Sofia Schliemann

Sophia Schliemann, born Sophia Engastromenou (Σοφία Εγκαστρωμένου) (12 January 1852 - 27 October 1932) was the Greek second wife of the businessmen and amateur archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann. She is known for posing for a photo while draped in gold jewelry from the Treasure of Priam. Life Sofia Engastromenou was born in Athens to a wealthy mercantile family. Her father was a "well-known Greek banker who at one time was the largest individual shareholder of the Pennsylvania Railroad". Her uncle, Bishop Theokletos Vimpos, was hired by Heinrich Schliemann to tutor him in Greek and later tasked with finding a "black-haired Greek woman in the Homeric spirit" to become his wife. Presented with photos of three women, Schliemann selected the seventeen-year-old Sofia. They were married on 24 September 1869, and would go on to have two children: Andromache (1871-1962) and Agamemnon (1878-1954). Sophia was only briefly present during the 1873 excavations of Hisarlik, during which she was assaulted by a foreman. She departed the site after a month due to the unexpected death of her father. Schliemann later falsified the records to exaggerate Sophia's role in the excavations, and the story that the Treasure of Priam had been smuggled away from the site in Sophia's shawl.