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Figures in the ancient sources

Scylla in the ancient sources

Ancient Sources / Figures / Scylla

25 passages from 12 ancient authors that tell of Scylla, in the original with English translation, author by author in the order the Greeks read them. Scylla was a six-headed sea monster in Greek mythology who lived opposite Charybdis and killed six of Odysseus' men in the Odyssey. For the story in one place, read our article on Scylla.

Homer (5)

  1. Homer, Odyssey 12.1–141Circe's counselAfter they leave the river of Ocean and return to Aeaea, Odysseus buries Elpenor, and Circe comes to them with food and wine. She tells him in private of the dangers ahead: the Sirens, whom they must pass with their ears stopped with wax, and the wandering rocks. She describes Scylla and Charybdis, and tells him to choose Scylla's side, and to leave the cattle of the Sun untouched.
  2. Homer, Odyssey 12.201–259Scylla and CharybdisBeyond the Sirens they see smoke and great waves, and the men drop their oars in terror. Odysseus has not told them of Scylla, and he arms himself and stands on the prow, but she snatches six men from the ship with her six heads. They pass Charybdis, who sucks down the sea three times a day, while Odysseus watches the whirlpool.
  3. Homer, Odyssey 12.260–328The cattle of the SunHaving escaped the rocks, Charybdis and Scylla, they come to the island of the Sun. From the ship Odysseus hears the cattle and the sheep, and recalls the warnings of Teiresias and Circe, and wants to sail past the island. Eurylochus objects, and the men land and swear not to touch the herds, but a south wind blows for a month, and their stores give out.
  4. Homer, Odyssey 12.403–453The shipwreck; Charybdis; CalypsoZeus sends a west wind and a thunderbolt, which splits the ship, and the men, thrown out like sea-gulls, are drowned. Odysseus lashes the keel and the mast together and rides them back toward Charybdis, where he clings to a fig-tree till she spews them out again. He drifts for nine days, and on the tenth is thrown on Calypso's island, where she takes him in, and he ends his tale.
  5. Homer, Odyssey 23.288–372Odysseus tells his tale; the dawnThey go to bed, and Odysseus tells Penelope the story of his wanderings, the Cicones, the Lotus-eaters, the Cyclops, Aeolus, the Laestrygonians, Circe, Hades, the Sirens, Scylla, Charybdis, the cattle of the Sun, Calypso and the Phaeacians. At dawn he tells Penelope to stay in her room and goes out to the country with Telemachus and the two herdsmen, to see his father, with Athena casting night about them.

Apollodorus (1)

  1. Apollodorus, The Library (Bibliotheca), with the Epitome E.7.1–40The wanderings of Odysseus, the suitors and his deathOdysseus leaves Troy and meets the Cicones, the Lotus-eaters and Polyphemus the Cyclops, then Aeolus, the Laestrygonians and Circe. After the visit to Hades, the Sirens, Scylla and Charybdis and the cattle of the Sun, he reaches Calypso and then the Phaeacians and Ithaca, where the suitors are named and killed. The section ends with his later life among the Thesprotians and the variant accounts of his death at the hands of Telegonus, and of Penelope's fate.

Euripides (1)

  1. Euripides, Medea 1293–1360Exodos: Jason learns his sons are dead and confronts MedeaJason arrives in haste to save his sons from the vengeance of the royal house, and learns from the Chorus that Medea has already killed them. Medea appears and says that the Sun, her grandfather, has given her horses to carry her out of reach. Jason rages at her as a lioness and a murderess, and she answers that she has wounded him as he wounded her.

Apollonius Rhodius (2)

  1. Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica 4.783–884Hera and ThetisHera asks Thetis to guide Argo through the Wandering Rocks and past Scylla and Charybdis. Thetis agrees, gathers the Nereids, and secretly tells her husband Peleus to have the heroes sail at dawn.
  2. Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica 4.885–981The Sirens, the Wandering Rocks and ScyllaAt dawn the Argonauts leave Aeaea; Orpheus drowns out the Sirens' song with his lyre, though Butes dives in and is saved by Cypris. The Nereids pass Argo through the Wandering Rocks, with Hera and Hephaestus watching, and the heroes sail on past Thrinacia and the cattle of Helios.

