a knack, albeit amateur, of assessing and appreciating
an archaeological site. At this time he was no excavator, but he was an avid surveyor who could
pick out the remains of buildings, discern differences between the remnants of basic historical
periods, note the importance of pottery as indications of settlement, and so on. Up till 1868,
he had visited sites, many of them with formidable ruins, which had been either excavated
(Pompeii) or cleared (Petra and Baalbek), or had never disappeared completely (the
Athenian Acropolis). The sites he visited on the islands of Corfu, Cephalonia, and Ithaca,
however, although they had been visited by travellers, had never been systematically excavated
or studied. There was, in fact, not much to excavate. Yet these barren sites, the very backdrops
of the great Homeric tales, provided Schliemann with a fertile venue for his imagination. He
had seen the great remains of vast cities, he had faith in the reality of the Epic; the equation
of these two 'facts' could only lead to a curiosity as to what the ground, the earth itself,
guarded as its secret. The remains themselves must exist if the bridge between the past and the
present were to have any meaningful substance; a merely imaginary bridge would have been
completely at odds with the archaeological reality of what he had seen in Egypt, Russia, and
-' On this transformation see Lehrer-Turner.

SCHLIEMANN'S DIARY: GREECE AND THE TROAD, 1868

347

especially Italy. It was thus probably in Ithaca that Schliemann first sharpened his ambitions
as to conducting his own excavations, a step which would help him free the ashes of Penelope,
buried for thousands of years, from under earth and stones and, more importantly, from the
many suitors in academia who chose to keep her there by doubting Schliemann's 'beloved
Homer'.
That Schliemann relied on John Murray's Handbook for Travellers in Greece (1854 edition) in
his travels in Greece should not seem strange to us. Any traveller of the period would scarcely
venture into untamed territory without such a companion. In point of fact, Murray simply
guides Schliemann to the sites he wants to visit, namely those associated with Homer.
Schliemann also draws on Murray when entering site descriptions in his diary. Far from
slavishly following Murray, however, he often disregards the guide's indications. That
Schliemann also consulted Homer extensively, whether from his copy or from memory, is
apparent from the very outset in Corfu, the northernmost island of the Ionian chain, and that
traditionally associated with Scheria, the home of the Phaeacians whose king Alcinous helped
Odysseus return to Ithaca.
1. CORFU AND CEPHALONIA

Schliemann arrived at the capital of Corfu on 6 July at 6.30 a.m. After breakfasting at his
hotel, he immediately made his way to the Town Hall to see the antiquities which had been
excavated in the Palaeopolis, the 'old City', to the south of the modern town, probably during
the recently terminated British occupation of the island. He noted down an inscription on a
column base, and commented on the collection of small bowls and vases.3 A visit to a church
in the vicinity of Palaeopolis, and apparently of the same name, turned up nothing of interest
'since I didn't see any small fragments of marble', by which he means architectural and
sculptural members.
Opposite the church, however, on a peninsula dividing the modern harbour from the
lagoon Calichiopulo (one of the alleged three harbours of the town in antiquity) was the
Summer Palace of the Greek King, perched on a hill by the sea. Thus Schliemann makes his
own observation on 7 July, that:
... without doubt [Calichiopulo] lake was one of the two harbours of the Phaeacians. There we passed
by the funerary monument to Menecrates, which is round and almost 10 m in diameter. All the fields
there are covered with pieces of pottery, bricks, tiles etc. ... Without doubt, the ancient city extended
along one side of the Calichiopulo lake up to the palace of the King, where the palace of Alcinous once
stood.4
Here we see an admixture of information, observation and hypothesis. First, Murray
provided him with the theory that Calichiopulo was considered one of the city's ancient
harbours; second, Schliemann's own observation of pottery, bricks and so on convince him
that the city had extended in this direction, whereas Murray mentions only more prominent
sculptural and architectural members, along with tombs, as evidence of past settlement; and
third, since kings, ancient and modern, must have palaces in the vicinity of their capitals, it
seemed obvious to Schliemann that the site of the modern palace could be identified with
that of the palace of the mythical King Alcinous. As simplistic as these conclusions may seem,
1

No mention is made of this collection in Murray.

Diary Ai 2, 96.

348

TURNER

they represent a pattern of suggestion-observation-hypothesis-conclusion which becomes all

the more frequent in his 1868 diary.
The key to understanding how Schliemann understood the sites he visited is, of course,
Homer. Attention, however, should also be paid to the manner in which Schliemann's other
literary guides (such as Murray in Greece, and later Nicolai'des and Hahn in the Troad)
treated Homer in their respective works. Murray's assumptions about Homer are summed up
in a passage from the section on Ithaca:
It is impossible to doubt but that the poet had travelled in different regions of the world; and is it
probable that he would have laid the scene of a long poem in a country which he had never visited in
preference to one well known to him? ... With Ithaca he was so well acquainted that he was not obliged
to draw upon his fancy for the main features of its scenery.5
Here we see a verdict on Homer which was widespread in the nineteenth century: while the
stories of the Iliad and the Odyssey remain the stuff of epic poetry, Homer himself had existed
and furnished his tales with the scenery and locations with which he was acquainted. Thus
Murray, when identifying sites with Homer, is more interested in ancient topography than
with the actual deeds of the ancient heroes. For Murray, Homer was the 'father of History and
Topography as well as of Poetry.'6 Thus Murray states regarding Corfu:
We have the authority of Thucydides for the identity of Corcyra [Corfu] with the Scheria or Phaeacia
of Homer; but it is impossible to draw a map of the Homeric island which shall coincide with the
existing localities. Ulysses was brought to the island by a north wind, which would seem to mark Fano
as Calypso's isle. The only stream of any consequence is that which empties itself into the sea between
Manduchio and Govino, while the tradition of the peasantry points to the Fountain ofCressida, a copious
spring gushing out near the sea, 3 miles SW of the modern town, as the spot where the nymph-like
Nausicae and her train of maidens received the suppliant Ulysses. She is the most interesting character
in all ancient poetry ...'
Let us compare Schliemann's account of his first visit to the site on 6 July:
Nearly all the coffee houses on the roadside bear heroic names: I saw e.g.: The Coffee House Heroic
Arcadian, etc. We arrived at the river which seems to have been that at which Odysseus arrived and where
Nausicaa received him, since this is the only river in the northern part of the island, and it seems that
the island of Phthano [Fano] was that of Calypso, from which [Odysseus] came on a north wind ...8
On July 7, Schliemann describes how his desire to see where Nausicaa and her handmaidens
had played ball and where she had received Odysseus led him to follow the 'ancient' stream
half-dressed in order to reach the Fountain of Cressida (Cressida Brisis), the site of the
encounter; and how moved he was to finally reach the spot, only to embarrass a group of
peasant women collecting flaxjust as Odysseus had encountered Nausicaa playing ball with
her handmaidens. 9 He records: 'I vividly imagined there Odysseus' reception by Nausicaa',
and we can well imagine this to be so on considering Odysseus' words:

Murray 85 (emphasis in the original).

Ibid. 82.
Ibid. 66.

Diary A12, 94.

9 Ibid. 96-7. See Od. vi.

SCHLIEMANN'S DIARY: GREECE AND THE TROAD, 1868

349

As for yourself, may the gods ... bring you a husband and a home and the oneness of mind that means
content. There is nothing nobler, nothing lovelier than when man and wife keep house together with
like heart and with like will. Their foes repine, their friends rejoice, but the truth of it all is with her and
him (Od. vi. 180-5).
Perhaps the loveless Schliemann recalled his own shipwreck of 1841, covered then as now
with mud and only half-dressed. This and other Homeric localities are presented in matter-offact language along with mundane observations about crops, peasants and insectsand even
the curtain of the local theatre which depicted Odysseus, Alcinous and Arete watching a
discus-throwing competition.
On 8 July, at 5.30 a.m., Schliemann arrived at Argostoli in Cephalonia, Homer's Samos, and
made arrangements to leave the same day for Ithaca from the port of Samos, the site of the
island's ancient capital. Schliemann notes that twenty-four of Penelope's suitors came from
this city, and adds immediately (from Murray and no doubt his own observation) that ancient
ruins could still be seen there. He visits the ruins on Palaio Kastron, no doubt to see the
massive cyclopean walls mentioned in Murray's guide, but adds that later remains of small
'shops' or 'workshops' (epyaaxfipta) exist there, and were probably destroyed by the Romans
in 189 BC along with the rest of the ancient city. Later, he hired a small boat and sailed for
Ithaca, arriving there on the afternoon of the same day.
2. ITHACA

I must confess, that I hardly found much pleasure in this crossing under sail, even though the weather
was bright and clear and even though I constantly had in front of me Mt. Aetos with the castle of
Odysseus, along with Mt. Neritos.
Schliemann's diary entry hardly reflects the excitement of this new Odysseus at finally
reaching Ithaca after a six-hour crossing. This matter-of-fact and reserved tone pervades the
Ithaca section (reproduced in translation in Appendix I), in marked contrast to what he
would write about the island in his published treatise. Schliemann arrived in Ithaca on 8 July
and would depart on the evening of the 17th. Hiring an ass for his luggage, he made his way
by foot with a miller as his guide to the main harbour town of Vathi. He stayed at the miller's
house that night and took a room with two spinster sisters the next day.
Presuming Homer to have been acquainted with Ithaca, Murray's guide points out the
locations of events in the Odyssey without hesitation. Most of the information in the guide is
taken from G.-F. Bowen's Ithaca in 1850 (London, 1851), whose author was deeply impressed
by the similarities between Homer's description of Odysseus' kingdom and the tiny island.
Schliemann's description of the island follows in the same tradition. Yet it is as if he
consciously suppressed his excitement in an effort to make a more accurate record of the
topography of Odysseus' homeland. For instance, a remark such as 'there are sweet-smelling
plants here' may be overlooked as a simple observation, but anyone who knows the Odyssey
immediately recognizes a Homeric description of Ithaca, and it is this bridge between past and
present which Schliemann endeavored to erect. In a similar manner, he would frequently
mention the presence of storks in the Troad, echoing their appearance in the pages of the
Iliad.'"
10

I have attempted to trace some of the unspoken

parallels and references of this kind in the notes to the
translation of the Ithaca diary entries in App. I.

35O

TURNER

Schliemann spent his first four days on the island visiting all those parts suggested in
Murray's guide. Indeed, he devotes his first three days to following the three routes suggested
by Murray: 'The principal excursions to be made in Ithaca are:1. To the Castle of Ulysses.
2. To the Fountain of Arethusa. 3. To the so-called School of Homer.'11 On 10 July, he begins
by visiting the harbour of Phorcys (known as Dexia), Odysseus' port of entry after twenty
years' absence from his kingdom. This was where, as Schliemann noted in his diary, 'the
Phaeacians laid down the tired Odysseus under an olive tree.' From there he ascended Mt.
Hagios Stephanos (ancient Neion) up to the Grotto of the Nymphs, where, with the help of
Pallas Athene, Odysseus had hidden the treasure bestowed on him by the Phaeacians.
Schliemann surveyed the dimensions of the cave, and his guide lit a fire so that he could see
the stalactites hanging from the cave's roof: 'Homer calls them "Threads of the Nymphs".'
Afterward, he and his guide followed an 'ancient foot-path' through the valley between what
Schliemann calls the 'mountain' of Hagios Spyridon (in fact the highland of the gulf and the
nearby small harbour of the same name) and Mt. Aetos; their destination was the palace of
Odysseus on the summit of the latter mount. On the way, they passed two peasant houses, the
inhabitant of one of these selling Schliemann a silver coin which, conveniently enough, bore
the head of Pallas Athena, the deity who so helped Odysseus return to his homeland.
After noticing an ancient cemetery on the downward slope with tombs which had been
'excavated by the English', Schliemann finally reached the foot of the steep Mt. Aetos. The
ascent was strenuous and fit for a hero: 'It would seem that it can be ascended only by gods
and goats.' Near the summit he came across 'the ruins of a large cyclopean wall consisting of
stones 3 to 5 feet long and 2 and 3 feet wide.' Once again, his attention is called to 'cyclopean'
walls as tell-tale signs of the Heroic age, just as it would be in the Peloponnese. Further on he
came across ruins of small houses, one of which had a niche 'as if to house some statue.' But
where had the palace of Odysseus stood? Although Murray uncritically accepts the remains of
a tower on the lower section of the summit's plateau as part of the 'palace' complex,
Schliemann was unimpressed: 'I cannot accept that part of the palace once stood here since
the large rocks would have proved a hindrance [for building].' Further up, however, he found
land more suitable for the site of a palace, together with the remains of cisterns and buildings,
mentioned in Murray. Schliemann rapidly becomes convinced that the palace lies hidden
here under the surface, and observes: 'Concerning the interior arrangement of the palace,
one cannot glean any idea, but I shall bring with me spades and hoes in order to dig here.'
The breathtaking view afforded by the summit of Mt. Aetos of the sparkling ocean and
surrounding land masses inspired Schliemann to write: 'Nowhere else in the world is the sea
so clear or the mountains so beautiful as in Greece.' But this summit was more than a haven
of peace and natural beauty; it must have represented a veritable shrine steeped in
significance for Schliemann personally. He sat for a long time among the ruins reading
Homer, 'especially the recognition scene between Odysseus and Penelope', and, by his own
account, 'cried profusely'. The recognition scene was no doubt quite pertinent to his own
long-standing estrangement from his wife and his intermittent futile attempts at
reconciliation over the previous ten years. One only has to consider Telemachus' words to
Penelope when she beholds Odysseus after twenty years:

Murray 86.

SCHLIEMANN'S DIARY: GREECE AND THE TROAD, 1868

351

Motherbut with that ungentle heart are you indeed a mother?why do you shun my father thus? Why
not sit beside him, ask him, question him? No other wife would be heartless enough to keep aloof from
her husband so, when after much trial and tribulation she had him again, in the twentieth year, in his
own country. But you have always been stony-hearted (Od. xxiii. 97-103).
There could be no better summary than this of how Schliemann probably considered his own
marital affairs at the time, and the fact that it is recited by the Telemachus, Schliemann's
Serge, is all the more poignant.
On 11 July, Schliemann visited the crag of Korax and the Spring of Arethusa below it, near
which Eumaeus' farm was said to have been located. Once again, Schliemann's statement that
the road was initially good, but then turned into a precipitous path of loose stones reflects
reality as much as Odysseus' statement to Eumaeus on leaving the latter's farm that the road
to the city 'is very slippery' (Od. xvii. 196). Murray had suggested that 'the little plain hard by'
must be the site of Eumaeus' farm since Odysseus had challenged the swine-herd to throw
him from 'the great rock' should he be lying. Schliemann's investigation of the site found:
... a field where there is only a ten-degree incline, and thus I thought initially that this was the site of
the farm of ... Eumaeus. But afterwards we found very close by this place another location which is
much larger and more level. Clearly I recognized there the foundations of various large houses, which
may be the stables of the farm of Eumaeus.12
During a subsequent revisit to the site Schliemann remarked: 'Ruins of many walls and one
can easily perceive the walls of the twelve stables of the stalls of Eumaeus.' Opposite the
'stables' the field was covered with brick fragments 'which undoubtedly came from the
buildings of Eumaeus'. Noting that the descent from there to the Arethusa Spring 'is now very
precipitous and craggy for the g6o swine of Eumaeus', Schliemann was able to resolve the
enigma by surmising that 'undoubtedly in antiquity there would have existed a wide road' (16
July). The isle of Ithaca slowly weaves its spell around the enchanted visitor just as surely as
Calypso had its ancient king.
On 12 July, Schliemann made his third excursion, this time to the north of the island to
examine the two sites identified in Murray with the Garden of Laertes and the ancient city of
Polis; the former was identified with the modern village of Leuce, and Polis with the natural
harbour and rather deserted area of the same name further to the north. While in Ithaque, le
Peloponnese, Troie, Schliemann would reject the theory that modern Polis was the site of the
island's Homeric capital, during his visit to Ithaca he ostensibly accepted the conventional
reasoning: Polis was conveniently close to the tiny island of Dascalion, presumably Homer's
Asteris, where the suitors hid in wait to ambush Telemachus on his return to Ithaca. The
name, also, implied a city there of old.
Schliemann had evidently been informed by one of his guides that local tradition located
the site of the Garden of Laertes not at Leuce, but on a coastal stretch of land on the island's
west coast approached from Mt. Sella and south of the village of Hagios Ioannis. Thus, he
recorded in his diary that on his way to Polis:
... we followed the road leading to Mt. Neritos on the western side of the island and came to the place
on the sea shore where according to traditionor rather to tradition handed down from father to
12

Diary Ai 2, 105, 114.

