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When Heinrich Schliemann was a little boy his father told him the story of Troy. He liked that story better than anything else he had ever heard and he made up his mind, that as soon as he was big enough to leave home, he would travel to Greece and "find Troy." That he was the son of a poor country parson in a Mecklenburg village did not bother him. He knew that he would need money but he decided to gather a fortune first and do the digging afterwards. As a matter of fact, he managed to get a large fortune within a very short time, and as soon as he had enough money to equip an expedition, he went to the northwest corner of Asia Minor, where he supposed that Troy had been situated.

In that particular nook of old Asia Minor, stood a high mound covered with grain fields. According to tradition it had been the home of Priamus the king of Troy. Schliemann, whose enthusiasm was somewhat greater than his knowledge, wasted no time in preliminary explorations. At once he began to dig. And he dug with such zeal and such speed that his trench went straight through the heart of the city for which he was looking and carried him to the ruins of another buried town which was at least a thousand years older than the Troy of which Homer had written.

Then something very interesting occurred. If Schliemann had found a few polished stone hammers and perhaps a few pieces of crude pottery, no one would have been surprised. Instead of discovering such objects, which people had generally associated with the prehistoric men who had lived in these regions before the coming of the Greeks, Schliemann found beautiful statuettes and very costly jewelry and ornamented vases of a pattern that was unknown to the Greeks.

He ventured the suggestion that fully ten centuries before the great Trojan war, the coast of the Aegean had been inhabited by a mysterious race of people who in many ways had been the superiors of the wild Greek tribes who had invaded their country and had destroyed their civilization or absorbed it until it had lost all trace of originality. And this proved to be the case.

In the late seventies of the last century, Schliemann visited the ruins of Mycenae, ruins which were so old that Roman guide-books marveled at their antiquity. There again, beneath the flat slabs of stone of a small round enclosure, Schliemann stumbled upon a wonderful treasure-trove, which had been left behind by those mysterious people who had covered the Greek coast with their cities and who had built walls, so big and so heavy and so strong, that the Greeks called them the work of the Titans, those god-like giants who in very olden days had used to play ball with mountain peaks.

A very careful study of these many relics has done away with some of the romantic features of the story. The makers of these early works of art and the builders of these strong fortresses were no sorcerers, but simple sailors and traders. They had lived in Crete, and on the many small islands of the Aegean Sea. They had been hardy mariners and they had turned the Aegean into a center of commerce for the exchange of goods between the highly civilized east and the slowly developing wilderness of the European mainland.

For more than a thousand years they had maintained an island empire which had developed a very high form of art. Indeed their most important city, Cnossus, on the northern coast of Crete, had been entirely modern in its insistence upon hygiene and comfort. The palace had been properly drained and the houses had been provided with stoves and the Cnossians had been the first people to make a daily use of the hitherto unknown bathtub. The palace of their King had been famous for its winding staircases and its large banqueting hall. The cellars underneath this palace, where the wine and the grain and the olive-oil were stored, had been so vast and had so greatly impressed the first Greek visitors, that they had given rise to the story of the "labyrinth," the name which we give to a structure with so many complicated passages that it is almost impossible to find our way out, once the front door has closed upon our frightened selves.

But what finally became of this great Aegean Empire and what caused its sudden downfall, that I cannot tell.

The Cretans were familiar with the art of writing, but no one has yet been able to decipher their inscriptions. Their history therefore is unknown to us. We have to reconstruct the record of their adventures from the ruins which the Aegeans have left behind. These ruins make it clear that the Aegean world was suddenly conquered by a less civilized race which had recently come from the plains of northern Europe. Unless we are very much mistaken, the savages who were responsible for the destruction of the Cretan and the Aegean civilization were none other than certain tribes of wandering shepherds who had just taken possession of the rocky peninsula between the Adriatic and the Aegean seas and who are known to us as Greeks.

Directions

Study the lesson for one week.

Over the week:

  • Read and/or listen to the story.
  • Review the synopsis.
  • Study the vocabulary terms.
  • Complete the enrichment activities.
  • Answer the review questions.

Synopsis

The sailors and traders of the Aegean empire developed the Aegean Sea and its islands, including Crete, as a center of trade and commerce. The Aegeans were advanced in many ways, building tall, strong walls for protection, using stoves in houses, and making daily use of bathtubs. The palace of the king featured winding staircases and expansive cellars for wine, grain, and olive oil. The Aegean empire was destroyed by a primitive collection of wild tribes called the Greeks.

