His blooming offspring, or his pleasing wife.
In verdant meads they sport, and wide around
Lie human bones, that whiten all the ground:
The ground polluted floats with human gore,
And human carnage taints the dreadful shore.
Fly, fly the dangerous coast.
The story at bottom relates to the people above-mentioned; who with their music used to entice strangers into the purlieus of their temples, and then put them to death. Nor was it music only, with which persons were seduced to follow them. The female part of their choirs were maintained for a twofold purpose, both on account of their voices and their beauty. They were accordingly very liberal of their favours, and by these means enticed seafaring persons, who paid dearly for their entertainment. Scylla was a personage of this sort: and among the fragments of Callimachus we have a short, but a most perfect, description of her character.
[[674]]Σκυλλα, γυνη κατακασα, και ου ψυθος ουνομ' εχουσα.
Κατακασα is by some interpreted malefica: upon which the learned Hemsterhusius remarks very justly—κατακασα cur Latine vertatur malefica non video. Si Grammaticis obtemperes, meretricem interpretabere: erat enim revera Νησιωτις καλη ἑταιρα, ut Heraclitus περι απις: c. 2. Scylla then, under which character we are here to understand the chief priestess of the place, was no other than a handsome island strumpet. Her name it seems betokened as much, and she did not belie it: ου ψυθος ουνομ' εχουσα. We may from these data decipher the history of Scylla, as given by Tzetzes. Ην δε πρωτον Σκυλλα γυνη ευπρεπης· Ποσειδωνι δε συνουσα απεθηριωθη. Scylla was originally a handsome wench: but being too free with seafaring people she made herself a beast. She was, like the Sibyl of Campania, said by Stesichorus to have been the daughter of [[675]]Lamia. Hence we may learn, that all, who resided in the places, which I have been describing, were of the same religion, and of the same family; being the descendants of Ham, and chiefly by the collateral branches of Chus, and Canaan.
The like rites prevailed in Cyprus, which had in great measure been peopled by persons of these [[676]]families. One of their principal cities was Curium, which was denominated from [[677]]Curos, the Sun, the Deity, to whom it was sacred. In the perilous voyages of the antients nothing was more common than for strangers, whether shipwrecked, or otherwise distressed, to fly to the altar of the chief Deity, Θεου φιλιου, και ξενιου, the God of charity and hospitality, for his protection. This was fatal to those who were driven upon the western coast of Cyprus. The natives of Curium made it a rule to destroy all such, under an appearance of a religious rite. Whoever laid their hands upon the altar of Apollo, were cast down the precipice, upon which it stood. [[678]]Ευθυς εστιν ακρα, αφ' ἡς ῥιπτουσι τους ἁψαμενους του βωμου του Απολλωνος. Strabo speaks of the practice, as if it subsisted in his time. A like custom prevailed at the Tauric Chersonesus, as we are informed by Herodotus. [[679]]Θυουσι μεν τῃ Παρθενῳ τους τε ναυηγους, και τους αν λαβωσι Ἑλληνων επαναχθεντας, τροπῳ τοιῳδε. Καταρξαμενοι ῥοπαλῳ παιουσι την κεφαλην. Ὁι μεν δη λεγουσι, ὡς το σωμα απο του κρημνου διωθεουσι κατω· επι γαρ κρημνου ἱδρυται το Ἱρον. κτλ. The people of this place worship the virgin Goddess Artemis: at whose shrine they sacrifice all persons, who have the misfortune to be shipwrecked upon their coast: and all the Grecians, that they can lay hold of, when they are at any time thither driven. All these they without any ceremony brain with a club. Though others say, that they shove them off headlong from a high precipice: for their temple is founded upon a cliff.