352

TURNER

sonthere lay the Garden of Laertes. There is an abundant spring there and thus the cucumbers,
marrows,figs,vines, reeds and olive trees allflourish.There are also many carob trees ... I read a large
part of the 24th chapter of the Odyssey, namely the part concerning this Garden.'3
A pause is in order here to consider just how germane these particular lines of the Odyssey
must have seemed to Schliemann at the time. Just as Schliemann was prone to disguise his real
identity to fellow travellers, 'resourceful' Odysseus was never at a loss when it came to
camouflaging his true self. Like his nineteenth-century devotee, Odysseus had a penchant for
'telling stories', and for this amongst other reasons Dante condemned him to the inferno, just
as many academics may have wished to relegate Schliemann. Odysseus, having put on masks
before everyone for twenty years, even before his own wife, persists in doing the same in the
final book of the Odyssey to his ragged, despairing father. Posing as a certain Eperitos, he
torments Laertes with the lengthy tale of how he had received the wandering Odysseus in his
country some years earlier, but at present knew not 'whether he were alive still or were dead
now and in Hades' house' (2634). Schliemann, homeless and separated from his family as
he was, read the climax of this scene while sitting on the very spot where he believed it had
taken place:
'...As for Odysseus, it is four years now since he parted from me and left my country. Unhappy man!
And yet when he went he had birds of good omen on his right. We were glad to see them, he and I
he departing and I bidding him farewelland the hearts of both of us were confident we should meet
again as host and guest and offer each other noble gifts.'
So he spoke. His father, caught in a sudden black cloud of grief, took the grimy dust in both hands
and scattered it over his hoary head, sobbing passionately. Odysseus' heart was stirred, and a keen pang
shot through his nostrils as he looked at his beloved father. He leapt forward and clasped and kissed
him and said: 'I am the man you are seeking, Father; it is my very self that you see, returning in the
twentieth year to my own native land' (Od. xxiv. 309-22).
Could the thought of poetic licence have seriously crossed Schliemann's mind at this
moment? Of course, the description he gives of the garden in the diary is remarkably similar
to Homer's (Od. xxiv. 24550). So enraptured was he that he noted: 'Seeing a goat-herd on
the upper field, I could not but ask him if his flock belonged to Laertes.' The importance of
these emotions can hardly be exaggerated. For an instant Odysseus-Schliemann is liberated
from the masquerades, from the dark side of his own mistrustful, calculating personality. It is
as if here we see the real Schliemann, emerging after years hidden behind the misery of a
hopeless marriage and the mundane existence of the businessman. Just as the penitent
pilgrim returns from Jerusalem or Mecca a new man or woman, so Schliemann's visit to Ithaca
gave him a new kind of courage; not to calculate, but to fantasize, to visualize a new life, and
to dare to hope for it.
In the above context, the next stop-over that day acquires double significance: personal and
archaeological. Following the road northwards, Schliemann came to the village of Leuce,
where he read Homer to the curious villagers. In his diary he states:
... we came to the village Leuce ... Murray wishes to believe that the Garden of Laertes is in this very
village. Wefinallyarrived at the site of the ancient city [noki^], which is today still called Polis, despite
a Ibid. 106.

SCHLIEMANN'S DIARY: GREECE AND THE TROAD, 1868

353

the fact that there is only one small house there. But I found the remains of a few ancient houses. The
site of Polis is in a beautiful gulf providing a fine harbour. The area is now covered with grape vines.'4
Schliemann, for the first time in the diary, openly contests the opinion of his guide book as
to the locality of a site. Following the emotional experience at Hagios Ioannis, his selfconfidence is bolstered; the site of the Garden has become part of him, and he would not
tolerate any other rival site. Indeed, he gives a curtain-call reading at the next village of the
reunion scene between Odysseus and Laertes to the locals, as if to externalize, to display in
public his new self.
For once, however, his instincts and Homer actually concurred. Schliemann does not
question the candidacy of Polis as Homeric capital of the island, although we do sense a slight
uneasiness here. Any traveller who knew the Odyssey well would have expected to find
Odysseus' palace to be located in or near the capital, whereas Mt. Aetos and Polis were nearly
at opposite ends of the island. Nor would he expect the ancient city to lie far from the Garden
of Laertes, since Odysseus went down to the Garden from the city, which was not far away.
Unaware at the time that the location of the Homeric capital was very much still the object of
dispute, Schliemann passed over the subject. But his clear preference of the Hagios Ioannis
site for the Garden of Laertes must have been one of the factors that would lead him, once
back in Paris, to reject Polis definitively and adopt another site for the capital, namely Palaea
Moschata just to the north of Aetos. It thus seems fair to say that the seed of doubt was sown
during his sojourn on the island. The relevance of this process to his later search for Troy will
shortly become apparent.
Part of the day was engaged in the company of a local sailor who spoke Italian well.
Schliemann describes this man as a ypatKoq (or Greek), a word which implies in Byzantine
and modern Greek a Greek from Sicily or southern Italy. This sailor took Schliemann to a
recently excavated tomb 'on the coast' (evidently near Polis) in which various ancient objects
and coins had been found, and Schliemann, apparently on the spot, purchased all the items.
Later in the day, this same sailor sold Schliemann a number of coins. This proved to be the
nucleus of a small collection which Schliemann had already started to build up on his tour.
The finds included daggers, an Egyptian scarab, a ring, coins including one of Cleopatra and
Mark Antony, and one of Mark Antony alone, and other precious items which he would show
to scholars in Athens.
After climbing to some 300 feet above sea-level to a nearby 'castle' Schliemann found the
ruins of a few walls from which he could view Dascalion and the harbour of Polis. Descending,
he went to the so-called School of Homer, where he described the springs and measured the
remains. On July 13, Schliemann took labourers and supplies up to Mt. Aetos in order to
excavate. He noted that the ground was compact, and thus had not been previously excavated,
but his eye was caught by a large rounded stone which seemed to have been worked by hand.
Digging revealed a circular structure containing a number of slender clay vases (most of which
were broken during excavation) filled with cremated human remains, along with bronze wire
and two knives or daggers: one bronze, the other iron. The diary does not speculate about
whose remains might be conserved in those half-dozen vases that he managed not to break,
although in Ithaque, le Peloponnese, Troie Schliemann would claim to be the possible owner of
14

Ibid. 107 (Schliemann's emphasis).

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TURNER

the ashes of Odysseus and Penelope or of their descendants. He also unearthed a boar's tusk,
a reminder of the many swine that once roamed the island.
On 14 July, a much-encouraged Schliemann returned with more labourers to excavate
further. He paid close attention to the cyclopean remains, here as elsewhere on the island,
taking measurements, noting sherd scatters, observing the terrain and attempting to interpret
the objects he reports finding. Such interest was maintained throughout the rest of his
journey, and provides us with our first intimation of Schliemann's future archaeological
career. After uncovering only structural remains, he followed one of the three ancient roads
leading from the site for l km, namely the one 'magnificent even as a ruin ... 4 metres wide
and with frequent towers' leading down to Mt. Sella, adjacent to Mt. Aetos. Here he
encountered a large letter Delta carved into the rock, attributed by the locals to Odysseus'
handiwork. The road led down to Schliemann's Garden of Laertes, and thence to 'the ancient
city', by which Schliemann must have still meant Polis. As for the road, he adds as if to stress
the point that 'needless to say, the rains of 3,000 years have much destroyed it'.
On 15 July, Schliemann paid another visit to Polis and the village of Exoge to the north of
the island. There he met the schoolmaster George Leukatzas and a certain Demetrios Loizos,
who turned out to be the man who had originally excavated the artefacts Schliemann had
purchased from the Sicilian sailor on the 12th. Loizos sold him yet more objects, including a
Phoenician clay figurine and some coins. On 16 July he was accompanied by the son of a
former consul of the Russian Empire, Nikolaos Alexianos, to a site known as the Hellenikon
(not mentioned in Murray's guide) behind the precipitous Korax and the Spring of Arethusa.
This gave him the opportunity to revisit the Farm of Eumaeus (as mentioned above) as well
as the road leading from Mt. Aetos to Mt. Sella, on which he does not elaborate; he does,
however, draw a sketch map showing the island in section to clarify the position of the
mountains.
On 17 July, Schliemann left Vathi for Patras. By his own account he had got on well with
the locals, including the miller Panayotis Asproyerakas, whom he would later romantically
depict as the island's bard in Ithaque, le Peloponnese, Troie. 'The inhabitants of Ithaca are very
simple and especially sincere and friendly; the debasement of moral values has not yet
reached them', he noted on 12 July. Considering the fact that schools had been operating for
some time in the Ionian islands, and that Homer and ancient Greek were part of the
curriculum, we should not dismiss as sheer futility Schliemann's reading of the Homeric epics
to the locals.'3 Though the latter may not have understood the original Greek, they must have
known the basic story of the Odyssey and have been able to enjoy story-tellers who could relate
it in the modern dialect. At this stage in the development of the Greek state, Homer and the
ancient writings played almost as important a part in education as they had done in antiquity.
3 . ATHENS AND THE PELOPONNESE

Schliemann arrived in Patras on 18 July, and immediately took a steamer to Corinth on his
way to Athens. He did not stop on the way to inspect archaeological or other sites, but simply
records a few impressions of the scenery he passed through together with hearsay from the
passengers. From New Corinth, he made his way across the Isthmus to the small harbour
' s Murray's guide itself bears this out for 1854. After
mentioning the grammar and primary schools on the
island, and the teaching of ancient Greek, he states,

'There are very few peasants who do not possess at least

the rudiments of a good education ..." (83).

SCHLIEMANN'S DIARY: GREECE AND THE TROAD, 1868

355

station of Kalamaki, whence he took a dirty steamer to Piraeus, arriving there in the afternoon
of the 19th. He spent the next ten days in Athens, mostly in the company of his old friend and
Greek teacher, Themistocles Vimpos, who had by now taken the name of Theokletos after
taking his vows, and held the rank of archimandrite.' 6 It was Sophia Engastromenos, the
daughter of Vimpos' cousin, whom Schliemann would marry just one year later.
Schliemann seems to have been pleased with his return to Athens, staying at the plush
Grande Bretagne hotel in the city's main square. His agenda reflects the tastes of a tourist with
a penchant for antiquity. He visited the major archaeological sites, including the newly
discovered and partially excavated ancient cemetery of the Kerameikos, where he notes that
the graves must date from the third and fourth centuries (presumably BC) since the Greeks at
that time buried rather than cremated their dead. He commented on the sorry state of the
Acropolis monuments and the financial difficulties which had halted the building of the
Acropolis Museum on the Sacred Rock. Plato's Academy on the Kephisos merited a visit, and
Schliemann even went to the then village of Marousi to see the recently discovered
sarcophagus of the Roman aristocrat and benefactor Herodes Atticus. With Vimpos, he made
an excursion to the aqueous site of the battle of Salamis, and he alleges to have stood at the
very point (today Ano Perama) on the coast where Xerxes had seen his great fleet destroyed.
On Salamis itself, Schliemann tried to 'find antiquities', but being charged too much for them
refrained from purchase. At the site of Ambelaki, he claims to have encountered remains of
an 'ancient city' near the shore, but lacking implements could not excavate.'7
On July 24, Schliemann met the director of the numismatic museum, Achilles
Apostolakes,'8 who showed him a drawer of coins, including an unusual coin of Cleopatra.
Apostolakes paid him a visit the same evening to observe SchHemann's collection of coins and
artefacts, but was unable to date the vases 'discovered by me in the palace of Odysseus'.
SchHemann's efforts to have a professor at the University, Stephanos Koumanoudes, decipher
an inscription he had recorded at Polis on Ithaca proved fruitless; the professor could make
neither head nor tail of it.
Schliemann made yet another interesting acquaintance. His diary entry for 25 July contains
the significant remark: 'I then met the architect Ziller, who is building the academy here for
the account of Sinnas of Vienna; he gave me excellent information regarding the Troad,
where he uncovered the walls of the Pergamos [the citadel of Priam's Troy].'' 9 This
'information' was no doubt related to Johann Georg von Hahn's 1864 excavations on the
heights overlooking Pinarbasj, then widely believed to be the site Homer identified as Troy.
As discussed shortly, it is quite possible that Schliemann had already obtained a copy of the
excavation report in Paris and was referring in his diary to supplementary information on the
excavations.
During his stay in mainland Greece, and in Athens in particular, Schliemann paused in his
quest for the ancient world of Homer to take stock of the progress made in the revival of the
Greek nation. Although archaeology is still of concern, the conditions of modern Greece,
"' The title of 'archbishop' which Schliemann
frequently uses for Vimpos is an exaggeration.
17
The location or nature of this site has not been
determined by the author.
'* Schliemann's spelling of this name varies. He is the
same Mr Achilles Postolaccas [sic], keeper of the National

Collection of Coins at Athens mentioned in the acknowledgments in Heinrich Schliemann, Ilios: The City and
Country ofthe Trojans (London, 1880), 66.
'!> This passage was first cited in Traill 1985, 14. I have
reproduced Traill's translation,

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TURNER

social, economic and political, claim substantial diary space. We have already seen that along
with an obsession with Homer and the classics Schliemann had long maintained a keen
interest in the state of nineteenth-century Greece, inquiring as to investment possibilities
there, following the Greek press closely, trying to mix as an equal with many Greeks in St
Petersburg, and, of course, using modern Greek as a main language in his correspondence.
We should pause here to consider how Schliemann, in contrast to many of his European
contemporaries, regarded the evolution of modern Greece.
Since the eighteenth century, many educated Greeks and non-Greeks alike felt that the
basis for a resurgence of the Greek spirit and, on a more practical level, the Greek nation,
could come about only through a conscious campaign of cultural re-education. The
inhabitants of the land which had once been the heart of the ancient Greek world (present
day mainland Greece, the Peloponnese, the Aegean and Ionian islands, Crete, and, later,
Macedonia) could claim as their own the heritage of ancient Greece, whose cultural and
ethical values had served as the corner-stone for modern Western civilization. In the 1820s
and 1830s, this link between Greece and Europe had led to wide-scale popular and political
support for the Greek struggle for independence from the Ottoman empire.
The movement for independence enthused a breed of Europeans known as the
Philhellenes: poets, artists, scholars, architects, soldiers and statesmen from England, France,
the German states, and the United States who saw in the Greek struggle the embodiment of
all that was culturally and ethically dear to the Western soul. Of course, these people had a
very much preconceived view of history, and their devotion to Greece was more a devotion to
a perceived image of their own particular culture than a commitment to the modern Greeks,
as that people had developed through the centuries. For example, George Grote's classic
History of Greece, published in the 1840s, represents more an idyllic image of the author's
English middle-class democracy than an accurate depiction of ancient Greece.
Once liberated from the Turks, the new Greek state was obliged to adopt a political
structure based on the model of the Western powers, who imposed a Bavarian king (Otto I)
in 1831, and a resented German-controlled administration which only relinquished its
stranglehold on the country after the revolution of 15 September 1843. At that time, Greece
received one of the first modern-style constitutions in Europe. Following the ejection of Otto
I by the populace in 1862, a Danish king, George I (d. 1913), ascended the throne of a constitutional monarchy.
Schliemann visited a land of contrasts incomprehensible and even disappointingly foreign
to many other Western visitors. While the large Greek community of St Petersburg with which
he was familiar comprised an educated elite, the Greeks in Greece itself were mostly
uneducated and burdened with the legacy of nearly four hundred years of Ottoman
occupation. Brigandage was still rife in many areas, while a pleasantly anarchic quality in life
and politics ensured that the staid and subservient attitude to authority which so dominated
middle-class culture in Europe would not find much sympathy in this 'cradle of democracy'.
It was precisely this 'boundless freedom' of Greece, along with its less civilized aspects, to
which Vimpos had referred in his letter to Schliemann of 1858.20
Despite the exasperation he often voiced with respect to Greece, Schliemann in 1868
displayed a far deeper personal commitment to understanding and resolving the fundamental
*" Letter of 10 Aug. 1858, preserved in the Schliemann
archive.

SCHLIEMANN'S DIARY: GREECE AND THE TROAD, 1868

357

problems of the country than many Philhellenes or later visitors to Greece, with their
preconceived expectations of an instant rebirth of classical traditions. Schliemann's practical
business sense put him at an advantage. His attentiveness to such matters as education,
technical improvements, and the needed conditions for greater efficiency in production and
investments influenced his ability to look, as any efficient capitalist should, into the future as
much as into the past. How many of his European contemporaries would have expressed the
same interest in proposing reforms or even, God forbid, marry into their number? Here
Schliemann was to go a step further that the Philhellenes who pretended to reincarnate Greek
ideals; he was soon to become a Greek himself (in residence, if not in formal citizenship), and
it was through his sense of belonging to this young country that he felt justified in criticizing
and berating Greek conditions as he saw them.
The observations on Greece we find in the 1868 diary stemmed largely from his friend
Vimpos. This interesting figure, a lecturer in theology at the time, was one of those clerics in
the Greek Orthodox Church of the period who had been extensively exposed to Western
thought and custom (in 1858, for example, he was in Leipzig, a centre for theological studies
attracting not a few Greek theologians).21 Vimpos had many enemies in the Church and
probably in government circles as well. He seems to have disapproved severely of the King of
Greece, the Dane George I, informing Schliemann how inexperienced and uneducated he
was, and how he chased after women and mistreated his wife.22 A remark made in the entry
for 25 July is clearly gleaned from Vimpos:
Priests do not study here; they are uneducated because the government is poor and does not give them
a wage. Their income is limited to a wage of 2 drachmae for weddings, 2 drachmae for baptisms etc.,
and thus no one wants to study theology. There are only two professors of theology, and one of them, a
Metropolitan,23 is completely uneducated. [The former King] Otto intentionally left the clergy
uneducated to facilitate the spread of Catholicism.24
A similar complaint as to the state of the clergy was echoed by Vimpos in a pamphlet he had
presented to the Greek Parliament on 30 April that year.25 By November, Vimpos's
outspokenness led to charges of heresy being brought against him in his capacity as lecturer
of theology at the University (a similar fate had befallen Ernst Renan in Paris just a few years
earlier). These were quashed by the Holy Synod, but the whole case indicates that Schliemann
and Vimpos shared a penchant for rocking boats.
While in Greece, Schliemann addressed a letter to his friend Ameras in St Petersburg,
enclosing some Greek newspapers and a description, at Ameras' request, of the present state
of Greece. By October, when back in Paris, Schliemann had still not heard from Ameras and
worried that his forthright account of modern Greece might have upset his friend:
I fear lest the frankness with which I described the present state of Greece to you has angered your kind
self. But you yourself told me to give my honest opinion of your fatherland and as an honest man, I
21

Schliemann addressed a letter to him there,

Copybook BBB 23, 19 June 1858 (in Greek and Latin)
asking for a copy of the Byzantine Chronicle of George
the Monk.
'" Diary A12, 123. The passage may, in fact, be
confused and refer to Otto I, and not to the then king
George I.

