any Siren, he will
so despise both wife and children through their sorceries, that the
stream of his affection never again shall set homewards, nor shall he
take joy in wife or children thereafter, or they in him."

With these prophetic greetings great Circe met Ulysses on his return.
He besought her to instruct him in the nature of the Sirens, and by
what method their baneful allurements were to be resisted.

"They are sisters three," she replied, "that sit in a mead (by which
your ship must needs pass) circled with dead men's bones. These are
the bones of men whom they have slain, after with fawning invitements
they have enticed them into their fen. Yet such is the celestial
harmony of their voice accompanying the persuasive magic of their
words, that knowing this, you shall not be able to withstand their
enticements. Therefore when you are to sail by them, you shall stop
the ears of your companions with wax, that they may hear no note of
that dangerous music; but for yourself, that you may hear, and yet
live, give them strict command to bind you hand and foot to the mast,
and in no case to set you free, till you are out of the danger of the
temptation, though you should entreat it, and implore it ever so much,
but to bind you rather the more for your requesting to be loosed. So
shall you escape that snare."

Ulysses then prayed her that she would inform him what Scylla and
Charybdis were, which she had taught him by name to fear. She replied:
"Sailing from AEaea to Trinacria, you must pass at an equal distance
between two fatal rocks. Incline never so little either to the one
side or the other, and your ship must meet with certain destruction.
No vessel ever yet tried that pass without being lost, but the Argo,
which owed her safety to the sacred freight she bore, the fleece of
the golden-backed ram, which could not perish. The biggest of these
rocks which you shall come to, Scylla hath in charge. There in a deep
whirlpool at the foot of the rock the abhorred monster shrouds her
face; who if she were to shew her full form, no eye of man or god
could endure the sight: thence she stretches out all her six long
necks peering and diving to suck up fish, dolphins, dog-fish, and
whales, whole ships, and their men, whatever comes within her raging
gulf. The other rock is lesser, and of less ominous aspect; but there
dreadful Charybdis sits, supping the black deeps. Thrice a day she
drinks her pits dry, and thrice a day