TheSymplegades (/sɪmˈplɛɡədiːz/;Greek:Συμπληγάδες,Symplēgádes), also known asClashing Rocks orCyanean Rocks (Κυανέαι), were, according toGreek mythology, a pair of rocks at theBosphorus that clashed together whenever a vessel went through. They were defeated byJason and theArgonauts, who would have been lost and killed by the rocks except forPhineus's advice. Jason let a dove fly between the rocks to see exactly how fast they would have to row to beat the rocks; the dove lost only its tail feathers. The Argonauts rowed mightily to get through and lost only part of the stern ornament. After that, the Symplegades stopped moving permanently.
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The European rock is usually identified with an islet, about 20 metres (66 ft) wide and 200 metres (660 ft) long, which stands about 100 metres (330 ft) off the shore of a village calledRumelifeneri ('Lighthouse ofRumeli'), and is connected to it by a modern concretejetty. At its highest point, there is an ancientaltar known as thePillar of Pompey, though it has nothing to do withPompey.Dionysius of Byzantium mentions a Roman shrine toApollo on one of the Cyanean Rocks, and the 16th-century French travellerPetrus Gyllius thought the altar was a remnant of that shrine.[1]
The Asian rock is probably areef off theYum Burnu (north ofAnadolu Feneri 'Lighthouse of Anatolia'), described by Gyllius:
The reef is divided into four rocks above water which, however, are joined below; it is separated from the continent by a narrow channel filled with many stones, by which as by a staircase one can cross the channel with dry feet when the sea is calm; but when the sea is rough, waves surround the four rocks into which I said the reef is divided. Three of these are low and more or less submerged, but the middle one is higher than the European rock, sloping up to an acute point and roundish right up to its summit; it is splashed by the waves but not submerged and is everywhere precipitous and straight.[2]
TheRomans called themCyaneae Insulae ("Blue Islands"), and in Turkish they are calledÖreke Taşı ("Distaff Rock" or "Midwife's Stool").
Lord Byron refers to the Symplegades in the concluding stanzas ofChilde Harold's Pilgrimage:
And from the Alban Mount we now behold
Our friend of youth, that ocean, which when we
Beheld it last by Calp's rock unfold
Those waves, we follow on till the dark Euxine roll'd
Upon the blue Symplegades ...
TheNew CriticI. A. Richards refers to 'Symplegades' in his workPractical Criticism. In Chapter 2, 'Figurative Language', he refers to dangers of misinterpretation in reading poems:"These twin dangers - careless, 'intuitive' reading and prosaic, 'over-literal' reading - are the Symplegades, the 'justling rocks', between which too many ventures into poetry are wrecked."
In his 1961 novelJason,Henry Treece depicts the Symplegades as icebergs that drifted downriver into the Black Sea.
The Symplegades are sometimes identified with (or confused with) thePlanctae (Πλαγκταί) or Wandering Rocks, which are mentioned in theOdyssey andApollonius of Rhodes'Argonautica. In Apollonius's telling, the Symplegades were encountered on the way to theGolden Fleece and the Planctae were encountered on the return voyage.
The similarities and differences between the Wandering Rocks and the Symplegades have been much debated by scholars, as have potential locations for them. (See alsoGeography of the Odyssey.)
