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The nights in Smyrna were not much better, there were lots of mosquitos and
other insects:
[page 233, Greek] “Yesterday, as soon as I went to bed, I was attacked by myri-
ads of bugs rushing at me from all directions as if they would suck all my blood.
Fortunately I was prudent enough to sprinkle large amounts of Persian dust
powder all around me so that I could sleep quietly during the night given that
I was rather tired. In the morning my bed was covered with dead remnants of
bugs, fleas and I even found lice on my woollen undershirt. Never before in my
whole life have I encountered so much dirt.”
Schliemann travels on to Athens where he visits the Acropolis. He is given a
guided tour by the archaeologist Kyriakos Pattakis (1793-1863), excavator of
Mycenae in the 1840s. One would expect here a reference to his so-called child-
hood dream of finding Troy. But alas, not a word on Homer and Troy.
Schliemann falls seriously ill in Athens:
[page 243, Greek] “On Thursday on the 11 of June. The bad habit of mine to
leave the windows open during the night has caused me various health prob-
lems. By Sunday, I could feel the first symptom. I felt as if I was burdened, a
sort of weariness taking over my whole body. I thought that this might have
been caused by our journey on horseback. [...] On Monday, the pain became so
intense that I could hardly walk, and that I did with great pain. I felt pain mostly
on my back and on my legs. On top, I suffered from diarrhoea and dizziness to
the point that I fainted in front of Marinos Papadopoulos, Vretos and Christos
Iliakopoulos, who placed my head under their arms, sprinkling some cool wa-
ter on my forehead so that my life normal breathing pace could be recovered.
As they promised me that the doctor would not give me an injection, I gave
my consent to be seen by a renowned descendant of Asclepius. They called a
professor, whose name is Katertis I think, who prescribed me laxatives along
with two “Quinine” tablets for swallowing. During the time between Monday
afternoon and Thursday morning, I would go to bed sweating incessantly and
with covering my body with two times or three times as many woollen duvets.
I was suffering a lot from terrible pains on my back and I would try in vain to
change sides on bed. I was feeling better today so I packed my bags and set off
for Piraeus.”
From Piraeus Schliemann travelled to Constantinople and on by train to Bel-
grade where he got robbed: