THE TROAD. 



575 



is inconsistent with the account given of it in the seventh book ; the 

 disappearance of the wall (which itself was in all probability an in- 

 vention of the poet) was accounted for already in the seventh book, 

 where it would naturally occur. In the twelfth it has no connection 

 whatever with the narration, to which I would add that the absurdity of 

 bringing all the rivers of Ida to co-operate in the work of destruction 

 is so great and obvious, that it could only be the addition of some sub- 

 sequent rhapsodist unacquainted with the nature of the country. * 



There may be other passages, but there are none in my recollection 

 where Homer describes Scamander as issuing from Ida, or descending 

 from Idcean Jove. It is true, as I have already shown, that Simois 

 descended from the mountain, but we are at full liberty to look 

 elsewhere for the Scamander. Being ignorant of the geography of 

 Ida near Bairamitche, and finding in Wood's Map a continued chain 

 of hills from Bounarbachi southwards to Scepsis, and the sources of 

 the river that flows past it, and which he mistook for the Scamander, 

 I certainly consider the hills behind Bounarbachi as part of the 

 v7rupeHx, or roots of Ida, as that name includes in Strabo the whole of 

 the mountain-district, as it did in Homer's time ; and indeed as the 

 plain of Bairamitche, though it extends between this range and the 

 summit of Kasdaghi, does not cut through the chain behind Scepsis, 

 the hills of Bounarbachi, seem still to be only the claws of the large 

 Scolopendra, to which it was likened by the ancient writers. 

 Supposing, however, that the hills at Bounarbachi are " no part of 

 Ida" they do not therefore become less likely to have been the seat 

 of Troy. I do not remember in the Iliad any passage where Troy is 

 said to have been situated on that mountain, though it stood near 

 the fountains of Scamander. The only remaining objection to our 

 Scamander is its size, which has been thought inconsistent with the 



* Though the passage supposed to be interpolated is unquestionably ancient, I still 

 should think it not genuine from the mention of the YjfilQeov yevo; avfy&v, demi-gods, a race 

 of beings with which the old bard himself seems to have been totally unacquainted. I 

 question if they are alluded to in any genuine passage of Homer. Castor, Pollux, and 

 even Hercules, are always represented as men and as mortal. 



