Page:History of Art in Primitive Greece - Mycenian Art Vol 1.djvu/262

Troy. 239 charioteers were obliged to look out for an opening in the " high-banked " river, foot passengers found no difficulty in crossing the stream almost everywhere ; for except after heavy rains, the water is never above knee-deep, whilst the current is almost dry in its lower course. The silence of the poet is easily accounted for on that best of reasons : there was so very little to tell people who were supposed to know as much as he himself did. But incidentally, as it were, in reality because the dramatic situation required it, we discover that the Scamander flowed near the spot where the two armies met. This we learn in the fine episode relating to the engagement that took place on its banks and in its very bed ; when the Scamander, aided by the Simois, like a summer storm suddenly rises in his anger and mightily strives to arrest and drown the son of Peleus.^ The part played by the Simois in this incident is such as would befit a simple affluent of the principal river of the country. The Scamander takes the leading part ; he it is who begins the strife, and long bears the whole burden on his shoulders ; he waits to the very last moment before he shouts to the Simois, when the obstinate resistance of Peleide makes the issue of the battle doubtful. That the twin rivers mingled their currents close to the scene of action is self-evident ; how else are we to understand the Simois having heard the call of his brother stream ? Their junction must then have been in that low stretch of ground immediately in front of the town, which at that time was watered by the many arms of the Scamander, but is now covered by a vast morass, into which the Dumbrek-su loses itself. The spot would thus be at the extreme limit of the battle-field, but close to it, ** in the green meadow, near the meeting of the two rivers, where Hera and Athene unharness their horses and leave the chariot to join the army and instil fresh courage into the dispirited Greeks, whom the Trojans are pursuing in every direction. On the other hand, the two fountains, of different temperatures, are equally to seek at Hissarlik and Bunarbashi. Yet we are loth to believe that they are mere fabrications of the poet. To have aroused the interest of his auditors by simple mention of them, the springs must have recalled a natural feature familiar to them all. Had nothing of the sort ever met their gaze, the 1 Iliad,