Greek mythology introduces the reader not only to the heroes, but also to terrible monsters. Skilla are considered the most striking (or they dwelt in the Sicilian Sea on opposite sides of a narrow strait. A rare sailor managed to get out of the networks of these ruthless incarnations of evil. There is still an expression that being between Charybdis and Skilla means exposing himself to two terrible dangers.

Skill in mythology

There are several versions of the origin of Skill. Her parents are the gods Forkis and Krateida or the giant Typhon and Echidna. It is still not clear whether Skilla was so terribly scary from birth or whether it is the result of witchcraft charms. For some authors, she was once a beauty, and turned her into a monster, either Amphitrite (the wife of Poseidon), or Circe.

Here is one version that mythology represents. Skilla lived in Greece and she was a beautiful nymph. Her beauty attracted many, and not only the sailors, but also the sea gods themselves looked at her. A young girl often loved to swim in the lake. It was here that the god of fishermen, whose name was Glaucus, noticed her.

This was the end of her normal life. As Homer describes in his works, the witch Circe was in love with Glaucus. She was entertained by the fact that she easily turned all those who were objectionable to her into animals. The circe poisoned the water in the lake, where the nymph loved to swim. Skilla ducked into the lake, and a terrible monster had already appeared from the water - the many-headed dragon-dog.

When she saw her own reflection, she went crazy. She climbed onto a high rock and since then began to devour all life around, including the ships passing by.

Some heroes managed to avoid a terrible fate. This is Odysseus, Jason, Heracles. The latter even managed to kill Skilla, but Forkis, the sea god, resurrected her, and she again took up her atrocities. By the way, Skilla acted in tandem with Charybdis, who sucked in all those who were still alive.

Aeneas remained alive only because, floating in these places, he preferred to go round the monsters in a roundabout way.

Charybdis

Charybdis is from ancient Greek mythology. The daughter of Gaia and Poseidon. Nobody saw her and can not describe it. It is only known that she creates a huge whirlpool in her mouth, into which she draws all those who survived Skilla’s attacks.

In Greek mythology, this is how Charybdis is described. This monster lives under a rock in a narrow strait, a tall fig tree grows from above. No one was able to see Charybdis. She hides under the waters of the sea. Wide open gigantic mouth, creates a terrible whirlpool. Water poured into this black hole with a roar, dragging along both ships and sailors. Three times a day, the monster swallows water and spews it back, creating giant whirlpools.

Description of Skills in Homer's work

The Great Homer describes a terrible monster that closes the path to everyone who tries to pass through its strait. Skilla Rock leaves its sharp peak high in the sky. Its walls are steep, completely smooth, and there is no way to approach them. At a height where even an arrow cannot reach, the gaping entrance to the cave yawns. The terrible Skilla lives there. In mythology, she is a terrible dragon-dog with six heads. Her piercing, terrifying barking is heard everywhere. In each mouth are sharp teeth arranged in three rows. With all her heads she tracks her prey, fumbles with her paws on the rock. Catch seals, dolphins, other marine life. From the passing ships she captures six people at a time.

Only Odysseus and the team managed to outwit the terrible monsters. They lost six and escaped from the strait into the open sea.

• In mythology, Skilla is a monster with dog heads. In the film "Odyssey" directed by Konchalovsky, she is presented as a multi-headed dragon. Charybdis is portrayed as a huge jaw that swallows ships.
• Translated from the Greek language "Scylla" means "barking."
• There is a shrimp of the same name, it is found in the Adriatic.
• In the fantastic works of many writers, cosmic monsters with a similar name are also found.
• Virgil mentions several Scylls, in his view they live on the eve of Tartarus.
• In the Adriatic Sea there is still the Skillian rock. According to legend, it was here that Skilla lived.
• In the story “Charybdis” of the Strugatsky brothers, the mechanism is called sill, which is able to absorb the energy of the cataclysm waves that arose after the experiments of physicists.

Skilla (Scylla), Greek - a sea monster with six dog heads (with three rows of teeth in each mouth) and with twelve legs, as well as one royal daughter.

The parents of the monstrous SKILL were usually considered the sea god Forkis and the goddess of the furious waves of Krateid or the hundred-headed giant Typhon and his wife Echidna. It is not clear whether SKILLA was so ugly already at birth - with the ugliness of her parents, this would be quite natural. However, some authors say that SKILLA was once a beauty, and she was turned into a monster by the wife of Poseidon, who was envious of her beauty, or a sorceress (for the fact that SKILLA bathed in her bath with the infusions of magic herbs).

