248 SEA FABLES EXPLAINED. 



O fly the dreadful sight ! expand thy sails, 

 Ply the strong oar, and catch the nimble gales; 

 Here Scylla bellows from her dire abodes ; 

 Tremendous pest ! abhorred by man and gods J 

 Hideous her voice, and with less terrors roar 

 The whelps of lions in the midnight hour. 

 Twelve feet deformed and foul the fiend dispreads; 



Six horrid necks she rears, and six terrific heads ; 

 * * * * * 



When stung with hunger she embroils the flood, 



The sea-dog and the dolphin are her food; 



She makes the huge leviathan her prey, 



And all the monsters of the wat'ry way ; 



The swiftest racer of the azure plain 



Here fills her sails and spreads her oars in vain ; 



Fefl Scylla rises, in her fury roars, 



At once six mouths expands, at once six men devours." * 



Circe then describes the perils of the whirling waters of 

 Charybdis as still more dreadful ; and, admonishing Ulysses 

 that once in her power all must perish, she advises him to 

 choose the lesser of the two evils, and to 



"shun the horrid gulf, by Scylla fly; 

 Tis better six to lose than all to die." 



Ulysses continues his voyage ; and as his ship enters the 

 ominous strait, 



"Struck with despair, with trembling hearts we viewed 

 The yawning dungeon, and the tumbling flood ; 

 When, lo ! fierce Scylla stooped to seize her prey, 

 Btretched her dire jaws, and swept six men away. 

 Chiefs of renown ! loud echoing shrieks arise ; 

 I turn, and view them quivering in the skies ; 

 They call, and aid, with outstretched arms, implore, 

 In vain they call ! those arms are stretched no more. 

 As from some rock that overhangs the flood, 

 The silent fisher casts th' insidious food ; 



* Homer's ' Odyssey,' Pope's Translation, Book XII. 