Ovid (6)

  1. Ovid, Metamorphoses 14.1–74Scylla and CirceGlaucus comes to the island of Circe and begs her for a charm to make Scylla love him. Circe, who loves him herself, tries to turn him from Scylla and, in jealousy, poisons the pool where Scylla bathes. Scylla finds her lower body changed into a ring of barking monsters, and in her hatred of Circe she robs Odysseus (Ulysses) of his men. She is at last changed into a rock that still frightens sailors.
  2. Ovid, Metamorphoses 8.1–151Scylla and NisusMinos besieges Megara, where Nisus, the king, wears a purple lock of hair on which his safety depends. His daughter Scylla, who loves Minos from the wall, cuts off the lock and takes it to him, but Minos rejects her for her treachery and sails away. Scylla, abandoned, swims after the ship and is turned into a sea-bird, the ciris, which is pursued by her father, turned into an osprey.
  3. Ovid, Metamorphoses 13.623–747Aeneas at Delos; Anius' daughters; ScyllaAeneas escapes from Troy with his father and his household gods and comes to Delos, where the king Anius shows them the temple and tells how his three daughters had the power of turning things into corn, wine and oil. Agamemnon tried to take them for the Greek army, and they escaped by prayer to Dionysus (Bacchus), who turned them into doves. Aeneas sails on past Sicily and the straits of Scylla and Charybdis, and the nymph Scylla asks the sea-nymph Galatea why she weeps.
  4. Ovid, Metamorphoses 13.900–968GlaucusScylla returns to a lonely bay, where the sea god Glaucus appears and tells her how, once a fisherman, he laid his catch on a bank of grass, and the fish revived and plunged into the sea. He ate some of the grass himself and was seized by the same longing, and was received among the sea gods. He pleads for Scylla's love, but she flees, and Glaucus goes in anger to the court of Circe.
  5. Ovid, Metamorphoses 14.75–157The Cercopes; the SibylAeneas sails past Scylla and Charybdis, is driven to Libya, where Dido, who loved him, kills herself, and comes to the island of the Pithecusae, where Zeus (Jupiter) turned the Cercopes into apes. At Cumae the Sibyl guides Aeneas to the underworld, and tells him how Apollo wooed her and granted her as many years as the grains of sand in her hand, but she forgot to ask for youth. She is now shrunken, and will in the end be only a voice.
  6. Ovid, Heroides 12.1–212Heroides 12: Medea to JasonMedea writes to Jason, who has left her for a new bride, the daughter of Creon. She recalls how she saved him against the bulls, the earth-born men and the dragon, and what she gave up for him, including her father, her homeland and her brother. She tells how she learned of the wedding from their son, asks him to take her back, and hints at vengeance.

Pausanias (1)

  1. Pausanias, Description of Greece 2.34.1–12Methana and Hermionis: the coast and the old and new cities of HermionPausanias describes Methana, with its hot springs, the rite against the south-west wind and the Isles of Pelops, then the origins of Hermion and the Dorian settlement. He follows the road from Troezen to Hermion, past Cape Scyllaeum with its story of Scylla and Minos, the islands and capes of the coast, Mount Buporthmus and the promontory where old Hermion stood. He ends with the sights of the present city, including the temples of Aphrodite of the Deep Sea and of Demeter Warmth.

Nonnus of Panopolis (1)

  1. Nonnus of Panopolis, Dionysiaca 25.80–193Book 25: The feats of Perseus and Minos set against those of DionysosThe poet continues the comparison with Perseus, setting his sea-monster, Polydectes and Andromeda against Dionysos' defeat of the Giants. He contrasts Minos' conquest of Megara, won through Scylla's love, with a victory won by hard fighting, and turns to Heracles, whose Nemean lion was matched by the boy Dionysos with his team of lions.

