The Greek Treasure

Irving Stone

Henry Schliemann is 30 years older and getting a divorce when he decides to marry young Sophia Engastromenoses. She is a beautiful, dutiful Greek girl. He considers her to be the perfect mate for him in his new profession of excavating for the lost city of Troy.

Sophia marries him and believes in his dream. He is a self made millionaire but not an academician. The philologists, historians, and archeologists of the late 19th century believe that Troy is a myth and that Homer never existed as a person. Instead, the reigning belief is that The Odyssey and The Iliad are ballads that were put together from many myths and many story tellers. She believes his written proof and works beside him to find the physical evidence.

This is a biographical novel of the true story of Henry and Sophia Schliemann. They did uncover Troy and more proofs of Homer's ballads. This follows their story from when 17-year-old Sophia is first introduced to the man until Henry's death many years later. It is a fascinating story. It is not full of action, but instead frustration and exultation. They live just like all families do, with arguments and making up. They have bureaucratic problems and red tape. They succumb to temptations at times, and at others are very charitable.

The early stages of modern excavation are studied in this novel. It also examines life in the historical circles of Europe in the late 1900's. Stone has done a wonderful job in portraying the Schliemanns. This is a novel because he had to conjecture many things. Yet his research is so well done and the characters so vivid that it does not ring false notes in his conjecture.