[284] The signification of the name Sigéum appears in an anecdote of an Athenian lady, celebrated for her wit, not her virtue. Wearied by the loquacity of a visitor, she inquired of him, “Whether he did not come from the Hellespont?” On his answering in the affirmative, she asked him “how it happened that he was so little acquainted with the first of the places there?” On his demanding, “Which of them?” she pointedly replied, “Sigéum;” thus indirectly bidding him to be silent.—(Diogenes Laertius.) Chandler.
[285] Two promontories forming the bay before Troy.
[286] An island in the Ægean Sea.
[287] Annal. lib. ii. c. 54.
[288] Sir John Hobhouse says, “I traced all the windings of the Mendar, startling young broods of ducks, and flocks of turtle-doves, out of every bush. Nothing could be more agreeable than our frequent rambles along the banks of this beautiful stream. The peasants of the numerous villages, whom we frequently encountered ploughing with their buffaloes, or driving their creaking wicker cars laden with faggots from the mountains, whether Greeks or Turks, showed no inclination to interrupt our pursuits. The whole region was, in a manner, in possession of the Salsette’s men, parties of whom, in their white summer dresses, might be seen scattered over the plain, collecting the tortoises which swarm on the sides of the rivulet, and are found under every furze-bush.”—LETTER XXXIX. 4to.
[289] Callifat water is the Simois. Dr. Clarke says, that he saw in this stream hundreds of tortoises, which, being alarmed at his approach, fell from its banks into the water, as well as from the overhanging branches and thick underwood, among which these animals,—of all others the least adapted to climb trees,—had singularly obtained a footing. Wild-fowl, also, were in abundance.
[290] “Turks were employed raising enormous blocks of marble from foundations surrounding the place; possibly the identical works constructed by Lysimachus, who fenced New Ilium with a wall. The appearance of the structure exhibited that colossal and massive style of architecture, which bespeaks the masonry of the early ages of Grecian history.”
[291] 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. Neptune, placed on the top of Samothrace, commanding a prospect of Ida, Troy, and the fleet, observes Jupiter upon Gargarus turn his back upon 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 realised. All the march of Juno, from Olympus, by Pieria and Æmathia to Atlas, by sea, to Lemnos; and thence to Imbrus and Gargarus; is a correct delineation of the striking face of nature, in which the picturesque wildness and grandeur of real scenery are 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 from ocular examination; and the action of it from the prevailing tradition of the times.—Clarke.
[292] Homer; Herodotus; Diodorus; Strabo; Suetonius; Pliny; Tacitus; Plutarch; Aulus Gellius; Arrian; Justin; Chandler; Bryant; Rennell; Clarke; Gell; Hobhouse; Franklin.
[293] Drummond’s Origines.