g6 tJBLEAU de la PLAINE de TROTE. 



there was a place for croffing the river*. Homer guides us 

 no farther. 



I FORMERLY thought it probable that Homer meant only a 

 near approach of the two rivers, not an entire confluence of 

 their ftreams ; but this opinion I have long fince abandoned. 

 The Scholiafts, and even Eustathiu?, give us no, aid here; 

 they rather miflead ; they themfelves had probably no ocular 

 knowledge of the place. The Scholia, however, on Iliad, H. 

 465. fay, " the Scamander comes from Ida, divides in the 

 " midft the plain that ftretches to the fliore, and difcharges it- 

 " felf, on the left hand, into the fea." Bvit how is this to be 

 underflood ? If the left hand//'o/« Troy is fpoken of, the prefent 

 mouth, to the fouthward of Sigeum, muft be intended ; and on 

 that fuppofition this mouth would be of confiderable antiquity. 

 If the commentator, however, means on the left hand- going from 

 the pore to Mount Ida, it is then the imited ftream of the Scaman- 

 der and Simois, that is faid to fall into the fea at tliis place f. 



Even 



It is here that M.'Chevai.ier's obfervations on the fpot,:and his deKneation tjpon 

 the map, give us fo much light. The Scamander, as it came near the fhore, direift- 

 ing its courfe obliquely over the plain, approached the Simois, and run into it, ex- 

 aflly as defcribed in Strabo. At prefent the Scamander is condufted into a oanal, 

 and' difcharges itfelf into the fea below Sigeum. This is one important obfervation 

 made by M. Chevalier. There is another, alfo, relating to the fources of the Sca- 

 mander. Still it is a perplexing clrcumftance, that, neither in the advancing, nor 

 in the retreat, of the armies, is any exprefs mention made of fo important a circum- 

 ftance as croffing the river. Almrrft all the paffages, except perhaps the laft, rather 

 imply mat the rivers run on each hde. H. See above, p. 46. Note *. D. 



+ 1 DOUBT wbetherany of the poets, QaiNTUS of Shiyrna, Tryphiodorus, or 

 Cor uTiius, had an accurate knowledge of this neighbourhood. Tryphiodorus, for 

 •jnllance, lays, (lin. 316.), 1 ifi.nmih .: li 07: . 



"■fiOud 



