Θύμβρης
Thymbrē is located on the Trojan plain, where the Thymbrios river meets the Skamander in “the inner recesses of the Trojan plain southeast of Troy” (Luce 1998:124, with reference to Strabo 13.1.35) and is the site of a sanctuary dedicated to Thymbraion Apollo. Thornton (1984:150) argues that most places in the topography of Troy “are consistently associated with a particular sort of situation or with a particular party or person in the poem.” Thymbrē, mentioned only here in our Iliad, is associated with ambush in the larger epic tradition about the Trojan War. It is the site of Achilles’ ambush of Troilos (according to the scholia in the Townley manscript on Iliad 24.257; see also Apollodorus, Epitome 3.32) and also the site where Achilles himself is killed in an ambush by Paris and Apollo (see above on 10.29). It is also known as the place where Laokoon’s sons are killed (see Gantz 1993:648). Thus it is not surprising to find it mentioned here, and only in Iliad 10 within our Iliad, since it is so closely tied to the ambush theme.