DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.9184#0064
44
New Chapters in Greek History.
[Chap. II.
rests on the legends which connect it in early days with
Greece, and notably with Argolis. But any consideration
of this matter may best be postponed until we have dealt
with the wonderful discoveries of recent years at Tiryns
and at Mycenae. Meantime some account must be given
of Hissarlik and the great questions connected with that
interesting site.
The third district connected with Phrygian history is the
Troad. It is sufficiently clear, even from the Homeric
poems, that there was no racial difference between Trojan
and Phrygian. Hecuba was a Phrygian princess, and
Aphrodite, when she appears to Anchises in the Homeric
Hymn in mortal guise, calls herself a daughter of a
Phrygian king. Priam in his youth had fought among the
Phrygians on the Sangarius ; and Hesychius tells us that
the name Hector was Phrygian. The Romans notoriously
did not distinguish between Trojan and Phrygian ; and
if the languages of the kindred tribes varied, it varied prob-
ably only as in days before the invention of writing the
tongues of parallel tribes of the same race always vary.
And in later historic times we find the district of Troas
called Lesser Phrygia : Xcnophon tells us that in the time
of Cyrus it was under the rule of an independent king.
With regard to the Troad we have precisely that archaeo-
logical evidence which is wanting in case of Sipylus. Dr.
Schliemann's excavations at Hissarlik have given us a
mass of historical data as to the succession of inhabitants
in this region.
It is unnecessary that I should here repeat the thrice-
told story of the fates of Troy. Everyone knows how
Dardanus, the son of Zeus, founded his city on the spurs
of Mount Ida. His son Ilus founded " in the plain," as
we are told, the city of Ilium ; and Ilus' son Laomcdon
had the good fortune to receive the assistance of the
immortal gods in building the walls of the city, which
New Chapters in Greek History.
[Chap. II.
rests on the legends which connect it in early days with
Greece, and notably with Argolis. But any consideration
of this matter may best be postponed until we have dealt
with the wonderful discoveries of recent years at Tiryns
and at Mycenae. Meantime some account must be given
of Hissarlik and the great questions connected with that
interesting site.
The third district connected with Phrygian history is the
Troad. It is sufficiently clear, even from the Homeric
poems, that there was no racial difference between Trojan
and Phrygian. Hecuba was a Phrygian princess, and
Aphrodite, when she appears to Anchises in the Homeric
Hymn in mortal guise, calls herself a daughter of a
Phrygian king. Priam in his youth had fought among the
Phrygians on the Sangarius ; and Hesychius tells us that
the name Hector was Phrygian. The Romans notoriously
did not distinguish between Trojan and Phrygian ; and
if the languages of the kindred tribes varied, it varied prob-
ably only as in days before the invention of writing the
tongues of parallel tribes of the same race always vary.
And in later historic times we find the district of Troas
called Lesser Phrygia : Xcnophon tells us that in the time
of Cyrus it was under the rule of an independent king.
With regard to the Troad we have precisely that archaeo-
logical evidence which is wanting in case of Sipylus. Dr.
Schliemann's excavations at Hissarlik have given us a
mass of historical data as to the succession of inhabitants
in this region.
It is unnecessary that I should here repeat the thrice-
told story of the fates of Troy. Everyone knows how
Dardanus, the son of Zeus, founded his city on the spurs
of Mount Ida. His son Ilus founded " in the plain," as
we are told, the city of Ilium ; and Ilus' son Laomcdon
had the good fortune to receive the assistance of the
immortal gods in building the walls of the city, which