Heinrich Schliemann: biography of the discoverer of the mythical Troy

In 1873, Heinrich Schliemann, a Prussian archaeologist, was excavating in the area of ​​Hisarlik, present-day Turkey. The idea that pushed him was in his head since he was a child: to find the mythical Ilium, the Troy sung by Homer in his iliad, the epic poem that had accompanied him since his earliest childhood.

On one of the work days, Schliemann's team discovered a priceless treasure: a compendium of bracelets, rings, bracelets, diadems and other objects that the archaeologist immediately named the "treasure of Priam", the legendary king of Troy. But did the remains found by Schliemann really belong to Troy?

In this biography of Heinrich Schliemann we invite you on an exciting journey through the life of this adventurer and archaeologist., who came to speak no less than 15 languages ​​and whose life was marked by the obsession he felt towards ancient Greece.

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Brief biography of Heinrich Schliemann

Heinrich Schliemann was born on January 6, 1822 in Neubukow, present-day Germany.

. He was one of nine children born to Protestant pastor Ernst Schliemann and his wife Teresa Louise Sophie. The father was an alcoholic and constantly mistreated his wife, so little Heinrich lived a stormy childhood. When he was only nine years old, his mother died from complications in her ninth childbirth, and Ernst finally disowned his children. The children then pass into the care of some uncles.

However, in the midst of this gray childhood, a light was lit that would accompany him throughout his life: his passion for ancient Greece. This passion awoke in him at the age of 7; according to account in his Autobiography, published in 1869, at Christmas 1829 his father gave him the Universal history for children, a work that at that time was considered adequate for the historical instruction of children. Schliemann was especially impressed by the engraving depicting Aeneas, the hero of Troy, escaping from the burning city with his aged father Anchises on his back.

Later, and when he was already working in a store to earn his bread, listened in amazement as a drunk customer recited Homer in Greek. Schliemann himself confesses that he did not understand a word, but that night he remembered the Homeric stories that his father told him, and that then he wished with all his might to learn, one day, the language of Homer.

his youthful days

The continuous hours of work in the store did not leave the young Schliemann time to dedicate himself to what he liked the most: study. Determined to amass a great fortune to be able to give himself to his passion, he left for Venezuela in search of a new life. However, bad luck followed him. His ship was wrecked off the coast of the Netherlands; Schliemann and some companions were miraculously saved by getting into some lifeboats, which left them safe and sound on the coast.

But nothing represented a serious obstacle for the incombustible Heinrich Schliemann. A little later we find him in Hamburg, where he works in a commercial office stamping bills of exchange and delivering mail. His employment situation seems not to have changed much, since the hours are still hellish, but Schliemann manages to find time to study. At 22, the young man already speaks seven languages, which would increase to a staggering fifteen just ten years later.

The Schliemann Entrepreneur

His success with languages ​​opens the doors for him to dedicate himself to various businesses, which begin to bring him a great fortune. Shady business, we could say; because Schliemann has no qualms when it comes to trading arms and black market products, taking advantage of the commercial blockade caused by the Crimean War (1853-1856).

Be that as it may, already possessing an immense fortune, in 1866 he settled in Paris with Ekaterina Petrovna Lishin, whom he had married four years earlier, and began his studies in Ancient Sciences and Oriental Languages ​​at the Sorbonne. With the economic issue resolved, which for so many years was his main goal, Schliemann's lively curiosity can now focus on his eternal passion: ancient Greece.

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The “Schliemann method”

How was Heinrich Schliemann able to learn so many languages ​​in such a short time? We have already said that, at the age of 33, he was fluent in no less than fifteen languages, including Russian, Greek and Arabic. It is clear that he started from a privileged mind like few others, but it is also true that Schliemann developed his own learning method that, surprisingly, is still valid today..

We find the first evidence of this method in the prologue of ithaca, the book he wrote in 1869. Later, he retrieves it in his Autobiography. According to Schliemann, his method was simply based on "reading aloud a lot, not doing translations, spending an hour every day, always writing down elaborations on topics that interest us, improving them under the supervision of the teacher, and memorizing and reciting the next day what you improved and recited the day former". In short, Schliemann was a true autodidact.

The “Schliemann method” became tremendously popular. In 1891 he appears Schliemann method for self-learning of the English language, which was followed by two more editions, one in 1893 and another in 1910. Stefanie Samida collects, in her text The Schliemann method for self-learning languages, the article that the editor of the book, Paul Spindler, published on January 3, 1891, where he says that “Schliemann learned Greek by reading Homer. What an individual can do can be applied to mass instruction; this can be applied to school instruction.” In other words, Spindler called for the introduction of the "Schliemann method" in German schools.

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Greece, always Greece

Sing, oh goddess, the wrath of hairless Achilles; fatal anger that caused infinite evils to the Achaeans and precipitated to Hades many valorous souls of heroes, whom he made prey to dogs and food for birds...

Thus begins one of the most famous epic tales of all time: the Iliad, supposedly written by the Greek poet Homer in the 8th century BC. c. We say "supposedly" because the truth is that we have no record of this author beyond the vague references that some authors provide us. Thus Herodotus, in his stories, places the poet in the year IX a. C, which would make it more or less contemporary with the Trojan War.

