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Scylla 1 is one of the monsters found on each
side of the strait of Messina, between Italy and
Sicily, the other being
Charybdis. Scylla 1
had the face and breast of a woman, but from the
flanks she had six heads and twelve feet of dogs.
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Beautiful girl
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Scylla 1, they say, had originally been a
beautiful maiden sought by many suitors, but she
scorned them all and lived with the
NEREIDS, who loved her.
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Glaucus 7
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Also Glaucus 7 fell in love with her. He is said
to have been a mortal fisherman who, after chewing
a plant, became a sea deity, but he is also called
son of Nereus and Doris 1, being then the brother
of the NEREIDS. It is
said that he changed his shape near Anthedon in the
island of Euboea, acquiring a new appearance with
amazing colours. And so he got a beard of dark
green hue, and hair covering both shoulders and
back, and his groins merged into a twisted fish
form. Not wishing any more to remain on earth, he
plunged into the sea, and being received by the
divinities of the sea, he was purged of his mortal
nature by Oceanus and
Tethys, who did this wonder with the help of magic
songs, and by bathing his body repeatedly in many
streams.
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Glaucus 7 scorned
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But when Glaucus 7 declared her love to Scylla
1, she, not being able to decide whether he was a
monster or a god, fled from him, and he, wounded by
her refusal, sought Circe,
hoping that this witch, with the help of her magic
herbs, would make Scylla 1 to love him.
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Glaucus 7 faithful to his love
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But Circe fell herself
in love with her visitor, and while advising him to
scorn her who scorns, prayed instead to be herself
united with Glaucus 7. But Glaucus 7 had no
intentions of renouncing his love for Scylla 1. So
he told the witch:
"Sooner shall
foliage grow on the sea, and sooner shall sea weeds
spring up on the mountain tops, than shall my love
change while Scylla lives." [Glaucus 7 to
Circe. Ovid,
Metamorphoses
14.38]
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Circe's revenge
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And since a woman would seldom listen to love
poems addressed to another woman,
Circe, on hearing these
words, was herself enraged. But she would not harm
Glaucus 7, whom she loved, and instead turned her
wrath upon the girl whom he loved. And so
Circe, leaving the palace,
went to Rhegium in the 'toe' of Italy, and poisoned
with drugs the water in which Scylla 1 used to
bathe, and when she went down into it she was
transformed into a monster who was woman above, but
fish from the hips down, with six dogs joined to
her body.
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Glaucus 7 watches as
Scylla 1 is turned into a monster
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Fate of Scylla 1
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Since that time Scylla 1, from her cliff, became
a pest to all sailors, and those who escaped
Charybdis, who was on
the cliff on the other side of the strait, became
her victims, as occurred to several of
Odysseus' companions,
whom she devoured. But some have said that at the
time when Aeneas came
with his fleet after the sack of
Troy, Scylla 1 had already
been changed into the dangerous rock, which still
stands to this day.
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Namesake
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Scylla 2 was princess of
Megara.
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