Note 220 — Chapter IX
Reading edition
Ilios, the City and Country of the Trojans, pp. 657-658, by Dr. Henry Schliemann, New York, 1881.
As an illustration of Mrs. Schliemann's devotion to the work which has rendered her, as well as her husband, immortal, a single passage from the volume just quoted, p. 261, is pertinent. Referring to the sufferings and privations which they endured during their third year's work at Hissarlik, Dr. Schliemann writes as follows:
"My poor wife and myself, therefore, suffered very much since the icy north wind, which recalls Homer's frequent mention of the blasts of Boreas, blew with such violence through the chinks of our house-walls, which were made of planks, that we were not even able to light our lamps in the evening, while the water which stood near the hearth froze into solid masses. During the day we could, to some degree, bear the cold by working in the excavations; but, in the evenings, we had nothing to keep us warm except our enthusiasm for the great work of discovering Troy."
So high was Dr. Schliemann's opinion of his wife's ability as an archæologist that he entrusted to her—as well as to their daughter, Andromache, and son, Agamemnon—the continuation of the work which death prevented him from completing.