Page:Proofs of the Enquiry into Homer's Life and Writings.pdf/90

Rh H o m e r s Life and Writings.

77

said by the Poet to be covered with perpetual Sect. Darkness, comes from the Phenician Word,—- XI. Cimmir, to grow dark or black .* Cimrir, the pT^£7k) Gloom of Darkness ; Cimrir Jom, the Hor- 246. (a~) rours,—Blacknest'es of Day* Bochart. Th e Description of Scytia's Abode is as fol lows : Two Rocks there are* one rearing to the Sky Ifs taper Head* and round it constant bangs An azure Cloud.

'^48 (c)'

This Monster's Name (Scylla) and the Whirl pools on the other side (Charybdis) are likewise both of Phenician Extract, ^nd shew that they have certainly been imposed by that trading Peo ple, from the dismal Misfortunes they have fre quently undergone in pasting betwixt them. Scylla is from Scol, Destruction—a dead- liid- (") fy Disaster ; and Charybdis from Chor-Ob- jjJJ;^ dan, the Gulph of Perdition. a49. But the Circumstances of the Story itself, and its Agreement with the Nature and Situation of the Scene of Action, are Proofs better ad justed to most Capacities. No Seaman, who has coasted from Naples to Sicily by the SyrenRocks, or sailed round the West-end of the Island through the Lipareans, will doubt of Circe's Knowledge of those Seas, when she di rects Ulyjfes how to steer, after he had escaped the Syrens* When Rh