In Search of Trojan War by Michael Wood
October 25th 2006 11:45
In Search of Trojan War by Michael Wood
Michael Wood’s book In Search of Trojan War details the extensive archeological journey to find evidence of Trojan War. The book details the baby steps that were taken before Schliemann blazed the trail, the sensationally romantic discoveries of Schliemann, and Sir Arthur Evans finding Mycenaean civilization and the discovery of Hittite city Hattusa.
Michael Wood
The reason behind that scepticism is not hard to find. For the past two hundred years there has beena constant battle against classicism and Homer has always been at the centre of that battle. For some reason, modern scholars are comfortable with the imperialistic sagas of Virgil, the religious aplocaypse of Dante but Homer bugs them. Probably no other author in history has been subjected as much "analysis" as Homer has been. It's no wonder then that the nineeeth-centuy prediliction of proving that Homer wasn't a single person morphed into twentieth-century obsession to prove that Homer's story is not true. To be fair, Wood at least provides the available evidence including the circumstantial one, unfazedly.
This photo of Henrietta Schliemann wearing "jewels of Helen
As for elitism, Arthur Schliemann has always been treated with a touch of scorn by the cognoscenti. Schlieman himself was a self-taught, self-made businessman who loved ancient Greece so much that he used later part of his life for a dramatic search of Greek civilization. His methods were raw, his claims certainly flamboyant for professorial types but it is undeniable that he made archaology what it is today. It is not for nothing that he is called Father of Archeaology. But, the scholarly types have not let go of their scorn and it is evident in Wood's treatment of Schliemann, though here too Wood tries hard to give Schliemann his due. But there's that snootiness.
If you want to capture the amazing romantic feeling surrounding the discovery of Troy, Mycenae and Hattusa, this is not the book for you. But, for all its flaws, it still makes for a compelling read.
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