Xanʹthos [reddish yellow]
.Achillesʹ wonderful horse. Being chid by his master for leaving Patroclos on the field of battle, the horse turned his head reproachfully, and told Achilles that he also would soon be numbered with the dead, not from any fault of his horse, but by the decree of inexorable destiny. (Iliad, xix.) (Compare Numbers xxii. 28–30.)
⁂ Xanthos and Balios (swift as the wind) were the offspring of Podargē the harpy and Zephyros. (See Horse.)
Xanthos, the river of Troas. Elian and Pliny say that Homer called the Scamander “Xanthos” or the “Goldred river,” because it coloured with such a tinge the fleeces of sheep washed in its waters. Others maintain that it was so called because a hero named Xanthos defeated a body of Trojans on its banks, and pushed half of them into the stream, as in the battle of Blenheim the Duke of Marlborough drove the French into the Danube.
