and from the thighs they had the forms of birds. Similarly Apollonius Rhodius ( Ap.
 Rhod., Argon. iv.898ff. ) describes the Sirens as partly
 virgins and partly birds. Aelian tells us ( Ael., Nat. Anim.
 xvii.23 ) that poets and painters represented them as winged
 maidens with the feet of birds. Ovid says that the Sirens had the feet
 and feathers of birds, but the faces of virgins; and he asks why these
 daughters of Achelous, as he calls them, had this hybrid form. Perhaps,
 he thinks, it was because they had been playing with Persephone when
 gloomy Dis carried her off, and they had begged the gods to grant them
 wings, that they might search for their lost playmate over seas as well
 as land. See Ov. Met. 5.552-562 . In like
 manner Hyginus describes the Sirens as women above and fowls below, but
 he says that their wings and feathers were a punishment inflicted on
 them by Demeter for not rescuing Persephone from the clutches of Pluto.
 See Hyginus, Fab. 125, 141 . Another story was that they
 were maidens whom Aphrodite turned into birds because they chose to
 remain unmarried. See Eustathius on Hom. Od. 12.47, p.
 1709 . It is said that they once vied with the Muses in singing,
 and that the Muses, being victorious, plucked off the Siren's feathers
 and made crowns out of them for themselves ( Paus.
 9.34.3 ). In ancient art, as in literature, the Sirens are
 commonly represented as women above and birds below. See Miss J.
 E. Harrison, Myths of the Odyssey (London, 1882), pp.
 146ff. Homer says nothing as to the semi-bird shape of the
 Sirens, thus leaving us to infer that they were purely human. 
 Sailing by them, Ulysses wished to hear their song, so by Circe's advice he
 stopped the ears of his comrades with wax, and ordered that he should
 himself be bound to the mast. And being persuaded by the Sirens to linger,
 he begged to be released, but they bound him the more, and so he sailed past. Now it was predicted of the Sirens that they should
 themselves die when a ship should pass them; so die they did. This is not mentioned by
 Homer, but is affirmed by Hyginus, Fab. 125, 141 ). Others
 said that the Sirens cast themselves into the sea and were drowned from
 sheer vexation at the escape of Ulysses. See Scholiast on Hom.
 Od.xii.39 ; Eustathius on Hom. Od. 12.167, p.
 1709 ; Tzetzes, Scholiast on Lycophron 712 ;
 compare Strab. 6.1.1 . 
 And after that he came to two ways. On the one side
 were the Wandering Rocks, As to Ulysses and the Wandering Rocks, see Hom. Od. 12.52-72 ; Hom. Od.
 12.201-221 . The poet mentions ( Hom.
 Od. 12.70-72 ) the former passage of the Argo between the
 Wandering or Clashing Rocks, as to which see above Apollod. 1.9.22 , with the note. It has
 been suggested that in the story of the Wandering Rocks we have a
 confused reminiscence of some sailor's story of floating icebergs. See
 Merry, on Homer, Od. xii.61 . and on the other
 side two huge cliffs, and in one of them was Scylla, As to the passage of Ulysses between
 Scylla and Charybdis, see Hom. Od.
 12.73-126 ; Hom. Od.
 12.222-259 ; Hyginus, Fab. 125, 199 . a
 daughter of Crataeis and Trienus or Phorcus, Homer mentions Crataeis as the mother of Scylla, but
 says nothing as to her father ( Hom. Od.
 12.124ff. ). According to Stesichorus, the mother of Scylla
 was Lamia. See Scholiast on Hom. Od.
 12.124 ; Eustathius on Hom. Od. xii.85, p. 1714 .
 Apollonius Rhodius represents Scylla as a daughter of Phorcus by the
 night-wandering hag Hecate ( Ap. Rhod., Argon. iv.828ff. ),
 and this parentage has the support of Acusilaus, except that he named
 her father Phorcys instead of Phorcus ( Scholiast on Ap. Rhod.,
 Argon. iv.828 ; compare Eustathius on Hom. Od. xii.85,
 p. 1714 ). Hyginus calls her a daughter of Typhon and Echidna
 ( Hyginus, Fab. 125, 151, and praefat. p. 31, ed.
 Bunte ). A Scholiast on Plat. Rep. 9, 588c , who may
 have copied the present passage of Apollodorus, calls Scylla a daughter
 of Crataeis and Tyrrhenus or Phorcus, adding that she had the face and
 breasts of a woman, but from the flanks six heads of dogs and twelve
 feet. Some said that the father of Scylla was Triton ( Eustathius
 on Hom. Od. xii.85, p. 1714 ); and perhaps the name Triton
 should be read instead of Trienus in the present passage of Apollodorus.
 See the Critical Note. with the face and breast of a woman, but
 from the flanks she had six heads and twelve feet of dogs.