Page:The geography of Strabo (1854) Volume 1.djvu/51

 CHAP. ii. 17. INTRODUCTION. 37 of the fish : this point is barbed, and loosely fixed to the spear for the purpose ; it has a long'end fastened to it ; this they pay out to the wounded fish, till it is exhausted with its struggling and endeavours at escape. Afterwards they trail it to the shore, or, unless it is too large and full-grown, haul it into the boat. If the spear should fall into the sea, it is not lost, for it is jointed of oak and pine, so that when the oak sinks on account of its weight, it causes the other end to rise, and thus is easily recovered. It sometimes happens that the rower is wounded, even through the boat, and such is the size of the sword with which the galeote is armed, such the strength of the fish, and the method of the capture, that [in danger] it is not surpassed by the chase of the wild boar. From these facts (he says) we may conclude that Ulysses' wanderings were close to Sicily, since Homer describes Scylla l as engaging in a pur- suit exactly similar to that which is carried on at ScyllaBum. As to Charybdis, he describes just what takes place at the Strait of Messina : " Each day she thrice disgorges," 2 instead of twice, being only a mistake, either of the scribe or the historian. 17. The customs of the inhabitants of Meninx 3 closely cor- respond to the description of the Lotophagi. If any thing does not correspond, it should be attributed to change, or to misconception, or to poetical licence, which is made up of history, rhetoric, and fiction. Truth is the aim of the histo- rical portion, as for instance in the Catalogue of jShips, 4 where the poet informs us of the peculiarities of each place, that one is rocky, another the furthest city, that this abounds in doves, and that is maritime. A lively interest is the end of the rhetorical, as when he points to us the combat ; and of the fiction, pleasure and astonishment. A mere fabrication would neither be persuasive nor Homeric ; and we know that his poem 1 There is a very fine medallion in the Bibliothfeque Nationale de France, portraying Scylla as half woman, half dolphin, with a trident in her left hand, and seizing a fish with her right. From her middle pro- trude two half-bodied dogs, who assist the monster in swimming. 2 Odyssey xii. 105. 3 At this place there was an altar consecrated to Ulysses. Meninx is now known as the island of Zerbi, on the side of the Bay of Cabus, on the coast of Africa. 4 The second book of the Iliad.