*' A rank one step below archbishop in the Greek

Orthodox Church,
* Diary Ai 2, 124.
*5 Th. Vimpos, flpoi; Tr|v lpacrrf|v TOU Op8o86^ou
'E>Ar|viKoC EGVOIX; pou>.f|v, ppa^i) Jipi
i)7touvr|(ia (Athens, 1868).

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TURNER

cannot tell lies ... Now I am writing an archaeological book on Ithaca, the Peloponnese and the Troad
and I am convinced that this shall be greeted with joy in Greece since I pass quietly over all the bad
[things].26
We do not have a copy of Schliemann's letter to Ameras from Greece, but in his diary he
mentions the four aspects of modern Greece he finds most disquieting:
(i)
(ii)
(iii)
(iv)

Everyone here wishes to be a scholar and no one wants to cultivate the land.
There is neither commercial acumen nor money,
The people are as changeable as a weathercock.
Corruption and bad management are widespread so that only half the income is used
properly.27

Later on in the diary, he bemoans the power of moneylenders in Greece and exclaims: 'I cry
at seeing the present state of things here, as Hellas is the cradle of the sciences and art' At
the same time, the modern Greeks are 'a happy people, clever and cunning to such a degree
that they make up for their lack of education'.28
Before proceeding on to Troy, Schliemann made a brief tour in the Peloponnese. This was
a fateful excursion, indeed, for later that year Schliemann was to formulate the prophetic
hypothesis, based on his uncanny interpretation of a passage in the writings of Pausanias,
regarding the location of the heroic tombs at Mycenae that would help him uncover in 1876
the treasures that had eluded so many others. The diary strongly suggests that Schliemann
would never have visited Mycenae or Tiryns at all in 1868 had not a lucky chance left him with
extra time on his hands in the Peloponnese. Under the heading of Nauplion, 1 August, his
first since the Athenian entry of 25 July, Schliemann opens: 'As I was not guaranteed by the
French steamship agency that they could let off passengers at the Dardanelles (because
arriving there at night they were not permitted to allow passengers to disembark) I decided
to wait for the coming Austrian steamship and thus, so as to use my time constructively, I
decided to visit Mycenae and Argos.' This was indeed a fortunate excursion. For if the
cyclopean structures of Ithaca were meager and fragmentary, those he would see at Mycenae
and Tiryns were impressive evidence of very substantial settlements at the very sites specified
by Homer.
The diary recounts his arrival in Corinth and ascent of the Acrocorinth on 30 July, where
he records finding very few remains of cyclopean walls. On the 31st, and with a guard of two
soldiers to ward off brigands, he entered the 'abundant kingdom of Agamemnon', as he
described it in his diary, to visit Nauplion, Argos and Mycenae, devoting nearly two pages to
describing the latter. It has been shown that Schliemann drew heavily on Murray's guide in
recording his first visit to Agamemnon's capital, while nonetheless adding observations of his
own.29 Most significantly, he had the following to say:
26

Copybook BBB 27, 2 Oct. 1868.

*" Diary A12, 119. In 1858, he had complained to
Papadakis about the 'corruption' of the modern Greeks,
among whose ancient ancestors 'lying was considered the
greatest of faults', Copybook BBB 23, 26 Jan. 1858 (in
Greek).

2fl

Diary A12, p. 131.

See Calder-Traill 126. Note that, in the diary,
Schliemann changes Murray's given measurements of the
circuit walls from 15-20 feet to 15-35 feet2

SCHLIEMANN'S DIARY: GREECE AND THE TROAD, 1868

359

There is a smaller gate in the other side of the acropolis. I see everywhere bricks [sic] and pot sherds,
and thus it is possible that the palace of Agamemnon was also in the acropolis. There are no remains of
the city, except for a few walls of cyclopean stones and two smaller and one large underground tholosshaped chambers. The largest of these appears to be the Treasury and is located in the slope of a hill.3"
Schliemann points to the remains of sherds in the acropolis as proof that the palace of
Agamemnon might also have been located there. One is reminded of his observations at the
palace of Odysseus, and even before that in Petra in 1859, where pottery and brick fragments
represent positive evidence for ancient inhabitation. Moreover, Schliemann's concepts of a
prehistoric city, with its palace up above in the citadel and the more humble dwellings below,
outside the walls, is reflected here. Identification of the extramural structures and ruins as
remains of the ancient city is not to be found in Murray. The 'tholoi' refer to the Treasuries,
the largest being that of Atreus, then commonly known as the 'Tomb of Agamemnon',
although Schliemann nowhere uses this epithet even though it is mentioned by Murray. These
likewise were closely examined, and Schliemann can only have wondered at what happened
to the immense treasure, eloquently described in Murray's guide, that had supposedly been
stored under its bronze-lined walls. He also noted, of course, the famed Lion's Gate, then the
only known sculptural work of art from the era described by Homer.
In Mycenae, Schliemann beheld, for the first time, a relatively integral 'Homeric' site with
various more or less intact structures. Unlike the paltry remains he encountered on Ithaca,
the remains at Mycenae provided him with an idea of the full proportions that prehistoric
buildings could attain. His later surprise at not encountering such remains in the Troad at
Pinarbai and on the Balh Dag would help account for his conversion to the Hisarhk theory.
On 1 August, Schliemann ascended the Palamidi fortress at Nauplion. He recalled, in this
connection, the legend of Palamedes' rivalry with Odysseus and how the latter avenged
himself by framing Palamedes as a traitor to be struck down as such by the Greeks. His diary
betrays even more interest, however, in the prison for men sentenced to death and long terms.
This fascination betrays as much his obsession with the macabre as it does his longstanding
concern for the lower orders of society, noteworthy especially in his American diaries and
letters.3' In Corinth, he had come face to face with a fierce brigand, decked out in chains and
being led to certain execution by a guard of soldiers. Observations of this kind are routinely
interspersed among archaeological notes in Schliemann's diaries.
On 2 August, Schliemann took a close look at Argos, deeming the medieval castle, houses,
and ruins worthy of description in the diary. This entry reveals that he paid close attention to
the scanty remains of cyclopean blocks at the site, although he would do little more than
mention their scarcity in his published account.32 Schliemann visited the prehistoric site at
Tiryns on the same day. There he recorded dimensions of the cyclopean blocks, walls and
enclosures which do not appear to have been taken straight from Murray. Indeed, he
completely ignores Murray's claim that the fortress of Tiryns, being only one-fifth of a mile in
circumference, consisted of the citadel alone, and could not have included the town, there
being ample room for the latter to the south-west of the citadel on an unfortified plain
'" Diary Ai 2, 128. The word ToOpX.a translates'bricks',

but Schliemann must have meant large fragments of

pithoi (giant clay storage jars) which to the untrained eye
would resemble building bricks or tiles.

3' See e.g. L. Deuel, Memoirs of Heinrich Schliemann

(New Your, 1977), 127 ff.

'''' IPT 110.

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TURNER

stretching towards the sea.33 In Paris later that year, as we shall see, Schliemann would reject
this thesis outright. He concludes his diary description with his own remark: 'This acropolis is
the strangest building in Greece.'
The third of August was devoted to the lake at Lerna and the nearby marshlands, the scene
of Heracles' battle against the Hydra. The lake and tributaries are only briefly described, and
Schliemann embarked for Piraeus and Athens the next day, his ship stopping along the way
at the islands of Hydra, Poros, and Aegina; of these islands Schliemann records little. After
spending the night of August 4 in Athens, and socializing with his friend Vimpos the following
day, Schliemann boarded the French steamship Nil in Piraeus in the late evening of 5 August
en route to Asia Minor.
II. SCHLIEMANN IN THE TROAD

At 10.00 p. m. on 6 August 1868, the SS Nil arrived at the main port of the Dardanelles,
Canakkale. Schliemann had planned on disembarking, but was not allowed to do so and thus
had to continue to Constantinople. After hastily depositing his belongings at his hotel, he
returned with the first steamer he could find, the SS Simois, arriving at Canakkale on the 8th
at 6.30am. At long last he was about to tread the venerable ground of the Troad. We now know
that he had intended to visit Troy in 1859s4 a n d in 1866,35 but had been prevented by
circumstances on both occasions. This third attempt proved luckier; yet even here, for reasons
we shall explore, he would cast little more than a cursory glance at the real site of Troy
(Hisarhk), while consuming inordinate amounts of his time either searching for a guide or
excavating at the false site (Pinarbai).
The Troad visit was the natural culmination of Schliemann's itinerary of 1868. Along with
Ithaca and to a lesser extent Mycenae, the Troad had been immortalized by Homer. Yet one
discerns that Schliemann is far less inclined in the Troad diary entries to dwell on the deeds
of the ancient heroes. His descriptions are primarily concerned with the topography of the
area, arguably less inspiring than that of the enchanted isle of Ithaca or of Agamemnon's
abundant domain. He records those landmarks that can be associated with the Iliad, as in the
case of the ancient tumuli (funeral mounds), but even anonymous landmarks are of interest
as archaeological remains. An admirably detached sense of perception imbues his search for
the past, although the intellectual tools for this search were still not sharp.
From North Africa to the Far East, the sites of ancient cities were nothing new to
Schliemann. He had described and sometimes even sketched the ruins of Pompeii, the Nile
monuments, Petra, Baalbek, and Athens in his travel diary of 1858-9. These earlier travels
mostly involved the imposing remains of ancient civilizations. Where prominent remains were
lacking, Schliemann fell back on the search for material remains such as pottery sherds or
brick fragments, as he had done in Taganrog on the Black Sea in August 1866.36 It is this
33

Murray 260.
Draft letter to Carl Andress, Language Exercise
Book, before g Jan. 1858: 'I plan to go to Greece and
Egypt with Homer and Thucydides in hand, and visit
Ithaca, the Peloponnese, the plain of Troy, the
Scamander river where Achilles fought, ancient Memphis,
and the other worthy ruins of antiquityof which there
are now only paltry remains.' As far as I know, this is
Schliemann's first stated desire to visit Ithaca, the
34

Peloponnese, and Troy, a decade before he achieved that

dream.
3S
Letter to his brother Adolf, 30 Mar. 1866 (Copybook
BBB 27) and to his uncle on 8 April (ibid.)
' 6 The question of Schliemann's early appreciation of
the use of pottery as evidence for inhabitation and dating
was discussed in H. Dohl, 'Schliemann the Archaeologist',
in Calder-Traill 106-7.

SCHLIEMANN'S DIARY: GREECE AND THE TROAD, 1868

361

search for even minor material remains of ancient settlements that characterizes the shift in
Schliemann's perception of archaeological sites. In the Troad, he was perplexed by the lack
of evidence for the site of Homer's Troy which, of all the great ancient sites, should have left
at least some notable trace. Thus the Troad entry of the diary is less the record of a simple visit
than of a growing awareness of the complexity involved in the interpretation of archaeological
remains.
In recounting this process below, my objective is to recreate Schliemann's own steps in
discovering the secrets of the Troad and in the process unfold the intricacies of the
controversy to the reader. The nature of the diary, more or less unintelligible in its raw form
to those unacquainted with the topography and Schliemann's sources, obliged me for the
sake of clarity to divide this discussion into separate but complementary sections involving the
following:
(i) 'Ubi Troja fuit'. August 1868: The Troy question prior to Schliemann's tour of the
Troad;
(ii) the itinerary;
(iii) Schliemann's search for Troy, and the role played by the sources of information at
Schliemann's disposal in the evolution of his ideas regarding Troy;
(iv) the impact of his encounter with Frank Calvert on 15 August 1868 just before leaving
the Troad, and the context of his acceptance of the Hisarhk theory just after that
meeting;
(v) final days in Constantinople.
1. 'UBI TROJA F U I T ' : AUGUST

1868

By 1868, a majority of travellers and academics had come to accept that the acropolis (or
Pergamos) of Homer's Troy existed on the heights of Balh Dag (now Balh Kaya) in the southeast of the Trojan plain, while the nearby village of Pinarbai ('Bunarbashi') and its environs
represented the site of the city of Troy, otherwise known as Ilion. To understand Schliemann's
role in the controversy over the site of Troy, we need to consider the state of the question up
to the year 1868.
Homer constituted both the inspiration and the evidence for those post-Renaissance
antiquarians, historians and romantics who addressed themselves to the question, 'Where was
the site of Troy?' The riddle was by no means new: it had occupied writers during antiquity
who were equally lost for evidence when it came to identifying the site with precision.
Traditionally, however, the ancients were of the opinion that the city lay underneath the
classical city of Ilion, which had grown up around the hill we know today as Hisarhk, and
which had been honoured with new fortifications and buildings by Hellenistic and Roman
benefactors. In the fourth century AD, Constantine the Great even appears to have
contemplated moving the capital of the Roman empire to this site, for its venerable links to
the founders of the Eternal City through Aeneas conferred an almost sacred significance
upon it.
Dissenters to the Ilion theory did exist, however, and none was so eloquent and convincing
as the Greek geographer and historian Strabo (c.63 BC-C.AD 24), who devoted an extensive
section of his Geography to the matter, basing his ideas on the findings of a certain Demetrius
of Scepsis, who had claimed to have been familiar with the area. In consequence, Strabo has

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TURNER

remained even until today an important source of geographical information about of the
Troad. Strabo positioned ancient Troy at a site he identified as the Village of the Ilians (f) xcov
lXiifov KCOHT|, xiii. 1. 35) or Pagus Iliensium, to be distinguished from classical Ilion. In
Schliemann's time, the site of Akca Koy at the south of the Troad plateau was generally
identified with Strabo's Pagus, and not a few scholars sought Troy there.37 Strabo's theory grew
largely out of the need to bring evidence from the Iliad into line with geographical realities.
Thus the distance of Troy from the sea, the need to allow space for a battlefield, the alignment
of the Achaean and Trojan armies, the site of the vauaxaGfxoq (coastal encampment) of the
Achaean fleet, and the position of the tumuli of Achilles, Ajax, Priam, and Hector, let alone
the proximity of the two springs, the city, and the rivers Scamander and Simois to each other,
became each in its turn issues bearing on the controversy over which the authors of antiquity
argued as much as their nineteenth-century counterparts.38 The problem of the distance
dividing any candidate site from the sea was probably the most important leitmotif in the
debate. Strabo explained the distance between the Hellespont and his candidate for Troy, the
Village of the Ilians, by the progressive silting up of the mouth of the Scamander. This
resulted in uniting the two main promontories of Homer's time, those of Sigeum and
Rhoeteum, which in modern times represent the two major ridges bordering the Trojan plain
on the west and north respectively.
Earnest although perhaps not quite so serious debate can be said to have begun in modern
times with the work of Jean-Baptiste Lechevalier, who first visited the Troad in 1785 and later
in 1786 and 1787 in his capacity as member of the famous French embassy under the
antiquarian Count Choiseul-Gouffier. He proposed that the site of the Trojan citadel
occupied the hill of Balh Dag towering above the village of Pinarbai, a little less than three
English miles south of Akca Koy. To facilitate this argument, he identified the Pinarbai rivulet
with the Scamander mentioned in the Iliad, and the Menderes river (the river which is
generally identified today with Homer's Scamander) with Homer's Simois.39 Although not
universally accepted, this theory held sway until 1868. Consequently, the mound of Hisarhk,
widely regarded by antiquarians and travellers as the site of classical Ilion, now took on the
names of Ilium Recens or Novum Ilium in the literature, to distinguish it from the 'real'
Homeric Ilion (Troy) at Pinarbai.
There were, however, a few voices in the wilderness. Published treatises placing the location
of Troy under the classical city of Ilion (Hisarhk) included works by Philip Barker Webb (1821
and 1844), Charles Maclaren (1822), and Gustav von Eckenbrecher (1843).4 Barker Webb
had visited the Troad in 1819, but his major work of 1844 drew on Maclaren. Maclaren
himself had used more sophisticated arguments originally based on the ancient authors
alone, but in 1847, after his first visit to the Troad, he became more convinced than ever as
to his theory and rewrote his book, which he re-published in a masterly tome in 1863.4'
37
Today scholars prefer to locate Strabo's Pagus to the
east of the village of Ciplak, which lies east of Hisarhk. See
Cook 111 ff. for a convincing summary of the facts.
3
" See Cook 50 for a sketch map of Strabo's Troad. For
a convenient summary of Homer's indications as to the
site of Troy, see Lascarides 4.

w J. B. Lechevalier, Description of the Plain of Troy

4
" On Baker Webb, Maclaren, and Eckenbrecher, see
Lascarides. nos. 141, 123, 147, 140. Richard Pococke
(1704-65) had been the first modern traveller to suggest
Hisarhk as the site of Troy in 1740 but his conclusions
were largely ignored; see R. Pococke, A Description of the
East and Some Other Countries (London, 1743-5), a n c '
Lascarides, no. 39; also, Cook 30, 33 ff.

la Troade ou Tableau de la Plaine de Troie (Paris, 1799). See

11
Charles Maclaren, The Plain of Troy Described: And the
Identity of the Ilium of Homer with the New Ilium of Strabo

Cook 21 ff., and Lascarides nos. 54, 78.

Proved (Edinburgh, 1863).

