SOPHIA AND HEINRICH SCHLIEMANN

The doctor Miltiadis Venizelos (1822-1887), who was the same age as Schliemann and in charge of the mentally and physically distraught Sophia, in two letters written on the 22nd and 23rd June 1870 tried to persuade Schliemann to abandon the idea of divorce. For one thing, a second divorce would irrevocably damage his reputation, and for another he was in large part responsible for the situation, as he should have foreseen that marriage to such a young girl would not be easy. Thus, it was not Sophia alone who was to blame, and who according to Venizelos was a woman 'with a good heart, a healthy mind and a high spirit'. Contrary to the diagnosis of the German doctor at the Schweizermühle sanatorium, the Greek physician did not attribute Sophia's behaviour to hysteria. Schliemann should show greater patience and try harder to make Sophia happy, the implication being that many problems would be solved if she got pregnant. 

Schliemann followed the Greek doctor's advice, with positive results. Danae Koulmasi (Schliemann and Sophia: a love story, Athens 2006, pp.64-65) believes that the change in Schliemann's behaviour had another more fundamental cause. Schliemann 'wanted to keep the dream alive...he still saw Sophia as an inalienable part of his life and work'. In July 1870 Heinrich and Sophia went to Paris and thence to the north coast of France, where they spent August in Boulogne-sur-Mer, and Sophia relaxed beside the sea she adored. During the months that followed, Schliemann, who was again away on his business travels, was transformed into an affectionate husband, sending her loving letters with words of advice and caution: Sophia was pregnant.

Nine months later, on the 25th April 1871, their first child Andromache was born. Heinrich and Sophia would find refuge in peaceful Boulogne-sur-Mer many times in the course of their twenty years of marriage. In the summer of 1877, the successful appearance of the Schliemann couple at the Royal Institute of Archaeology in London was followed by six weeks of holiday at Boulogne-sur-Mer. A few months later, on the 16th March 1878, Sophia gave birth to their second child, Agamemnon.
 

If there was one thing that Schliemann wanted more than Sophia, it was her active participation in his excavations. This was quite unusual at a time when the roles of the spouses were distinct and married women were not involved in their husbands' professional life. Sophia refused to accompany Schliemann in the autumn of 1871 on his first official excavation at Troy, with the excuse that Andromache was too little to be left in the care of others. Schliemann did not write to her for a while, and when he decided to reply (in French) he reminds her of how hurt he was by her refusal to go with him to Troy.

After the 1871 excavations, Schliemann returned to Troy in April 1872. By late May, Sophia went to join him, leaving one-year-old Andromache with her parents. At first, Schliemann set her to oversee two workers, but later he placed her in charge of an excavation trench. It is clear he wanted Sophia with him at the dig and not in some subsidiary role in the excavation house. During this time, he sent his father-in-law a report of the excavations for printing: 'I also enclose my 9th report, or rather Sophia's report, since she co-wrote it and all the ideas are hers.' He not only relied on her to write his reports about the excavation but had no hesitation in giving her credit for them. 


The excavations at Troy were continued in February 1873, when the cold was severe and the weather bad. Sophia travelled to Troy in April, intending to stay with him throughout the excavation. This time he put her in charge of the excavations at Pasha Tepe (Koulmasi 2005, p.129), but the news of her father's death obliged her to leave Troy at the beginning of May. At the end of May, Schliemann discovered the Treasure of Priam. He did not share what was possibly the most important moment of his life with Sophia, even though in his books he asserted that she was with him at the discovery. Much ink has been spilled by researchers in their attempt to explain why Schliemann invented Sophia’s presence at the discovery of the Treasure. The most likely answer is in a letter he sent to the Director of the British Museum, Charles Newton, on the 27th December 1873 (the letter is in the Museum Archives and was published by Lesley Fitton).


