covery there made of medals of the city. Once in possession of this important point, a light breaks in upon the dark labyrinth of Troas; we stand with Strabo upon the very spot whence he deduced his observations concerning other objects in the district; looking down upon the Simoisian plain, and viewing the junction of two rivers ("one flowing toward Sigeum, and the other toward Rhæteum," precisely as described by him) in front of the Iliensian city being guided, at the same time, to Callicolone, the village of the Hieans, and the sepulchres of Esyetes, Batieia, and Ilus, by the clue he has afforded. From the natural or artificial elevation of the territory on which the city stood, (an insulated object in the plain) we bebeld almost every landmark to which that author has alluded. The splendid spectacle presented toward the west by the snow-clad top of Samothrace, towering behind Imbrus, would baffle every attempt of delineation it rose with indescribable grandeur to a height beyond all I had seen for a long time; and while its etherial summit shone with inconceivable brightness in a sky without a cloud, seemed, notwithstanding its remote situation, as if its vastness would overwhelm all Troas, should an earthquake heave it from its base. Nearer to the eye appeared the mouth of the Hellespont, and Sigeum. On the south, the tomb of Æsyetes, by the road leading to Alexandria Troas ;* and less remote the Scamander, receiving Simois, or Callifat Water, at the boundary of the Simoisian plain.Toward the east, the Throsmos, with the sepulchres of Batieia and Ilus and far beyond, in the great chain of Ida, Gargarus opposed to Samothrace,t dignified by equal if not superior altitude, and beaming the same degree of splendour from the snows by which it was invested. * Ο νῦν δεικνύμενος τοῦ Αἰσυήτου τάφος κατὰ τὴν εἰς ̓Αλεξάνδρειαν ὁδόν. Strab. Geogr. lib. xiii. p. 863. Ed. Or. It is only by viewing the stupendous prospect afforded in these classical regions, that any adequate idea can be formed of Homer's powers as a painter, and of the accuracy which distinguishes what Mr. Wood (Essay on Homer, p. 132.) terms his celestial geography." Neptune placed on the top of Samothrace, commanding a prospect of Ida, Troy, and the fleet, observes Jupiter, upon Gargarus, turn his back pon Troas. What is intended by this averted posture of the god, other than that Gargarus was partially concealed by a cloud, while Samothrace remained unveiled; a circumstance so often realized? All the march of Juno, from Olympus, by Pieria and Amathia, to Athos; from Athos, by sea, to Lemnos; and thence to Imbros and Gargarus; is a correct delineation of the striking face of nature, in which the picturesque wildness and grandeur of real scenery is further adorned by a sublime poetical fiction. Hence it is evident that Homer must have lived in the neighbourhood of Troy; that he borrowed the scene of the Iliad (as stated by Mr. Wood, p. 182) from ocular examination; and the action of it, from the prevailing tradition of the times. 65 CHAP. V. DISTRICT OF TROAS. Ford of the Mender-Fountains of Bonarbashy-their Temperature-Possible Allusion to them in Homer-Antiquities of Bonarbashy-Heights called the Acropolis-Ancient TumuliProbable Origin of the supposed Acropolis-Observations by the Polar Star-Journey to the Source of the Mender—Basalt Pillars-Enia-Remarkable Tomb-Plain of Beyramitch-Turkmanlé-Bonarbashy of Beyramitch-Warm Springs-Beyramitch-Antiquities-Kûchûnlû Têpe-Temple and Altars of Jupiter-Evgillar-Ascent to the Summit of Gargarus-Oratories of Hermits-View from the highest Point of the Mountain-Errors in the Geography of the Country-Appearance of the Idaan Chain toward LectumDangerous Situation of the Author. Ir was now time to visit Bonarbashy, a place of which so much has been written and said. It had long been a conspicuous object in sight; and appeared at a distance toward the south-east, upon an eminence commanding a very extensive view of all Troas. Returning, therefore, to Callifat, we took the ordinary road to it from Koum-kalè, and soon arrived at a ford of the Mender; at this time so broad and deep, that we were glad to hail some Turks at a considerable distance upon the opposite shore, and ask if it were passable. They answered in the affirmative; but we narrowly escaped being carried off, horses and all, by the torrent. We rode quite up to the girths, across a place two hundred feet wide, and the current was extremely rapid. It reminded me of those rivers in the north of Sweden, which fall into the Gulph of Bothnia. It was at this ford that my friend Mr. Gell, in a very different season of the year, was in danger of losing all the fruits of his journey, by letting his papers fall into the river.