The Troad: a literary reverie

by Peter Mark Adams

The first region along this coast is called the Troad, abandoned, desolate and left in ruins, 

nevertheless it provides an abundance of inspiration 

Strabo. Geography. XIII.1.1.

Part I A Parallax World

The Troad, ground zero of the Western literary tradition, 

commences due west of the modern ferry terminal of Bandirma 

on the southern shores of the Sea of Marmara...

40.3537° N, 27.9714° E

For me,

its boundary is fixed, 

irrevocably and in all seasons, 

at the exact point that you first notice 

the greyness of the town’s immediate sprawl 

giving way to a gently undulating countryside; 

a vibrant palette of rich earth tones, ranging greens,

bordered to the right by a broad expanse of blue sea 

that elides the shoreline with the finest of brush strokes, 

a transient flash of foam. 

This region has always been more a realm of dreams, 

a zone of the collective unconscious; 

than an actual place 

of earth and rock and stone.

It hovers, 

imperceptibly superimposed over the contours of the land; 

a parallax world casting a crooked shadow, 

misaligned with its own image; 

a reflection at once brighter 

than its source. 

Part II Daktyloi

The Idaean Daktyloi ... sorcerers, makers of charms, initiators and mystagogues ... 

were born on Mount Ida ... Orpheus, the poet and singer, 

was a pupil of theirs.

Diodorus Siculus

39.7000° N, 26.8333° E

Whilst the region is fed 

by the innumerable tributaries of the unconscious; 

the land itself is fed by the innumerable streams and rivers 

descending from the slopes of Mount Ida, 

far to the south. 

Her myth-entangled ridges and spurs, 

lay, splayed out, like a giant hand; 

lending their name to those anonymous 

earth-born gigantes, the forever mysterious 

Daktyloi, ‘fingers’, archaic goes; who 

as mystagogues, primordial iron workers, ecstatic dancers; 

were ever creatures less of flesh and blood 

than they were the fiery sparks shot forth 

from the smith’s thunderous 

hammer blows. 

Part III Scamander

In the Troad the custom is for brides to bathe in the Scamander 

whilst pronouncing this sacred formula: 

"Scamander, take my virginity!”

Ps. Aeschines.

Two rivers arise from Ida’s northern face. 

The first in rank, the river-god Scamander; 

progenitor of all true Trojans, cascades 

through steep forested valleys,

manifesting now as racing torrents, 

now as waterfalls. 

Plunging into those cold, deep pools, 

young Trojan women called upon the god, 

whose primordial form, the totemic drakon, 

bestowed dark gifts upon these people; 

known anciently, as the ‘Ophiogeneis’, 

the ‘serpent-born’; and as the ‘Azoetia’ 

or ‘serpent tribe’; they were renowned 

as healers, snake charmers; 

sons and daughters 

of the serpent, all. 

Part IV Troy

Not all the wealth reputedly stored in Troy, 

is worth a single life

Homer

The Scamander winds its way, 

crossing the plain of Troy, 

through the silted sprawl of its own rich delta; 

mythical marshland, for here 

the Trojan’s long-maned horses grazed 

amongst the reed beds 

beneath the city’s now desiccated ramparts.

39° 57′ 27″ N, 26° 14′ 20″ E

Nor should we speak merely of one Troy; 

for buried here we find 

the stratified remains of a dozen Troys, 

spanning millennia; 

its many wealth-extracting, 

proud and covetous incarnations; 

each, in their turn, sacked and burned; 

with what bloodshed, pain and misery?

As though time itself were caught 

in a web of ever-repeating cycles.

40°02'37.5"N 26°10'58.2"E

The river gives out to the Dardanelles

across from Gallipoli’s still-haunted landing beaches;

another blood-saturated land whose massed graves, 

the spent promise of so much youth, 

lay thick upon the ground.

Between, deep-fathomed, within the narrow straits   

the vast hulks of battleships lay, 

broken and rusted, sunken memorials, 

caressed, now, 

only by the gentle drift of seaweed

caught in the unceasing currents 

of the straits.

For these 

the cold Aegean winds, borne inshore, 

are as the sighs of all who, 

within sight of the city,

suffered unexpected and violent deaths

and thereafter 

found no respite. 

Part V Troy Town

This is as strange a maze as e'er men trod,

And there is in this business more than nature

Was ever conduct of.

Shakespeare

A lexical, rhizomatic Troy, self-propagating, 

through circuitous by-ways, spans 

ages, crosses continents, burrows

deep within our common lexicon; and yet

remains visible beneath the veneer of tongues, 

whether as ‘Trojaborg’, ‘Tröborg’ or ‘Troy Town’; 

a shared syllabary preserves its archaic roots

and points towards a common descent, 

an ancient lineage drawn forth 

from the seven winding loops 

of the labyrinth; that byword 

for all complex, in-folded 

and ravelled forms. 

Ubiquitous upon wind-buffeted, 

sea-battered headlands, 

deserted shores, 

remote islands;

57°39'09.2"N 18°18'25.9"E

wending first this way, now that, 

seafarers wove an invisible net, 

to bewilder and entrap 

those spirits who interfere 

with sea travel, full nets 

and safe returns;

but for literature, Troy

that by-word for violence, greed and lust, 

a fitting symbol for all the vainglorious and needless deaths,

would have been long forgotten.

***

The classical epigraphs were created by the author, based upon English translations from the following sources:

Part I A Parallax World: Strabo. Geography. XIII.1.1 (trans.) H.L. Jones. Loeb, 1929.

Part II Daktyloi: Diodorus Siculus. Library of History. 5.64.4. (trans.) C.H. Oldfather, Loeb, 1930.

Part III Scamander: The Greek Myths. Volume II. 137 Note 3. Robert Graves, 1955.

Part IV Troy: Homer. Iliad. Book IX Lines 402-403 translated by A.T.Murray, Loeb, 1924.

Part V Troy Town: Shakespeare ‘The Tempest’ Act V Scene 1 Lines 2307-2309 from The Works of William Shakespeare Globe Edition, edited by W. G. Clark and W. Aldis Wright, 1864. 

***

Peter Mark Adams is a long-term resident of Istanbul (Asian side!) and a professional author specialising in landscape, myth and esoterica. Published works include: Mystai (Scarlet Imprint, 2019); A Guide to the Sola-Busca Tarocchi (Scarlet Imprint, 2017); The Game of Saturn (Scarlet Imprint, 2017); The Healing Field (Balboa Press, 2014); Altered States/Parallel Worlds (Ceres Yayinlari, 2011). Shorter literary pieces and poems have appeared in Reliquiae, a literary journal specialising in landscape, nature and mythology. A review of a poetry collection, Autumn Richardson's ‘An Almost-Gone Radiance’ has appeared on Abegail Morley’s ‘The Poetry Shed’; and a range of spooky essays in the peer-reviewed journals Paranthropology and The Journal of Exceptional Experience & Psychology.