Eustace, John Cretwode: A classical tour through Italy An. MDCCCII (Vol. 3): 3. ed., rev. and enl (London: J. Mawman, 1815)

Ch. III.

THROUGH ITALY.

87

took a boat and rowed about the bay, which in
the creeks and windings of the western coast fur-
nishes objects for many delightful excursions.
Such are the Capo d'Amalfi, the Punta di Conca,
and, above all, the Syrenuste islands, once the
abode of the Syrens, famed in ancient story, and
proverbial in modern languages. They are three
in number, about eleven miles from Salerno, and
four from the point of the promontory of Minerva
(now of Surrentum) but one only from the near-
est land. They are now called Galli, perhaps
with a traditional allusion to the form of the Sy-
rens, and are still as described by Virgil, barren
rocks, without other inhabitants than sea-fowls,
and other sounds than the murmurs of the waves
echoing amid the crags and the caverns.
Jamque adeo scopulos Sirenum advecta subibat,
Difficiles quondam multorumque ossibus albos;
Turn rauca adsiduo longe sale saxa sonabant. Lib. v.
It seems singular that Virgil, while he alludes
to Homer’s account of these islands, instead of
adopting, and as usual improving the instruc-
tive fiction of the Greek poet, should upon this
occasion in particular have abandoned him,
and in order to avoid the appearance of imita-
tion, fallen into a poetical anachronism. Such
at least a direct contradiction to Homer the