* He stated the breadth of it as somewhat more than a hundred feet. In certain periods of the year, it inundates all the neighbouring Topography of Troy, p. 15. See also the very accurate representation of the Ford, with a view, from it, of Bonarbashy, in the 24th plate, p. 70. of the same work. I am able and anxious to bear ample testimony to Mr. Gell's accuracy, in all the engravings which have been made from his drawings. We were together in Constantinople, in 1800, and both visited Troas in the following year. Our journey took place in March, 1801: Mr. Gell did not arrive until December. territory; and the marks of such an inundation, caused by the branches of trees, reeds, and rushes, left by the water on the land, were visible a considerable distance from its banks, at the time we passed. It has been usual to consider this river bearing every character of the Scamander, as the Simois of Homer, for which I can find no authority whatsoever :* indeed, there is positive evidence to the contrary. All the principal battles of Homer were fought either on the banks of the Simois, or very near it; that is to say, within the Simoisian plain. Homer, enumerating the rivers brought to act against the Grecian rampart, thus characterizes the Simois : Thy stream, "Simois, whose banks with helmets and with shields If then we can point out any other passage which decides the position of the Scamander with regard to the Simois, we may identify the two rivers, without any reference to the circumstances of their origin, merely by the geography of the country. Such a passage occurs in the eleventh book of the Iliad, where it is recorded of Hector, that "He fought beside Scamander" "on the left of all the war, The Scamander being therefore on the left of the Trojan army, and the battle in the Simoisian plain, having in front the Grecian camp and the sea, the nature of the territory is sufficient to decide the relative position of the two rivers. The scene of action can only be reconciled with the plain of Callifat Osmack, bounded on the left, to a person facing the Hellespont, by the Mender;† which river as necessarily is proved to have been the Scamander of Homer. *It is quite amusing to observe the freedom of citation and palpable errors, whick have been tolerated. In Mons. Chevalier's Description of the Plain of Troy, we find the author (p. 3.) supporting the following observations, by references to the text of Homer: "I shall distinguish the impetuous course of the rapid Simois, and the limpid stream of the divine Scamander.' In the margin, the reader is directed to the 12th book of the Iliad, v. 21, 22; the 21st, v. 307; the 7th, v, 329; and also to the 12th, v. 21, &c. for authorities concerning the epithets thus given to the two rivers. If he takes for granted the fidelity of M. Chevalier, it is all very well; but the slightest examination of the passages referred to, dispels the illusion. Nothing is there said, either of impetuous and rapid Simois, or of the limpid stream of the Scamander. Yet the same author had found in Bayle's Dictionary, under the article Scamander,' (see p. 48) that Julia, the daughter of Augustus, met with the fate of Mr. Gell's Journals, which we also narrowly escaped, in fording the torrent of the Mender. † Mr. Wood (Essay on Homer, p. 89.) was thoroughly impressed with the necessity of admitting the Simois to be on the eastern side of the Scamander, by the remarks made upon Mr. Pope's map, in which the engraver had reversed the position, not only of the rivers, but also of the two promontories, Rhateum and Sigeum: "0 that," says he, "the Scamander runs on that side of Troy which belongs to the Simois.” From After having passed the ford, we galloped up to the agha's mansion at Bonarbashy, the name of which place, literally translated, signifies The head of the springs.** Immediately on my arrival, I hastened to them, keeping a thermometer exposed and pendent the whole way, as the sun was then setting, and a avourable opportunity offered for an accurate investigation of their temperature. Some peasants who conducted me, related the tradition concerning the supposed heat and cold of the different sources; one only being, as they said, a hot spring. I desired to examine that first, and for this purpose was taken to a place about half a mile from the agha's house; to the most distant of the several springs; for in fact there are many, bursting from different crevices, through a stratum of breccia, or puddingstone, covered by a superincumbent layer of limestone. the number of the springs, the Turks