DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.1021#0420
366 THE MYCENAEAN AGE
mighty towers of Troy, standing as they still stand to avouch
the ancient glory of their race, that the old songs would
be rounded to the immortal Epic, and put in the way of
transmission to all the ages; only thus they could become
the expression, not of a moment, but of a millennium, in
the life of the Greek rape.
We do not affirm that the tale of Troy is history, but
we do claim that history may be less authentic than Homer.
For a quarter century now the spade has gone on reveal-
ing landmark after landmark of the Mycenaean world;
and, while large areas still wait to be explored, at the
present rate of progress we shall before long be in a posi-
tion to show that the chart of the explorer answers point
by point to the Homeric data. Thus we are recovering
the real background of the Epic. Already our own eyes
scan the actual world that was familiar to the Poet's vision.
We cannot make out every feature, it is true; and yet
we know that world more intimately than we know many
another that finds a place on the map of history. We set
the epic picture against the real background, and the
harmony is too close and manifold to have happened. To
bring out the full measure of that harmony, we have only
to go on unearthing the relics of prehistoric Greece and at
the same time to delve yet deeper in the inexhaustible mines
of Homer.
mighty towers of Troy, standing as they still stand to avouch
the ancient glory of their race, that the old songs would
be rounded to the immortal Epic, and put in the way of
transmission to all the ages; only thus they could become
the expression, not of a moment, but of a millennium, in
the life of the Greek rape.
We do not affirm that the tale of Troy is history, but
we do claim that history may be less authentic than Homer.
For a quarter century now the spade has gone on reveal-
ing landmark after landmark of the Mycenaean world;
and, while large areas still wait to be explored, at the
present rate of progress we shall before long be in a posi-
tion to show that the chart of the explorer answers point
by point to the Homeric data. Thus we are recovering
the real background of the Epic. Already our own eyes
scan the actual world that was familiar to the Poet's vision.
We cannot make out every feature, it is true; and yet
we know that world more intimately than we know many
another that finds a place on the map of history. We set
the epic picture against the real background, and the
harmony is too close and manifold to have happened. To
bring out the full measure of that harmony, we have only
to go on unearthing the relics of prehistoric Greece and at
the same time to delve yet deeper in the inexhaustible mines
of Homer.