Well, I do! It happens to be very interesting. I read about it just yesterday. It’s kind of cool, but also kind of scary.
Greek name: Skulla
Transliteration: Skylla
Latin spelling: Scylla
Translation: tear, rend (which means to rip etc) [ skullô ]
That’s Scylla. Well, as depicted by some really old potter. 340 BC, late classical, this was made. Homer, a poet, describes Scylla as a creature with twelve dangling feet, six long necks and grisly heads lined with four sharp eyes each a triple row of sharp teeth. The lower part of her body, six hideous dogs with mouths containing three rows of razor sharp teeth and a fish’s tail. Her voice was like dogs’ yelping. Well, she was huge.
But in classical art, she was depicted as a fish-tailed sea-goddess with a cluster of canine foreparts surrounding her waist (as seen in above picture). The “canine foreparts” is really scary, eh? And, yes, it’s a female no matter how little “boobs” she has.
She was most probably the child of Phorcys, who is the father.
Right, here comes the exciting part… Scylla is said to reside in a cave somewhere between Italy and Sicily. Opposite Scylla is Charybdis, which lies only a short distance away from Scylla. Really close together, they are. Charybdis was sort of a whirlpool that resided underneath a fig tree.
Charybdis swallowed the water three times a day and then throw the water up again three times a day too.
Scylla would, of course, kill any sailors that pass by.
So, obviously, both Charybdis and Scylla would kill any sailors who passed by. If sailors tried avoiding Charybdis, they would have to sail close to Scylla. If they tried to avoid Scylla, they would have to sail close to Charybdis. Either way, they would die. That was how the phrase “between Scylla and Charybdis” came about, it means that we have no way to get out of a problem.
That’s how some person, I don’t know who, depicted it.
In Homer’s Odyssey, Odysseus wanted to sail past this point. Circe gave him advice that it was better to sail closer to Scylla, avoiding Charybdis. She said that it would be better to lose six sailors to Scylla (since she had six heads that could snap up the men) than to lose all of their lives to Charybdis, who would swallow the whole ship. Odysseus took her advice and sailed closet to Scylla.
“ While Charybdis kept their attention with her gushing and sputtering, Skylla swooped down unseen and snatched up six of the crew. Their legs and torsos were dangling from Skylla's mouths as she lifted them to her cave to eat them. They screamed for Odysseus and begged for help but he stood helpless on the deck with the rest of the terrified crew. Odysseus said it was the most pitiful scene his long-suffering eyes had ever seen. “
Yep, they didn’t end up very nicely, did they? :/ But Odysseus supposedly managed to kill Scylla. However, Scylla was immortal, so she didn’t die at all.
Not exactly the way described, but yeah, those heads belong to Scylla. It’s snatching up the sailors and it’s gonna devour them any time…
That’s Odysseus battling Scylla. As you can see, Scylla has sailors in her claws/mouths, whatever they are, I can’t see. But it’s most probably mouths. Going naked in battle, not very smart, Odysseus.
According to Ovid, some other person, Scylla was a beautiful nymph before. A fishermen-turned-sea-god Glaucus fell in love with her at first sight. He tried to woo her, but she turned him down, just like how she turned every other man down. Glaucus didn’t give up, he sought Circe’s help. But Circe was in love with Glaucus. When he rejected her after Circe confessed to him, she turned her anger to Scylla. She made a potion and poisoned the waters Scylla usually bathed in. Scylla took a dip into it and immediately turned into the creature she is now.
Angered, she started destroying stuff. That didn’t exactly help her make herself more presentable. She then forever resided in those waters of hers, which is in the cave she resides in.
Glaucus trying to woo Scylla, but didn’t succeed. :(
Credits
Information from – one and two
1st picture from – two
2nd picture from – three
3rd picture from – four
4th picture from – five
5th picture from – six
How does everyone like my new blogskin? Just inviting the new month in. :) Made it myself, of course. Once again, *sigh* the codes need improving. But I’m rather satisfied with the image. The model is found from a Korean online shopping website. Hah, smart, aye?
My sister just told me to go on the a/c again. She never seems to do it even though she’s also sitting in front of the computer, very un-busily. And she just called me a “stupid little piece of shit”. . . I was gonna on it later, after I finished this post, which was soon. But guess she was really impatient. *rolls eyes*
Scared of Scylla,
Shalyn.
P.S. Girl Guides is getting more and more pointless for me, for God’s sake. I didn’t want to do anything more than lying on my bed and reading Harry Potter.
P.S.S. And big thanks to Jocelyn for fetching me home this evening. :D
, 21:58
