Scamander

Scamander (Skamandros), also called Xanthus, was the god of the river that flowed across the plain of Troy. In Homer’s Iliad he turns against Achilles when the hero fills his stream with Trojan dead, and he is stopped only when Hephaestus sets the plain and the river on fire. In later genealogies he is also the ancestor of Trojan kings.

Parentage and Names

Hesiod lists Scamander among the rivers born to Oceanus and Tethys (Theogony 337–345). The Iliad gives him a different father: it calls Xanthus the river “whom immortal Zeus begot” (Iliad 21.2). Homer says that the river is called Xanthus by the gods and Scamander by men (Iliad 20.74). Homer also calls it “the great deep-eddying river” and the opponent of Hephaestus in the battle of the gods (Iliad 20.73).

The river rises at two springs near Troy, one flowing with warm water and steam, the other cold as hail or snow even in summer; the Trojans’ washing-places stood beside them (Iliad 22.147–152). It is one of the rivers that flow from Mount Ida to the sea (Iliad 12.17–22). A priest of Scamander named Dolopion was honoured by the people like a god (Iliad 5.77–78). The Trojans offered the river bulls and let living horses sink in its eddies (Iliad 21.130–132). Hector’s infant son was called Scamandrius by his father, though others called him Astyanax (Iliad 6.402–403).

Scamander and Achilles

When Achilles returned to battle, he drove the Trojans to the ford of the river and cut the army in two. Many he killed and threw into the stream, taunting them that their river would not save them (Iliad 21.1–3, 21.130–135). Scamander grew angry and took the form of a man to speak to Achilles from the depths. He said that Achilles was stronger than other men and that the gods always protected him, but that his beautiful stream was now choked with corpses and could no longer reach the sea. Achilles agreed to stop killing in the river, but not to stop killing the Trojans (Iliad 21.212–224).

The river then rose in a wave and pushed the dead onto the shore, while hiding the living in its deep eddies (Iliad 21.233–239). He called on his brother Simois to help him swell the flood and sweep Achilles away (Iliad 21.305–311). Poseidon and Athena encouraged the hero in human form and promised him he would not die by the river (Iliad 21.284–297).

Hera, fearing for Achilles, called on her son Hephaestus. He turned his fire on the plain and burned the dead, then the trees along the banks, and at last the river itself (Iliad 21.328–356). Scamander begged Hephaestus to stop, and swore to Hera that he would never again protect the Trojans from destruction, not even when Troy was burning (Iliad 21.356–376). Hera then told Hephaestus to stop, saying that it was not right to harm an immortal god so much for the sake of mortals (Iliad 21.377–380).

Scamander’s Descendants

In Apollodorus, Scamander is the father of Teucer, the king of the Troad, by the nymph Idaea. The people of the region were called Teucrians after him. When Dardanus came from Samothrace, Teucer gave him a share of the land and his daughter Batia (Library 3.12.1). Scamander also had a daughter Callirrhoe, who married Tros and bore Ilus, Assaracus, Ganymede and Cleopatra (Library 3.12.2), and a daughter Strymo, who in one account was the wife of Laomedon (Library 3.12.3). Through these daughters and grandchildren, Scamander is an ancestor of the Trojan royal house, including Priam’s father Laomedon.

Scamander Sources

Homer, Iliad 5.77–78, 6.402–403, 12.17–22, 20.72–74, 21.1–380, 22.147–152; Hesiod, Theogony 337–345; Apollodorus, Library 3.12.1–3.

See Also: Oceanus, Tethys, Trojan War, Achilles, Hera, Athena, Hephaestus, Poseidon, Simois