Scylla

Image:Denarius Sextus Pompeius-Scilla.jpg minted by Sextus Pompeius|alt=|left]]

The parentage of Scylla varies according to author.For discussions of the parentage of Scylla, see Fowler, [https://books.google.com/books?id=scd8AQAAQBAJ&pg=PA32 p. 32], Ogden, pp. [https://books.google.com/books?id=FQ2pAK9luwkC&pg=PA134 134]–[https://books.google.com/books?id=FQ2pAK9luwkC&pg=PA135 135]; Gantz, pp. 731–732; and Frazer's note 3 to Apollodorus, [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0548.tlg002.perseus-eng1:e.7.20 E.7.20] Homer, Ovid, Apollodorus, Servius, and a scholiast on Plato, all name Crataeis as the mother of Scylla.Homer, Odyssey [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text;jsessionid=0C3862DF72BDE338E6D62A24A49FEF27?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0136%3Abook%3D12%3Acard%3D111 12.124–125]; Ovid, Metamorphoses [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0028%3Abook%3D13%3Acard%3D705 13.749]; Apollodorus, [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0548.tlg002.perseus-eng1:e.7.20 E7.20]; Servius on Virgil Aeneid 3.420; scholia on Plato, Republic 9.588c. Neither Homer nor Ovid mentions a father, but Apollodorus says that the father was either Trienus (probably a textual corruption of Triton) or Phorcus (a variant of Phorkys).Ogden, [https://books.google.com/books?id=FQ2pAK9luwkC&pg=PA135 p. 135]; Gantz, p. 731; Frazer's note 3 to Apollodorus, [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0548.tlg002.perseus-eng1:e.7.20 E.7.20] Similarly, the Plato scholiast, perhaps following Apollodorus, gives the father as Tyrrhenus or Phorcus,Fowler, [https://books.google.com/books?id=scd8AQAAQBAJ&pg=PA32 p. 32] while Eustathius on Homer, Odyssey 12.85, gave the father as Triton, or Poseidon and Crataeis as the parents.Eustathius on Homer, p. 1714

Other authors have Hecate as Scylla's mother. The Hesiodic Megalai Ehoiai gives Hecate and Apollo as the parents of Scylla,Hesiod [https://www-loebclassics-com.ezproxy.bu.edu/view/hesiod-other_fragments/2018/pb_LCL503.311.xml fr. 200 Most] [= fr. 262 MW] (Most, pp. 310, 311). while Acusilaus says that Scylla's parents were Hecate and Phorkys (so also scholia on Odyssey 12.85).Acusilaus. fr. 42 Fowler (Fowler, [https://books.google.com/books?id=scd8AQAAQBAJ&pg=PA32 p. 32]).

Perhaps trying to reconcile these conflicting accounts, Apollonius of Rhodes says that Crataeis was another name for Hecate, and that she and Phorcys were the parents of Scylla.Apollonius of Rhodes, Argonautica [https://archive.org/stream/argonautica00apoluoft#page/350/mode/2up 4. 828–829 (pp. 350–351)]. Likewise, Semos of DelosFGrHist 396 F 22 says that Crataeis was the daughter of Hecate and Triton, and mother of Scylla by Deimos. Stesichorus (alone) names Lamia as the mother of Scylla, possibly the Lamia who was the daughter of Poseidon,Stesichorus, [http://www.loebclassics.com/view/stesichorus_i-fragments/1991/pb_LCL476.133.xml?result=1&rskey=vkJkZt F220 PMG (Campbell, pp. 132–133)]. while according to Hyginus, Scylla was the offspring of Typhon and Echidna.Hyginus, Fabulae [https://topostext.org/work/206#p.35 Preface] & [https://topostext.org/work/206#151 151]

Image:Castello scilla.jpg, which is said to be the home of Scylla]]According to John Tzetzesad Lycophron, [https://topostext.org/work/860#45 45]{{AI-generated source|date=November 2024}} and Servius' commentary on the Aeneid,Servius on Aeneid III. 420. Scylla was a beautiful naiad who was claimed by Poseidon, but the jealous Nereid Amphitrite turned her into a terrible monster by poisoning the water of the spring where Scylla would bathe.

A similar story is found in Hyginus,Hyginus, Fabulae [https://topostext.org/work/206#199 199] according to whom Scylla was loved by Glaucus, but Glaucus himself was also loved by the goddess sorceress Circe. While Scylla was bathing in the sea, the jealous Circe poured a baleful potion into the sea water which caused Scylla to transform into a frightful monster with six dog forms springing from her thighs. In this form, she attacked Odysseus' ship, robbing him of his companions.