(Edinburgh, 1791); French expanded edition: Voyage dans

SCHLIEMANN'S DIARY: GREECE AND THE TROAD, 1868

363

Schliemann had not read any of these works prior to visiting the Troad in 1868, and they were
little known to the general public.42 Pinarbas,i still ruled the day in the popular and scholarly
imagination.
One of the most avid champions of the Hisarhk theory after 1864 was the Englishman
Frank Calvert, who, having grown up in the Troad, was provided with an unparalleled
opportunity to observe and ruminate over the perplexities of the region and its relation to
Homer's world.43 The Calvert family possessed a residence in Renkoi on the Dardanelles and
a farm at Akca K6y, or Thymbra, the widely-accepted site of Strabo's Pagus Iliensium. They
were involved in numerous ways in the economic life of the region as Consuls, merchants, and
farmers. Frank had always been interested in, amongst other things, antiquity and antiques,
and both he and his brother Frederick built up an interesting collection of objects from the
area. They also published the results of certain small-scale surveys and excavations they had
conducted in the Troad, mostly in the ArchaeologicalJournal (London). Calvert, as was natural,
had not always had faith in the candidacy of Hisarhk, and it would appear that even as late as
1861 his mind was not made up.44 However, in 1863 or 1864 he purchased some land on the
mound at Hisarhk and proceeded to conduct small-scale excavations, uncovering remains of
the old Hellenistic or, more likely, Roman circuit wall and part of the classical temple of
Athena. There is no evidence to show that he uncovered remains from before what is now
considered Troy VIII,45 although his own general observations regarding the topography of
the Troad, together with his reading of Maclaren, had convinced him that the Troy of the
heroic age lay under the classical city. To that end he even attempted to secure funds from the
British Museum for full-scale excavations in 1863. Though nothing came of this, Calvert
would find a ready audience in Schliemann in 1868. Prior to their fateful meeting, however,
Schliemann was clearly oblivious of Calvert's ideas.
By 1868, the latest work supporting the Pinarbai theory was George Nicolaides'
Topographie et plan strategique de I'lliade, published in Paris in 1867. Nicolaides (1820-1907)
had been born in Crete, and after reading law in Pisa became interested in archaeology
during his studies in Florence. After establishing himself in Athens in the 1850s, he was
elected vice-president of the Greek Archaeological Society in 1895 and remained in that post
till his death.46
His name is forgotten now, and all histories of the Troy question pass over him; but he can
claim a peculiar place in the history of Troy's discovery. Schliemann became cognizant of
|a Lascarides 61, claims that Schliemann had read
Eckenbrecher's article even prior to his visit to the Troad
in 1868, but Frank Calvert's letter of 1 Nov. 1868
(Lehrer-Turner 264) suggests that he saw it only after his
trip.
43
On the Calverts, see Cook 35 ff. and Lascarides, no.
44

See Lehrer-Turner 255 and nn.

See Cook 95; also Michael Wood, In Search of the
Trojan War (London,
1985),
42-6.
Wood's
undocumented claim that it is 'certain' that Calvert
uncovered Bronze Age levels in the 1865 excavations has
not been substantiated by this author, and does not
appear in Calvert's own sparse publications (most
importantly, Archaeological Journal, 22 (1865), 337). Traill
(1985), 15 cites an article by Calvert in the Levant Herald
45

of 4 Feb. 1872 stating that he had found 'archaic' pottery

in 1865. This would be consistent with Troy VIII (700-85
be), in which period the temple was erected. ('Archaic'
means 'old'; there is no means of telling exactly what is
meant.)
46
Schliemann, during his sojourn in Odessa in 1866,
made the acquaintance of a master at the famous Greek
Commercial school in that city, by the name of George
Nicolaides. In order that there be no confusion amongst
future researchers, I made extensive efforts to discover
whether this was the same Nicolaides as the archaeologist.
The results were in the negative; it is quite clear from
contemporary published material that for the greater part
of 1866 the archaeologist Nicolaides was in Athens and
Crete, coordinating support for the Greek revolt against
the Ottomans in the island.

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TURNER

Nicolaides' work at the Parisian Societe de geographie in 1867. This link has not till now been
known to Schliemann's biographers and is of considerable importance to the present
discussion. Schliemann's activities in Paris in the mid-i86os were marked by an interest in
geography and philosophy in the broad nineteenth-century sense of the terms. His
membership of this and other learned societies gratified his thirst for knowledge and
companionship outside business circles. The Society's Bulletin provides an interesting survey
of what was being discussed in the salons of the Second Empire. Exploration was high on the
agenda, especially of the African sub-continent then being carved up by the European powers.
Scientific and literary subjects pertaining to geography (then very widely defined) were
presented at weekly meetings where members, many of them illustrious names in their
respective fields, would gather to listen to summaries of the latest discoveries and reviews of
new works, and later to meet their fellows over, no doubt, some very fine cognac.
Whether Schliemann ever met Nicolaides in person we do not know. At a Society gathering
of 3 May 1867, in Schliemann's presence, a certain M. Victor Guerin gave a talk on
Nicolaides' book.47 Guerin himself claims to have visited the Troad in 1852 and his talk
consists of a mostly positive account of Nicolaides' conclusions, which can be summed up as
follows. Nicolaides attempted to provide evidence for the Pinarbai theory based on Homer's
descriptions of the topography of the Troad and of the distribution of the Achaean and
Trojan armies on the battlefield. Guerin, in presenting Nicolaides' hypothesis, discusses the
topographical evidence, in particular the question of the naustathmos and the silting up of the
gulf between the two promontories of Rhoeteum and Sigeum. The springs of Pinarbai are
likewise taken into account as evidence, while the tumuli are discussed in some depth, Guerin
partly disagreeing with Nicolaides as to their identification. At one point, two alternative
theories are briefly introduced and curtly dismissed. To quote:
We know that two other sites in the Troad have sought, in vain, to usurp the glory of the city of Priam:
Pagus Iliensium at the bottom of the Scamander valley, beyond its right bank, and placed by some
travellers at Eski Aktzekeui [Akca-K6y], and Ilium Recens whose ruins are scattered on the hills of
Hissarlik. The inhabitants of Ilium Recens have long maintained that their city had been built on the
very ruins of Ilion, and these carefully accredited pretensions brought them the honours and privileges
which they otherwise would never have enjoyed. According to the most authentic accounts, this city was
founded at the place I mentioned by a colony of Astypalaeans about six centuries before Christ.
Lysimachus enlarged it, surrounded it with a wall, and built within the citadel a magnificent temple to
Minerva, replacing the very small one that had formerly stood there.48
Schliemann's exposure to the Troy controversy thus dates back to 1867 at the very latest,
and here we have evidence that he not only encountered the theory placing the site of Troy
at Pinarbai, but also the counter-theories of Akca-K6y (the Thymbra site) and Hisarhk.49 It
would seem, however, that he paid little if any attention to them, carried away perhaps by total
faith in Nicolaides on Guerin's part, who ended his review thus:
Indeed, I repeat in concluding, the theatre of events sung by Homer is neither fantastic nor imaginary
... the principal points of the Troad are traced by the poet with rarefidelity,and if what he tells of the
47

Bulletin, 5th ser. 13 (1867), 524. On Schliemann's

presence, see p. 523, where he and the society's Secretary
General are reported to have introduced a new member,
M. Henri Krohn. to the society. Interestingly, Jules Verne

was also present. A copy of Guerin's text is reproduced in

the Bulletin's next issue. 5th ser.. 14 (1867), 296-314.
<8 Bulletin, 5th ser. 14 (1867), 3001 (my translation).
4
See Nicolaides 47.

SCHLIEMANN'S DIARY: GREECE AND THE TROAD, 1868

365

temperature difference of the two springs that border Dion is no longer confirmed ... we can suppose
that the cooling of the thermal source is due to physical causes which we do not know, but which can
be easily explained. It is this descriptive truth that has been put in a new light by the work of Mr.
Nicolaides to which, I have no doubt, the scholarly world will accord a favorable reception.50
Schliemann's well-fired imagination may well have been stoked by these sentiments. Troy and
Homer clearly held for him a special place above and beyond the other subjects covered by
the Society, such as population distribution in Norway and expeditions to Somalia. The talk
must be given some credit for rekindling his desire to visit the site.
In 1867 or early 1868, Schliemann acquired a copy of Nicolaides' book, which included a
large fold-out map of the Troad plotting the battle-lines of the Greeks and Trojans along with
other, topographical features. Unfortunately, he forgot to take it with him when he left Paris
in April, 1868. As the book was locked away with the rest of his library, he sent orders to Paris
while in Rome in June 1868, that another copy of the monograph be dispatched to Athens
where he could collect it.51 Though the book's shortcomings seem evident today, to an
amateur such as Schliemann, unacquainted with the intricacies of the Troy debate,
Nicolaides' detailed and weighty tome, with its extensive arguments and fold-out chart, must
have seemed a most impressive study on Troy; it was also the latest.
This, however, was not his only guide. Some time prior to August, 1868, Schliemann came
into possession of a copy of the Austrian Johann Georg von Hahn's report on his 1864
excavations of the 'Pergamos of Troy' on Balh Dag, the summit overlooking Pinarbai.52 A
brief report on Hahn's work in Turkey had been presented to the Societe de Geographie by
a certain M. Wiet on 20 March 1868, when Schliemann was in Paris, and at just the time the
intention of visiting Ithaca and Troy surfaces in his letters. Although the Societe's Bulletin
states that this report concerned Turkey in Europe, Hahn's excavations in the Troad (in Asia),
for which he was mostly known, would surely have been mentioned. 53 In any case, Nicolaides'
monograph mentions Hahn's excavations and quotes from his report. It seems likely, then,
that Schliemann was acquainted with Hahn's excavations even prior to his meeting with the
latter's collaborator, the Bavarian architect Ernst Ziller, during his stay in Athens in late July.
As both Nicolaides and Hahn accepted that Troy was to be found in the vicinity of
Pinarbai, with Priam's citadel perched on the Balh Dag, it is hardly surprising that
Schliemann was initially content to rely on these 'authorities'. The results of Hahn's
excavations had been disappointing, but, as we shall see, the excavator still insisted that the
locality Homer had in mind as the site of Troy lay at Pinarbai. With Nicolaides' complicated
and misleading text taking care of topographical and philological considerations, and Hahn's
report examining the archaeological evidence for the Pinarbai theory, Schliemann could
hardly have been more ill-prepared as an amateur antiquarian in search of the ancient city
when he arrived in the Troad in August of 1868.

50

Bulletin, 5th ser.14 (1867), 314See Lehrer-Turner 240 n. 53.

52
Hahn (n. 1). An unpublished English translation of
the text exists amongst the George Finlay papers held by
the British School at Athens.
51

53

Bulletin, 5th sen 15 (1868), 409. No summary given.

366

TURNER

2. SCHLIEMANN'S ITINERARY IN THE TROAD: A SYNOPSIS OF THE DIARY 54

Having no reason to doubt the opinion of his archaeological betters, Schliemann decided to
base himself at Pinarbai on his arrival in the Troad so as to be as close as possible to the
supposed site of Homer's Troy. While on the steamer coming from Constantinople, he made
the acquaintance of the Russian vice-consul to the Dardanelles, a certain Ludovic Fonton, who
offered Schliemann advice on how to proceed in the Troad. On disembarking at the port of
Canakkale in the Dardanelles, Fonton procured a guide and two horses to take Schliemann
to Renkoi, a village on the coast north-west of the Trojan plain, and told him that when he
arrived there he should ask for a certain Spyridon Charolamon whom Fonton warmly
recommended as a personal guide in the region. Taking this advice, Schliemann went to
Renkoi but failed to find Charolamon, and thus was obliged to continue inland to Pinarbai
with the same guide and horses that took him to Renkoi. Leaving at 10.00 a.m. from Renkoi
he arrived at 7.00 p.m. at Pinarbai, having traversed the inland route across the sparsely
populated eastern Troad, thus avoiding the plain itself.
Pinarbas.i was a small village, and Schliemann describes it briefly in his diary. After the
comforts of Athens and Constantinople, he now had to be content with the humble abode of
a poor Albanian who could only offer the tired traveller a dinner of boiled milk, eggs and
warm brown bread. These Spartan conditions, however, could not dampen Schliemann's
enthusiasm at being in the vicinity of ancient Troy. He wrote:
It was for me a strange feeling when, from the mountain, I saw in front of me the great plain of the
Troad with two large monuments near the shore.
This must be from the heights of Pinarbai. See note 105 below and FIG. 3.
The next day, the gth, was to test Schliemann's nerves. His diary entry opens 'All day I was
cheated', an accusation echoed in other entries and a precursor of further such complaints.
Starting at 5.00 a.m., he tried to procure a horse and guide to take him to the village of Ezine
to the south, where he had been told he would find Charolamon. Three hours later he had
found only a horse with a sagmarion, a type of rough wooden saddle, with which he was obliged
to proceed to Ezine. Arriving there at 11.00 a.m., he learned to his horror that on the
previous day Charolamon had gone to another village, Ayvacik, six hours further to the south.
For the rest of the midday and afternoon he tried to negotiate for another guide and a horse
with a saddle, but nothing was forthcoming till evening when Schliemann had to make do
with one horse, a sagmarion, and a man 'who did not know the Troad'.
In his diary, Schliemann's frustrations are vented on the village of Ezine which he describes
as a settlement of some 2,000 souls, 'the dirt of which is only surpassed by the corruption of
the inhabitants' ethical values'. He also mentions a rivulet nearby, recording it in Osmanh as
the Kiicuk Cay (or 'Small River') which, although dry, became a torrent during winter as one
could see from the condition of its banks and the dead trees on the river bed.5"' Schliemann
appears to have returned to Pinarbai on the evening of the gth and, with no time left for
further travelling, retired for the night.
">4 Many of the minutiae involved with the
interpretation of the Troad section of the diary have been
relegated to the notes accompanying its translation in
App. II.
"'"' This river must have been the modern Akcin (Jay, a

tributary of the Scamander which marks the main

southward route into the Troad through Ezine.
5
" On the problems involving the absence of a dateline
for 10 August, see the notes to App. II.

SCHLIEMANN'S DIARY: GREECE AND THE TROAD, 1868

367

On the next day, the 10th,56 Schliemann made his way to the Rhoeteum ridge, and thence
to the village of Yeniehir on the north-west coast of the Troad. In the diary, he fails to
mention the route he took to arrive at the ridge, although he must have followed the east
bank of the Scamander river for a while before striking north.57 Instead, we suddenly find him
in what appears to be the site of a classical city. Having as a guide the local barber from an
unspecified 'nearby village', he makes a diversion to observe another un-named site on a
nearby hill where he notes a partly excavated 'temple or palace of excellently worked
cyclopean stones'. Thence he goes via a Turkish burial ground (again, unidentified by name)
to the Rhoeteum ridge where he visits a large mound which, he notes, had been excavated.
He does not identify this tumulus, but it was evidently that popularly associated with Ajax.
After crossing the marshy mouth of the Scamander, he visits the two tumuli on the Sigeum
ridge, namely those associated with Achilles (which he identifies as such) and with Patroclus
(unidentified). In the evening, he finally arrives at his destination, Yeniehir, where he stays
the night. As we shall see below, the mysterious site of the classical city and the hill with
cyclopean remains visited earlier that day were most likely none other than Ilion and the hill
of Hisarhk.
Schliemann departed from Yeniehir on the next day, the 1 ith, at 6.15 a.m. and made his
way south into the plain of Troy along the Sigeum ridge, keeping to the 'right' and with an
unhindered view of the Troad to his left. On the coast, he encountered a 'large monument'
which he observed carefully but again failed to name. In fact, this was the Kesik Tepe,
recognized variously by travellers as the 'Tomb of Antilochus' or Hagios Demetrios Tepe. After
visiting an unidentified site containing 'cyclopean' ruins, he turned inland towards Pinarbai,
stopping at the Ucek Tepe which he states 'seems' to be the tumulus of Aesyetes 'made
legendary by Homer'. Numerous sherds and traces of fire bore witness to the still prevalent
custom of the local Greeks to take this Monument of Ilus to be the tomb of the Prophet Elijah
whose name in Greek (pronounced Tlias') contributed to the confusion. Schliemann
returned to Pinarbasi later that day, probably at some time in the mid-day and, with the help
of a labourer, went to 'dig in various places on the site of the ancient city', but without success.
On the next day, the 12 th, he employed a second man and spent the whole day examining
the area around that village, the course of the Scamander around the Balh Dag, and, of
course, the 'acropolis' itself; once again, the results of his excavations, to be discussed in detail
below, were negligible. On the 13th, Schliemann bade farewell to Pinarbai and made his way
eastward, visiting two Turkish cemeteries, the ruins of Alexandria Troas and of its harbour, the
villages of Eskistambul and Geyikli, and lastly Ucek, where he spent an eventful night being
swindled by the rogue Georgios Topal. Very early on the morning of the 14th, an assertive
Schliemann went by foot to the nearby village of Yenikoy to lodge a formal complaint against
the villain to the mayor, a certain Georgios Mengioussis. Thence he continued by way of the
plain of Troy to Renkoi, and then on to Canakkale. In his diary he noted: 'We passed the plain
of the ancient Troad which I looked at with great curiosity, especially the hill of Hasserlik [sic]
where, in my opinion, Homer's Pergamos used to be. We found, near the road, a stone with
letters which I took with me.' This is the first specific mention of Hisarhk in the diary. He
arrived at Canakkale in the Dardanelles at 3.00 p.m., too late to catch the steamer to
57
On my reasons for making these conclusions, see
also the notes to App. II.

