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 of the strait thou wilt see a second rock, lying
flat and low, about a bowshot from the first. There stands a great
fig-tree, thick with leaves, and under it sits Charybdis, sucking down
the water, and belching it up again three times a day. Beware that
thou approach not when she sucks down the water, for then none could
save thee from destruction, no, not Poseidon himself. Rather steer thy
galley past Scylla's cave, for it is better to lose six of thy men
than to lose them all.

"Next thou shalt come to the island of Thrinacia, where graze the oxen
of Helios and his goodly sheep--seven herds of oxen, and as many fair
flocks of sheep, and fifty in each flock and herd. They are not born,
neither do they die, and two goddesses have charge of them,
fair-haired nymphs, the daughters of Helios. Take heed that thou harm
not the sacred beasts, that it may be well with thee, and that thou