epic simile to help the reader visualize the macabre scene. He compares Skylla to a fisherman who "will hook a fish and rip it from the surface to dangle wriggling through the air" (XII, 303-4). The crewmen are the fish, of course, and seem helpless as Skylla whisks them from the ship. Describing the attack, Odysseus says, "and deathly pity ran me through at that sight--far the worst I ever suffered, questing the passes of the strange sea" (308-10). It seems that he realizes that the losses were his responsibility and that he too could easily have been a victim of Skylla's wrath.
             Earlier in the story (Book V) we see that Calypso poses a similar, though not as deadly, threat to Odysseus's homecoming. Instead of literally grabbing for him as Skylla does, Kalypso tries to retain Odysseus by enticing him with the prospect of immortality and a life with a beautiful goddess. We are also told she has cast "spells" (198) on him to keep him docile and under her power. Kalypso says to Zeus, "I fed him, loved him, sang that he should not die nor grow old, ever, in all the days to come" (142-4). Despite her efforts and hospitality, Odysseus still longs for home as he sits each day by the rocky shore "with eyes wet scanning the bare horizon of the sea" (165-6). He is quite happy when the day comes that he is set free by Zeus's will. Without Zeus's intervention, Odysseus would have been kept indefinitely.
             Book X, which contains the introduction of Kirke, provides another example of near fata
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