Odyssey of Life - Odyssee des Lebens

Homer’s Legacy and Heinrich Schliemann’s Archeological Achievements
The legendary tale of archeologist Heinrich
Schliemann took place during a time when many
Germans were emigrating to America and Russia.
Not only were Homer’s works his compass as he embarked
upon his quest to find Troy, but his own life
resembles a modern odyssey. Born in Neubukow,
he grew up in the Northern German State of Mecklenburg.
His father, an alcoholic with anger issues,
served as a minister in the town of Ankershagen.
Heinrich was raised by the educated family of his
uncle. Fifty years earlier, J. H. Voß had translated
Homer´s epics into German in Ankershagen.
Homer´s world of gods may have impressed the
minister´s son more than that of his irascible father.
In the Odyssey, man makes his own decisions, even
if the gods are sensitive and unwilling to accept criticism.
The young Schliemann wanted to become a famous
scholar. For lack of money, however, he initially
became a merchant's apprentice and took English
lessons. He went to work at the stock market in
Hamburg and was offered a brilliant position in Columbia.
Thus began Schliemann´s own “odyssey of
life”: In late November 1841, the 19-year-old left the
port of Hamburg on the three-master “Dorothea”,
but the ship was hit by a storm, and his Columbian
dream sank into the freezing waters of the North
Sea. He was stranded on the Dutch island of Texel.
Like Odysseus on the Pheacians´ island, the locals
welcomed him with great hospitality. He then moved
on to Amsterdam, and the great trading metropolis
became the cornerstone of his success. He
read foreign periodicals and significantly advanced
his language skills employing a special autodidactic
system. Thanks to his phenomenal memory, it took
him no longer than six weeks to learn a language
(towards the end of his life, he had mastered 19 of
them).
In 1846, he went to St. Petersburg to trade various
commodities. The Russian metropolis was
a major trading hub between Europe and Asia.
Schliemann´s business trips turned into study trips.
Staying at the best hotels, he visited Europe´s great
archeological collections and museums. On his way
to America, he was shipwrecked once again. It took
a second attempt before he made it to the other
shore. As a partner to the Rothschilds, he helped
buy and resell gold in Sacramento. The numerous
immigrants loved doing business with the language
genius. Schliemann returned to St. Petersburg a
wealthy man and, in 1852, married his first wife in
a Russian-Orthodox wedding ceremony. In the end,
Schliemann was a multimillionaire, but what had
happened to his childhood dreams? Once a compassionate
son who sent home his savings, he had
become a coldhearted entrepreneur. His marriage
with Ekaterina failed. Schliemann longed for fame
and learning. In the spring of 1866, he finally started
a new life, first moving to Paris to study at the
Sorbonne, and later relocating to Athens.
In 1873, towards the end of his first excavation
campaign at the site of Troy, he made the sensational
discovery of “Priam´s Treasure” and brought it
to Greece. Although the authenticity of his find was
repeatedly questioned, including by Germans, it
was later moved to Berlin as a gesture of reconciliation
with his native country, remindful of the way
the Gods had exploited Odysseus´ homesickness on
the island of Calypso. After WWII, the treasure was
taken to Moscow and, upon closer examination,
declared authentic. After undergoing surgery in
Germany in 1890, Schliemann restlessly and prematurely
left his sickbed and died in Naples on his way
home. Another personal triumph was Schliemann´s
discovery of the so-called “Mask of Agamemnon” in
1876 in Mycenae, along with other impressive golden
treasures. With its Cyclopean walls and enticing
Lion Gate, the fortified citadel of Mycenae is an Elysium
for Homer fans. Shrouded in legend, the place
allows visitors to feel the presence of Agamemnon,
Iphigenia, Clytemnestra, Aegisthus, and Cassandra,
and marvel at the Postern gate through which Orestes
escaped after murdering his mother. Aeschylus,
Euripides, and Sophocles whose great tragedies can
be seen as links between Homer’s time and Classical
Greece, may also have been there. The Treasury
of Atreus and other beehive tombs featuring the
famous triangle in their stone lintels are unique
remnants of the Mycenaean Bronze Age.
The approach of looking at Homer’s mythical
settings as real places can also be explained in
psychological terms – stories of traumatic events
tend to tell themselves. Thus, the Greek rhapsodists
traveled from court to court passing on their adventure
stories. The appearance of an exceptional poet
finally turned folk tales into literature. Vowels had
only recently been introduced to the Greek writing
system. As Homer was blind, he is thought to have
used dictation and scribes. Today, his name has
become associated with the origins of occidental
literature and a new level of storytelling, in which
clever composition is used to create suspense.
People have always turned to storytelling for therapeutic
purposes. The Odyssey itself bears witness
Collage: Homage to Homer I
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