Heraclitus (paradoxographer) (1)

  1. Heraclitus (paradoxographer), On Unbelievable Tales 1–20Monsters and marvels, from Medusa to the golden applesHeraclitus explains away Medusa, Scylla, the Centaurs, the Minotaur, the Harpies, the Sirens, the Chimaera and the Hydra as courtesans, raiders, treacherous queens or mistaken counts of young animals. He turns Atlas into an astronomer, Perseus’ winged sandals into his speed in running, and the dragon of the Hesperides into a man named Drakon. Each marvel is traced to a figure of speech that a later age took literally.

Hyginus (1)

  1. Hyginus, Fabulae 192–206Hyas, Harpalyce, Arion, Orion and tales of transformationThe Hyades and Pleiades, Harpalyce and Arion are followed by Orion, Pan, Aphrodite's egg and the two Scyllas. Chione, Autolycus, Coronis, Daphne, Nyctimene, Arge and Harpalyce and Clymenus close the group.

Palaephatus (1)

  1. Palaephatus, On Unbelievable Tales 15–21Europa, the Horse, Aeolus, Hesperides, Hundred-Handers, Scylla, Daedalus’ StatuesSeven more rationalisations. They run from Europa carried off by a man named Taurus to the Wooden Horse as a siege device, Aeolus the astronomer, the Hesperides’ golden sheep, a city named Hundred-Hands, the trireme Scylla, and Daedalus’ walking statues. The sources of the myths are almost always a pun or an ambiguous name.

Strabo (3)

  1. Strabo, Geography 1.2.15–19Polybius on Aeolus, Scylla and CharybdisStrabo reports Polybius, who treats Aeolus as a mortal who taught sailors the strait and compares kings made famous by useful discoveries, such as Danaus and Atreus. Scylla's hunt matches the sword-fish fishing at Scyllaeum, and Charybdis matches the Strait of Messina. Strabo agrees about Sicily but faults Polybius on the voyage beyond Ocean, and mentions the Lotophagi, Parthenope's tomb and the oracle of the dead near Cumae.
  2. Strabo, Geography 1.2.8–10Myth as education: Circe, Aea and the CimmeriansStrabo explains why myths teach children and the multitude, naming Lamia, Gorgo, the labours of Heracles (Hercules) and Theseus, and the thunderbolts, aegis and trident of the gods. He argues that Homer decorates real events with fiction, so that Aeolus, the Cyclopae, Scylla and Charybdis rest on real places. He also links Circe and Medea, the Argonautic voyage, the Symplegades and the Planctae, and the Cimmerians near Hades.
  3. Strabo, Geography 8.6.10–13Mycenae, Tiryns and the CyclopesStrabo describes the Argive kingdoms and the rise of Mycenae under the sons of Atreus, with Agamemnon ruling Mycenae and Menelaus Laconia. He reports Mycenae's decline, Proetus fortifying Tiryns with seven Cyclopes from Lycia, and places near Tiryns, such as Licymna and Midea, that the Argives depopulated. He mentions Hermione's short way to Hades, and Scylla, who betrayed Nisaea to Minos.

Virgil (2)

  1. Virgil, Aeneid 3.356–505The prophecy of HelenusAeneas asks Helenus how to escape the dangers foretold by Celaeno, and the priest prophesies that Italy is far off. Aeneas will find a white sow with thirty piglets, avoid the Greek-held coasts, sail around Sicily to avoid Scylla and Charybdis, pray to Hera (Juno), and visit the Sibyl at Cumae. Helenus gives gifts, and Andromache gives Ascanius (Iulus) robes in memory of her son Astyanax. Aeneas hopes the two peoples will one day be one in spirit.
  2. Virgil, Aeneid 5.104–285The boat raceOn the ninth day the games begin with a boat race between four ships captained by Mnestheus, Gyas, Sergestus and Cloanthus. Gyas leads until he throws his pilot Menoetes overboard, Sergestus runs onto the rock, and Mnestheus overtakes the others. Cloanthus prays to the sea gods and wins by a narrow margin. Aeneas awards prizes to the victors and also rewards the wrecked Sergestus.