Scamander

, or Scam andros , a celebrated river of Troas, rising at the east of mount Ida, and falling into the sea below Sigæum. It receives the Simois in its course, and towards its mouth it is very muddy, and flows through marshes. This river, according to Homer, was called Xanthus by the gods, and Scamander by men. The waters of the Scamander had the singular property of giving a beautiful colour to the hair or the wool of such animals as bathed in them; and from this circumstance the three godde es, Minerva, Juno, and Venus, bathed there before they appeared before Paris, to obtain the golden apple. It was usual among all the virgins of Troas to bathe in the Scamander, when they were arrived to nubile years, and to offer to the god their virginity in these words, Λαβε μου, Σκαμανδρε, την παεθενιαν . The god of the Scamander had a regular priest, and sacrifices offered to him. Some suppose that the river received its name from Scamander the son of Corybas. Ælian , De Natura Animalium , bk. 8 , ch. 21 .— Strabo , bks. 1 & 13.— Pliny , bk. 5 , ch. 30 .— Mela , bk. 1 , ch. 18 .— Homer , Iliad , bk. 5 .— Plutarch. — Æschines , ltr. 10 .――A son of Corybas and Demodice, who brought a colony from Crete into Phrygia, and settled at the foot of mount Ida, where he introduced the festivals of Cybele, and the dances of the Corybantes. He some time after lost the use of his senses and threw himself into the river Xanthus, which ever after bore his name. His son-in-law Teucer succeeded him in the government of the colony. He had two daughters, Thymo and Callirhoe. Apollo dor us , bk. 3 , ch. 12 .— Diodorus , bk. 4 .