Page:History of Art in Primitive Greece - Mycenian Art Vol 1.djvu/244

Troy. 2 2 1 fighting takes place is between these two points, and there should be no difficulty in finding its situation on the ground, for the river divided it into two sections ; it must be spacious enough to allow of the flux and reflux of the troops engaged in the battle, yet narrow enough to have been crossed and re-crossed several times during the day. Nor is this all : we read in the fifth canto of the Iliad that Hera and Athene alight in the meadow from the chariot that has brought them from Olympus, close to the confluence of two streams, the Scamander and Simois. From this place they set out on foot towards the armies to join in the affray : it is self-evident, therefore, that the distance to be traversed to reach the battle-field was not great.^ There is yet another peculiarity which examination of the ground ought to disclose to us, could we expect to find perfect coincidence between its ancient state and that which it has at the present day. We allude to the springs, one hot and the other cold, said to have bubbled up outside the town in front of the Scaean Gates ; ^ thither, before the siege, the Trojan women were wont to go in order that they might fill their pitchers or wash their bright clothes. Near this spring was accomplished the last act of the drama, the overthrow of Hector by Achylles. Little or nothing is to be made out of the information relat- ing to a swamp in which Odysseus and his companions lay in ambush among bulrushes ; ^ morasses there must have been then as now, in a plain which, owing to its very slight incline, is easily turned into a vast lake after the rains. These waters after the floods are very sluggish, and linger in the disused arms of the river, until they meet near to the sea-shore a high sandy bank, which the north wind moves and impels along (Fig. 60). Having now passed in review the conditions as to the situation which any proposed site for Troy should satisfy, it remains to examine how far those that have been put forward harmonize with the main data of the programme. The hills which, each in turn, have been named as the probable site in question are Hissarlik, Tshiblak, Akshi Kioi, and Bunarbashi, to enumerate them as they present themselves as you enter the valley of the Scamander from the sea. 1 Iliad. 2 ji^id, 3 Odyssey.