In confirmation of this view of the passage, I may observe: 1st, that it is easier to imagine a man staked to the ground by a sharp-pointed rock, than flung on a sharp-pointed rock, so as to remain permanently impaled on it; and 2dly, that the account given of the transaction, both by Quintus Calaber and Seneca, agree as perfectly with this view as they disagree with the opposite: Καί νύ κεν ἐξήλυξε κακὸν μόρον, εἰ μὴ ἄρ'αὐτῷ, ῥήξας αἶαν ἔνερθεν, ἐπιπροέηκε κολώνην· εὖτε πάρος μεγάλοιο κατ' Ἐγκελάδοιο δαΐφρων Παλλὰς ἀειραμένη Σικελὴν ἐπικάββαλε νῆσον· ἦ ῥ' ἔτι καίεται αἰὲν ὑπ' ἀκαμάτοιο Γίγαντος, αἰθαλόεν πνείοντος ἔσω χθονός· ὡς ἄρα Λοκρῶν ἀμφεκάλυψεν ἄνακτα δυσάμμορον οὔρεος ἄκρη, ὑψόθεν ἐξεριποῦσα, βάρυνε δὲ καρτερὸν ἄνδρα· ἀμφὶ δέ μιν θανάτοιο μέλας ἐκιχήσατ' ὄλεθρος, γαίῃ ὁμῶς δμηθέντα καὶ ἀκαμάτῳ ἐνὶ πόντῳ. Quintus Calab. XIV. 579. And so Seneca; who, having presented us with Ajax clinging to the rock to which he had swum for safety, after his ship had been sunk, and himself struck with lightning, and there uttering violent imprecations against the Deity, adds: "Plura cum auderet furens, Tridente rupem subruit pulsam pater Neptunus, imis exerens undis caput, Solvitque montem; quem cadens secum tulit: Terraque et igne victus et pelago jacet." _Agam._ 552. And, so also, beyond doubt, we are to understand Sidonius Apollinaris's-- "Fixusque Capharei Cautibus, inter aquas flammam ructabat Oileus." Not, with Wakefield and the other commentators, _fixed on_ the rocks of Caphareus, but, _pierced with_ the rocks of Caphareus, and lying under them. Compare (_Æn._ IX. 701.) "fixo pulmone," the pierced lung; "fixo cerebro" (_Æn._ XII. 537.); "verubus trementia figunt" (_Æn._ I. 216.), not, fix _on_ the spits, but, stick or pierce _with_ the spits; and especially (Ovid. _Ibis._ 341.), "Viscera sic aliquis scopulus tua figat, ut olim Fixa sub Euboico Graia fuere sinu," pierced and pinned down with a rock, at the bottom of the Euboean gulf. TURBINE. SCOPULO.--Not two instruments, _a whirlwind and a rock_, but one single instrument, _a whirling rock_; scopulo turbineo; in modo turbinis se circumagente; as if Virgil had said, Solo affixit illum correptum et transverberatum scopulo acuto in eum maxima vi rotato: or, more briefly, Turbine scopuli acuti corripuit et infixit. Compare: "Præcipitem scopulo atque ingentis turbine saxi Excutit effunditque solo."--_Æn._ XII. 531. "Stupet obvia leto Turba super stantem, atque emissi turbine montis Obruitur."--Stat. _Theb._ II. 564. "Idem altas turres saxis et turbine crebro Laxat."--Stat. _Theb._ X. 742.