ve lost
all sense of preservation.

[634][Greek: Skullen d' ouket' emutheomen aprekton anien,]
[Greek: Mepos moi deisantes apollexeian hetairoi,]
[Greek: Eiresies, entos de pukazoien spheas autous.]

Some suppose Scylla to have been a dangerous rock; and that it was
abominated on account of the frequent shipwrecks. There was a rock of that
name, but attended with no such peril. We are informed by Seneca,
[635]Scyllam saxum esse, et quidem non terribile navigantibus. It was the
temple, built of old upon that [636]eminence, and the customs which
prevailed within, that made it so detested. This temple was a Petra: hence
Scylla is by Homer styled [Greek: Skulle Petraie]; and the dogs, with which
she was supposed to have been surrounded, were Cahen, or priests.

As there was a Men-tor in Crete, so there was a place of the same name,
only reversed, in Sicily, called Tor-men, and Tauromenium. There is reason
to think, that the same cruel practices prevailed here. It stood in the
country of the Lamiae, Lestrygons, and Cyclopes, upon the river On-Baal,
which the Greeks rendered Onoballus. From hence we may conclude, that it
was one of the Cyclopian buildings. Homer has presented us with something
of truth, though we receive it sadly mixed with fable. We find from him,
that when Ulysses entered the dangerous pass of Rhegium, he had six of his
comrades seized by Scylla: and he loses the same number in the cavern of
the Cyclops, which that monster devoured. Silenus, in a passage before
taken notice of, is by Euripides made to say, that the most agreeable
repast to the Cyclops was the flesh of strangers: nobody came within his
reach, that he did not feed upon.

[637][Greek: Glukutata, phesi, ta krea tous xenous pherein;]
[Greek: Oudeis molon deur', hostis ou katesphage.]

From these accounts some have been led to think, that the priests in these
temples really fed upon the flesh of the persons sacrificed: and that these
stories at bottom allude to a shocking depravity; such, as one would hope,
that human nature could not be brought to. Nothing can be more horrid, than
the cruel process of the Cyclops, as it is represented by Homer. And though
it be veiled under the shades of poetry, we may still learn the
detestation, in which these places were held.

[638][Greek: Sun de duo marpsas hoste skulakas poti gaiei]
[Greek: Kopt', ek d' enkephalos chamadis rhee, deue de gaian.]
[Greek: Tous te diameleisti tamon hoplis