“... On acc[oun]t of her father’s sudden death Mrs Schliemann left me in the beginning of May. The treasure was found end of May; but since I am endeavouring to make an archaeologist of her, I wrote in my book that she had been present and assisted me in taking out the treasure. I merely did so to stimulate and encourage her, for she has great capacities. So f[or] i[nstance] she has learned Italian here in less than two months.”

 

On the hard cover of the diary of the excavations at Troy for the year 1873, Schliemann wrote 'Henry und Sophia', even though she was only with him at the dig for a few days that year. Sophia never refuted Schliemann, even after his death. In fact, sometime between 1873 and 1877 Sophia posed for a photograph as Helen of Troy, wearing part of the so-called Treasure of Priam. She would be identified by this image not just during her lifetime but after it. It remains the most widely reproduced photograph on the covers of books dealing with Heinrich Schliemann and the excavations at Troy.

Insofar as she was able, particularly before the birth of their second child in 1878, Sophia accompanied Heinrich to the excavations and actively participated in the laborious everyday life of the site. It should be noted (and has gone relatively unremarked in the research) that Sophia suffered many miscarriages during her life. At Mycenae she was with him at the discovery of the intact shaft graves of Grave Circle A in 1876. Once again, Schliemann drew attention to her presence, showing her participation in the excavation. (On the other hand, he chose to downplay the role of the archaeologist Panagiotis Stamatakis who had been sent by the Archaeological Society to oversee the excavations at Mycenae). We learn from Stamatakis's diaries (published by Vasilikou in 2011) that in some cases Sophia conducted herself with a regal haughtiness which astounded Stamatakis, who wrote in a letter to Stephanos Koumanoudis, secretary to the Archaeological Society: 'My relations with Mr Sch. remain broken off, and we communicate through the foremen. His lady has returned here from Athens, but it would be better if she had not come. For she has been the cause of everything and I much fear the same will happen again' (Vasilikou 2011, p.203). 

 

Aside from Heinrich's miserliness, another thorn in their relationship was his insistence on the curative properties of water, whether spas, cold baths or sea-bathing. He himself swam winter and summer. When in Athens he would go every morning on horseback down to Faliron. Even at Troy he never missed the chance of riding to the sea to bathe

From 1880 the almost obligatory holidays would begin for Sophia and the children at some European spa town in Germany or Austria. Schliemann was usually absent or would take the waters at some other nearby resort, as in the summer of 1883 when he was at Bad Wildungen in Germany while Sophia and the children went to Carlsbad and Franzenbad in Bohemia

Sophia's most significant revolt happened at the end of 1885, when Schliemann was on holiday in Cuba, and she took it upon herself to make the important decision to cut short Andromache's studies at Lausanne boarding school for girls and return to Athens. Sophia disagreed with the progressive principles of the school. Deep down, it is possible that she could not stand the idea of yet another 'exile' from her beloved Athens.

One year later, at the end of summer 1886, having once more endured the 'exile' of the European spa towns far from the sea she adored, she decided, without his approval, to take the children and go to Ostend on the Belgian coast.

 

The construction of the Iliou Melathron mansion took three years (1878-1880). It was Heinrich's life's dream, but not Sophia's, who was emotionally attached to their first house on Mouson Street. The size and magnificence of the new house reminded her more of a museum than a home.

'...I see that the Fates have healed many of our woes but have also bestowed on us many joys; and as we tend to see the past through rose-coloured spectacles, forgetting its sufferings and recalling only its moments of joy, I cannot praise our marriage sufficiently. For you have never ceased to be for me my beloved wife, a pure-minded companion and trustworthy guide in difficulties, as well as a gentle fellow-traveller and remarkable mother.'

After Heinrich's death, Sophia lived in the Iliou Melathron until 1926, when she moved to Palio Faliro. The Iliou Melathron was for many years a social and intellectual landmark of Athens, with Sophia and her daughter Andromache as gracious hostesses, honoring Schliemann’s legacy.