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| Skylla and Odysseus |
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Skylla is the six-headed daughter of the goddess Hekate and the pre-Titan god, Phorkys. Skylla has been appropriately referred to as a plague to mortals even though her heritage would not indicate her utter ruthlessness. Her mother Hekate became one of Zeus's favorites because of her assistance in the War of the Titans. Skylla's father Phorkys was an ancient god ... the son of Pontus (Sea) and Ge (Earth).
Skylla and Kharybdis are almost always mentioned together because they live on opposite sides of the Straits of Messina between Italy and Sicily. Skylla is a six-headed, snakelike monster that will swoop down and snatch sailors from the decks of passing ships. Kharybdis is in the form of a whirlpool that alternately sucks down and spews out the waters of the straits to destroy passing ships.
There are two towering rocks called the Rovers that clash together to destroy passing ships ... Skylla makes her home in the loftiest of the two peaks. Her rocky habitat is always shrouded in clouds ... no sunlight ever reaches the summit and no mortal man can climb the sheer rock-face or even shoot an arrow to such a height.
Skylla has twelve misshapen feet and six long necks ... each neck has a head with three rows of sharp teeth. She keeps her lower torso in her cave and uses her long necks to feed on dolphins, dogfish, and larger creatures of the sea. Unknowing travelers spice up her diet because few ships have ever sailed past her without loss of life. She makes a horrible sound that is no louder than the whine of a puppy ... not even the Immortals can hear that voice without feelings of dread.
A generation before the Trojan War, Ieson (Jason) and the Argonauts were forced to sail through the deadly waters between Skylla and Kharybdis ... they were able to survive the ordeal only because they had divine protection.
The Quest for the Golden Fleece was a defining event is Greek prehistory. The Argonauts were comprised of heroes and demigods led by a remarkable man named Ieson. The kingship of Iolkos was a stake and the retrieval of the Golden Fleece was crucial to make Ieson eligible for the throne.
A ram with a Golden Fleece was created by Hermes and Nephele ... Hermes was the messenger of the Immortals and Nephele was a 'cloud woman' created by Zeus.
Nephele was the wife of King Athamas of Orkhomenos ... they had two children—Phrixus and Helle. Athamas abandoned Nephele and took a new wife named Ino ... Phrixus and Helle fled Orkhomenos when Ino began plotting against them. To help Phrixus and Helle escape their dangerous situation, Hermes and Nephele crated a flying ram with a Golden Fleece to carry them away. As they flew from Europe to Asia, Helle fell from the back of the ram and drowned in the sea ... the narrow straits where she drowned was named Hellespont (Helle's Sea). Phrixus flew on to Kolkhis at the eastern edge of the Black Sea. The ram was sacrificed and its Golden Fleece was kept in the Garden of Ares.
King Aietes of Kolkhis was reluctant to surrender the fleece but his sorceress daughter Medeia betrayed her father and helped Ieson steal the fleece. Ieson also had the protection of the goddess Hera.
After stealing the Golden Fleece, Ieson and Medeia fled Kolkhis with King Aietes's navy, led by the king's son Apsyrtos, in hot pursuit. In order to escape certain capture, Ieson murdered Apsyrtos ... there was nothing honorable or justified about Apsyrtos's death ... it was cold blooded murder.
Zeus, the father of gods and men, was outraged by Ieson's behavior. Hera, Zeus's sister-wife, advised Ieson to seek absolution from Medeia's aunt, the Dread Goddess Kirke (Circe). The only problem was that in order for Ieson to get to Kirke's island, he had to sail through the treacherous waters between Skylla and Kharybdis.
Hera called on the Nereid Thetis to gather her sea-goddess sisters to guide Ieson's ship. At Hera's insistence, the winds calmed, and the god Hephaistos stopped work at his forge so that rough seas would not add to Ieson's troubles ... Ieson's ship, the Argo, was able to sail past Skylla without loss of life.
A generation after Ieson, Odysseus and his men sailed near the towering rock-face of Skylla ... his crew was not as fortunate as Ieson's.
Leaving Troy with his plunder and surviving comrades, Odysseus had unwittingly become the guest of Kirke, goddess of potions and drugs, on her island Aiaia. When it came time to leave, the goddess told him his journey home would take him by the Strait of Messina where Skylla and Kharybdis lived. Kirke privately warned Odysseus that if he sailed too close to Skylla she would attack and eat members of his crew. Also, if he sailed too close to Kharybdis he would surely be caught when she sucked down the sea as part of her regular cycle. Kirke told Odysseus he could quickly sail past Skylla and suffer a few losses or he could linger and fight, thus losing the entire crew to Kharybdis.
Odysseus wanted to fight Skylla and then try to flee before Kharybdis rose to action but Kirke scolded him and said he must yield to her counsel ... Odysseus wisely took her advice. However, he did not warn his crew of the dangers they faced because Kirke said it would do no good ... Skylla was bloodthirsty and she would have her way ... warning the crewmembers would only cause fear and panic but in no way alter their inevitable deaths.
Approaching the precincts of Skylla and Kharybdis, Odysseus and his brave crew gave Kharybdis a wide berth and sailed near Skylla's rocky abode. Odysseus put on his finest armor and stood with two spears scanning the rock-face for any sign of the dreaded beast. His attention was periodically drawn to the gushing and sputtering of Kharybdis ... during one of those distracted moments Skylla struck ... she swooped down unseen and snatched up six crewmen. 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.
The Iliad
The Odyssey
Great Eoiae
Catalogue of Women
The Argonautika by Apollodorus Rhodius
Geography by Strabo