Vocabulary

Titans: Something or someone of very large stature, greatness, or godliness.
Commerce: The exchange or buying and selling of goods.
Olive Oil: A vegetable oil, pressed from olives, and used in cooking and as a salad dressing.
Empire: A political unit having an extensive territory or comprising a number of territories or nations and ruled by a single supreme authority.
Labyrinth: A maze, especially underground or covered.
Cretan: An inhabitant or a resident of Crete, an island in the Mediterranean Sea.

Enrichment

Activity 1: Narrate the Lesson

  • After you read or listen to the lesson, narrate the events aloud using your own words.

Activity 2: Read About the Story Picture

Study the story picture and read the paragraph about the Trojan Horse in 'Tales of Troy and Greece' by Andrew Lang.

  • The Greeks, said Calchas, ought to learn a lesson from the hawk, and take Troy by cunning, as by force they could do nothing. Then Ulysses stood up and described a trick which it is not easy to understand. The Greeks, he said, ought to make an enormous hollow horse of wood, and place the bravest men in the horse. Then all the rest of the Greeks should embark in their ships and sail to the Isle of Tenedos and lie hidden behind the island.
  • The Trojans would then come out of the city, like the dove out of her hole in the rock, and would wander about the Greek camp, and wonder why the great horse of tree had been made, and why it had been left behind. Lest they should set fire to the horse, when they would soon have found out the warriors hidden in it, a cunning Greek, whom the Trojans did not know by sight, should be left in the camp or near it. He would tell the Trojans that the Greeks had given up all hope and gone home, and he was to say that they feared the Goddess Pallas was angry with them, because they had stolen her image that fell from heaven and was called the Luck of Troy. To soothe Pallas and prevent her from sending great storms against the ships, the Greeks (so the man was to say) had built this wooden horse as an offering to the Goddess.
  • The Trojans, believing this story, would drag the horse into Troy, and, in the night, the princes would come out, set fire to the city, and open the gates to the army, which would return from Tenedos as soon as darkness came on.

Activity 3: Act Out the Story of the Trojan Horse

  • Create your own Trojan Horse out of arts and crafts supplies. Make sure to make the inside hollow.
  • Hide some paper or toy soldiers within your Trojan Horse.
  • Enact the story of the Trojan Horse with your creation.

Activity 4: Map the Story

  • Find Crete, one of the islands developed by the sailors and traders of the Aegean empire.
  • Find the Aegean Sea.

Activity 5: Complete Copywork, Narration, Dictation, and Art   

Click the crayon above. Complete pages 29-30 of 'World History Copywork, Narration, Dictation, and Art for Third Grade.'

Review

Question 1

What was the heart of the Aegean empire?
1 / 6

Answer 1

The heart of the Aegean empire was the Aegean Sea.
1 / 6

Question 2

What types of work did the people of the Aegean empire do?
2 / 6

Answer 2

People of the Aegean empire worked as sailors and traders.
2 / 6

Question 3

What are some examples of Aegean technologies, practices, or features that were advanced for their time?
3 / 6

Answer 3

Aegean technologies, practices, and features included spiral staircases, stoves in houses, high, strong walls for protection, using bathtubs daily, winding staircases, and labyrinth-like cellars.
3 / 6

Question 4

Who destroyed the Aegean empire?
4 / 6

Answer 4

The Greeks destroyed the Aegean empire.
4 / 6

Question 5

Were the Greeks more culturally advanced than the Aegeans?
5 / 6

Answer 5

No, the Greeks were relatively primitive compared to the Aegeans.
5 / 6

Question 6

What did the Trojans hide inside their wooden horse?
6 / 6

Answer 6

The Trojans hid soldiers inside their wooden horse.
6 / 6

  1. What was the heart of the Aegean empire? The heart of the Aegean empire was the Aegean Sea.
  2. What types of work did the people of the Aegean empire do? People of the Aegean empire worked as sailors and traders.
  3. What are some examples of Aegean technologies, practices, or features that were advanced for their time? Aegean technologies, practices, and features included spiral staircases, stoves in houses, high, strong walls for protection, using bathtubs daily, winding staircases, and labyrinth-like cellars.
  4. Who destroyed the Aegean empire? The Greeks destroyed the Aegean empire.
  5. Were the Greeks more culturally advanced than the Aegeans? No, the Greeks were relatively primitive compared to the Aegeans.
  6. What did the Trojans hide inside their wooden horse? The Trojans hid soldiers inside their wooden horse.

References

  1. 'Tales of Troy and Greece by Andrew Lang. ((1907), {PD-old-auto-1923})' Gutenberg. gutenberg.org/files/32326/32326-h/32326-h.htm#V. n.p.

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