1184 B.C. was set
as the date of the ending of the siege, and men pointed out the site
of the city. In 1874 Schliemann purposed to excavate this site; it was
necessary to traverse the debris of many cities which lay over it; at
last at a depth of about fifty feet he found in the deepest bed of
debris the traces of a mighty city reduced to ashes, and in the ruins
of the principal edifice a casket filled with gems of gold which he
called the Treasury of Priam. There was no inscription, and the city,
the whole wall of which we have been able to bring to light, was a
very small one. A large number of small, very rude idols have been
found, which represent an owl-headed goddess (the Greeks thus
represented the goddess Pallas). Beyond this no proof has been found
that this city was called Troy.
=The Homeric Poems.=--It is the two poems attributed to Homer which
have made the taking of Troy renowned throughout the world--the
Iliad, which related the combats of the Greeks and the exploits of
Achilles before Troy; and the Odyssey, which recounts the adventures
of Odysseus (Ulysses) after the capture of Troy.
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