Book iii

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Homer gives a vivid description of Ulysses passing the rocks and whirlpools:

"Now through the rocks, appall'd with deep dismay, We bend our course, and stem the desperate way; Dire Scylla there a scene of horror forms; And here Charybdis fills the deep with storms. When the tide rushes from her rumbling caves, The rough rock roars, tumultuous boil the waves; They toss, they foam, a wild confusion raise, Like water bubbling o'er the fiery blaze; Eternal mists obscure the aërial plain, And high across the rocks she spouts the main: When in her gulfs the rushing sea subsides, She drains the ocean with the refluent tides: The rock rebellows with a thundering sound; Deep, wondrous deep, below appears the ground." _Odyssey_,