Brewer's: Xanthos, the river of Troas.

Elian and Pliny say that Homer called the Scamander “Xanthos” or the “Gold-red 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.

Source: Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, E. Cobham Brewer, 1894
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