In a late Greek myth, recorded in Eustathius' commentary on Homer and John Tzetzes,ad Lycophron, [https://topostext.org/work/860#45 45]{{AI-generated source|date=November 2024}} 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.

File:Scylla figurine.jpg]]

In Homer's Odyssey XII, Odysseus is advised by Circe to sail closer to Scylla, for Charybdis could drown his whole ship: "Hug Scylla's crag—sail on past her—top speed! Better by far to lose six men and keep your ship than lose your entire crew."Robert Fagles, The Odyssey 1996, XII.119ff. She also tells Odysseus to ask Scylla's mother, the river nymph Crataeis, to prevent Scylla from pouncing more than once. Odysseus successfully navigates the strait, but when he and his crew are momentarily distracted by Charybdis, Scylla snatches six sailors off the deck and devours them alive.

{{poem quote|...they writhed

gasping as Scylla swung them up her cliff and there

at her cavern's mouth she bolted them down raw—

screaming out, flinging their arms toward me,

lost in that mortal struggle.Fagles 1996 XII.275–79.}}

File:Bartholomäus Spranger 006.jpg (c. 1581)]]

According to Ovid,Ovid, Metamorphoses xiii. 732ff., 905; xiv. 40ff.; translation by Nicholas Rowe and Samuel Garth is in [https://books.google.com/books?id=j24VAAAAYAAJ&dq=Ovid%20%20%22Glaucus%20and%20Scylla%22&pg=PA121 GoogleBooks] the fisherman-turned-sea god Glaucus falls in love with the beautiful Scylla, but she is repulsed by his piscine form and flees to a promontory where he cannot follow. When Glaucus goes to Circe to request a love potion that will win Scylla's affections, the enchantress herself becomes enamored with him. Meeting with no success, Circe becomes hatefully jealous of her rival and therefore prepares a vial of poison and pours it into the sea pool where Scylla regularly bathed, transforming her into a thing of terror even to herself.

{{poem quote|In vain she offers from herself to run

And drags about her what she strives to shun.Ovid, Metamorphoses [https://books.google.com/books?id=j24VAAAAYAAJ&dq=Ovid%20%20%22Glaucus%20and%20Scylla%22&pg=PA124 xiv.51–2]}}

The story was later adapted into a five-act tragic opera, Scylla et Glaucus (1746), by the French composer Jean-Marie Leclair.

In John Keats' loose retelling of Ovid's version of the myth of Scylla and Glaucus in Book 3 of Endymion (1818), the evil Circe does not transform Scylla into a monster but merely murders the beautiful nymph. Glaucus then takes her corpse to a crystal palace at the bottom of the ocean where lie the bodies of all lovers who have died at sea. After a thousand years, she is resurrected by Endymion and reunited with Glaucus.{{citation |title=Endymion Book III |url=http://www.gutenberg.org/files/24280/24280-h/24280-h.htm |at=line 401ff | via =Project Gutenberg}}

File:Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Glaucus and Scylla’, 1841.jpg's painting of Scylla fleeing inland from the advances of Glaucus (1841)]]

At the Carolingian abbey of Corvey in Westphalia, a unique ninth-century wall painting depicts, among other things, Odysseus' fight with Scylla.{{efn| via Wikimedia}} This illustration is not noted elsewhere in medieval arts.{{cite web| url = https://whc.unesco.org/en/tentativelists/1366/| title = UNESCO: Corvey Abbey and Castle}}

In the Renaissance and after, it was the story of Glaucus and Scylla that caught the imagination of painters across Europe. In Agostino Carracci's 1597 fresco cycle of The Loves of the Gods in the Farnese Gallery, the two are shown embracing, a conjunction that is not sanctioned by the myth.{{efn|at Wikimedia}} More orthodox versions show the maiden scrambling away from the amorous arms of the god, as in the oil on copper painting by Filippo Lauri{{efn| [http://www.magnoliabox.com/art/391086/Glaucus_and_Scylla Magnoliabox] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140322014348/http://www.magnoliabox.com/art/391086/Glaucus_and_Scylla |date=2014-03-22 }} }} and the oil on canvas by Salvator Rosa in the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Caen.{{efn|View on the [http://www.reproarte.com/files/images/R/rosa_salvator/0492-0201_glaucus_and_scylla.jpg Reproarte site]; a [https://www.flickr.com/photos/renzodionigi/3624763164 preliminary drawing] in MFA Boston is dated 1661}}