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TURNER

Constantinople. He thus took a room at a hotel, and on the next day, the 15th, made the
acquaintance of Frank Calvert, who provided him with information about Hisarhk. On the
16th, he finally departed from Canakkale for Constantinople.
3. SCHLIEMANN'S SEARCH FOR TROY

As the reader will have noticed, far from being enlightened by the Troad section of the diary,
one is left more perplexed than ever. The question Ubi Troja fuit? takes on a whole new
meaning. Where is Troy in the diary? Is it really possible that Schliemann overlooked Hisarhk
on his first visit to the Troad, content to see it only from afar on his way to Canakkale? Can it
be that, passing through the site on the 10th, he was unaware of its significance?38
Schliemann had been exposed to the Hisarhk theory on at least three occasions: during
Guerin's talk in 1867, and from the works of Hahn and Nicolaides. Indeed, the latter's
detailed fold-out map marks the site clearly as 'Neon Ilion'. Certain similarities between
Hisarhk as described in Schliemann's published work, Ithaque, le Peloponnese, Troie and the
anonymous sites passed en route to the Rhoeteum ridge on the 10th authorize the conclusion
that these sites were none other than Ilium Novum/Hisarhk,39 with the Turkish burial ground
being that at Halileli somewhat to the east. Yet it must be conceded that if Schliemann was
aware of the significance of the Hisarhk site on the 10th, he certainly made no mention of it
in his diary.
What, then, was going on in Schliemann's mind as he surveyed the Troad? His comments
in the August 11 entry recounting his journey back to Pinarbai from Yenishehir reveal that
he had no doubts as to the Pinarbai-Troy theory. Here he reconstructs the Trojan plain on
the basis of information given in the Iliad as interpreted by his 'guide', Nicolaides. The two
ridges of Rhoeteum and Sigeum, now joined by an expanse of low land, were in antiquity two
distinct promontories thrusting out into the sea in a U-shape with their tips pointing north.
For the Greeks to have hauled their ships up onto the plain between the two promontories,
as Homer tells us, the coast line must have been further inland and thus, following Nicolaides'
reading of Strabo, Schliemann concludes:
It seems that during the passage of time all the plain from the sea up to Bunarbashi was built up by the
silt of the two rivers and that the sea of old reached the mountains of Bunarbashi.6"
One of the puzzling aspects of the diary is that certain key elements in the whole Troy
debate are missing. There is no mention of the Two Springs, no direct discussion of the
naustathmos, or of specific texts from the Iliad, and no mention of Strabo or later
geographers, ancient or modern. While this has been taken as evidence for Schliemann's
ignorance of these matters, we have already seen that this cannot have been entirely the case.
Schliemann, after all, had with him two substantial, albeit often misleading books filling him
in on precisely these points. More significantly, after over a decade of familiarity, Schliemann
also knew his Homer very well.
That Schliemann relied, or at least attempted to rely on Nicolaides' monograph for
orientation in the Troad is beyond doubt. 6 ' In trying to gauge what Schliemann knew of the
s8

Traill 1984, 300-4 attributed the gap to a missing

diary page; this hypothesis was refuted by Lehrer-Turner
246-8.
59 Traill 1984, 300 n. 17.

6o
6l

II.

Diary Ai 2, 11 August. See Nicolaides 28-9.

See the notes to the Troad diary translation in App.

SCHLIEMANN'S DIARY: GREECE AND THE TROAD, 1868

369

Troad and, more importantly, how this knowledge influenced his on-site perception of the
Troy problem, the importance of Nicolaides' book cannot be underestimated. The work helps
fill in innumerable gaps in Schliemann's diary and explain the apparently puzzling manner
by which he arrived at certain conclusions. Perhaps it was inevitable that Schliemann's
knowledge of, and faith in Homer, together with his keen sense of observation, should
eventually have led him to a crisis regarding the findings of Nicolaides and Hahn. That this
was so can most clearly be observed in those sections of the diary where Schliemann describes
his attempts at excavating and surveying Pinarbai and the citadel on Balh Dag.
Let us look first at Nicolaides' general approach to the Pinarbai theory. That author (who
claimed to have visited the Troad) stated that the location of Troy at Pinarbai could be
proved by a combination of five main factors. First by the close proximity of the Scaean Gate
to Homer's Two Springs, where Achilles is said to have slain Hector and which Nicolaides
identified with the celebrated Kirk Goz ('Forty', i.e. many, 'Springs'; there are in fact over
thirty) at Pinarbai; second by the continuous plain itself, now partly silted up, dissected by
the Menderes which he identified with the Scamander; third by the proximity of the various
tumuli littered around the Troad, the three nearest Balh Dag in particular (two of which were
known as the tombs of Hector and Priam); fourth by the naustathmos which he located on a
sheltered bay that once existed between the Sigeum and Rhoeteum ridges. Finally, Nicolaides
identified the Simois river with the Kemer Su to the north of Balh Dag, stating that scholars
had been misled by //. vi. 2-4 into thinking that the major battles had been fought mostly
between the Simois and the Scamander.62 As we saw above, the whole question of rivers was
immensely important in the controversy over the site of Troy, situated by Homer to the east of
the Scamander and south of the Simois (//. v. 773 ff.).
In the light of these assertions, Nicolaides' description of Achilles' pursuit of Hector
provides a good example of how Schliemann would have orientated himself on the site, and
what he would have been looking for there.63 On the basis of//, xxii. 13148, Nicolaides stated
that the Scaean Gate in the city's circuit walls must have been situated between the banks of
the Scamander and the Two Springs outside the walls, although he did not claim to have
located its exact site. The land traversed by Achilles and Hector beyond the Springs and along
the wagon track around the city's circuit wall was undulating and in places covered in scrub
(II. xxii. 18893). Turning west, the heroes would have had the walls of the city to their left
and the plain to their right. Continuing, they would have arrived under the walls of the
acropolis, or Pergamos, which rose to their left. Then, turning east they would have ran down
the west bank of the Scamander, the Pergamos being to their left; turning due north once
more, they would have had the plain to their right and the city to their left. Nicolaides,
moreover, invoked the excavations of A. F. Mauduit of 1812,64 as well as Hahn's more recent
explorations, to show that ruins of a wall had been found on the east side of Balh Dag, the
slope of which had been much transformed over time due to seismic activity.65
Of the fact that three times the heroes ran around the city and not, as some scholars claim,
in front of the city, Nicolaides was in no doubt. In order to prove this point, he made an
interesting claim:
62
Nicolaides 72-6, and his fold-out 'Plan strategique
de l'lliade' at the end of the book.
6
' Ibid. 36 ff.
64
See Cook 29. Mauduit had written an extensive
study, published in 1840, supporting the Pinarbai theory.

65
This 'wall' was in fact an illusion caused by the
peculiar geological formation of the slope. See Cook 131
2.

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TURNER

It took me about an hour at a moderate pace to complete the circuit I have just described, from leaving
the Two Springs and following the direction indicated on my map; I believe that it does exceed 5000
metres (//. 22. 188-93); people trained to run, as the Greeks were at all times, could complete it in less
than half an hour. Certainly it was very tiring to run around the city three full times; but as the poet
observes, the prize of this race was not an ordinary prize: the two heroes ran for the life of Hector.66
The location of Homer's Troy at Pinarbai was thus, for the sprightly Cretan, in no doubt.
Slightly further along in his text, he dismissed the two rival Ilion sites in words that Guerin
drew on for his 1867 talk, cited earlier. His objection to Ilium Novum (Hisarhk) was its close
proximity to the Hellespont, while the Village of the Ilians was even more difficult to reconcile
with the evidence from Homer.67 Thus the silting of the bay between the two promontories
was, for Nicolaides, a basic factor in his argument, and this would explain why Schliemann
gave so much attention to this and related problems.
Nicolaides may have provided Schliemann with the general background to the topography
of the Pinarbasi theory, but it was Hahn's report which provided him with more specific
information on the actual excavation of 'Homer's Pergamos'. Once again, Schliemann placed
his trust in a secondary source, and was soon to be disappointed when he decided to follow
up Hahn's excavations in the citadel and, perhaps more significantly, in the 'city' itself, namely
the area marked ILION on Hahn's map (see FIG. 1).
Schliemann's 'excavations' at Pinarbai and Balh Dag were, in fact, extremely modest in
scope and extent, but they enabled him to reach some telling conclusions. With one labourer
he began his survey of the area in the early afternoon of 11 August, digging first in the
'ancient city', i.e. Troy, not the acropolis. The results were entirely negative ('we did not find
even the slightest trace of bricks or pieces of pots'), and essentially confirmed Hahn's own
examination of the slope: 'on all sides the ground is in its natural state, untouched by human
hands'. 68 Further up the hill Schliemann encountered the three tumuli and identifies one of
them as Hector's. There follows a description of the foundations of three large circular
structures between the tumuli and the Pergamos, which are described by Hahn. Already,
Schliemann was perplexed:
It seems to me that the city, which existed on the flat land between the last monument and the acropolis,
did not have more than 1,000 inhabitants, the place being very small. I see there only uneven large
stones and as there was no mortar in the Heroic age, it is possible that the houses were small.
These stones, no doubt, were the fallen remains of the walls of the acropolis above, now
recognized to date from the Archaic and classical period.69 Schliemann's diary entry on the
citadel walls not only follows Hahn,7 but also includes a description of illustrations of
polygonal and ashlar walls that appear at the end of Hahn's report. Furthermore, Schliemann
notes that Hahn's excavations had not found 'a large gate ... Only a small entrance was
uncovered with a ramp of roughly cut blocks'.
On the next day, the 12th, Schliemann dug once more at the site of the city 'but I did not
find even a trace of bricks [xouP^a] or anything else which could prove that a city existed
66

Nicolaides 44-5.
Ibid. 46-7.
68
See Cook 131 on the results of excavations on the
site of Ilion at Pinarbai.
67

^ Ibid. 128 ff.

For example, compare the description of the walls
with Hahn 10.
7

SCHLIEMANN'S DIARY: GREECE AND THE TROAD, 1868

371

........ Wye.

FIG. 1. Hahn's map of Pinarbasi-Balh Dag showing ascription of Homeric names to local features.

there of old'. Following this, he ascended the citadel to re-examine a building excavated by
Hahn, and thought to be a temple on account of the two columns found therein. The
hardness of the earth made digging difficult and the attempt was abandoned. That the surest
indications of the site of an ancient city are fragments of bricks and pots appears in a passage
in Hahn which Schliemann essentially paraphrased in his diary. On the other hand, we now
know that Schliemann was quite familiar with these tell-tale material remains from Petra to
Taganrog, Ithaca to Mycenae, and had expected to find them at Troy.
Schliemann, after two days of modest 'excavations', must have been perplexed, and no
where does his frustration with both Nicolai'des and Hahn show itself more clearly than in a
passage under the entry for the 12th. It would seem that he decided to actually test

372

TURNER

Nicolai'des' contention that one could, in fact, run around the perimeter of the Pinarbasi site.
Although he does not expressly state that this was his intention, there seems no other
explanation as to why he descended the slope of Balli Dag to arrive at the old sandy bed of
the Scamander which, following Nicola'ides, he claims once flowed closer to the mountain.
The rest is best said in Schliemann's words:
The height is 472 [Parisian] ft. We went along the bank of the river, which, from that point to the end
of the conjectured city, was very precipitous and almost vertical. Also, one can see sand for a great
distance, which was the old bed of the Scamander which now flows more towards the right [i.e. east].
We went to the place where another small river, the Kemer Deresi [Kemer Su], flows into the Menderes.
Many think this is the Simois, but this seems impossible to me as it is very near Bunarbashi and thus at
least 2VI hours from the Greek ships. The city was never on this site and if it was, how could they have
pulled the wooden horse 2 versts from the Scaean Gate to the acropolis where there is no gate and only
a very small door. The river of the springs is called Kontsol.
Only by being acquainted with his sources, the tracts by Nicolaldes and Hahn, can the
reader understand the tenor of Schliemann's annoyance. He essentially refutes Nicola'ides'
claim that one could walk round Pinarbasi in an hour by pointing to the precipitous nature
of the route between the Balli Dag and the old bed of the Scamander river. No doubt this
provided the basis for the account he would later give in Ithaque, le Peloponnese, Troie of his own
attempt to follow the heroes' footsteps around the Balli Dag. Schliemann's attack on the
identification of the Kemer river with the Simois must be based on the description of the first
battle in the Iliad (v. 774 ff.) where Hera and her horses, shrouded by a mist created by
Simoeis, arrived at the confluence of the Scamander and the Simois to berate the Achilles-less
Greeks that the Trojans now dared to battle 'far from their city, right by our hollow ships'. If
Troy had stood at Pinarbai, the Simois-Kemer would obviously have been too far from the
naustathmos, even if one were to accept Strabo's theory of the silting up of the plain.
And when the great citadel of Priam contained only a pathetic temple and a 'very small
door', this must have seemed the last straw. Perhaps most disturbingly, on the evidence of Od.
viii. 492, how could the Trojans have possibly pulled the Wooden Horse nearly 7,000 ft. from
the Scaean Gate (which was nowhere to be found) up to the acropolis? Finally, Schliemann
makes his only reference to the springs, alluding to the 'river of the springs', the small
Pinarbai stream known by the locals as Koncol.
One aspect of Schliemann's approach to the Troy question is beyond doubt: his
unwillingness to be persuaded of any site's candidacy where no traces of a city could be found.
After seeing extensive ruins of ancient cities throughout Italy and Greece, Schliemann was not
able to believe that so splendid a city as Homer's Troy would bequeath only the paltry archaeological remains exhumed on Balli Dag. He was also presumably not inclined to entertain any
views that would relegate Homer to the realm of myth, and in this respect his 'excavations'
stand in an odd relationship to Hahn's findings.
Hahn acknowledged that his excavations had turned up no evidence whatsoever that an
ancient city such as that described by Homer had ever occupied the site. But he remained
convinced that Balli Dag was indeed the site selected by Homer as a backdrop for his mythical
tales, the Iliad representing merely a Hellenic variant of Aryan legends without any historical
foundation.'1 On the other hand, while Schliemann repeats, sometimes almost verbatim, the
"' Ibid. 34-5.

SCHLIEMANN'S DIARY: GREECE AND THE TROAD, 1868

373

premises and findings of Hahn's search for the Homeric city, he comes to a diametrically
opposed conclusion. Schliemann came to cite the very archaeological information published
by Hahn, and confirmed by Schliemann's own superfluous 'excavations', as incontrovertible
evidence that Hahn's theory regarding the location of Homer's Troy was mistaken. The theory
that the Iliad blends geographical fact with historical fiction may appear sophisticated to us
today, but Schliemann may very well have considered it merely sophistic, a desperation tactic
conveniently adopted by the Austrian after Pinarbai refused to yield any sign that the ancient
city of Homer's epic had once stood in the area. Although Schliemann would later be very
cautious as to how far Homer represents a reliable source, it was his initial faith in Homer
which kept him on the right track. Considering that both Nicolai'des and Hahn had supported
the Pinarbai hypothesis, albeit from two different perspectives, Schliemann's reaction to
them should be interpreted as a sign of independent evaluation of the evidence at hand.
Schliemann, in his Troad diary, clearly begins to see with his own eyes the difficulties
presented by the identification of Pinarbai-Balh Dag with Homer's Troy. It is timely here to
quote a passage from Ithaque, le Peloponnese, Troie, where he states: 'It certainly seems
incomprehensible to me how anyone could ever have taken the heights of Bunarbashi for the
site of Troy. One can only say that travellers came here with preconceptions which blinded
them.'72 Schliemann must have known this better than anyone else.
4 . SCHLIEMANN AND HISARLIK

There exists a letter by Schliemann to his father dated 12 August (Gregorian calendar) and
headed 'in the village Bunarbashi, on the Scamander, on the Battlefield of Troy'. Therein he
mentions his conviction that the site of Troy lay 'about one German mile nearer the sea' and
not on Balh Dag. The letter's date of 12 Augustthree days prior to his encounter with Frank
Calverthas justly been brought into question, in view of a postscript dated 'Constantinople,
24 August' which is included in what seems to be the same ink, thus suggesting that both letter
and postscript were written at the same time.73 The question is thus raised: when exactly did
Schliemann hit upon the idea of Troy, and how far did he deceive himself into thinking that
he, and not Frank Calvert, was the formulator of a theory that would make his name famous?
All indications in the diary show that Schliemann spent 13 and 14 August looking at sites
in the Troad on his way back to the port of the Dardanelles. On the 13th, he took leave of
Pinarbai and retraced his route to the west of the plain, making a diversion to see the ruins
of the Troas of Alexander the Great and visiting the village of Eskistambul. He shows no
interest in looking for the true site of Troy; indeed, it is almost as if the matter were forgotten.
The entry for the 14th, however, which describes his journey back to Renkoi on that day,
contains that casual, but most unexpected observation cited earlier.74 Why just now, all of a
sudden, does his eye pay special attention to 'the hill of Hasserlik [sic] where, in my opinion,
Homer's Pergamos used to be'? This is the first specific mention in the diary of Hisarhk, the
now generally accepted site of historical Troy. There is no evidence that Schliemann stopped
there that day; he simply saw it from afar.
By all accounts the site of Hisarhk was not an imposing one before 1868. Turner described
it thus in 1816: 'The ruins (if they can be called so, for etiam periere ruinae) consist of small
7

* IPT 162.
Traill 1984, 308. Lehrer-Turner 254.

73

" This was first pointed out by Traill 1984, 308.

