Page 430 - the-odyssey

one in those days more than in our own could localise the
Planctae, which in fact, as Buttmann has argued, were de-
rived not from any particular spot, but from sailors’ tales
about the difficulties of navigating the group of the Aeolian
islands as a whole (see note on ‘Od.’ x. 3). Still the matter
of the poor doves caught her fancy, so she would not for-
go them. The whirlwinds of fire and the smoke that hangs
on Scylla suggests allusion to Stromboli and perhaps even
Etna. Scylla is on the Italian side, and therefore may be said
to look West. It is about 8 miles thence to the Sicilian coast,
so Ulysses may be perfectly well told that after passing Scyl-
la he will come to the Thrinacian island or Sicily. Charybdis
is transposed to a site some few miles to the north of its ac-
tual position.
{101} I suppose this line to have been intercalated by the
author when lines 426-446 were added.
{102} For the reasons which enable us to identify the
island of the two Sirens with the Lipari island now Salinas—
the ancient Didyme, or ‘twin’ island—see The Authoress of
the Odyssey, pp. 195, 196. The two Sirens doubtless were, as
their name suggests, the whistling gusts, or avalanches of
air that at times descend without a moment’s warning from
the two lofty mountains of Salinas—as also from all high
points in the neighbourhood.
{103} See Admiral Smyth on the currents in the Straits of
Messina, quoted in ‘The Authoress of the Odyssey,’ p. 197.
{104} In the islands of Favognana and Marettimo off Tra-
pani I have seen men fish exactly as here described. They
chew bread into a paste and throw it into the sea to attract