call the place Kirk Geuse, or Forty Eyes.' I then asked the peasants if this was the hot spring, as it evidently was not the same described by Mons. Chevalier. They replied, that its greatest heat might be observed during winter, and therefore that it must be now hot.f It was a shallow pool of water, formed by the united product of many small streams, issuing from several cavities in the rock I have mentioned. This pool was quite overshadowed by some distant hills, behind which the sun was then setting; it was therefore a proper time for ascertaining the temperature, both of the air and the water. A north wind had prevailed during the day, but the sky had been more than usually serene, and without a cloud: not a breath of air was then stirring. I first tried the water with my hand; it felt warm, and even the rock near and above the surface of the water was sensibly affected by heat. I then had recourse to my thermometer; it was graduated according to the scale of Celsius; but I shall give the result according to the corresponding elevation of Fabrenheit; being more adapted to common observation in England. When exposed to the external air, the mercury stood at 48°; or sixteen degrees above the freezing point. I then placed it in one of the crevices whence the water issued, so as to immerse both the tube and scale: in two minutes, the mercury rose to 62°, and there remained. I then tried the same experiment in all the other crevices, and found the heat of the water the same, although * Places are named in Wales exactly after the same manner; as, PEN TRE FYNNYN The head of the three springs.' Almost the only winter the Turks had in 1801 was during the month of March. The peasants believe the heat to be greater at that season of the year, merely because the external air is colder. The temperature of the water is always the same. the temperature of the external air was lowered to 47°. From hence I proceeded to the hot spring of M. Chevalier; and could not avoid being struck by the plausible appearance it offered, for those who wished to find here a hot and cold spring, as fountains of the Scamander. It gushes perpendicularly out of the earth, rising from the bottom of a marble and granite reservoir, and throwing up as much water as the famous fountain of Holy well in Flintshire. Its surface seems vehemently boiling; and during cold weather, the condensed vapour above it causes the of a cloud of smoke over the well. The marappearance ble and granite slabs around it are of great antiquity; and its appearance, in the midst of surrounding trees, is highly picturesque. The mercury had now fallen, in the external air, to 46°, the sun being down; but when the thermometer was held under water, it rose as before, to 62o. Notwithstanding the warmth of this spring, fishes were seen sporting in the reservoir. When held in the stream of either of the two channels which conduct the product of these springs into a marsh below, the temperature of the water diminished, in proportion to its distance from the source whence it flowed. I repeated similar observations afterward, both at midnight, and in the morning before sunrise; but always with the same results. Hence it is proved, that the fountains of Bonarbashy are warm springs; of which there are many, of different degrees of temperature, in all the district through which the Mender flows, from Ida to the Hellespont. That the two channels which convey them toward the Scamander may have been the AOIAIПHгAI of Homer,* is at least possible: and when it is considered, that a notion still prevails in the country, of one being hot, and the other cold; that the women of the place bring all their garments to be washed in these springs, not according to the casual visits of ordinary industry, but as an ancient and established custom, in the exercise of which they proceed with all the pomp and songs of a public ceremony; it becomes perhaps probable. The remains of customs belonging to the most remote ages are discernible in the shape and construction of the wicker cars, in which the linen is brought upon these occasions, and which are used all The following is a literal translation of the words of the Venetian scholiast, upon II. X. 148. "Two fountains from the Scamander rise in the plain; but the fountains of the Scamander are not in the plain." The full description of such a ceremony occurs in the sixth book of the Odyssey, where it is related, that the daughter of Alcinous, with all the maidens of her train, proceeds to wash the linen of her family. According to Pausanias, there was an ancient picture to be seen in his time, in which this subject was represented. |