Where then are the ridges defcribed fo apropos by Mr. Bryant ? If human eyes could fee the altar of Lectum from Ilium, much more could thofe of Jupiter view Ilium from Gargarus; a lefs distance from a higher fummit. Indeed the topography of the country confirms Strabo beyond confutation. On the fouth of the plain the hills rife gradually up to Gargarus, which is a prominent feature* in the outline, and the only one of the fummits of Ida which is feen from the plain. Homer confidered it as the highest point of Ida, and therefore chose that throne for the King of the Gods. It is perhaps 25 miles from the Hellefpont, and domineers over the whole country. The fituation was still more appropriate, fince he was the tutelar Deity of the town of Gargara ενθα δε οιτεμένος τε βωμος τε θυηεις.” Now if the reader willes to be acquainted with the strength of eyesight Homer allots to his Gods, he will find in the Iliad § this account of Neptune, Meantime the Monarch of the wat'ry main NOTES. See the adjoined View from the Sigean Promontory. + Where he had a fane and an altar for facrifice. 1 Ožus Dear planos eis тa navla ideiv. Euripid. ex Stobao.- Hom. II. xiii. 1. 10. Upon the fame fyftem with Mr. Bryant we might difpute the distance of Egæ, fince Neptune went thither from Salamis in three strides. On the nature of the Plain and of the Rivers. The maps of the country will tell Mr. Bryant that this view of Neptune was taken from a much greater distance than that of his brother Jupiter. Since, therefore, the lofty fummit of Gargarus is feen from the plain, and forms a commanding feature in the outline of the landscape; I conceive all objections of this fort are thoroughly answered, and the reader will admire the grandeur with which Homer exalts his Sovereign of the Gods, more, perhaps, than if he had conformed to the short-fighted system of Mr. Bryant. The fame precision which points out fo accurately the fituation of the plain, is also observable in the different epithets and defcriptions which are applied to it in the Iliad. The fertility of it is noticed more than once, and the district of Troy is generally marked out as a rich foil, the Teoin gibwa. The lower part of the plain is, in general, defcribed as overgrown with reeds and aquatic plants, the confequences probably of a marsh near the junction of the rivers, which is mentioned by Homer* once in the 21ft Book. Thus when Diomede and Ulyffes are engaged lon their night excursion, the latter suspends the arms of Dolon upon a Marsh Myrtle (Muginn) † and marks the road by which he is to return with heaps of reeds (Aovaxes), ‡ and branches of the myrtle. The various characteristics of the Simois and Scamander, are pointed out with a still greater degree of minutenefs, and every where with the fame accuracy. They joined their waters in the ↑ Hom. II. 1. x. ver. 466, †67. Also the μugin is mentioned II. xxi. ver. 18. Plain, * Plain, for in the fifth book, Juno and Minerva descend at their confluence. The Scamander rofe in the Plain, near the Scæan Gate, from two fources, which are thus described in the † 22nd Book of the Iliad: Next by Scamander's double fource they bound, Whose polish'd bed receives the falling rills; Where Troy's fair Dames 'ere yet alarm'd by Greece, It was owing to the fituation of thefe fources at the foot of Ida, that in "Summer's heat" the ftream was not dried up, being fed by the gradual and conftant vapours, which filter through the earth. But the mountain torrents, which depend entirely on the rains of Autumn, or the melting of the fnows in Spring, always disappear during the Summer in this warm climate. The epithets applied by Homer to the Scamander, in different parts of his work, are αγλαον ύδωρ, καλα ρέεθρα, ανθεμόεις, ηιοεις, αργυροδίνης, δίνεις, ευρρειος, Eupgoos and once or twice, particularly in the 21st Book,‡ Baludivneis and μeyas Tolaμos Baludivns. The meadow, through which it runs, μεγας πόλαμος βαθυδίνης. εύρροος NOTES. Hom. II. v. ver. 774.- Hom. Il. 1. xxii. ver. 147. and feq. ↑ Hom. II. 1. xxi. ver. 15, ver. 329 and paffim. is is also styled the *"flowry mead of the Scamander." The other river is mentioned lefs frequently, but fome of its characteristics may, however, be traced in different parts of the Iliad. In the 21ft book † the Xanthus calls in these terms on his ally the Simois, Hafte my Brother flood, And check this mortal who controuls a God.- In the feventh book he is defcribed as The gulphy Simois rolling to the main, We fee then that whilft the Scamander is pointed out as a clear, beautiful, perennial stream, the Simois is characterised as a violent, unequal mountain torrent rolling down in his "black furge," ftones, trees, and dead bodies. It appears alfo that below the junction, the waters of both took the name of Scamander, for in the paffage juft quoted from the twenty-first book, we find the Xanthus calling to the Simois for affiftance, which would have been very useless, unless the battle was fought below the confluence. NOTES. Ἔσαν δ' ἐν λειμῶνι Σκαμανδρίω ανθεμόεντι. Hom. Il. ii. ver. 467. + Hom. II. 1. xxi. v. 308. and feq. No |