In the dim past of Europe, by the shores of the Aegean Sea, the ancient bards told stories of a golden age long ago, a time when men were heroes larger than life, when the daring Theseus battled the Minotaur, and soldiers clashed over the face of the beautiful Helen who brought down the walls of Troy. For hundreds of generations these tales will pass down as myths. Then in the 19th century, two remarkable men dared to believe that the myths were clues to the treasures of a forgotten past. Their extraordinary adventures uncovered the roots of Western civilization. In the 19th century, archeology was in its infancy. Ancient Greece was considered the beginning of Western civilization, its architecture the most beautiful; its ideas the foundation for everything to come.