Other painters picture them divided by their respective elements of land and water, as in the paintings of the Flemish Bartholomäus Spranger (1587), now in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna.{{efn|Available in at Wikimedia}} Some add the detail of Cupid aiming at the sea-god with his bow, as in the painting of Laurent de la Hyre (1640/4) in the J. Paul Getty Museum{{efn|View on the museum website{{cite web| url = http://www.getty.edu/art/collection/objects/728/laurent-de-la-hyre-glaucus-and-scylla-french-about-1640-1644/| title = Glaucus and Scylla}}}} and that of Jacques Dumont le Romain (1726) at the Musée des beaux-arts de Troyes.View on [https://www.flickr.com/photos/34326717@N03/3261056474/sizes/m Flickr] Two cupids can also be seen fluttering around the fleeing Scylla in the late painting of the scene by J. M. W. Turner (1841), now in the Kimbell Art Museum.{{efn|There is a more conventional print from around 1810/15 in the [http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/turner-glaucus-and-scylla-a01150 Tate Gallery]}}

Peter Paul Rubens shows the moment when the horrified Scylla first begins to change, under the gaze of Glaucus ({{circa|1636}}),Musée Bonat, available in at Wikimedia while Eglon van der Neer's 1695 painting in the Rijksmuseum shows Circe poisoning the water as Scylla prepares to bathe.{{efn|View on [https://www.flickr.com/photos/renzodionigi/3623947737/sizes/o Flickr]}} There are also two Pre-Raphaelite treatments of the latter scene by John Melhuish Strudwick (1886)View on Wikimedia and John William Waterhouse (Circe Invidiosa, 1892).Available on the [http://www.johnwilliamwaterhouse.com/pictures/circe-invidiosa-1892 website] devoted to the artist

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{{Reflist}}

• Apollodorus, Apollodorus, The Library, with an English Translation by Sir James George Frazer, F.B.A., F.R.S. in 2 Volumes. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1921. [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text;jsessionid=C431BA809CA4DEA22A15DA9C666F3400?doc=Perseus%3atext%3a1999.01.0022%3atext%3dLibrary Online version at the Perseus Digital Library].
• {{citation | author-link=Apollonius of Rhodes |author=Apollonius Rhodius |title= The Argonautica |year=1912 |translator=Robert Cooper Seaton |publisher=W. Heinemann |edition=trans 1912 |url= https://archive.org/stream/argonautica00apoluoft#page/n5/mode/2up |via=Internet Archive}}
• Campbell, David A., Greek Lyric III: Stesichorus, Ibycus, Simonides, and Others, Harvard University Press, 1991. {{ISBN|978-0674995253}}.
• Fowler, R. L., Early Greek Mythography: Volume 2: Commentary, Oxford University Press, 2013. {{ISBN|978-0198147411}}.
• Gantz, Timothy, Early Greek Myth: A Guide to Literary and Artistic Sources, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996, Two volumes: {{ISBN|978-0-8018-5360-9}} (Vol. 1), {{ISBN|978-0-8018-5362-3}} (Vol. 2).
• 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.
• Hyginus, Gaius Julius, Fabulae, in The Myths of Hyginus, edited and translated by Mary A. Grant, Lawrence: University of Kansas Press, 1960. [https://topostext.org/work/206 Online version at ToposText].
• Most, G.W., Hesiod: The Shield, Catalogue of Women, Other Fragments, Loeb Classical Library, No. 503, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press, 2007, 2018. {{ISBN|978-0-674-99721-9}}. [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/LCL503/2018/volume.xml Online version at Harvard University Press].
• {{cite book |last=Ogden |first=Daniel |title=Drakon: Dragon Myth and Serpent Cult in the Greek and Roman Worlds |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2013 |isbn=9780199557325 }}
• Stesichorus, in Greek Lyric, Volume III: Stesichorus, Ibycus, Simonides, and Others. Edited and translated by David A. Campbell. Loeb Classical Library [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/LCL476/1991/volume.xml 476]. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1991.
• Virgil, Aeneid. Translated by Frederick Ahl: Oxford University Press, 2007.

{{Wiktionary}}

{{Commons category}}

• {{cite web|url=http://www.theoi.com/Pontios/Skylla.html|publisher=Theoi Project|title=Skylla}} – references in classical literature and ancient art.
• {{cite web|url=http://www.lessing-photo.com/search.asp?a=1&kc=2020202053F6&kw=ODYSSEE%3ASCYLLA&p=1&ipp|publisher=|title=Images of Scylla on Classical artefacts (Archive.org link)|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110928040613/http://www.lessing-photo.com/search.asp?a=1&kc=2020202053F6&kw=ODYSSEE%3ASCYLLA&p=1&ipp|archive-date=2011-09-28}}
• {{cite EB1911|wstitle=Scylla and Charybdis|volume=24|page=519}}

{{Metamorphoses in Greek mythology}}

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Category:Characters in the Odyssey

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Category:Children of Apollo

Category:Sea monsters