374

TURNER

stones, among which are some morsels of marble and brick scattered over the hill, of which
not one remains upon the other.'75 Newton in 1854 was not much more enthusiastic: 'From
Kalifatli we proceeded to the site of Ilium Novum, where the remains visible above ground are
very trifling; though the irregularity of the ground led me to suppose that extensive ruins were
hidden under the soil.'76 The drawings published by William Gell show Hisarhk incidentally,
without naming it, and almost indistinguishably from the area's tumuli (FIG. 2, 3)-77 In Ithaque,
le Peloponnese, Troie, Schliemann, who tended to place his own travel experiences in the
foreground, was to give a remarkably vague first-hand account of his visit to Hisarhk. His
almost total ignorance of basic information about the site after his return to Paris was nothing
short of astonishing. Some of the queries he had to make by mail to Calvert are of such an
elementary nature as to oblige one to wonder whether Schliemann inspected the site of
Hisarhk at all in 1868.78
In his published treatise, Schliemann specifically states that he inspected Hisarhk not once,
but twice. In the diary, however, Hisarhk can only be the anonymous 'hill' visited on 10
August, which Schliemann paid little attention to. He certainly did not deem it important to
record the hill's name or mention that some scholars had claimed it was the site of Troy
(though he should have been aware of the fact, if only from Nicolaides). Why then did he
change his mind by the 14th?
Perhaps he did not, in reality, change his mind definitively until the 15th. After arriving at
Canakkale in the Dardanelles on the 14th at 3.00 p.m., one hour late for the steamship which
was to have taken him to Constantinople, Schliemann booked into a dirty hotel, but did not
waste his time. On the next day, the 15th:
I made the acquaintance of the famous archaeologist Frank Calvert who thinks, as I do, that the
Homeric Troad [sic] was nowhere else but at Hassarlik [sic]. He advises me strongly to dig there. He
says that the whole mound is man-made. He showed me his large collection of vases and other
antiquities which he has found during his excavations amongst which was a bronze lion with Punic
letters indicating its use as a weight measuring a talent.
One scholar has argued persuasively that Schliemann wrote his entry for the 14th some
time after having met Frank Calvert on the next day, backdating the entry in order to make it
appear in his own mind that he, Schliemann, had come to his conclusions about Hisarhk
prior to the meeting.79 Although Schliemann by then must have had serious doubts about
Pinarbai, the evidence suggests that only the meeting with Calvert transformed a gnawing
suspicion into a positive conviction. The question then arises whether all the diary entries for
the Troad were written after this meeting. This, in contrast, seems unlikely, for he does seem
to have copied more or less on a daily basis from the notes he made for himself while
surveying the Troad. The diary entries of 812 August give the unmistakable impression of a
man orginally believing in, but becoming slowly disillusioned with the Pinarbasji theory, albeit
without cognizance of a better one. It can hardly be said that his diary description of his visit
75
W. Turner, Journal of a Tour in the Levant (London,
1820), iii. 226.
"'' C. T. Newton, Travels and Discoveries in the Levant
(London, 1865), i. 132.
77
W. Gell, The Topography of Troy and its Vicinity
(London, 1804), pis. 31, 36, 45. Cf. the reconstructed

drawing of the site prior to excavation in Wood (n. 45),

53.
"8 This question was addressed in detail in the second
part of Lehrer-Turner (255 ff.). This author has since
modified his opinion on the matter.
7<J
Traill 1984, 308.

SCHLIEMANN'S DIARY: GREECE AND THE TROAD, 1868

375

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FIG. 2. Gell's map of the Trojan Plain, from The Topography of Troy and its Vicinity (London, 1804),
pi. 45. Hisarlik is marked as 'Hill like a Tumulus' near 'Ilium Recens'.

376

TURNER

to Hisarhk on the 10th contains the kind of information Schliemann was to receive about the
hill from Calvert five days later.
Fortunately, public letters of Frank Calvert from 1875 shed some light on the matter. In the
course of a public squabbble with Schliemann, Calvert maintained that '... in August, 1868,
the subject of Hissarlik as the probable site of Troy was new to [Schliemann] ... He had
bestowed so cursory a glance at Hissarlik, that ... after our interview at the Dardanelles ... he
had to make the most elementary inquiries [in letters to Calvert] regarding the topography
of the latter site'.80 There is no reason to doubt Calvert's allegation. Schliemann clearly was
not aware that Hisarhk was the probable site of Troy, but he must have been aware that certain
scholars had supported its candidacy. His disillusionment, however, with the Pinarbai theory
together with his knowledge of Homer and even his cursory visit to Hisarhk and inspection of
Calvert's trenches there, laid the foundations for his acceptance of Calvert's ideas. Suddenly,
the entire matter seemed resolved; Calvert made complete sense.
The significance of Schliemann's first interview with Calvert cannot be underestimated,
and for a variety of reasons. Schliemann was presented with a persuasive theory with which his
recent investigations at Pinarbai were totally consistent. He records in his diary, and more
extensively in the letter to his father dated 12 August, Calvert's statement that the entire hill
was 'man-made', consisting of deposits from various periods, the latest being that of Roman
Ilium. Though Calvert's theory regarding Homeric Troy remained unsubstantiated in 1868,
to Schliemann at the time it seemed so eminently plausible that he must have asked himself
why, with all his knowledge of and faith in Homer and his experience wandering round the
remains of antiquity, he had not come up with this theory himself, especially since he had
stood on the very mound of Hisarhk. When Calvert, in 1874 and 1875, chose to publicly state
that Schliemann had not, in fact, discovered Troy entirely through his own efforts, he no
doubt thought that he was simply stating a fact; in reality he had struck right at the heart not
only of Schliemann's perceived reputation, but alsoand more painfullyat Schliemann's
own perception of himself and his development as a man and scholar. Schliemann's reaction
was predictably fast and furious.8' For him, the 1868 meeting with Calvert had already passed
into the annals of his mind where it had undergone the by-now familiar process of
assimilation into that great chronicle Schliemann held so sacred: his life.
5 . SCHLIEMANN IN CONSTANTINOPLE

On 16 August, Schliemann boarded a boat travelling from Egypt to Constantinople. The

fascination the Turkish capital and its peoples held for him seems to have completely drowned
archaeology in his diary, although we have seen that he sent letters home to his father and
brothers and sister in which he mentioned his 'discovery' and even his intention to excavate
Hisarhk in the following April.82
Schliemann appears to have been overawed by the double aspect of Constantinople, the
grandeur and pageant of Ottoman life on the one hand and the squalor it hid on the other.
His first entry for 17 August finds him encountering two dead cats in the street. Schliemann's
s
" The Guardian, 31 May 1875. See Traill 1985, 19,
Lehrer-Turner 261.
81
See Traill 1984 and 1985 on the public
correspondence between Schliemann and Calvert at this
time.

82
Letter of 22 Aug. 1868 to (sister) Doris and Hans
Petrowsky, in Briefe von Heinrich Schliemann, ed. E. Meyer
(Leipzig, 1936), no. 6, pp. 111-12.

SCHLIEMANN'S DIARY: GREECE AND THE TROAD, 1868

377

FIG. 3. View north across the plain of Troy from Bounarbashi. The Simoeis is in the foreground; Atche Kevi
is the village represented to the northeast; Hissarlik is located in the area of low hills in the centrebackground. From Gell, The Topography of Troy and its Vicinity (London, 1804), pi. 36 (detail).

penchant for observing minor and sometimes macabre detail reigns supreme in this section
of the diary. At the notorious Ottoman fortress and gaol of the Yedi Kule, or Seven Towers,
which incorporated the Golden Gate of the Byzantine emperors, he dwells only on the
number of dogs in the area and the fact that the Turks looked after them while the Christians
and the Jews did not. Schliemann shows a general sympathy for the Turkish people and is not
slow to express a certain disdain for the Greeks. Perhaps the incident with the Greek rogue
Topal at Udjek still rankled with him. With the prospect of excavating Troy never far from his
thoughts, he may even have identified the Turks with his beloved Trojans.
The Turkish custom of veiling womenfolk appealed to Schliemann, who compared it
favourably to the 'disgusting' vanity which Western women showed. Here he echoes the
favorable verdict he passed in 1859 on a Nubian custom of partially sewing up the vaginas of
infant girls until such time as they should be married, stating that the women of Paris would
do well to learn from this ritual!83 Islam obviously held a fascination for him, as it had done
in Palestine and Syria in 1859. On one of his visits to the Hagia Sophia mosque, he claims to
have been taken for a Muslim and was allowed in without paying the entrance fee for nonMuslim tourists: as usual, one cannot discern in the diary if Islam or a free entrance entranced
him more. Later he describes the multifarious aspects of city life, with its ghettos for the
various nationalities and faiths. He made a specific point of going to the Jewish quarter; the
most he could say for the Jews, however, was that they were dirty, poor, and suffering from
damp living conditions.
The morbid was never very far away from Schliemann's interests. He made a special point
of seeing the wax and wooden effigies of the Janissaries, who had been murdered by the
Sultan. When too early to attend a performance of Shouting Dervishes, he went to the British
8

s Diary A3, 85.

378

TURNER

War Cemetery to pay his respects to those soldiers killed during the Crimea War, from which
Schliemann himself had made an enormous profit. A visit to an exhibition of torture
implements used by the Dervishes of old even elicited heavy underlining (rare for
Schliemann) of the phrases 'implements oftorturewith which they used to torture themselves'.6*
On August 26 he left Constantinople on a small steamship accompanied, as ever, by a select
group of Western bourgeoisie. At around 9.30 a.m. the next day he mentions passing the
Troad, no doubt with plans and hopes for a speedy return. After a brief stop in Piraeus, he was
on his way back to Paris where he arrived in early September. It was here in the French capital
that the real search for Troy was about to begin, with the writing of Ithaque, le Peloponnese, Troie
completed in December 1868.
DAVID R. TURNER

APPENDIX I. EXCERPTS FROM THE 1 8 6 8 TRAVEL DIARY: ITHACA

Source: Gennadius library, Athens. Diary Ai 2. [000] = page number.

[99] Ithaca 8 July 1868. This morning at 5.30 we arrived at Argostoli, the capital of
Cephalonia. At a distance of one mile before reaching the town we passed two places on the
coast where the water flows with such might and in such quantity into an underground
passage that two enterprising people have built mills there so as to grind wheat to make flour.
This phenomenon goes against nature. There are 8000 people in the town. I drank a coffee
with milk, and paid 2'/2$85 [100] for a cab with two horses to take me to Samos. The road
ascends and descends high mountains 3 times, always along zigzag routes. Without walls or
fences to protect the carriages, the roads are dangerous on dark nights since there is always
the abyss along one side. Wherever there is a little earth, and frequently the ground is very
stony, [the locals] have terraced the mountainside where they plant vines; olive trees are
everywhere to be seen. Here the fields are divided by enclosures. It often seems incomprehensible to me how they are able to cultivate or dig the stony ground. The olive trees often
have immensely large trunks. At times I see pines on the mountain slopes as well as cypresses,
and poplars or black poplars; thorny bushes cover the barren rocks. Not far from Samos I saw,
on a large mountain, a forest of pines and firs.
At around 11 in the morning I arrived at the small and unclean town of Samos built on the
site of the famous ancient city from which came 24 of Penelope's suitors. There are still
remains of a few ancient houses. I bathed, ate a little, and in the company of another person,
rode by mule to the Old Castle on the nearby mountain. The man placed a woollen cover over
my sagmarion, which had no stirrups. The cover was full of lice. Of the acropolis there are still
remains of large walls made of large stones joined without mortar, [101] remains of buildings
and especially of many small shops86 in which I can still see remains of a table. In 189 BC, the
Romans destroyed the fortress and the town which was located on the coast.
K
* Diary Aio, 61, contains similar underlining in a
description of a torture chamber in Nurenburg.
85
Schliemann uses the $ sign for drachmai in Greece,
and piastres in Turkey. The English shilling was also used
in the Ionian islands, a legacy of the brief period of British
rule. A 'taler' is (presumably) 5 drachmai.

m
The Greek word is Epyacruf|pia, which in modern
Greek means 'workshop', but is used by Schliemann here
and elsewhere in the ancient sense of a shop. It is not
clear what led him to make this identification. Strictly
speaking the word means a place where work is both done
and paid for, such as a barber's or a brothel, not a place

SCHLIEMANN'S DIARY: GREECE AND THE TROAD, 1868

379

I bought a few coins, amongst them a na^u which seems to be silver or alloy. My neck itched
greatly since I had caught lice. For 2$ I hired a boat to take me to Ithaca. But the wind was
against us so as to oblige us to go the long way round for 6 hours before reaching the island.
We only rowed a little with the oars along the coastline. I must confess that I hardly found
much pleasure in this crossing under sail, even though the weather was bright and clear and
even though I constantly had in front of me Mt. Aetos with the castle of Odysseus, and Mt.
Neritos. For 1V2 shillings I hired an ass for my luggage while I went by foot to the village of
Vathi, where I spent the night in the dirty house of the miller, who had accompanied me from
the other side [of the island]. The distance was at least 4V2 miles. Vathi lies on a sea inlet which
extends much inland. There is a splendid harbour there. The town has 7,000 inhabitants.
There are many windmills.
In Ithaca Vathi 9 July. Today I took a room in the house of the deceased John Triantaphyllides,
whose two daughters, Eleni and Aspasia, wait on me.
Vathi 10 July: The village is very poor. One finds neither milk nor anything else here. And meat
is not sold today since it is Lent.87 They boiled me two eggs for my breakfast which were so
hard that I only barely managed to eat them. Hungry, I departed at [102] 6V2 on horseback,
but the horse advanced with such difficulty and laziness that my guide had to pull it by the
reins while his son hurried it on and hit it from behind. We went to the port of Phorcys, where
the Phaeacians laid down the tired Odysseus under an olive tree, and thence up the mount of
Hagios Stephanos along a narrow and precipitous path to the Grotto of the Nymphs. The
entrance is small and a person can barely enter. There is a round hole above two-and-a-half
feet in diameter. Inside there are traces of a stairway cut into the rock. The cave is almost
circular having a diameter of 50ft. Many stalactites hang from the cave's roof; Homer calls
them 'Threads of the Nymphs'.88 My guide, who had brought with him a bundle of dry twigs
and vines, lit a fire with small pieces of wood. He had borrowed a box of matches from a
certain miller. The fire lit up the entire cave. The smoke left through the hole above, as
through a chimney. The cave's surfacefloor is covered with stonespebbles, probably
thrown in through the hole above.
The people here are very devout, so much so that today, Friday, neither meat nor fish is
sold, nor milk nor butter.
There are many sweet-smelling plants here. Thence we followed an ancient foot-path to the
mountain of Hagios Spyridon, where there is a small chapel dedicated to the Saint. Nearby is
a spring with a cistern and aqueduct consisting of pipes that lead down to the town. From here
I can see Dexia8lJ where the ships berth. A hermit, Spyridon by name, lives in the vicinity of
the chapel.
We followed the ancient footpath, which is in poor repair and very difficult [103] to
negotiate, around the mountain to the valley between the mountains of Hagios Spyridon and
Aetos, where there are two peasant dwellings. From a peasant there I bought an ancient silver
where goods obtained elsewhere, such as vegetables or
fish, are sold.
87
Schliemann used the word for Lent (crapaKO<xtf|)
but this is impossible. As this was a Friday, he must have
simply meant a day of fasting.

88

Murray 84: 'where the Nymphs may be fancied to

have woven the threads whose colour was like the purple
of the ocean (Od. xiii. 107)'.
8!)
The modern name of the port of Phorcys to the right
of the entrance to Vathi bay (ibid.).

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coin with Pallas Athena on one side and Pegasus on the otherfor $ 1 and 2 a shilling. I later
observed the old cemetery located on the downward slope of the mountain, about 150 feet
above the valley and 350 feet above sea-level. One can see many traces of tombs carved into
the rock; these were excavated by the English.90 But everything there is now in a state of ruin.
Afterwards, I went up the mountain with the greatest difficulty. It would seem that it can be
ascended only by gods and goats. Near the crest, I came across the ruins of a large cyclopean
wall consisting of stones 3 to 5 feet long and 2 and 3 feet wide. Later [we encountered] the
ruins of many small houses. In one of these I found a niche in the wall, made as if to house
some statue.
On one of the mountain crests,9' which is perhaps 70 or 80 feet lower than the other, I
found traces of a tower. I cannot accept that part of the palace once stood here since the large
[natural] rocks [on the site] would have proved a hindrance [for building]. I ascended the
higher peak where three series of walls are clearly discernable. The upper part is almost flat
and without doubt a large house once stood there. There is a large cistern 20 feet in diameter
and 10 feet deep. Apart from this, there are 2 small cisterns 5 feet in diameter. Concerning
the interior arrangement of the palace, one cannot glean any idea, but I shall bring with me
spades and hoes in order to dig here.92
[ 104] Leading down from the northern part of the castle are two walls made of large
stones; they constitute some sort of tower. I sat for a long time in the ruins of the palace
reading the Odyssey itself, especially the recognition scene between Odysseus and Penelope,
and cried profusely. There is a splendid view from the peak. Cephalonia to the west, part of
mount Anoge to the north with the island of Asteris in the straits, and Leukas further off. To
the east [lies] Akarnania, [and] the island of Iatokos in the harbour of Phorcys. Nowhere else
in the world is the sea so clear or the mountains so beautiful as in Greece. I descended Aetos
with difficulty. Halfway down, I came across the ruins of 12 or 16 ancient houses, which had
only one room [each]. I also encountered a large cyclopean wall leading down from the
summit and another [running] in the opposite direction.
July 11 in Vathi: Today, after bathing, I went on horseback with the teacher Eustathios Paxinos
to the western part of the island. The road was initially good, but afterwards became a
wretched footpath which became so precipitous [and covered] with loose stones so that we
were obliged to dismount and continue the journey by foot. We came upon the famous mount
Korax, which has a sheer face and is 100 feet high. Below it lies the renowned Spring of
Arethusa with a small reservoir in a cave. Opposite is a deep chasm almost 100 feet deep.
[105] The chasm terminates in the sea. In the sea, opposite the town, is the island of
'Perapegadi'. Opposite the [spring of] Arethusa are the ruins of a house [together with] those
of an old cistern and traces of two other springs which with a little expense could be put to
good use. On the sea shore near the chasm is a field with an incline of only 10 degrees, and
thus I thought initially that this was the site of the very farm of the swine-herd Eumaeus.93 But
afterwards we found very close by this place another location which is much larger and more
level. I recognized clearly there the foundations of various large houses, which may be the
90
Ibid. 86-7: the slope of Aetos 'among the rocks to
the westward of the modern town...'.
91
The top of Mt. Aetos is characterized by two 'crests'
joined by an incline.

* The site is described in far less detail ibid. 86.

