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[20]

And after that he came to two ways. On the one side were the Wandering Rocks,1 and on the other side two huge cliffs, and in one of them was Scylla,2 a daughter of Crataeis and Trienus or Phorcus,3 with the face and breast of a woman, but from the flanks she had six heads and twelve feet of dogs.


1 As to Ulysses and the Wandering Rocks, see Hom. Od. 12.52-72; Hom. Od. 12.201-221. The poet mentions (Hom. Od. 12.70-72) the former passage of the Argo between the Wandering or Clashing Rocks, as to which see above Apollod. 1.9.22, with the note. It has been suggested that in the story of the Wandering Rocks we have a confused reminiscence of some sailor's story of floating icebergs. See Merry, on Homer, Od. xii.61.

2 As to the passage of Ulysses between Scylla and Charybdis, see Hom. Od. 12.73-126; Hom. Od. 12.222-259; Hyginus, Fab. 125, 199.

3 Homer mentions Crataeis as the mother of Scylla, but says nothing as to her father (Hom. Od. 12.124ff.). According to Stesichorus, the mother of Scylla was Lamia. See Scholiast on Hom. Od. 12.124; Eustathius on Hom. Od. xii.85, p. 1714. Apollonius Rhodius represents Scylla as a daughter of Phorcus by the night-wandering hag Hecate (Ap. Rhod., Argon. iv.828ff.), and this parentage has the support of Acusilaus, except that he named her father Phorcys instead of Phorcus (Scholiast on Ap. Rhod., Argon. iv.828; compare Eustathius on Hom. Od. xii.85, p. 1714). Hyginus calls her a daughter of Typhon and Echidna (Hyginus, Fab. 125, 151, and praefat. p. 31, ed. Bunte). A Scholiast on Plat. Rep. 9, 588c, who may have copied the present passage of Apollodorus, calls Scylla a daughter of Crataeis and Tyrrhenus or Phorcus, adding that she had the face and breasts of a woman, but from the flanks six heads of dogs and twelve feet. Some said that the father of Scylla was Triton (Eustathius on Hom. Od. xii.85, p. 1714); and perhaps the name Triton should be read instead of Trienus in the present passage of Apollodorus. See the Critical Note.

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