Karamenderes River

Karamenderes is a river located entirely within the Çanakkale Province of Turkey. It flows west from Mount Ida and empties into the Aegean Sea near the Troy Historical National Park. According to the Iliad, the battles of the Trojan War were fought in the lower courses of Karamenderes. Known in antiquity as Scamander, Scamandrus or Skamandros (Ancient), it was according to Homer called Xanthus or Xanthos by the gods and Scamander by men; though it probably owed the name Xanthus to the yellow or brownish colour of its water. Notwithstanding this distinct declaration of the poet that the two names belonged to the same river, Pliny the Elder mentions the Xanthus and Scamander as two distinct rivers, and describes the former as flowing into the Portus Achaeorum, after having joined the Simoeis. Pseudo-Plutarch (ca. 300 CE) tells us that Scamander went mad during the mysteries of Rhea and flung himself into the river Xanthus, which was then renamed to Scamander. He also says that an herb "like a vetch" grows in the river which bears a seed pod that rattles when ripe, and whoever possesses this plant "fears no apparition nor the sight of any God." In regard to the colour of the water, it was believed to have even the power of dyeing the wool of sheep which drank of it. Homer states that the river had two sources close to the city of Troy, one sending forth

Flows through: Turkey.

River data from Wikidata (CC0); lengths normalised to a common unit.