oeotians having been treacherously attacked by
the people of Thrace during a truce which they had made, went to
consult the oracle of Dodona; and the priestess answering them that
if they would act impiously their design would succeed to their
wish, the envoys suspected that this response had been suggested by
the enemy, and burned her in revenge; after which they vindicated
their cruelty by saying that if the priestess designed to deceive
them, she well deserved her punishment; and that if she spoke with
truthfulness, they had only followed the advice of the oracle. This
argument not satisfying the people of the district, the Boeotian
envoys were seized; but as they pleaded that it was unjust that two
women already prejudiced against them should be their judges, two
priests were added to decide the matter. These, in return for their
being the occasion of putting them in an office so honourable and
lucrative, acquitted the Boeotians; whose fellow countrymen were
always in the habit from that time of addressing the priests when
they consulted the oracle. These priests were called by the name of
'Selli.'

FABLE VII. [XIII.719-897]

Polyphemus, one of the Cyclops, jealous of Acis, who is in love with
Galatea, kills the youth with a rock which he hurls at him; on
which, his blood is changed into a river which bears his name.

They make for the neighbouring land of the Phaeacians,[68] planted with
beauteous fruit. After this, Epirus and Buthrotos,[69] ruled over by the
Phrygian prophet, and a fictitious Troy, are reached. Thence, acquainted
with the future, all which, Helenus, the son of Priam, in his faithful
instructions has forewarned them of, they enter Sicania. With three
points this projects into the sea. Of these, Pachynos is turned towards
the showery South: Lilybaeum is exposed to the soft Zephyrs: but Peloros
looks towards the Bear, free from the sea, and towards Boreas. By this
{part} the Trojans enter; and with oars and favouring tide, at nightfall
the fleet makes the Zanclaean sands. Scylla infests the right hand side,
the restless Charybdis the left. This swallows and vomits forth again
ships taken down; the other, having the face of a maiden, has her
swarthy stomach surrounded with fierce dogs; and (if the poets have not
left the whole a fiction) once on a time, too, {she was} a maiden. Many
suitors courted her; who being repulsed, she, most beloved by the Nymphs
of