THE TROJAN HOMELAND

ILIAD

Odyssey


RIVERS





SANGARIOS: Krka

III; 184:
Ere now have I [Priam] journeyed to the land of Phrygia... and there I saw in multitudes the Phrygian warriors... that were then encamped along the banks of Sangarius. For I, too, being their ally, was numbered among them on the day when the Amazones came, the peers of men.

XVI; 717:
...Asius, that was uncle to horse-taming Hector, and own brother to Hecabe, but son of Dymas, that dwelt in Phrygia by the streams of Sangarius.

The northernmost river of Troy, the natural border, if you wish, of a land which had no defined borders, though breaching it might well have been construed as a territorial aggression.

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SATNIOEIS: Cetina

VI; 34:
...and the king of men, Agamemnon, slew Elatus that dwelt in steep Pedasos by the banks of fair-flowing Satnioeis.

XIV; 445:
Then far the first did swift Aias, son of Oleus, leap upon Satnius and wound him with a thrust of his sharp spear, even the son of Enops, whom a peerless Naiad nymph conceived to Enops,* as he tended his herds by the banks of Satnioeis.

XXI; 86:
"—Altes that is lord over the war-loving Leleges, holding steep Pedasos on the Satnioeis."

The Satnioes rose in the interior from a plain (now Perucko lake) at the foot of mount Dinara (1831 mts.), gradually cutting a deep winding course through the Biokovo range to debouch suddenly at Omis from a winding gorge of high sheer walls.


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*The name of Enops is surely a metathesis of Epones (cf. Altes), who likely tended horses in the fields at the source of the Satnioes.


SKAMANDROS: Naro, Narenta, Neretva
    XII; 17:
    ...then verily did Poseidon and Apollo take counsel to sweep away the wall, [of the Danaans] bringing against it the might of all the rivers that flow forth from the mountains of Ida to the sea—Rhesus and Heptaporus and Caresus and Rhodius, and Granicus and Aesepus, and goodly Scamander, and Simos, by the banks whereof many shields of bull's-hide and many helms fell in the dust... —of all these did Phoebus Apollo turn the mouths together, and for nine days' space he drave their flood against the wall...
The great River of Troy, it rose deep in the interior from two Y-like sources in the Zelengora mountains, one being the Heptaporos (Ostrovaca) and the other the Skamandros itself. It was met in its course to the sea by eight tributaries, four on either side of its banks, with the exception of the Granikos (Ugrovaca) which, though a part of the watershed, disappeared into the ground before reaching the Skamandros.
The geological fact that the Skamandros cut transversally through the mountains of Ida (Biokovo) lent it a wide diversity of geological curiosities. And, that it has been a natural highway to and from the coast and the interior since neolithic times, has consistently contributed to a diversity of life styles in the its rich, earthy valleys running more-or-less perpendicular to its course.
Of Skamandros' tributaries, and its mighty torrents, is the following—

IN THE ORDER LISTED ABOVE:

RHESOS

  like Karhesos (Trebizat), flows but then dries
   
HEPTAPOROS
  with Skamandros passes 'seven mouths'
   

KARHESOS

  like Rhesos (Bregava), flows in cascades
   
RHODIOS
  emerges from chasm in a loud thunder
   
GRANIKOS
  disappears into crags in the ground
   

AISEPOS

  like Simoeis (Krka), drains two mountain lakes
   
SKAMANDROS
  mingles with waters of Heptaporos (Ostrovaca)
   

SIMOEIS

  like Aisepos (Rama), drains two muddy areas



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AISEPOS: Rama

A tributary of the SKAMANDROS (Neretva), meaning 'ever dank', was perhaps so called not only because it drained two marshy valleys, but also because of the mysterious and unpleasant character of the those living in the environs:

II; 824:
And they that dwelt in Zeleia beneath the nethermost foot of Ida, mean of wealth, that drink the dark water of Aesepus, even the Troes, these again were led by the glorious son of Lycaon, Pandarus...

IV; 89:
And she [Athene in the guise of Laodocus] found Lycaon's son, [Pandarus] peerless and stalwart, as he stood, and about him were the stalwart ranks of the shield-bearing hosts that followed him from the streams of Aesepos.

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ASOPOS: Mala Neretva

The last tributary of the SKAMANDROS (Neretva), it drains the marshes of HYPOPLAKIA (Jezero Kuti)and debouches a short distance away at Opuzen.

