So in anguish of spirit they left him: but perils worse than these {920}
Awaited them—shipwrecking gulfs in the meeting-place of the seas.
For on this side Scylla’s smooth sheer crag uptowering loomed,
And on that side Charybdis seething in ceaseless thunder boomed;
And otherwhere, swung by the mighty surge, met clanging and crashing
The Wandering Rocks, where afront were the spurts of fire out-flashing
From the crests of the cliffs, o’er the crag red-glowing on high that burned.
And with smoke was the air all mistily shrouded: thou hadst not discerned
The beams of the sun. Then, albeit Hephaistus refrained from his toil,
With the hot uprushing steam did the sea yet bubble and boil.