#simoeis

[theogonyofbeauty]

Achilles contending with the Rivers (based on a work by John Flaxman).

[patrochillesvibes]

Fury of Achilles

by Charles-Antoine Copel

...and in a flash Poseidon and Athena went to him and stood beside him, assuming the forms of men. Taking his hand in their hands, they assured him with their words; and Poseidon who shakes the earth was first of them to speak: “Son of Peleus, do not shrink back, nor be alarmed; such allies are we two gods who stand by you with Zeus approving, I and Pallas Athena.​ Since you are not destined to be killed by a river, he will soon give way—you yourself will see this. But we have close advice for you, if you will heed it; do not rest your hands from war that levels all alike, until you have penned within Ilion’s famed walls the Trojan men, those who should escape you. And after you have stripped the life from Hector, return to your ships; we grant you to win glory.”

The Iliad, Book 21, Lines 284-297

Hermitage

[illustratus]

Water, or the Fight of Achilles against Scamander and Simoeis by Auguste Couder, 1819.

Scamander fought on the side of the Trojans during the Trojan War (Iliad XX, 73/74; XXI), after the Greek hero Achilles insulted him. Scamander was also said to have attempted to kill Achilles three times, and the hero was only saved due to the intervention of Hera, Athena and Hephaestus. In this context, he is the personification of the Scamander River that flowed from Mount Ida across the plain beneath the city of Troy, joining the Hellespont north of the city. The Achaeans, according to Homer, had set up their camp near its mouth, and their battles with the Trojans were fought on the plain of Scamander. In Iliad XXII (149ff), Homer states that the river had two springs: one produced warm water; the other yielded cold water, regardless of the season. According to Homer, he was called Xanthos by gods and Scamander by men, which might indicate that the former name refers to the god and the latter one to the river itself.

[greekromangods]

The Judgement of Paris

1812

Guillaume Guillon Lethière (1760–1832)

Oil on canvas

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