"Scylla," the six-headed sea she-devil
The Greek poet Homer would describe Scylla as a malevolent goddess of the sea born a monster, replete with twelve dangling feet and six long necks ending in ghastly heads full of gnashing teeth. Modern thinkers, however, believe her to have been a more tragic figure, a cursed but beautiful nymph who was doomed to her horrific appearance by the witch Kirke for falling in love with the god Glaukos. The dogs attached at her waist reference statements in The Odyssey that her voice sounded like the howling of canines, and it is likely they also stem from the description of her having a multitude of heads. While the classic interpretation has always shown her in this way, complete with piscine tail and fins, other visions of Scylla include six-headed dragons, a large serpent with the faces of several women on its body, and even a sea nymph riding a pack of wild dogs. In The Odyssey, Scylla gained infamy for being paired with the monstrous whirlpool Charybdis in a frightening test of courage for the story’s titular hero, Odysseus. Scylla would late appear in mythology as a villainous blockade for other, similar heroes such as Jason and the Argonauts, Aeneas, and even Heracles.
In our world, “Scylla” is the name of a large rock in the waters between Italy and the island of Sicily; much like the stories, this rock also shares its waters with another, similar boulder called “Charybdis.” So famous were these two stones for ancient sailors that they worked their way into early classical literature not only as the twin beasts, but more importantly a possible origin for the term “between a rock and a hard place.” For the sailing men of Antiquity, novice to the world surrounding them, it truly must have felt like an angry sea goddess and her demonic currents were staring down their ship as they traversed these tricky sea routes through sea-swallowing hazards. So amazed were they by these sights that they personified them as monsters.
In all manner of truth, Scylla does not literally exist in our world in the form she had been described in the epic tales, but the ancient sailors remained fearful of the unknown corners of the world seas, and this is reflected in their literature. In fact, Scylla is referenced several times throughout the writings of Greek philosophers well beyond the land of fictional voyages. While this may seem strange, Scylla behaves as a metaphor for “the starving greed of a woman once scorned,” which can only be deemed fitting for a stone that could literally tear a ship apart and leave the crew of men starving for dry land. Running aground on a boulder of such massive size, much like crossing an unforgiving female force of such ferocity as Scylla, must have felt all too close to one in the same, for men of any time.
You were warned, campers. Respect your sisters, mothers, and wives… and always watch where you sail that ship. It would be unfortunate for you to come across Scylla, anyway she comes, in the flesh.
REFERENCES:
- Aaron J. Atsmas, The Theoi Project. 2011. Accessed at http://www.theoi.com.
- Collins English Dictionary. HarperCollins Publishers, 2003.
- Homer, The Odyssey.
- Title Image from: ”Skylla” by Asteas (340BC), taken from online collection at The J. Paul Getty Museum, Malibu, CA, USA
IMAGES: