43.

Ida is thought to be appropriately described by Homer, as abounding with springs on account of the multitude of rivers which issue from it, particularly where Dardania as far as Scepsis lies at its foot, and the places about Ilium.

Demetrius, who was acquainted with these places, (for he was a native,) thus speaks of them: “There is a height of Ida called Cotylus; it is situated about 120 stadia above Scepsis, and from it flow the Scamander, the Granicus, and the Æsepus;1434 the two last, being the contributions of many smaller sources, fall into the Propontis, but the Scamander, which has but a single source, flows towards the west. All these sources are in the neighbourhood of each other, and are comprised within a circuit of 20 stadia. The termination of the Æsepus is farthest distant from its commencement, namely, about 500 stadia.”

We may, however, ask why the poet says,

“They came to the fair fountains, whence burst forth two streams of the eddying Scamander, one flowing with water warm,”1435

that is, hot; he proceeds, however,

“around issues vapour as though caused by fire—the other gushes out in the summer, cold like hail, or frozen as snow,”

for no warm springs are now found in that spot, nor is the source of the Scamander there, but in the mountain, and there is one source instead of two.1436 It is probable that the [Pg 370]

[CAS. 602] warm spring has failed, but the cold spring flowing from the Scamander along a subterraneous channel emerges at this place; or, because the water was near the Scamander, it was called the source of that river, for there are several springs, which are said to be its sources.