La rabbia di Scilla e i massi dei Ciclopi (Aen. 1, 200-3)

In Aen. 1.200-3, "vos et Scyllaeam rabiem penitusque sonantis / accestis scopulos, vos et Cyclopia saxa / experti," Aeneas' Odyssean identification reaches the point of attributing to his companions, even defining them as "more serious" than those present, adventures that they have only touched on, and that only Odysseus' companions have fully experienced. At first reading, the reader must understand that the Trojans went through Scylla and Charybdis like Odysseus and his companions. Still, after reading book 3, the reader will have to re-interpret Aeneas' words as meaning that they have only approached Scylla. Similarly, the reader will initially have to believe that Aeneas means that the Cyclopes hurled rocks at the Trojan ships, as Polyphemus had hurled them at Odysseus' ship; in the second reading, however, the "Cyclopia saxa" must be re-interpreted as a reference to the rocky coast under Etna (or perhaps to the three small islands known as "Cyclopum scopuli").