SKILLA lived in a deep cave on the coastal rock of the strait, in which a terrible Charybdis lay in wait for the sailors. SKILLA also tried not to miss a single ship, she grabbed a sailor with each of her six heads and devoured her victims right there; she did not disdain dolphins, seals and other marine life. returning from Colchis with a golden fleece, they managed to swim past SKILLA without loss, just as subsequently Aeneas; Odysseus twice sailed past SKILLS, but on the first pass she stole six satellites from his ship. When she passed by SKILLA with the herd of Gerion, she stole one ox from him. For this, Hercules killed SKILLA, but the sea god Forkis resurrected her, and she again set to work on the old. In ancient times, her place of residence was considered a dangerous rock in the Strait of Messina between Sicily and Calabria. In Calabria, on the shores of this strait, there is now the town of Scilla.

The second SKILLA was the daughter of Nis, king of the Sicilian Megara (see the article "Nis").

However, it was precisely the first SKILL that was imprinted in our minds, which its neighbor Charybdis invariably accompanied. To be between Scylla and Charybdis means to be between two equal dangers. (A variant of this expression: “Whoever wants to avoid Charybdis falls into Scylla.”)

There is a Greek proverb which is translated into Russian as "Running away from Charybdis I came across Scylla." This proverb means that trying to avoid one danger a person may encounter another, more terrible. In Greek mythology, a creature called Scylla was unique (present in the singular) and lived not far from another creature -. Both creatures were extremely dangerous and voracious and both belong to sea monsters.

Scylla is a unique creature, something like a hydra. That's just the size of Scylla is much more. According to different versions, Scylla was in love with various heroes or Gods, became an object of jealousy because of which, in the place where she bathed other women poured poison, but instead of death, Scylla acquired its appearance. Horrific and disgusting appearance.

And this appearance is that before the beautiful Scylla became a real monster with attractive bait. It is often mentioned that Scylla retained part of the human body (usually the upper half), and the lower part is hidden by water. And the bottom part just gives out a monster. These are several tentacles or other limbs that end with the heads of dogs (in the classic version of myths) or the heads of snakes, or even human (in later versions of their interpretation). Invariable is the number of limbs - there are always six. However, another part of Scylla’s description is also invariable - its enormous size. Indeed, the female half is visible from afar, and this serves as a foreshadower of misfortunes for sailors, but it draws many like a magnet to a monster. An ordinary galley scylla is able to bite in half with just one head.

Due to the fact that the Scylla was poisoned, the hatred of the people in it is very strong. She could hide anger only at her poisoner, but under the influence of poison her reason became clouded and the human part of the monster had no functions at all (she doesn’t say, she doesn’t move and she doesn’t think - she’s simply not there), all the will and the whole mind of creatures are concentrated in the limbs and crowning their heads. Actually, these heads determine the danger of Scylla - they simply destroy everything that is within their reach, but at the same time they are content with a single prey.

Habitat and meeting people

According to the myths of ancient Greece, Scylla is upholstered in the Strait of Messina at a distance of an arrow from Charybdis, which is also mentioned in the myths next to it. Many sailors had the opportunity to end their lives in the mouths of this terrifying monster. The Greek heroes Odysseus, Aeneas and Jason were also faced with this creature. Each hero experienced this meeting in his own way.

Odysseus, when meeting with Charybdis and Scylla, considered that it was better to lose six soldiers than all and turned the ship to Scylla. Six soldiers were seized by the heads of the monster and while they made their terrible meal the ship passed a dangerous strait.

Iason, managed to avoid meeting with terrible monsters, since he was the favorite of the gods. At that time, the sea goddess Thetis came to the aid of him and his companions, who pacified both monsters and led the Argonauts along a safe route.

Aeneas, simply chose to avoid meeting with the monsters and chose a different path to achieve his goal. Thus he saved both himself and his loyal people.

Skilla (other Greek Σκύλλα, in Latin transliteration Scilla, lat. Scylla) - a sea monster from ancient Greek mythology. Skilla, along with Charybdis, according to ancient Greek mythology, was mortal danger for anyone who sailed past her.

In the Odyssey, Charybdis is depicted as a sea deity (dr. Greek δία Χάρυβδις), living in a strait under a rock in the distance of the arrow's flight from another rock, which served as the abode of Skilla.

In various mythographic sources, Skill is considered:

• daughter of Forkis and Hecate;
• or the daughter of Forbant and Hecate;
• daughter of Triton and Lamia (according to Stesichore, daughter of Lamia);
• daughter of Triton;
• daughter of Typhon and Echidna;
• daughter of Poseidon (Daim) and Kratayida;
• or the daughter of Poseidon and Gaia.
• daughter of the Krateida and Triena (or Fork) rivers; Homer calls her mother the nymph Kratayida, daughter of Hekate and Triton.
• According to Akusilaus and Apollonia, daughter of Fork and Hecate, called Krateida;
• According to the version, the daughter of Tyrrhen;
• In Virgil, the monster Skill is identified with the daughter of Nis.

