Have you ever heard someone say "between Scylla and Charybdis" instead of "between a rock and a hard spot"? Charybdis was a whirlpool opposite Scylla, a specific rock (or other hazard), eventually located on the Strait of Messina, near Sicily, that posed a hazard to sailors.
In 'The Odyssey'
In Book XII of The Odyssey, Circe, the daughter of Helios, the sun god, and a potent sorceress, advises Odysseus on the path past Scylla and Charybdis that he must take:
"'When your crew have taken you past these Sirens, I cannot give you coherent directions as to which of two courses you are to take; I will lay the two alternatives before you, and you must consider them for yourself. On the one hand there are some overhanging rocks against which the deep blue waves of Amphitrite beat with terrific fury; the blessed gods call these rocks the Wanderers. Here not even a bird may pass, no, not even the timid doves that bring ambrosia to Father Jove, but the sheer rock always carries off one of them, and Father Jove has to send another to make up their number; no ship that ever yet came to these rocks has got away again, but the waves and whirlwinds of fire are freighted with wreckage and with the bodies of dead men. The only vessel that ever sailed and got through, was the famous Argo on her way from the house of Aetes, and she too would have gone against these great rocks, only that Juno piloted her past them for the love she bore to Jason.
"'Of these two rocks the one reaches heaven and its peak is lost in a dark cloud. This never leaves it, so that the top is never clear not even in summer and early autumn. No man though he had twenty hands and twenty feet could get a foothold on it and climb it, for it runs sheer up, as smooth as though it had been polished. In the middle of it there is a large cavern, looking West and turned towards Erebus; you must take your ship this way, but the cave is so high up that not even the stoutest archer could send an arrow into it. Inside it Scylla sits and yelps with a voice that you might take to be that of a young hound, but in truth she is a dreadful monster and no one--not even a god--could face her without being terror-struck. She has twelve mis-shapen feet, and six necks of the most prodigious length; and at the end of each neck she has a frightful head with three rows of teeth in each, all set very close together, so that they would crunch any one to death in a moment, and she sits deep within her shady cell thrusting out her heads and peering all round the rock, fishing for dolphins or dogfish or any larger monster that she can catch, of the thousands with which Amphitrite teems. No ship ever yet got past her without losing some men, for she shoots out all her heads at once, and carries off a man in each mouth.
"'You will find the other rock lie lower, but they are so close together that there is not more than a bow-shot between them. [A large fig tree in full leaf grows upon it], and under it lies the sucking whirlpool of Charybdis. Three times in the day does she vomit forth her waters, and three times she sucks them down again; see that you be not there when she is sucking, for if you are, Neptune himself could not save you; you must hug the Scylla side and drive ship by as fast as you can, for you had better lose six men than your whole crew.'
"'Is there no way,' said I, 'of escaping Charybdis, and at the same time keeping Scylla off when she is trying to harm my men?'
"'You dare devil,' replied the goddess, 'you are always wanting to fight somebody or something; you will not let yourself be beaten even by the immortals. For Scylla is not mortal; moreover she is savage, extreme, rude, cruel and invincible. There is no help for it; your best chance will be to get by her as fast as ever you can, for if you dawdle about her rock while you are putting on your armour, she may catch you with a second cast of her six heads, and snap up another half dozen of your men; so drive your ship past her at full speed, and roar out lustily to Crataiis who is Scylla's dam, bad luck to her; she will then stop her from making a second raid upon you.'
From Beautiful to Hideous
But once upon a time, Scylla (Skylla/Σκύλλη) was not stone. Who she was originally varies with the author, but her transformation from a gorgeous sea nymph into the punishing rock is most familiar from Ovid in his Metamorphoses Book XIII.
Fear of the God
Like many of the stories of transformation in Ovid, her transformation had to do with scorning a handsome god, in this case, a newly-created sea god, Glaucus. Scylla was in her pool when the sea god emerged from the water with his handsome face, but merman body and sea-colored, scraggly beard and hair. The poor girl was frightened. She ran away.