IV; 376:
"Once verily [says Agamemnon] he came to Mycenae, not as an enemy, but as a guest, in company with godlike Polyneices, to gather a host; for in that day they were waging a war against the sacred walls of Thebe, and earnestly did they make prayer that glorious allies be granted them... So when they had departed and were got forth upon their way, and had come to Asopos with deep reeds, that coucheth in grass, there did the Achaeans send forth Tydeus on an embassage. And he went his way, and found the many sons of Cadmus feasting in the house of mighty Eteocles. Then, for all he was a stranger, the horseman Tydeus feared not, all alone though he was amid the many Cadmeians, but challenged them all to feats of strength, and in every one vanquished he them full easily... But the Cadmeians, goaders of horses, waxed wroth, and as he journeyed back, brought and set a strong ambush... But Tydeus even upon these let loose a shameful fate, and slew them all..."

The name is likely derived from a-, an intensive inseparable prefix, + the Illyrian reduplicative-type root sipo-, connoting a 'soppy' sense, as if meaning 'very soggy and marshy', indeed an apt despcription.


GRANIKOS: Ugrovacæa.
A tributary of the SKAMANDROS (Neretva) which, oddly, never meets the Skamandros, but, rather, disappears into the porous ground near Mostar.

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HEPTAPOROS: Ostrovaca.

One of the two sources of the Skamandros (Neretva), the other being the Skamandros itself, so called because its waters, or those of the Skamandros with which they have mingled, pass the mouths—or 'pores'—of seven other tributaries. Yet there are eight other tributaries below the Heptaporos—four on either side—and so the name may only be explained by the fact the Granikos (Ugrovaca) never reaches the Skamandros but, rather, disappears into the porous ground.

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KARHESOS: Trebizat
A tributary of the Skamandros (Neretva), so called because of its four beautiful hair-like fan-shaped falls.

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RHESOS: Bregava.
A tributary of the SKAMANDROS (Neretva), apparently so-called because of its off-and-on seasonal floodings when its otherwise dry and stony bed becomes gorged with snow waters and conger eels.

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RHODIOS: Buna
A tributary of the Skamandros (Neretva) which emerges from a deep chasm by the same token its companion tributary, the Granikos (Ugrovaca) disappears into the porous ground.

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SIMOEIS: Krupa
    XX; 51:
    And over against her [Athene] shouted Ares, dread as a dark whirlwind, calling with shrill tones to the Trojans from the topmost citadel, [Pergamos] and now again as he sped by the shore of Simois over Callicolone.
    XXI; 305:
    Nor yet would Scamander abate his fury, but was even more wroth against the son of Peleus, and raising himself on high he made the surge of his flood into a crest, and he called with a shout to Simois: "Dear brother, the might of this man let us stay... fill thy streams with water from thy springs, and arouse all thy torrents..."
A tributary of the Skamandros (Neretva), meaning 'snub-nosed', was so called because it drained—like the nose drains the nasal mucus—the two muddy areas of the Ileian Plain (Hutovo Blato). It flowed into the Skamandros opposite Kallikolone (Gabela, Strari Grad)—

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XANTHOS [ZANTHOS]: Norin
    VI; 1:
    So was dread strife of the Trojans and Achaeans left to itself... as they aimed one at the other their bronze-tipped spears between the Simos and the streams of Xanthus.
    VIII; 560:
    ...even in such multitudes between the ships and the streams of Xanthus shone the fires that the Trojans kindled before the face of Ilios. A thousand fires were burning in the plain and by each sat fifty men in the glow of the blazing fire.
    XXI; 1:
    But when they were now come to the ford of the fair-flowing river, even eddying Xanthus that immortal Zeus begat, there Achilles cleft them [the Trojans] asunder, and the one part he drave to the plain toward the city... but the half of them were pent into the deep-flowing river with its silver eddies.
    XXI; 144:
    Upon him rushed Achilles, and Asteropaeus stood forth from the river to face him... and courage was set in his heart by Xanthus, being wroth because of the youths slain in battle, of whom Achilles was making havoc along the stream and had no pity.
    XXI; 328:
    But Hera called aloud, seized with fear for Achilles, lest the great deep-eddying River should sweep him away. And forthwith she spake unto Hephaestus, her dear son: "Rouse thee, Crook-foot, my child! for it was against thee that we deemed eddying Xanthus to be matched in fight. Nay, bear thou aid with speed... do thou along the banks of Xanthus burn up his trees, and beset him about with fire..."
    XXIV; 692:
    But when they were now come to the ford of the fair-flowing river, even eddying Xanthus, that immortal Zeus begat, then Hermes departed to high Olympus, and Dawn, the saffron-robed, was spreading over the face of all the earth.
A tributary of the Skamandros (Neretva), meaning 'yellowish' (as of a muddy river), a name which does not tally with the otherwise pristine waters of the Troic Plain (Glibusa Marshes). But Zanthos, meaning 'very flowery', indeed describes the dense marsh vegetation of bulrushes and reeds covering this plain. It was in the waters of the Zanthos and over the Troic Plain that many dramatic episodes of the Trojan War occurred.



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