Folklore / Sicily / Sea Monsters #1

Scylla — The Sicilian Sea Monster Who Made Sailors Cry

From Beautiful Princes to the Terror of the Seas

Scylla — created using Copilot

Imagine being in Greece almost three thousand years ago.

You are a well-known sailor who has traveled far and wide across the ancient world, redrawing maps and giving the world a new face.

You have faced the wrath of the seas far too many times, and your courage and determination had no equals.

However, one day you hear King Alcmaeon simply asking you to cross the Strait of Messina, a 32-kilometer (20-mile) journey, but as soon as you hear those words, you start crying, imploring the king to change his mind.

Well, although I’ve just made up this scene, I wouldn’t be surprised if that had really happened.

The legend of the ferocious princess Scylla has survived to this day, so it wasn’t just a short trend but people truly feared those waters. The words “ferocious” and “princess” don’t often go together, but this story shows how antonyms can perfectly fit the description of the same thing sometimes.

Scylla was originally a beautiful nymph who was turned into a sea monster by the sorceress Circe, who poisoned the water where Scylla bathed.

If you’re wondering why that happened, you should go ask Glaucus, a young sea god who fell in love with her but was rejected.

He didn’t take the rejection well, as you can tell. So he asked Circe to do something about it.

Apparently, rejecting a man was a pretty serious offense back then. Poor girls…

Circe was quite imaginative with the transformation, as Scylla is typically depicted with twelve dog heads, six necks, the body of a wolf, and six snake-like tails that devour anything that passes by.

I know that twelve heads and only six necks defy a few rules of logic, but logic was invented in ancient Greece after all, so who am I to complain? Perhaps the heads were somehow stuck together.

Google Maps screenshot

Scylla lived on a rocky shore between Sicily and the rest of Italy, and for centuries was considered the worst nightmare of anyone who sailed those waters.

She also appeared in the Odyssey, and she wasn’t the only sea monster of that time. In fact, there were two threats: Scylla and Charybdis. These two figures became so intrinsically linked that they symbolized the concept of being caught between two dangers, like “a rock and a hard place” — essentially, two equally dangerous situations.

Charybdis using Copilot

What is left of the myth?

Despite my love for sea monsters, I’m truly grateful that these creatures don’t actually exist. I don’t think there are people nowadays who would still cry in fear if asked to pass through the strait of Messina.

Scylla, ironically enough, became a popular ship name in the Mediterranean Sea:

The Brits used the sea monster’s name for a few of their warships hoping to scare their enemies away.

Scylla AG has become one of the leading providers of exclusive river cruises in Europe with its own fleet of 39 ships.

Last but not least, Scylla is also the name of a small ferry boat that operates in the Strait of Messina, continuing the legacy of the mythical sea monster.

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