This seems to be the site, ibid. 87, although no
detailed description is given there,
93

SCHLIEMANN'S DIARY: GREECE AND THE TROAD, 1868

381

stables or the farm of Eumaeus. The foundations consist of stones joined with mortar. The
field is scattered with bits of pots and bricks.94
They cultivate linseed here and a few cereals despite the fact that they often have to sow
fields covered in stones and frequently at an incline of 45 degrees, and in spite of the many
locusts or crickets. But they very often build up terraces. The teacher divested himself of his
clothes.
I found in this second farm a large flat and round stone with three grooves. It seems to have
served as a wine-press. I found many pieces of bricks there.
Our guides cut ripe grapes for us.
[106] Vathi 12 July 1868: This morning at 4 my thermometer read 20 degrees Reaumur in the
shade on the road. After bathing, I rode with the teacher along the entire northern part of
the island. I passed the harbour of Phorcys and Mt. Aetos, on which one can clearly see three
walls descending from the fortifications. The ascent seems much easier from the northern
slope. At the foot of Mt. Aetos, an Englishman discovered two ancient springs of exceptional
water and for this reason the mountainsideto a great extentis very well cultivated and the
vegetation is plush. We followed the road leading to Mt. Neritos on the western side of the
island and came to the place on the sea shore where according to traditionor rather to
tradition handed down from father to son [TO 7iaxpo7rapd8oTOv]there lay the garden of
Laertes. There is an abundant spring there and thus the cucumbers, marrows, figs, vines,
reeds, and olive trees all flourish. There are also many carob trees. I read a large part of the
24th chapter of the Odyssey, namely the part concerning this garden. Seeing a goat-herd on
the upper field, I could not but ask him if his flock belonged to Laertes. The stacks are loaded
with grapes and are held up by supports. Adjacent to this garden is the village of Hagios
Ioannis. There is a disease here which affects the olive trees, but it is not widespread. The bark
of the diseased trees becomes black and smells terribly while the leaves present a sad [107]
sight; the tree bears very little fruit, which falls prior to ripening. All the people here, even the
educated people, address one another as 'Thou'. Following our course we came to the village
Leuce, where I took a little wine with water and read Homer to the people who had gathered
round me. Murray wishes to believe that the Garden of Laertes is in this very village.95 We
finally arrived at the site of the ancient city [TTOXK;] , which is today still called Polis, despite
the fact that there is only one small house there. But I found the remains of a few ancient
houses.96 The site of Polis is in a beautiful gulf providing a fine harbour. The area is now
covered with grape vines etc.
A Greek sailor who speaks Italian well led me to a place on the sea shore where [a] person
has recently discovered a tomb with a skeleton, a spear, and Egyptian scarab, a ring, ancient
coins with, on the one side, the inscription AKDCON and a human figure, and on the other a
wreath and the letters I@A [written vertically] along with other notable [things],97 a sword,
greatly worn and damaged and much rusted. I bought everything from him for 5 talers. He
94
The word Kpa|iiSiov, often used by Schliemann,
may refer to clay tiles or bricks.
95
Murray 88.
96
Murray 89. The site of Polis is identified here mostly
owing to the proximity of the island of Dascalion
(Homeric Asteris) on which the suitors lay in wait for
Telemachus.

9
< At IPT 49 there are eight coins, seven of which are
rusted; the exception is described as having an eagle on
one side and on the other Bacchus' head crowned with ivy
and the inscription AiriEQN; this must be BMC
Peloponnese, pi. iv. 15.

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TURNER

wrapped all this up and put it in a box (sciatola). The funerary stone was much worn and only
the following part of the inscription remained: parts of both edges are missing: [FIG. 4 (a)]. 98
The man states that the tomb was in a cave, the roof of which had collapsed. He hopes to find
more graves there.
[108] On an arrow-head that he sold me with the rest there are the following letters [FIG.
4 (b)]." While I was in the village, he also sold me many old coins amongst which [were issues
of] Cleopatra and M. Antony, and M. Antony alone. We went up to the castle which is nearly
300 feet above sea level. Only ruined walls survive of it. The view is splendid. Opposite one
sees the island Dascalion, the old Asteris, with a church and two houses. No one lives there. A
priest from Cephalonia holds a service there twice a year. It is called Dascalion since there was
once a school [Ai8aaKaA.8tov] there. The port of Polis is splendid as are all the island's inlets.
We rode via a splendid valley to the 2 springs of Black Water [Me^avuScop], of which one is
underground. 100 The water is clear but [the spring] has the quality of dyeing (colouring)
everything black. In this valley there is an abundance of water, and for this reason the gardens
are most beautiful. Beside the 2 springs is the so-called School of Homer, which is 25 feet in
length and 16 in width.101 It consists of ancient and large hewn blocks 5 feet long and wide.
In one wall there was a niche, possibly for a most ancient statue, and a much ruined stairway
leads thence underneath the vines. We then ascended Mt. Neritos, once again rising into the
clouds.
[log] The inhabitants of Ithaca are very simple and especially sincere and friendly; the
debasement of moral values has not yet reached them. This is why they do not know the word
'You', and address all as 'Thou'.
[along side of p. log] While descending from the School of Homer by the ruined steps cut
into the rock, we encountered another set of steps which ascended to a 'plateforme' loa with
two altars.103
Vathi 13 July 1868. This morning after bathing and a breakfast consisting of 2 eggs, black
coffee and bread, I went with a labourer to the Castle of Odysseus. We took with us a sharp
two-pronged fork and a pickaxe. We ascended the western slope, half of the road by horse,
the rest by foot. The solidity of the ground and the many old and new roots at the place we
began to dig indicate that the site has not yet been excavated. We found bits of brick but
nothing else. Searching everywhere for a suitable place [to dig], I found a stone whose edge,
visible to a very small extent, appeared to me to have been worked [by human hand], and
round. Taking the pickaxe and clearing the earth from the stone I found that it was semicircular in shape. The other semi-circle was covered with earth. Ordering the labourer to dig
there we found the earth very hard and mixed with lime. Digging for a while the labourer
broke a clay vase, then another, then a third. Thus with much effort and care we dug and
managed to unearth 5 or 6 vases complete with only their handles broken. Each was full of
ashes and small pieces of human bone. Each was of a different shape, but painted. On one I
)H The inscription is also given thus at / / T 4 9 ; but see
IG ix. 1. 653. In the right-hand margin, Schliemann has
noted 'Something is missing on both sides'; on p. 108 he
notes 'Below: [FIG. 3 (b)]'.
i> So too IPT49; see IG ix. 1. 655.
'"" Not mentioned in Murray. The word 'underground'
literally means 'buried'.

"" Murray 88. No measurements are given, as is mostly

the case in this Guide,
'"* Written in French,
'"3 Murray mentions the ruins, possibly of a temple, on
the site.

383

SCHLIEMANN'S DIARY: GREECE AND THE TROAD, 1868

~-j.

(b)

MUDc/Nf . - - J^~n!?g%i

*, *si

*&-*?4L,

**>.

FIG. 4. Schliemann's 1868 Travel Diary, Gennadius library, Athens. Diary Ai 2,

showing Greek inscriptions: (a) p. 107, bottom; (b) p. 108, top.

could see initially the figure of a person but on being exposed to the air, [110] the images
became unclear and dark. The mouths of the vases are very small, so much so that it almost
seems that they were used as vessels for human remains. We found a few in the shape of a saltcellar and a drinking cup. All are of clay. I also found a piece of bronze wire with a few threads
interlaced thereon. A bent and rusty knife and pieces of a bronze and of an iron knife. A clay
figurine or statuette of a priestess. Unfortunately we were very impatient and thus broke many
vases. If we had gradually loosened or cut away the earth with knives we should perhaps have
saved almost all the vases. The round hole is roughly cut into the rock, so that along one side
it is almost one foot higher than the other. But the difference was made up with small stones.
And the ground is uneven so that the hole has a depth at one point of 76 and at another

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TURNER

centimetres. The diameter is 1 metre 25 centimetres. We took from here another 8 or 10

small bones and a wild boar's tusk.
Vathi 14 July. Encouraged by yesterday's results, I went today with four labourers to the castle.
We took many implements with us, pickaxes and hoes. Likewise, large pitchers with water and
much wine. And a girl and a boy to carry pails of water in case our supply ran out. We also had
two deep baskets to make the job of removing the earth easier. The ascent is very difficult and
I sweated as if in a steam-bath. A few partridges flew in front of us. The ascent is made on the
western slope at an incline of 45 degrees and is made difficult by the many rocks. [111] The
surface of Aetos where the palace was located is regularlevel-flat and is 27 metres wide and 37
metres long up to the large cistern (a reservoir which is 5 metres deep and has a diameter of 4
metres above and 6 metres below). Further on, there is a large ruined tower, 8 metres wide
and deep, made of hewn stones measuring 1 to 1 m and 66 cm in length, and 1 to 1 m 33 cm
in width, one being joined to the other without the use of mortar. These are regularly cut.
Apart from this, there is also close by to the hole discovered by me, another small circular
water cistern 1 m 33 cm deep, with a diameter of 1 m 33 cm above and 1 m 66 cm below.
Apart from this, there exists, in the eastern overhanging part of the mountain, 16m. from the
summit, another large circular cistern 15m deep with a diameter of 12 m above and 18m
below, cut into the rock in the same way as the other two. Further on from the aforesaid tower,
the surface of the mountain extends for 74 m westward, descending slightly some 13 m to the
other summit. But [the surface] is covered with such large, irregular, and jagged rocks [which
are] difficult to traverse that it is quite impossible that buildings could once have existed
there. At the tip of the summit to the west there are the ruins of a tower [with] smoothly hewn
blocks 1 m to 1 m 66 cm long and 1 m to 1 m 33 cm wide. It seems that there is an
underground chamber [imoyouov] under this tower since the stones of the tower have caved
in towards the centre. Two more or less ruined walls of cyclopean stones descend from the
northern part and two from the western part of the mountain; along both there exist [112]
ruins of several towers. Another large wall extends parallel with the summit to the eastern part
of the mountain. To all appearances, 3 roads led down from the palace in antiquity, but only
just discernable on the adjacent Mt. Sella are the traces of one of these, which is cut into the
rock 4 m wide and contains frequent towers. I was able to follow this road for a distance of 1
kilometre. It is magnificent even as a ruin. Needless to say, the rains of 3,000 years have much
destroyed it. I found there, carved into the rock of the road, the letter A made, according to
national [eGviKfj] tradition, by Odysseus. This road leads from the palace through the garden
of Laertes to the ancient city. The fields on the eastern and western slope of the mountain are
well cultivated due to the many springs there. With much effort they cultivate the little earth
between the many rocks in the entire remaining part of the mountain, planting wheat and
linseed. Needless to say, they work the land only on the surface with the two-pronged fork. It
seems that the old palace was built of hewn stones, since no where have I found traces of brick.
I ordered [the labourers] to dig where there were no large rocks. Everywhere I found many
blocks,104 much mortar and bones, but nothing else. Only on the eastern section I discovered
the corner of a room which was 3 metres wide and 4% m. long. I excavated it to its
P , normally meaning clay bricks, but this
cannot be so asjust above Schliemann comments on the
lack of KspauiSia or clay bricks.

SCHLIEMANN'S DIARY: GREECE AND THE TROAD, 1868

385

foundations. The walls consist of [113] hewn blocks 33 cm. long and wide, joined together
with much [lime mortar] which is discernible by its white colour. The doorway is 1 m wide.
The heat was 25 0 Reaumur in the shade and 41 0 in the sun. The bricks were curved, not very
well baked, and 2 feet wide and long. I went around and examined everything from the north
up to the west extremity, but without success, and thus returned at 4 p.m.
Vathi 15 July: Wednesday. I went today by horse and guide once again to Polis. The language
spoken here is very corrupted, e.g. they say 7reuK8iv [throw] instead of 7U7iTeiv [fall], 0spuou
[hot springs] instead of nupexog [fever]. We went straight to the village of Exoge, which has
1,500 inhabitants and is located 100 metres above sea level. Since a foreigner rarely visits this
village, my arrival was something of an event and all ran together to see me. My guide and I
took at the shop 12 eggs and a little wine and bread. They asked 3 shillings but I paid only
i'/2. The only somewhat educated man there was a certain George Leukatzas, teacher in the
village. We went thence to the valley (Polis) where we encountered Demetrios Loizos (from the
village Kalyvia) digging in the old cave on the coast. He says that he found the utensils which
were sold to me [on 12 July] in a house built of hewn blocks, 7 metres long, width unknown.
Now he sold me a Phoenician clay figurine and a few ancient coins for 1 shilling. There is in
Polis, along the coast, much water [114] and they use it partly to make copra from the chaff
of the linseed in 4 holes [in the earth]. There is an ancient spring there [that was] discovered
by an Englishman.
The Ithaciotes are a most handsome people in both their appearance and in their
character. They keep days of fasting with great strictness.
I cannot smoke here in this great heat. The port of Vathi is the safest in the world. It extends
for one English mile and is surrounded by high mountains. The entrance is 60 m. wide.
Vathi 16July: I went today with Nikolaos Alexianos, son of the former Russian consul to the socalled Hellenicon, which is located behind the rock Korax and the Spring of Arethusa. There
one finds ruins of many walls, and can easily discern the walls of the 12 stables of the swineherd Eumaeus. The walls are built of large worked blocks 3 to 6 feet long, and 2 to 3 feet wide.
A few of the stables are cut into the rock. Opposite the stables, the field is covered with brick
fragments which undoubtedly came from the buildings of Eumaeus. Of course, the descent
to the Arethusa [spring] is now very precipitous and craggy for the 960 swine of Eumaeus, but
undoubtedly in antiquity there would have been a wide road. I believe thataccording to
Homerthe island was covered with oaks and that the pigs grew fat on acorns. But now there
are no [115] oaks at all.
Afterwards I went with my guide along the road of Odysseus to the hill [lit. rock] Sella
about which I have already written. The letter A is found there [carved] in a stone 11 feet high
and wide, about 200 feet above sea level.
Everyone addresses me here as Thou and 'Efendi' [Turkish for 'Sir']. There are many
locusts here that harm the crops. Behind mount Aetos is the mountain of Hagios Georgios,
then comes Dexia [the right side] of Aetos, the Castle of Odysseus, Palaea Moskata,
Chordakia, and Mt. Sella. [sketch section of mountains].
Vathi 17 July. I bought from the old sea-captain Nikolaos Petalas Petas a coin of Philip II with
a representation of Olympias for 12$. He gave me as a present a small coral tree.

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TURNER

Many came to see me prior to my departure: the teacher who offered that we should
exchange our watches as a souvenir, the miller Panagis Asproyerakas with the nickname
Pippos, the doctor Grivas, the agent of the Hellenic Society, Panos Dendrinos and Nikolaos
Alexianos, son of Demetrius, who pleads with me greatly to help him become vice-consul of
Russia in Ithaca so as to enjoy a small salary while alive.
I gave 42 francs to Eleni and Aspasia Triantaphyllidou and departed at 9 in the evening.
The entrance of the harbour appears to be 400 feet [wide].
APPENDIX II. EXCERPTS FROM THE 1 8 6 8 DIARY: THE TROAD

Source: Gennadius library, Athens. Diary Ai2. [000] = page number.

[136] 7 August, Constantinople (FroVtoyXSchliemann left 'yesterday' (6 August) at 1.00 a.m.
from Piraeus and arrived at 10.00pm (still on the 6th) at the Dardanelles. However, he could
not disembark and had to continue the passage to Constantinople. There he left his luggage
at the Hotel Angleterre and the same day boarded the SS Simois, which serviced the route
between Constantinople and Thessalonica.]
Bounar-Bashi 8 August. I departed yesterday at 5 p.m. with the Steamship Simois from
Constantinople: the deck was full of 4th-class passengers, amongst whom there were very few
first-class. The captain, Baron by name, was a very likable person. We arrived in the morning
at 4.00 a.m. at Gallipoli and at 6V at the Dardanelles, where I was asked for my passport. I
made there the acquaintance of the Russian vice-consul Louis Fonton, who gave me gave me
some advice on how I should proceed to the Troad. He procured for me a guide with 2 horses
to take me to Renkoi for 40$, [so as to] take there the guide Spyridon Charolamon and
continue with fresh horses to the Troad. But I did not find the man there and thus continued
with the same horses. I departed at 10 and arrived only at 7 in the evening at Bunarbashi, not
seeing any other village on the way apart from Renkoi. We constantly passed through
uncultivated areas covered mostly with pines. In Bounar-Bashi there are 15 Ottoman houses
and 8 Romaic. On all the houses here are storks' nests and I calculated some 12 nests on a
few houses. I found 7 on the small %p> [cami, mosque] and some on the small gates. There are
so many storks here due to the floods of the Scamander and the Simois which create large
areas of marshlands crawling with frogs and snakes. It was for me a strange feeling when, from
the mountain, I saw in front of me the great plain of the Troad with two large monuments
near the shore.105 I stay in the dirty and wretched house of an Albanian. For my dinner he
gave me boiled milk, eggs and warm brown bread. He had nothing else.
[138] Bunarbashi (head of the spring) 9 August. All day I was cheated. At 5.00 a.m. I came to pay
for a horse and to find a guide, but losing three hours in futile searching I got a horse with a
sagmarion and went to the village gj|_ tSjl [Ezine] hoping to find there the guide Spyridon
Charolamon. I arrived there at 11 .ooam and learnt with horror that the man had already left
yesterday for the village .loo^l [Ayvacik], which is six hours away. Thus I found another person
105
This must be from the heights of Pinarbasi (Balli
Dag). Views from both points are given by Gell (n. 77),
pis. 31 and 36. See FIG. 3.

