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Scylla (pronounced /ˈsɪlə/; Greek: Σκύλλα, Skulla), also known as Scylle (pronounced /ˈsɪli/; Greek: Σκύλλη, Skullē), was one of the two monsters in Greek mythology (the other being Charybdis) that lived on either side of a narrow channel of water. The two sides of the strait were within an arrow's range of each other—so close that sailors attempting to avoid Charybdis would pass too close to Scylla and vice versa.
The phrase "between Scylla and Charybdis" has come to mean being in a state where one is between two dangers and moving away from one will cause you to be in danger from the other. Traditionally the aforementioned strait has been associated with the Strait of Messina between Italy and Sicily, but more recently this theory has been challenged, and the alternative location of Cape Skilla in northwest Greece has been suggested by Tim Severin. 1
Scylla was a grotesque sea monster, with six long necks equipped with grisly heads, each of which contained three rows of sharp teeth. Her body consisted of twelve canine legs and a cat's tail. She was one of the children of Phorcys and either Hecate, Crataeis, Lamia or Ceto (where Scylla would also be known as one of the Phorcydes). Some sources, including Stesichorus cite her parents as Triton and Lamia.
In classical art, she was depicted as a fish-tailed mermaid with four to six dog-heads ringing her waist.
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In literature
Homer's Odyssey
In Homer's Odyssey, Odysseus is given advice by Circe to sail closer to Scylla, for Charybdis could drown his whole ship, and to bid Crataeis prevent her from pouncing more than once. Odysseus then successfully sails his ship past Scylla and Charybdis, but Scylla manages to catch six of his men, devouring them alive. When this happens, the empty spot on the boat and helps the men row the ship out of harm's way.
Ovid
According to Ovid,2 Scylla was once a beautiful nymph. The fisherman-turned-sea-god Glaucus fell madly in love with her, but she fled from him onto the land where he could not follow. Despair filled his heart. He went to the sorceress Circe to ask for a love potion to melt Scylla's heart. As he told his tale of love about Scylla to Circe, she herself fell in love with him. She wooed him with her sweetest words and looks, but the sea-god would have none of her. Circe was furious, but with Scylla and not with Glaucus. She prepared a vial of very powerful poison and poured it in the pool where Scylla bathed. As soon as the nymph entered the water, she was transformed into a frightful monster with twelve feet and six heads, each with three rows of teeth. Angry, growling wolf heads grew from her waist, and she tried to brush them off. She stood there in utter misery, unable to move, loathing and destroying everything that came into her reach, a peril to all sailors who passed near her. Whenever a ship passed, each of her heads would seize one of the crew.
Other
In a late Greek myth,3 it was said that Heracles encountered Scylla during a journey to Sicily and slew her. Her father, the sea-god Phorcys, then applied flaming torches to her body and restored her to life.
According to John Tzetzes4 and Servius' commentary on the Aeneid5 Scylla was a beautiful naiad who was claimed by Poseidon, but Amphitrite turned her into a monster.
It is said that by the time Aeneas' fleet came through the strait after the fall of Troy, Scylla had been changed into a dangerous rock outcropping which still stands there to this day.
The character of Sin from John Milton's Paradise Lost is similar to Scylla. Scylla and Charybdis are actually mentioned at one point in the poem.
Notes
- ^ Severin, Tim. The Ulysses Voyage. ISBN 100525246142. http://www.timseverin.net/ulysses.htm.
- ^ (Ovid, Metamorphoses xiii. 732ff, 905; xiv. 40ff.
- ^ Recorded in Eustathius' commentary on Homer and John Tzetzes, Ad Lycophron.
- ^ Tzetzes, Ad Lycophron 45.
- ^ Servius on Aeneid iii. 420.
See also
References
- Hanfmann, George M. A., "The Scylla of Corvey and Her Ancestors" Dumbarton Oaks Papers 41 "Studies on Art and Archeology in Honor of Ernst Kitzinger on His Seventy-Fifth Birthday" (1987), pp. 249-260. Hanfman assembles Classical and Christian literary and visual testimony of Scylla, from Mesopotamian origins to his ostensible subject, a ninth-century wall painting at Corvey Abbey.
In Popular Culture
- American heavy metal band Trivium have a song on their album, Shogun, called 'Torn Between Scylla and Charybdis".
- The Prison Break season four premiere is called "Scylla" and the episodes after feature the gang hunting to retrieve the six company data cards of the same name. Scylla is portrayed as a secret government project to control all of the Sun's energy and more.
- In Battlestar Galactica (2004 TV series), the "Scylla" was a civilian transport ship in a small group of vessels picked up by the battlestar Pegasus a week after the Cylon attack on the Colonies. The "Scylla" was left for dead after being abandoned and stripped of parts by the Pegasus crew. The battlestar Pegasus serves as the Charybdis in the story of the Scylla's passengers, who cannot escape from either ship, either being pressed into service on the battlestar or left stranded and lost on the civilian ships. Source
- In video game, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night are creatures called Scylla wyrms.
- In William Goldman's novel Marathon Man, Scylla is the smooth but ruthless, secret agent brother to the awkward, marathon-running geek. In the movie adaptation, Scylla was played by Roy Scheider and the younger brother was played by Dustin Hoffman.
- Appeared in The Buffy The Vampire Slayer Videogame as one of buffys foes.
External links
- Theoi Project, Skylla references in classical literature and ancient art.
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- This page was last modified on 4 January 2009, at 04:38.
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