Greek river god of the Simois
Simois
Simois is the god of the river of the same name, a watercourse of the Troad that, in Greek tradition, flowed into the Scamander. Like other river gods, he belonged to the large family of rivers born of Oceanus and Tethys, and his role in the Trojan War made him well known.
The myth
According to tradition, Simois was a son of Oceanus and Tethys, like other river gods, and belonged to the three thousand rivers that, according to Hesiod, descended from that pair. Homer places him in the Troad, rising on Mount Ida, as a tributary of the Scamander. When the gods took sides in the Trojan War, Simois backed the Trojans.
He had at least two daughters, though no wife is ever attributed to him. Hieromneme married Assaracus and became the mother of Capys, father of Anchises, with whom, according to tradition, Aphrodite conceived Aeneas. Astyoche married Erichthonius, and from them was born Tros, who gave his name to the region of Troy when he came to the throne.
In the Iliad, the Scamander asks Simois for help in stopping Achilles, who was raging against him. Before Simois could respond, Hephaestus saved Achilles by subduing the Scamander with fire.
Legacy
Simois appears in Charles Baudelaire's poem The Swan. Shakespeare mentions it three times in a Latin lesson in The Taming of the Shrew, drawn from Ovid. Euripides uses it in Iphigenia at Aulis as a poetic equivalent for the whole Troad region.
Ancient sources: Homer in the Iliad, Hesiod in his Theogony, and Virgil in the Aeneid.