At present the existence of the poet is questioned, and some historians maintain that, in In reality, Homer never existed, and that is the name under which a very ancient. Be that as it may, there is no doubt that the iliad and odyssey They are the two great epic tales of Western civilization, which have fascinated artists and writers since time immemorial.

Heinrich Schliemann was convinced that the Troy that Homer sang of had existed, and that only Homeric texts were enough to find it. Of course, the obstinacy of the already archaeologist (he had received his doctorate in 1869) was harshly discredited by his colleagues. How could an epic poem of dubious historical accuracy be established as the basis for serious study of archaeology? But, by now, it is clear to us that Schliemann's obstinacy in pursuing his dreams was as harsh as the criticism he received. Indeed, in 1868 we find him already in Greece, exploring the territory.

The following year, the same year that he received his doctorate, he divorced Ekaterina and married Sophia Engastromenos, a Greek girl 30 years his junior. The face of this woman has been immortalized for posterity in the famous photograph of 1873, in which she wears the jewels from Priam's treasure, as if she were a new Helena. In 1871, the couple's first daughter, Andromache, was born, and in 1878, Agamemnon., names that show Schliemann's obsession with the Greek epic.

But did this indomitable adventurer discover the city of Homeric song? Did he finally manage to silence all those who mocked his naivete?

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"King Priam's Treasure"

His colleague Frank Calvert, British consul for the Dardanelles, had told him about the possibility that the mythical city was found in Hisarlik, where he had already been digging before. Schliemann never mentioned Calvert in his memoirs, despite the fact that it was Calvert who suggested that he excavate in this territory. Perhaps Schliemann thought that the find was too important to share the limelight... Because it was in Hisarlik that the Schliemann's team found (following methods some experts dismiss as dubious at best) a treasure trove of historical value incalculable: goblets, rings, bracelets and diadems, the same ones that Sophia wore in the famous photograph, taken the same year of the discovery.

Heinrich Schliemann was overjoyed: he claimed that he had found none other than the treasure of Priam, the legendary king of Troy.

It seems that the archaeologist had not abandoned his unscrupulous methods, since he immediately secretly took the magnificent pieces to Greece. This smuggling earned him a severe reprimand from the Ottoman government, which forced him to pay a fine for theft of national property... genius and figure, you know.

Face to face with Agamemnon

The excitement of finding the supposed Troy had encouraged Schliemann to dig further. In 1876 he was back in Greece and was excavating at Mycenae, where the Achaeans in the Iliad were supposed to have come from, led by their king Agamemnon. Luck was on the archaeologist's side again: soon, His team discovered half a dozen royal tombs. In one of them (which they called tomb V), a gold death mask appeared. Schliemann was beside himself with joy. He had found the funerary mask of King Agamemnon!

But no, it was not the face of Agamemnon that Schliemann had before his eyes. Later it was discovered that the mask belonged to a time long before that of the supposed king of Mycenae, so the Prussian theory fell hopelessly on the ground. In any case, the mask is one of the most important pieces of the Greek archaic period, both for its technical quality and for its dazzling beauty. It is currently kept in the National Archaeological Museum of Athens and is undoubtedly one of the main attractions of the museum.

Criticized by some, praised by others

Schliemann's archaeological work did not stop with the discovery of the “mask of Agamemnon”. During the last years of his life he continued to excavate in various parts of Greece, where he made remarkable finds. His death surprised him when he was returning to his beloved Athens from Paris. A severe infection in the ear, which had spread to the brain, ended his life on December 26, 1890, at the age of 62.. His remains rest in a splendid mausoleum in the Greek capital, just as he would have wanted.

His work as an archaeologist was harshly criticized already during Schliemann's own lifetime. And these criticisms were not without reason, since it cannot be denied that his methods were, to say the least, unorthodox. In fact, some of the interventions by Schliemann's team (performed, it is said, with dynamite) seriously and irreversibly damaged some of the strata of the excavations. On the other hand, there are voices that consider Heinrich Schliemann the first modern archaeologist. And, in fact, subsequent investigations have ended up proving him right, at least in part. The work that he has continued to carry out in Hisarlik has brought to light the various strata of a city (no less than nine in total) among which, according to archaeologists such as Wilhelm Dörpfeld (1853-1940), could be the mythical city of the Homeric poem.

This archaeologist was part of Schliemann's team and continued his work after his death. Between 1893 and 1894 he discovered that the layer called "Troya VI" seemed to have been destroyed by a great fire. Could this "Troy VI" be Homer's Ilium?

Like almost all the characters in the story, Heinrich Schliemann's life is dotted with lights and shadows. It is true that his methods were more than questionable, and it is even more true that the fortune he used to carry out his excavations was not the result of too “clean” businesses. But, on the other hand, his undeniable passion and his extraordinary constancy deserve, at the very least, applause. Heinrich Schliemann will always be linked to Troy and Homer's Iliad. As he himself said in his memoirs: "I thank God that the firm belief in the existence of Troy has never abandoned me."