The Greeks loved their mythical creatures.
Perhaps one of the most fearsome was the Scylla, a sea monster that appeared in homer’s the
odyssey.
Scylla lived in a cave along the straight of messina, across from the whirlpool, charybdus.
Scylla was a terrifying beast with 6 heads that would prey on seamen that sailed to close,
trouble is, on the other side of the strait of messina, there was a deadly whirlpool,
that would suck in huge ships.
In order to make it past both, you would have to sail between them.
Lets imagine, just for the next few minutes, what if Scylla wasn’t just a mythical creature?
What if she actually existed?
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In his books, the odyssey, Homer, the ancient Greek poet, personified the whirlpools and
rocks of the strait of messina into 2 female characters, Scylla and Charybdus.
The straight of messina is a narrow straight of water between the eastern tip of sicily
and the western tip of Calabria in the south of Italy.
It connects the Tyrrhenian sea to the Ionian Sea..
Scylla and Charybdus were essentially metaphors for the treacherous waters of the western
Mediterranean.
Scylla symbolized the rocks, charybdus was the whirlpool.
To this day, the strait of messina is difficult to sail.
The main current runs from south to north, and another current flows in the opposite
direction, alternating every six hours.
The odyssey is a 24 book long poet about Odysseus, king of Ithaca who was trying to find his
way home from the Trojan war.
For part of the journey, he had to cross the strait of messina, and in order to do so,
he had to get past Scylla and Charybdis.
According to mythology, Scylla was once a beautiful nymph with a soft face who used
to bathe naked in a spring.
Poseidon saw her bathing one day, and fell in love with her, but she ran away from him.
Poseidon told, Amphitrite, a witch, about Scylla.
But Amphitrite loved Poseidon, and this made her very jealous.
So she turned Scylla into a monster by poisoning the spring in which Scylla bathed.
Scylla had four eyes, 6 long necks like snakes and 6 heads.
Each head had 3 rows of sharks teeth.
Along with 6 heads, Scylla also had 12 tentacles and a cat’s tail.
Her waist was adorned with 6 dogs heads.
When Scylla took this form, she attacked the ships of passing sailors.
Her voice sounded like the barking of many dogs.
According to homer, she herself is a fearsome monster, no one could see her and still be
happy, not even a god if he went that way.
Essentially meaning, if you gazed upon Scylla, you’d be traumatized for life.
She stalked the narrow straight from inside a cave, opposite the Charybdis the whirlpool,
and ships would have to sail between them.
If your ship happened to stray too close to scylla she would eat 6 of the men aboard with
each of her 6 heads.
In homer’s odyssey, Odysseus is advised to sail closer to Scylla.
Odysseus is also told to ask scyllas mother, crataeis the river nymph, to ask Scylla not
to attack more than once.
But no one can sail past Scylla unharmed.
The way that odysseus was able to evade Scylla, is that he was told to hide below deck.
Scylla then ate 6 of his strongest companions.
As stated by homer, Skyclla is not of mortal kind, she is a deathless monster, grim and
baleful, savage.
Not to be wrestled with.
Against her there is no defence, and the best path is the path of flight.
If there really was a 6 headed monster living in a cave along the strait of messina, its
likely that the entire history of Sicily Italy would be extremely different.
No one would dare to sail past her, so its quite possible that travellers wouldn’t
even use the strait to get from one side of the Mediterranean to the Tyrrhenian sea.
They would have to sail around the island of Sicily.
Sicily was colonized by the greeks in the 8th century BC.
It was a very important city state, Archimedes was from sicily.
Back in the day, sicily was a hot trade spot.
People would travel far and wide to get their hands on Sicilian wine, olive oil, pistachios,
pasta and let’s not forget blood oranges.
All of these saught after products would not make their way to the rest of the Mediterranean.
Blood oranges are good, but not worth losing 6 crew over.
If Scylla was a real, it can be said that many of the other mythical creatures and gods
poeticised by homer would be real too.
Creatures like the sirens, mermaids who live on an island and lure men with their beautiful
singing.
The Cyclops, the monster with one eye.
Poseidon, the god of the sea who has the ability to control the water and weather.
The odyssey would be revered as somewhat of a bible, rather than an elaborate work of
fiction.
Odysseus would be remembered as somewhat of a jesus type figurehead.
Thankfully, Scylla is just a mythical creature, painted on ancient vases and urns, and so
are the rest of the monsters from Homer’s the odessey.
For now, I’m charlotte dobre, and you’ve been watching life’s biggest questions.
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