Book 13
1.43
We may, however, ask why the poet says, They came to the fair fountains, whence burst forth two streams of the eddying Scamander, one flowing with water warm,Il xxii. 147. that is, hot; he proceeds, however, around issues vapour as though caused by fire—the other gushes out in the summer, cold like hail, or frozen as snow, for no warm springs are now found in that spot, nor is the source of the Scamander there, but in the mountain, and there is one source instead of two.We owe to the researches of M. de Choiseul Gouffier, published without his knowledge in 1793, an acquaintance with these two springs, which present nearly the same phenomena as described by Homer. These springs have since been seen by many travellers; they are situated at the foot of a small hill on which is Bounar-bachi, and about 6500 toises in a straight line from the mouth of the Menderé. The stream which flows from them never fails, and after having run for some time parallel to the Menderé, it turns suddenly to throw itself into the Archipelago, near the middle of the interval which separates the ruins of Alexandria-Troas from the cape Koum-kale, but still leaving traces of a bed through which it formerly flowed to join the Menderé. We are now convinced that this little river is the Scamander of Homer, that the present Menderé is the Simoïs of that poet, and that the ancient Ilium, which was near the sources of the Scamander, must have been situated on the heights of Bounar-bachi. In the time of Homer these two rivers united together and discharged themselves into the sea by the same mouth: but the course of the Scamander has been changed for a long time, since, according to Pliny, (v. c. 33,)a part of its waters spread themselves over a marsh, and the remainder flowed unto the Aegaean Sea, between Alexandria-Troas and Sigeum. This ancient author therefore gave to the little river (which he called Palaescamander, the old Scamander) exactly the same course which the stream Bounar-bachi still follows. This change of direction in the course of the river appears to me to have been anterior to the time of Demetrius of Scepsis, for this alone can explain his error. For, no longer finding a stream which runs on the left of the present Menderé, and which might represent the Scamander, he thought proper to transfer this latter name to the Simoïs, and to look for the site of the Ilium of Homer, as also of the plain which was the scene of the combats described by the poet, on the right of this river. Thence he is persuaded that the town of the Ilienses occupied the same site as the ancient Ilium, and that the stream of the Tschiblak was the Simoïs. I must remark that the Menderé is a torrent, the waters of which fail during a great part of the year, whilst the stream of the Bounar-bachi always continues to flow. This advantage is probably the reason why it preserved the name of Scamander to the sea, although it ran into the bed of the Simoïs and was far inferior to this torrent in the length of its course. Hence it may be perceived how the name of Scamander, now changed into that of Menderé, has remained attached to this ancient mouth, how ultimately it was given to the whole course of the Simoïs, and how Demetrius of Scepsis was led into error by the change in the course of the true Scamander, and by the transfer of its name to the Simois.—Voyage Pittorcsque de la Grèce par M. de Choiseul Gouffier. Le Voyage dans la Troad, par M. Lechevalier. The Topography of Troy, W. Gell.—Gossellin. It is probable that the warm spring has failed, but the cold spring flowing from the Scamander along a subterraneous channel emerges at this place; or, because the water was near the Scamander, it was called the source of that river, for there are several springs, which are said to be its sources.
