fs the sea ran like a rushing river,
and the men, in fear, ceased to hold the oars, and down the stream the
oars plashed in confusion. But Ulysses, whom Circe had told of this new
danger, bade them grasp the oars again and row hard. He told the man at
the helm to steer under the great rocky cliff, on the right, and to keep
clear of the whirlpool and the cloud of spray on the left. Well he knew
the danger of the rock on the left, for within it was a deep cave, where
a monster named Scylla lived, yelping with a shrill voice out of her six
hideous heads. Each head hung down from a long, thin, scaly neck, and in
each mouth were three rows of greedy teeth, and twelve long feelers,
with claws at the ends of them, dropped down, ready to catch at men.
There in her cave Scylla sits, fishing with her feelers for dolphins and
other great fish, and for men, if any men sail by that way. Against this
deadly thing none may fight, for she cannot be slain with the spear.[A]

[A. There is a picture of this monster attacking a man in a boat. The
picture was painted centuries before the time of Ulysses.]

All this Ulysses knew, for Circe had warned him. But he also knew that
on the other side of the strait, where the sea spray for ever flew high
above the rock, was a whirlpool, called Charybdis, which would swallow
up his ship if it came within the current, while Scylla could only catch
some of his men. For this reason he bade the helmsman to steer close to
the rock of Scylla, and he did not tell the sailors that she lurked
there with her body hidden in her deep cave. He himself put on his
armour, and took two spears, and went and stood in the raised half deck
at the front of the ship, thinking that, at least, he would have a
stroke at Scylla. Then they rowed down the swift sea stream, while the
wave of the whirlpool now rose up, till the spray hid the top of the
rock, and now fell, and bubbled with black sand. They were watching the
whirlpool, when out from the hole in the cliff sprang the six heads of
Scylla, and up into the air went six of Ulysses' men, each calling to
him, as they were swept within her hole in the rock, where she devoured
them. 'This was the most pitiful thing,' Ulysses said, 'that my eyes
have seen, of all my sorrows in searching out the paths of the sea.'

The ship swept through the roaring narrows between the rock of Scylla
and the whirlpool of Charybdis, into the open sea, and the men, weary
and heavy of heart, be