DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.25180#0004
30
On the Site of the Homeric Troy.
ancient town of Sigeum, the ruins of which are covered by a layer of rubbish 6|
feet thick. At the foot of the cape, on its north-east side, are two more conical
heroic tombs, of which one is attributed to Patroklus, whilst the other, which is
situated close to the shore, is identified with the tumulus of Achilles. The site
certainly answers the description which Homer gives (Odyss. xxiv. 75) of this
hero’s sepulchre:—“ In this (golden urn) lie (thy) white hones, O illustrious
Achilles, mixed together with those of dead Patroklus, son of Menoetius; hut
separately those of Antilochus, whom thou hast honoured most of all other
companions after the death of Patroklus. And around them, we, the sacred
army of the warlike Argives, heaped up a large and blameless tomb, on the
projecting shore of the wide Hellespont, so that it might he seen far off from the
sea by those men who are now horn, and by those who shall hereafter he born.”
Here, at length, we are in the celebrated Plain of Troy, which is 8^ miles
long, If to 5 miles broad, and is hounded on the north side by the Hellespont,
and on all other sides by continuous heights, which gradually descend from the
Ida mountains. On the east side the line of elevations is interrupted by another
valley, miles long and If mile broad. It joins the Great Plain, and is
bordered to the north and east by hills, and to the south by an uninterrupted
mountainous chain, of from 100 to 333 feet high, which extends far into the
Great Plain and terminates in the famous mount Hissarlik. A second, but much
smaller valley, extends at the extremity of the Great Plain to the east. The
shore of the Plain of Troy is bounded as aforesaid, on the west by Cape
Sigeum, on the east by the hills of Intepe or Rlioeteum. The plain is at first
so low that there are in the beach large and deep tanks, whose waters are always
at the same level, because what is lost by evaporation is supplied by infiltration
from the sea. Thence the surface of the plain rises gradually, but its whole
rise is only 46f feet in 8f miles. It is of exuberant fertility, but one half of
it consists of marshes, most of which have certainly originated from neglected
cultivation. There is however no doubt that there were already marshes here in
the time of Homer, and that some of them were close to the city, for, according
to the poet (Odyss. xiv. 472-475), Ulysses says to Eumaeus:—“but, when we
reached the city and the lofty wall, we lay down, crouching under our arms,
near the town, in the thick bushes, the reeds, and the marsh.”
The Plain is traversed in all its length from south to north by the Scamander,
the name of which can still be recognised in its modern form “ Mendere.”
This river rises from a cold and a hot spring in a valley near the summit of Ida,
and, after a course of thirty-six miles, it issues near the small town of Hum-kale into
On the Site of the Homeric Troy.
ancient town of Sigeum, the ruins of which are covered by a layer of rubbish 6|
feet thick. At the foot of the cape, on its north-east side, are two more conical
heroic tombs, of which one is attributed to Patroklus, whilst the other, which is
situated close to the shore, is identified with the tumulus of Achilles. The site
certainly answers the description which Homer gives (Odyss. xxiv. 75) of this
hero’s sepulchre:—“ In this (golden urn) lie (thy) white hones, O illustrious
Achilles, mixed together with those of dead Patroklus, son of Menoetius; hut
separately those of Antilochus, whom thou hast honoured most of all other
companions after the death of Patroklus. And around them, we, the sacred
army of the warlike Argives, heaped up a large and blameless tomb, on the
projecting shore of the wide Hellespont, so that it might he seen far off from the
sea by those men who are now horn, and by those who shall hereafter he born.”
Here, at length, we are in the celebrated Plain of Troy, which is 8^ miles
long, If to 5 miles broad, and is hounded on the north side by the Hellespont,
and on all other sides by continuous heights, which gradually descend from the
Ida mountains. On the east side the line of elevations is interrupted by another
valley, miles long and If mile broad. It joins the Great Plain, and is
bordered to the north and east by hills, and to the south by an uninterrupted
mountainous chain, of from 100 to 333 feet high, which extends far into the
Great Plain and terminates in the famous mount Hissarlik. A second, but much
smaller valley, extends at the extremity of the Great Plain to the east. The
shore of the Plain of Troy is bounded as aforesaid, on the west by Cape
Sigeum, on the east by the hills of Intepe or Rlioeteum. The plain is at first
so low that there are in the beach large and deep tanks, whose waters are always
at the same level, because what is lost by evaporation is supplied by infiltration
from the sea. Thence the surface of the plain rises gradually, but its whole
rise is only 46f feet in 8f miles. It is of exuberant fertility, but one half of
it consists of marshes, most of which have certainly originated from neglected
cultivation. There is however no doubt that there were already marshes here in
the time of Homer, and that some of them were close to the city, for, according
to the poet (Odyss. xiv. 472-475), Ulysses says to Eumaeus:—“but, when we
reached the city and the lofty wall, we lay down, crouching under our arms,
near the town, in the thick bushes, the reeds, and the marsh.”
The Plain is traversed in all its length from south to north by the Scamander,
the name of which can still be recognised in its modern form “ Mendere.”
This river rises from a cold and a hot spring in a valley near the summit of Ida,
and, after a course of thirty-six miles, it issues near the small town of Hum-kale into