sounding wave
rushing astern bore the ship on; and the Sirens kept uttering their
ceaseless song. But even so the goodly son of Teleon alone of the
comrades leapt before them all from the polished bench into the sea,
even Butes, his soul melted by the clear ringing voice of the Sirens;
and he swam through the dark surge to mount the beach, poor wretch.
Quickly would they have robbed him of his return then and there, but the
goddess that rules Eryx, Cypris, in pity snatched him away, while yet in
the eddies, and graciously meeting him saved him to dwell on the
Lilybean height. And the heroes, seized by anguish, left the Sirens, but
other perils still worse, destructive to ships, awaited them in the
meeting-place of the seas.

For on one side appeared the smooth rock of Scylla; on the other
Charybdis ceaselessly spouted and roared; in another part the Wandering
rocks were booming beneath the mighty surge, where before the burning
flame spurted forth from the top of the crags, above the rock glowing
with fire, and the air was misty with smoke, nor could you have seen the
sun's light. Then, though Hephaestus had ceased from his toils, the sea
was still sending up a warm vapour. Hereupon on this side and on that
the daughters of Nereus met them; and behind, lady Thetis set her hand
to the rudder-blade, to guide them amid the Wandering rocks. And as when
in fair weather herds of dolphins come up from the depths and sport in
circles round a ship as it speeds along, now seen in front, now behind,
now again at the side--and delight comes to the sailors; so the Nereids
darted upward and circled in their ranks round the ship Argo, while
Thetis guided its course. And when they were about to touch the
Wandering rocks, straightway they raised the edge of their garments over
their snow-white knees, and aloft on the very rocks and where the waves
broke, they hurried along on this side and on that apart from one
another. And the ship was raised aloft as the current smote her, and all
around the furious wave mounting up broke over the rocks, which at one
time touched the sky like towering crags, at another, down in the
depths, were fixed fast at the bottom of the sea and the fierce waves
poured over them in floods. And the Nereids, even as maidens near some
sandy beach roll their garments up to their waists out of their way and
sport with a shapely-rounded ball; then they catch it one from another
and send it high into the air; and it n