DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.959#0084
26 TROY AND ITS REMAINS.
Athena, as well as the Great Tower of Ilium, the Scasan
Gate, and the great enclosing Wall, are generally composed
of unhewn stones joined with earth, the less rough face of
the stones being turned to the outside, so that the walls
have a tolerably smooth appearance.
I thought last year, upon uncovering the Great Tower
of Ilium, that it must have been at one time higher than
it now is, namely 6 meters or 20 feet; but its flat-built top
beside the Scaean Gate, and the benches (not ruins, as I for-
merly thought) afterwards found upon it, prove that it can
never have been higher.* I would draw especial attention
to the fact, that the masonry of the Scaean Gate, upon
being uncovered, looked as wonderfully fresh as if it had
been erected quite recently. It is quite certain that it pos-
sessed strong wooden fortifications, and probably also a
wooden tower above the gateway; for otherwise it is inex-
plicable to me how the entrance of the Gate can have been
covered to the height of 10 feet by those red Trojan wood-
ashes, and especially how it was that there, far from the
other buildings, the heat should have been so great that
even the thick slabs of stone have been destroyed by it.
Homer speaks of Troy as having been destroyed by
Hercules previous to the Trojan war,f and it will ever
remain an enigma to us whether this information, which
had been preserved by traditions down to his time, really
refers to the Ilium of Priam, or to the very ancient town of
the first settlers.
* See Plan III., p. 306.
t Iliad, V. 640-642, where Tlepolemus boasts of his ancestor
Hercules-
"Os ttotc Sevp iXOwv €V£\ arwuiv Aao/neSovros,
^E^ o«7S o~uv vrjvoi kcu dvSpdo-i Tra.vporipoi.aiv,
'IXiov £^aAa7raft ttoXlv, fflpuxre 8' aymas.
" With but six ships, and with a scanty band,
The horses by Laomedon withheld
Avenging, he o'erthrew this city, Troy,
And made her streets a desert."
Athena, as well as the Great Tower of Ilium, the Scasan
Gate, and the great enclosing Wall, are generally composed
of unhewn stones joined with earth, the less rough face of
the stones being turned to the outside, so that the walls
have a tolerably smooth appearance.
I thought last year, upon uncovering the Great Tower
of Ilium, that it must have been at one time higher than
it now is, namely 6 meters or 20 feet; but its flat-built top
beside the Scaean Gate, and the benches (not ruins, as I for-
merly thought) afterwards found upon it, prove that it can
never have been higher.* I would draw especial attention
to the fact, that the masonry of the Scaean Gate, upon
being uncovered, looked as wonderfully fresh as if it had
been erected quite recently. It is quite certain that it pos-
sessed strong wooden fortifications, and probably also a
wooden tower above the gateway; for otherwise it is inex-
plicable to me how the entrance of the Gate can have been
covered to the height of 10 feet by those red Trojan wood-
ashes, and especially how it was that there, far from the
other buildings, the heat should have been so great that
even the thick slabs of stone have been destroyed by it.
Homer speaks of Troy as having been destroyed by
Hercules previous to the Trojan war,f and it will ever
remain an enigma to us whether this information, which
had been preserved by traditions down to his time, really
refers to the Ilium of Priam, or to the very ancient town of
the first settlers.
* See Plan III., p. 306.
t Iliad, V. 640-642, where Tlepolemus boasts of his ancestor
Hercules-
"Os ttotc Sevp iXOwv €V£\ arwuiv Aao/neSovros,
^E^ o«7S o~uv vrjvoi kcu dvSpdo-i Tra.vporipoi.aiv,
'IXiov £^aAa7raft ttoXlv, fflpuxre 8' aymas.
" With but six ships, and with a scanty band,
The horses by Laomedon withheld
Avenging, he o'erthrew this city, Troy,
And made her streets a desert."