canon 350D + lensbaby 2.0

'Of these two rocks the one reaches heaven and its peak is lost in a dark cloud.
This never leaves it, so that the top is never clear not even in summer and early autumn.
No man though he had twenty hands and twenty feet could get a foothold on it and climb it,
for it runs sheer up, as smooth as though it had been polished. In the middle of it there is a large cavern,
looking West and turned towards Erebus; you must take your ship this way,
but the cave is so high up that not even the stoutest archer could send an arrow into it.
Inside it Scylla sits and yelps with a voice that you might take to be that of a young hound,
but in truth she is a dreadful monster and no one- not even a god- could face her without being terror-struck.
She has twelve mis-shapen feet, and six necks of the most prodigious length;
and at the end of each neck she has a frightful head with three rows of teeth in each,
all set very close together, so that they would crunch any one to death in a moment,
and she sits deep within her shady
cell thrusting out her heads and peering all round the rock,
fishing for dolphins or dogfish or any larger monster that she can catch,
of the thousands with which Amphitrite teems. No ship ever yet got past her without losing some men,
for she shoots out all her heads at once, and carries off a man in each mouth.
'You will find the other rocks lie lower, but they are so close together that there is not more than a bowshot between them.
A large fig tree in full leaf grows upon it, and under it lies the sucking whirlpool of Charybdis.
Three times in the day does she vomit forth her waters, and three times she sucks them down again;
see that you be not there when she is sucking, for if you are, Neptune himself could not save you;
you must hug the Scylla side and drive ship by as fast as you can, for you had better lose six men than your whole crew.

'Is there no way,said I, 'of escaping Charybdis, and at the same time keeping Scylla off when she is trying to harm my men?'

'You dare-devil' replied the goddess, you are always wanting to fight somebody or something;
you will not let yourself be beaten even by the immortals. For Scylla is not mortal;
moreover she is savage, extreme, rude, cruel and invincible. There is no help for it;
your best chance will be to get by her as fast as ever you can, for if you dawdle about her rock while you are putting on your armour,
she may catch you with a second cast of her six heads, and snap up another half dozen of your men; so drive your ship past her at full speed,
and roar out lustily to Crataiis who is Scylla\'s dam, bad luck to her;
she will then stop her from making a second raid upon you.




Italian version

Corra o l\'autunno, un puro ciel mai ride.
Montarvi non potrebbe altri, o calarne,
Venti mani movesse e venti piedi:
Sì liscio è il sasso e la costa superba.
Nel mezzo, vôlta all\'occidente e all\'orco,
S\'apre oscura caverna, a cui davanti
Dovrai ratto passar; giovane arciero
Che dalla nave disfrenasse il dardo,
Non toccherebbe l\'incavato speco.
Scilla ivi alberga, che moleste grida
Di mandar non ristà. La costei voce
Altro non par che un guaiolar perenne
Di lattante cagnuol: ma Scilla è atroce
Mostro, e sino ad un dio, che a lei si fesse,
Non mirerebbe in lei senza ribrezzo.
Dodici ha piedi, anterïori tutti,
Sei lunghissimi colli, e su ciascuno
Spaventosa una testa, e nelle bocche
Di spessi denti un triplicato giro,
E la morte più amara in ogni dente.
Con la metà di sé nell\'incavato
Speco profondo ella s\'attuffa, e fuori
Sporge le teste, riguardando intorno
Se delfini pescar, lupi, o alcun puote
Di que\' mostri maggior che a mille a mille
Chiude Anfitrite nei suoi gorghi e nutre.
Né mai nocchieri oltrepassaro illesi:
Poiché quante apre disoneste bocche,
Tanti dal cavo legno uomini invola.
Men l\'altro s\'alza contrapposto scoglio
E il dardo tuo ne colpirìa la cima.
Grande verdeggia in questo e d\'ampie foglie
Selvaggio fico; e alle sue falde assorbe
La temuta Cariddi il negro mare.
Tre fiate il rigetta, e tre nel giorno
L\'assorbe orribilmente. Or tu a Cariddi
Non t\'accostar mentre il mar negro inghiotte;
Ché mal saprìa dalla ruina estrema
Nettuno stesso dilivrarti. A Scilla
Tienti vicino, e rapido trascorri.
Perder sei de\' compagni entro la nave
Torna più assai, che perir tutti a un tempo\".
Tal ragionava; ed io: \"Quando m\'avvegna
Schivare, o Circe, la fatal Cariddi,
Respinger, dimmi il ver, Scilla non deggio,
Che gli amici a distruggermi s\'avventa?\"
\"O sventurato\", rispondea la diva
Dunque le pugne in mente ed i travagli
Rivolgi ancor, né ceder pensi ai numi?
Cosa mortal credi tu Scilla? Eterno
Credila, e duro, e faticoso, e immenso
Male, ed inespugnabile, da cui
Schermo non havvi, e cui fuggir fia ìl meglio
Se indugi, e vesti appo lo scoglio l\'armi,
Sbucherà, temo, ad un secondo assalto,
E tanti de\' compagni un\'altra volta
Ti rapirà, quante spalanca bocche.
Vola dunque sul pelago, e la madre
Cratèi, che al mondo generò tal peste,
E ritenerla, che a novella preda
Non si slanci, potrà, nel corso invoca.


Odyssey 12th book - Omero