In some tales, Skill sometimes appears beautiful girl: so, Glaucus sought her love, but the sorceress Kirk herself was captivated by the Commander. Skilla got used to swimming, and out of jealousy, Kirk poisoned the water with potions, and Skilla became a fierce beast, her beautiful body was disfigured, its lower part turned into a series of dog heads.

In another legend, this transformation was accomplished by Amphitrite, who, having learned that Skilla became Poseidon's lover, decided in this way (after poisoning the water) to get rid of her dangerous rival.

According to the "Epic cycle" of Dionysius of Samos, for the abduction of one of the gerion bulls from Hercules, Skill was killed last, but again brought back to life by his father Forkis, who burned her body.

• 1 Description of Homer
• 2 Geography
• 3 Interpretation
• 4 literature and art
• 5 notes
• 6 References

Description of Homer

Skilla's rock rose high with a sharp peak up to the sky and was forever covered with dark clouds and dusk; access to it was not possible due to its smooth surface and steepness. In the middle of it, at a height beyond even the arrow, a cave gaped, facing a dark vent to the west: the terrible Skilla lived in this cave. Without barking incessantly (Σκύλλα - "barking"), the monster announced the surroundings with a piercing screech. Twelve paws moved in front of Skilla, six long flexible necks rose on shaggy shoulders, and a head stuck out on each neck; her mouth sparkled with frequent, sharp, three-row teeth. Moving backwards into the cave and putting her breasts out, she tracked the prey with all her heads, pawing around the rock with her paws and catching dolphins, seals and other marine animals. When the ship passed the cave, Skilla, with all her mouths open, at once stole six people from the ship. Homer Skill describes these features.

When Odysseus with his companions passed through the strait between Skilla and Charybdis, the latter eagerly absorbed salt water. Considering that death from Charybdis inevitably threatens everyone, while Skilla could grab only six people with her paws, Odysseus, with the loss of six of his comrades that Skilla devoured, avoids the terrible strait

According to Gigin, there is a dog from below, a woman from above. She had 6 dogs born by her, and she gobbled up 6 companions of the Odyssey.

Like Odysseus, happily passed Charybdis and Jason with his companions, thanks to the help of Thetis; Aeneas, who was also ahead of the path between Skilla and Charybdis, preferred to go around the dangerous place in a roundabout way.

Virgil mentions several Skills, which among other monsters inhabit the vestibule of Tartarus.

Geography

Geographically, the whereabouts of the Charybdis and Skillas were confined by the ancients to the Strait of Messen, with the Charibdis located in the Sicilian part of the strait under the Pelorsky cape, and Skill on the opposite cape (in Brutia, near Regia), which bears her name in historical time (Latin Scyllaeum promontorium Greek Σκύλλαιον). At the same time, the inconsistency of the fantastic description of the fabulous dangerous strait at Homer with the actual character of the Strait of Messen, which seems far less dangerous for sailors, is noteworthy. In fact, Skilla is a few peaked rocks, Charybdis is a whirlpool.

Interpretation

The rationalistic interpretation of these monsters is given by Pompey Trog According to Polybius's interpretation, fishing is described at the Skilleysky rock. According to another interpretation, Skilla is a high-speed trie of Tyrrhenians, from which Odysseus fled. According to the third interpretation, Skilla lived on the island, was a beautiful heterosexual and had parasites with her, along with which she “ate” (that is, ruined) the foreigners.

In literature and art

There was a poem by Stesichore “Skilla” (fr. 220 Page), a praise of Timothy “Skilla”.

In the works of art, Skilla was portrayed as a monster with a dog head and two dolphin tails, or with two monster heads and a dolphin tail.

The asteroid (155) Scylla, discovered in 1875, is named after Skilla.

Notes

1. Myths of the peoples of the world. M., 1991-92. 2 vol. T. 2. P. 445, Lubker F. The Real Dictionary of Classical Antiquities. M., 2001. 3 vol. T. 3.P. 251-252
2. Hesiod. Great Eoi, fr. 262 M.-U.
3. Comment by D. O. Torshilov in the book. Gigin. Myths St. Petersburg, 2000.S. 154
4. Lubker F. The Real Dictionary of Classical Antiquities. M., 2001. 3 vol. T. 3.P. 251-252
5. Scholia to Homer. Odyssey XII 73; Pseudo-Virgil. Osprey 66; Ovid. Metamorphoses XIII 749
6. Apollonius of Rhodes. Argonautics IV 818