Circe: The Treacherous Sorceress
Glaucus turned to Circe for help and a love potion, but the sorceress and aunt of the equally possessive Medea, wanted Glaucus for herself. Why would the god prefer a mortal to her, she wondered briefly, before deciding it was not a situation she could tolerate. She could do no more to force the god than she could, at another point in her history, to the mortal Odysseus whose devotion to a fellow mortal was, at least, more comprehensible. The mortal woman whom Odysseus pined for was already his wife and the mother of their son. Glaucus couldn't even keep the woman he desired interested. Circe decided to dispose of her rival, so, instead of giving Glaucus what he sought, she poisoned Scylla's little pool. As Scylla bathed in it, she suddenly saw her lower parts turning into barking dog heads. (Hyginus [151] says she was born with the dog parts because she was one of the many monstrous children of Echidna and Typhon.) She tried to run from the hounds, but found she was rooted to the spot. Her torture would endure forever, so she reached out to sailors to share with them, a little of her rage and insanity. They suffered from then on -- as we read about in stories of sailors' voyages to the far corners of the known world.
Theseus Had a Hand in It
That's not the only version of the transformation story of Skylla. In another version, she is Theseus' cousin, daughter of King Nisus of Megara, who has a lock of hair that confers immortality. Scylla cuts it, possibly out of love for King Minos; Minos gains the city, doesn't care for Scylla, but instead ties her to a boat and pulls her through the sea. When she calls out to the gods for help, Poseidon's wife, Amphitrite, takes pity and changes the girl into a ciris sea bird.
Hyginus' Stories
Here are two of the fables of Hyginus about Scylla:
Vergil's Aeneid is another source on the story of Scylla. In this Scylla retains her status as a living breathing monster:[198] CXCVIII. NISUS
Nisus, son of Mars, or as others say, of Deion, and king of the Megarians, is said to have had a purple lock of hair on his head. An oracle had told him that he would rule as long as he preserved that lock. When Minos, son of Jove, had come to attack him, Scylla, daughter of Nisus, fell in love with him at the instigation of Venus. To make him the victor, she cut the fatal lock from her sleeping father, and so Nisus was conquered by Minos. He said that holy Crete would not receive such a criminal. She threw herself into the sea to avoid pursuit [?]. Nisus, however, in pursuit of his daughter, was changed into a halliaetos, that is, a sea-eagle. Scylla, his daughter, was changed into a fish which they call the ciris, and today, if ever that bird sees the fish swimming, he dives into the water, seizes it, and rends it with his claws.
[199] CXCIX. THE OTHER SCYLLA
Scylla, daughter of the River Crataeis, is said to have been a most beautiful maiden. Glaucus loved her, but Circe, daughter of Sol, loved Glaucus. Since Scylla was accustomed to bathe in the sea, Circe, daughter of Sol, out of jealousy poisoned the water with drugs, and when Scylla went down into it, dogs sprang from her thighs, and she was made a monster. She avenged her injuries, for as Ulysses sailed by, she robbed him of his companions.
Theoi
Virgil, Aeneid 3. 420 ff
The right side Scylla keeps; the left is given to pitiless Charybdis, who draws down to the wild whirling of her steep abyss the monster waves, and ever and anon flings them at heaven, to lash the tranquil stars. But Scylla, prisoned in her eyeless cave, thrusts forth her face, and pulls upon the rocks ship after ship; the parts that first be seen are human; a fair-breasted virgin she, down to the womb; but all that lurks below is a huge-membered fish, where strangely join the flukes of dolphins and the paunch of wolves.
Better by far to round the distant goal of the Trinacrian headlands, veering wide from thy true course, than ever thou shouldst see that shapeless Scylla in her vaulted cave, where grim rocks echo her dark sea-dogs' roar."
Originally used as the April 24, 2012 Myth Monday Feature.
2010 Myth Mondays
Previous 2012 Myth Mondays:
- Hercules Hurls His Guest
- Scylla
