, that
thou mayest hear the song of the Sirens. And when that seducing melody
fills thine ears, thou wilt beg and implore thy comrades to set thee
free, that thou mayest draw near and have speech of the Sirens. Then
let them bind thee more firmly to the mast, and take to their oars,
and fly the enchanted rocks.

"This peril past, thou hast the choice of two different routes. One of
these will bring thee to the Wandering Isles, which stand, front to
front, with steep slippery sides of rock, running sheer down to the
sea. Between them lies a narrow way, which is the very gate of death.
For if aught living attempts to pass between, those rocky jaws close
upon it and grind it to powder. Only the doves which bear ambrosia to
Father Zeus can pass that awful strait, and one of these pays toll
with her life as she passes, but Zeus sends another to fill her place.
And one ship sailed safely through, even the famous _Argo_ when she
bore Jason and his crew on their voyage from the land of AEetes. All
others when they essayed the task perished, and were brought to naught
in a whirlwind of foam and fire.

"But if thou takest the other way thou wilt come to another strait,
guarded day and night by two sleepless sentinels, Scylla and
Charybdis. On one side thereof towers a lofty peak, shrouded, even in
the noon of summer, in clouds and thick darkness. No mortal man could
climb that steep and slippery rock, not though he had twenty hands and
twenty feet; for the side is smooth as polished marble, and in the
midst of the cliff is a shadowy cave overlooking the track by which
thou must guide thy ship, Odysseus. Deep down it goes into the heart
of the mountain, so that a man in his lusty prime could not shoot an
arrow from his ship to the bottom of that yawning pit In the cave
dwells Scylla, and yelps without ceasing. Her voice is thin and
shrill, like the cry of a hound newly littered, but she herself is a
monster horrible to behold, so that neither man nor god could face her
without affright. Twelve feet hath she, and six necks of prodigious
length, and on each neck a fearful head, whose ravening jaws are armed
with triple rows of teeth. As far as her waist she is hidden in the
hollow cave, but she thrusts out her serpent necks from the abyss, and
fishes in the waters for dolphins and sea-dogs and other creatures
whose pasture is the sea. On every ship that passes her den she levies
a tribute of six of her crew.

"On the other side