THE TROAD 



573 



a-ossed. The relative situation of the two rivers you very justly lay 

 down as Homer describes them, the Scamander to the left of the 

 Trojan army, and consequently to the right of the Grecian, when 

 both armies were between the rivers ; and after the Scamander had 

 been crossed by both armies, of course that relative position would 

 be reversed. In the seventh book, II. H. v. '329., the bloodshed is all 

 stated by Nestor to have been "Evf^ocv oci/.(p] ZKccuuvSf.ov, on the bankn of 

 Scamander, nor do I recollect any mention of the Simois, or the 

 Simoisian plain, except where the river is incidentally named in the 

 passage I have already quoted, and where Xanthus calls on him for 

 assistance against Achilles in the twenty-first book, II. 4>. v. 307. 

 There is another passage indeed which I should wish to lay before 

 you, and which goes far to prove that the Simois was certainly the river 

 now called the Mendere ; for it is quite clear that the Simois 

 descended from Ida, whatever was the case of the Scamander, which I 

 will presently consider. In the fourth book, II. ^. v. 475., Simoisius, 

 the son of Anthemion, is slain by Ajax — Simoisius, " whom his 

 mother, as she was descending from Ida, brought forth on the banks of 

 the Simois" This passage I look on as conclusive against any system 

 that places the whole course of the Simois in the plain below Troy. 

 The Simois, too, ill accords with your description of the Califat 

 Osmak, which, as you justly state, can " hardly be said to flow to- 

 wards the Mendere." It is indeed most accurately designated by you 

 as a " small and almost stagnant river ;" but the Simois was of a 

 totally different description ; it descended from Ida, and raised on 

 occasion '7^■i?^vv oDuu.ci.ySov, (ptT^uv Koil Xcc^i: L. 21. Surely, therefore, the 

 Mendere has a title to be the Simois of Homer. But the claim of 

 the Scamander is very dubious. Great stress has been laid upon the 

 relative size of the rivers, of which, if you will for a while tolerate 

 the assertion, which, I think, I can support, Homer no where makes 

 any mention. He describes the Simois, as we have seen, as a moun- 

 tain-river descending from Ida, and sometimes with great violence. 

 I have been severely reprehended, as well as Sir VV. Gell, for mis- 

 stating the nature of the JNIcndere river, and Chevalier's conjecture, 

 that it was in summer inconsiderable, has met with equal severity. 