SCHLIEMANN'S DIARY: GREECE AND THE TROAD, 1868

387

with a saddle but all day he kept me with false promises until in the evening I was forced to
be content with only one horse, a sagmarion, and a man who did not know the Troad. The
village is filthy and has 2,000 inhabitants.106 Its dirt is surpassed only by the corruption of the
inhabitants' ethical values. All the houses are wood of one or two stories and the storks are
fewer [here] than in Bunarbashi.'7There is a small river here, the &y>3$ <-Sl=- [Kuciik Cay]
which is now almost dry, but its banks show that it flows with great force in winter. In a similar
manner the bed of the Scamander is covered with uprooted trees and the condition of the
banks bear witness that it causes great floods. Everywhere I see only Turks in the fields and it
seems that the Greeks don't deal with the cultivation of the earth.
[139] A few ruins. The whole area is now cultivated with wheat and there are many oaks
there. I saw only four stelai there, half-buried in the earth.lo8 But the innkeeper of the cafe in
the nearby village, who is also the barber, guided me to other ruins. For example: on a hill,
which is almost 100 feet high, he showed me, covered with a great deal of soil, but recently
partly excavated, a temple or palace of excellently worked cyclopean stones.109 From there I
had a fine view over the plain of the Troad. Nearby lie many remains of fine stelai. The barber
speaks Arabic fairly well. We crossed a Turkish cemetery covered with pieces of bright marble
stelai and other sculptures. lloWe went to the promontory of Rhoeteum (Rhcetee)111 where
there is a tomb 35 ft. high. Calvart112 excavated it and discovered underneath a long
underground room withso they saya stone sarcophagus. The underground chamber is
vaulted (passage voute). Above it, he found two walls 9 ft. in width made of brick, stones and
mortar. The underground chamber is constructed of the same materials, and thus I
concluded that the monument cannot be older than 400 to 500 BC.113I had from that point a
marvellous view of the sea, the island of Tenedos, the plain of Troy and Mt Ida. Thence I went
by way of the valley to the hill of Sigeum where there are two monuments. The smaller of
these is 35 ft.114 high and 150 ft.115in diameter.116 They excavated this [tumulus] to a depth of
10 feet. The other much larger monument is named the monument of Achilles. Much of this
has been dug away so that the monument is left only 25 ft. high and 160 ft. in diameter. But
it is on a hill so that the summit of [140] the monument is 75 ft. above sea level. The hill is
50 ft. on one side and on the other only 25 ft. high.'117
Bunarbashi (sourceprincipale) 11 Aug:"H I stayed the night in the village Ienissari [Yeniceri].119
For dinner, they gave me meat which I could not eat, and eggs. They wanted to slaughter a
loli
Cf. Cook 316.
'"' Ezine is clearly described, cf. Cook 316 ff.
'"* This section agrees with descriptions of 'Chiblak', or
the site of the so-called city of Ilium Recens, in /P7"and in
other works.
109
Hisarlik seems to be described here, and this
description provided the basis for the 'first-hand' account

in IPT.

" According to travellers' descriptions, this must have

been the cemetery of Halileli, cf. Cook 68 ff.
' " Schliemann's addition of the French form stems
from Nicolaides. Cf. Sigee on the following page.
" a This is exactly the spelling used by Nicolaides 85.
Schliemann will later spell the name correctly in his 16
August entry after making Frank Calvert's personal
acquaintance.

" 3 This is obviously the Tumulus of Ajax (Cook 88) but

there is no mention of Calvert ever digging there before
1868. As suggested below, Schliemann may have confused
the excavations made by Frederick Calvert in a tumulus
near Renkoy (Cook 64) with the Tomb of Ajax.
"< Corrected to 33 in ink.
Corrected to 120 in pencil.
" 6 The Tumulus of Patroclus. Cf. Cook 1512.
Cf. ibid. 159-64.
The French in parentheses is copied from
Nicolaides' translation of the name 'Bounarbachi (source
principale).' Nicolaides 32.
"9 The village's name is a direct transcription from
Nicolaides.

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TURNER

chicken for me, but when it screamed I could not bear it and did not want them to kill it on
my account. I passed the night in the open on the roof. But millions of fleas stopped me from
having a wink of sleep. This morning they gave me coffee with sheep's milk and bread. We left
at 6V4 in the morning. We kept to the hillside to the right whence we had a splendid view of
the plain. About two English miles from the sea the earth becomes higher and it appears that
the sea has withdrawn so much after the Trojan wars, because there are many marshes there
[on the Troad] and many pools of stagnant water. Thus, in antiquity the two promontories of
Sigeum (Sigee) and Rhoeteum (Rhcetee) extended much further into the sea. Between these
two promontories the Greeks hauled their nearly 1,200 ships up onto the shore. The distance
between the 2 promontories is 4,000 metres. It seems that during the passage of time all the
plain from the sea up to Bunarbashi was built up by the silt of the two rivers and that the sea
of old reached the mountains of Bunarbashi.120 We came across another large monument on
the coast which was 45 ft. high and 160 ft. in diameter at the base. Since the sea-shore is 100
ft. high [sic; ie since the monument is 100 ft. above the coast-line], this monument is visible
[to those] far away at sea. [141] Many large fox-holes in the monument, but it does not seem
that these were man-made.121
Everywhere in the Troad I see a great number of eagles and vultures flying high above.
A little further on I found a hill 40 feet high, which was covered with cyclopean ruins to the
length of 500 ft.undoubtedly, there was once a great palace or fortification there.122
Following our course to the right of the plain of Troy, we came at last to the so-called
Monument of Ilios which in Turkish is called Udjek-Tepe, and it seems to be the Tumulus of
Aesyetes made legendary by Homer. This monument is much larger than all the others. Its
base is 400 ft. in diameter with a height of 75 ft. It seems to me that this tumulus is at a
distance of two Eng. miles away from the line extending from the promontory of Sigeum to
Bunarbashi and seven miles from that [Sigeum] hill. I saw there many pieces of clay pots and
traces of fire, because the villagers think that this is the tomb of the Prophet Elijah and come
to sacrifice to him.123
The man whom I had taken on yesterday the day before yesterday in the village of Ezi
Inai124 had left us in order that he should sleep and thus I went alone with another workman
whom I had taken on for 12$ a day in Neon Chorion to dig in various places on the site of
the [142] ancient city, but in vain. We did not find even the slightest trace of bricks or pieces
of pots. But further up on the hill there is the monument of Hector built up out of small
stones, another monument made of earth and stones and a third much smaller one also made
of earth and stones. Between the last monument and the acropolis I measured a length of 288
metres and a width in one place of 100 and in another of 150 metres. There are broken bricks
everywhere and many unworked blocks of uneven size. Of the monuments, that of Hector and
'*" Cf. Nicolaides 28-9.
Hagios Demetrius, or Kesik Tepe, identified by
Schliemann as the Tomb of Festus (IPT 211-12). Cf.
Cook 165-6.
'** This site, recorded also in IPT 215, has not been
identified. Cf. Cook 168.
123
The information that Ucek Tepe, the tomb of Ilios,
was the tomb of Aesyetes and considered the tomb of the
Prophet Elijah by the local Greek population is recorded
by Nicolaides 88 n. 1, 134.
1Z4
Schliemann wrote the name in Greek, but crossed it
121

out, thus making it illegible. In Greek characters,

however, he rewrote the name as Ezi-Inai above an
underlined parenthetical observation '(perhaps Enach)'.
Evidently, Schliemann had been confused by the village's
name, which he initially records in Arabic script on p.
138. The fact that he suggests that this village may be
'Enach' may point to yet another source at his disposal,
Murray 169-70, where the name is recorded with
precisely this spelling. If this were the case, Schliemann
does not seem to have been greatly influenced by, or to
have copied, the meagre entries in this Guide.

SCHLIEMANN'S DIARY: GREECE AND THE TROAD, 1868

389

the larger of the other two have been excavated, and from one of these I took with me sherds
from various pots. Next to the latter monument (between it and the Pergamos) there are two
stone-laid circles 60 ft. in diameter, one of which touches the other. There is a third circle of
unequal stones near the tumulus of Hector. 125 It seems to me that the city, which existed on
the flat land between the last monument and the acropolis, did not have more than 1,000
inhabitants, the place being very small. I see there only uneven large stones and as there was
no mortar in the Heroic age, it is possible that the houses were small. But there are many
worked stones there 1 ft. in length and V? ft. in width and depth. The stones of the excavated
walls of the acropolis are not generally square, but they are cut so that one joins flush with the
other. Many walls are [143] vertical, but others [rest] at an incline of 45 0 . 126 Generally, the
stones are 2 ft. long and 2 ft. wide but there are many 4 ft. long and 2 ft. wide. The exterior
surface of the stones is unequal. In certain places they127 dug the walls to a depth of 15 ft. A
large gate was not found. Only a small entrance was uncovered with a ramp of roughly cut
blocks.128 A few parts of the walls are made of worn limestone blocks. Opposite the acropolis
is the quarry 1 o metres deep, 21 metres long and 1 o metres wide from which they took the
stones to build the walls.129 In the centre of the acropolis there are foundations of various
other buildings which consist of well-cut but much worn limestone blocks. Facing the walls,
one always sees bulwarks of worked and unworked stones. I saw 2 walls with a few worked or
unworked stones.
Bunarbashi 31 [July]/12 August i868.liO Dug today all day at the site of the ancient city but I
did not find even a trace of bricks or anything else which could prove that a city existed there
of old. The walls of the building uncovered so far are very irregular 5, 2, and 3 ft. thick at
various places. The inner part of the walls are all irregular; some protrude 1 ft. others V2 ft. It
seems to me that the most ancient walls of the acropolis are the two with unworked stones and
those which consist of worked limestone blocks 5 ft. long and 1V2 to 2 ft. wide. It seems that
all the other walls belong to later periods. [144] In the said building two small and much worn
columns were discovered and for this reason they [the excavators] conclude that the building
was a small temple.131 I excavated today with the labourer from Neon Chorion and another
from Bunarbashi, each taking 12$. We dug for 3 hours in the strange room in the acropolis,
but things were made difficult by the hardness of the earth. Afterwards, we went down to the
bank of the Scamander. The height is 472 ft.132 We went along the bank of the river which,
from that point to the end of the conjectured city, was very precipitous and almost vertical.
Also, one can see sand for a great distance, namely the old bed of the Scamander, which now
flows more towards the right. We went to the place where another small river, the Chimer
Deresi,133 flows into the Menderes. Many think this is the Simois, but this seems impossible to
me as it is in very close proximity to Bunarbashi and thus at least 2V2 hours from the Greek
125

Schliemann's perceptions are guided by Hahn 6-7.

This observation is condensed from ibid. 10. Hahn's
excavation report pays close attention to the different
kinds of building stones at the site and evidently
influenced Schliemann's perceptions in this respect.
127
i.e. Hahn and his collaborators.
128
Cf. Hahn 8-9. On p. 26 Hahn supposes that the
Scaean Gate stood in this area.
129
Cf. ibid. 7-8, also IPT 154.
130
Schliemann here gives dates in both the Gregorian
126

and Julian calendars, the latter then in use in Greece, the

Ottoman Empire, and Russia.
131
This 'building' in the acropolis corresponds to the
'Lechevalier-Viereck' described by Hahn 13-14. The
supposed temple is also mentioned in IPT 153.
'2 Cf. Hahn 7: 'Der hochste Punkt dieses Hiigels
ergiebt sich nach Schmidts mehrwochentlichen
Barometermessungen 472 pariser Fuss Meereshohe.' The
Parisian foot measures 32.48 cm.
133
The Kemer Su.

390

TURNER

ships. The city was never on this site and if it was, how could they [the Greeks] have pulled
the wooden horse 2 versts [2132.6 m] from the Scaean Gate' 34 to the acropolis where there
is no gate and only a very small door? The river of the springs is called Kontsol [Jy>i,
Koncol].
The dirt here is indescribable. The milk jugs are dirty and full of muck.
At the Dardanelles 2/14 August We left yesterday at 6 in the morning [145] from Bunarbashi.
Everywhere earth lies uncultivated, covered with woods of pine and oak. The bushes are full
of thorns. Afterwards we found a wood of almost limitless oaks. We passed two Ottoman
cemeteries, the monuments of which were columns and reliefs taken from JJJJIL^&UJJI
[Eskistanbul] or the Troas of Alexander.135 We arrived in the ancient city [Alexandria Troas]
which is all covered by a wood of oaks. The walls of the city are, even as ruins, amongst the
most magnificent and consist of 2 rows of stones 7 ft. long and 4 ft. wide. The area between
them is filled with a small wall of small stones and bricks with mortar. Ruins everywhere of
houses. 2 round towers and a large, impressive bath 330 metres long and 300 wide with walls
20 ft. wide, with a Bogen [in German] 10 metres in diameter.'36Nearly all the walls still exist.
The whole wood is covered with ruins, columns etc. We went to the village J^LLUJJIXJJI
[Eskistanbul] where I had breakfast in the house of a Turk, Jc^lpjS^I gJoU^ [sic] [Dalyanh
Ibrahimoglu]. I had such an appetite and the house was so clean that the bread, cheese, eggs
and sultanas and watermelon seemed most tasty. The Turk showed me the old harbour, the
mouth of which is now covered with sand. It is small. On one bank there are the ruins of a
large warehouse and many columns. We left. Still a large area of oaks [ahead]. I saw on the
shore a large number of stone cannon balls [146] 1 and 2 ft. in diameter. We arrived at the
village of ijJlio [sic, Geyikli] where only Turks live and thus the place is most clean. While the
Greeks are known for their dirtiness and dishonesty, the Turks are honest and cleanly and
many work while the Greeks are slothful.
In truth, I see only Turks cultivating the land and taking in the crops. Everywhere in the
walls of the houses, in the cisterns and elsewhere I see reliefs from the Troad. The wheels of
the farmers' carts do not have Felgen [in German] but are made of 3 planks of wood
surrounded by a metal hoop. It seems that they do not grease down the wheels and the axles
because they make terrible music.
The horse was so bad and tired that with difficulty did we arrive at dusk at the village S>
_jl [Udjek] where a certain Georgakis Topal offered to supply me with two horses so that I
could go to Renkoi. I accepted his offer. After having left for a while, he returned saying that
he had found two horses for 50$ with 5$ u*'.;--*. [bahsis, tip] for himself. I accepted this, but I
had to pay the J&&>! immediately. He returned that evening saying that I had to pay all the
money. I did this, as well. That morning at 1V2 while I was sleeping in the road, the man came
and woke me telling me that the horses were ready and that I had to leave. 'So as not to run
about here and there you must come with me.' Taking my [147] clothes he led me to a
courtyard where there really was a horse all ready. There was also another person there whose
face I could not discern in the dark. He said that the other horse was in the nearby courtyard.
I had just made a few steps and discovered that the whole thing had been a deceitful trick and
134

Hahn 26.
Cf. Cook 194-201 on Alexandria Troas and the
vicinity.
135

'3(> Cf. the 'plusieurs arches de 10 metres de diametre'

described in IPT220.

SCHLIEMANN'S DIARY: GREECE AND THE TROAD, 1868

391

that the man and the horse were the same animals which had caused me such discomfort
yesterday. I demanded my money back. But George Topal left and with difficulty I took 48$
from the other man. I then hired another man for 10$ to carry my clothes and went by foot
to Neon Chorion where I made out a form: I the undersigned Russian subject H. S. well
known to Louis Fonton of the Russian Consulate at the Dardanelles affirm on oath that G. T.
of the village of > y stole from me 1 o:/2$ and thus I ask the magistrate to arrest and imprison
the aforesaid thief, to take from him the stolen money and give it to the poor of Neon
Chorion. I gave this in to the mayor who promised to arrest this thief immediately. Indeed,
[he stated] that they have for some time had him under suspicion for large thefts. The name
of the mayor is George Mengioussis and he has a large hotel on the coast, where I bought
some wine. I agreed with George Tirpos to take me by mule and horse for 27$ to Renkoi. We
passed the plain of the ancient Troad which I looked at with great curiosity, especially [148]
the hill of Hasserlik (^J^-eo) where, in my opinion, Homer's Pergamos used to be. We
found, near the road, a stone with letters which I took with me. We saw many tortoises which
remain quiet, since they know that no one will harm them. We arrived at 10V2 a.m. at Renkoi
where I took 2 other animals for 25$ to take me to the Dardanelles where I arrived at 3 p.m.
and thus one hour late for the Steamship Konstantinos on its way to Constantinople. I ended
up here at the only hotel here. It is most dirty and stinks like a toilet. Despite my appetite, I
eat with disgust.
In the Dardanelles, 4/16 August. The room and the floor boards are so swarming with bugs that
I had to suffer greatly despite the fact that I covered my body with a wall of Persian Powder.
Yesterday I made the acquaintance of the famous archaeologist Frank Calvert, who thinks, as
I do, that the Homeric Troad [sic] was nowhere else but at Hassarlik [sic]. He advises me
strongly to dig there. He says that the whole mound is man-made. He showed me his large
collection of vases and other antiquities which he has found during his excavations amongst
which was a bronze lion with Punic letters indicating its use as a weight measuring a talent.'37
Constantinople 5 / 17 August.1^ ['Yesterday' (the morning of the 17th) at 1.00 a.m. the
steamship arrived at the Dardanelles and took Schliemann to Constantinople.]

137
Cf. IPT 225-6. No explanation is given as to how
Schliemann and Calvertfinallymet on the 15th. The item
mentioned by Schliemann (the bronze lion) had been
published by Calvert with a detailed drawing and
transliteration of the inscription in Archaeological Journal,

17 (i860), 199-200.

':'8 Schliemann begins this entry in the pencil of the

Troad section before switching to pen in the middle of a
word. He seems to have made at least the last one or two
Troad entries after arriving in Constantinople, perhaps
writing them in pencil to preserve the diary's authenticity.