Glaucous
by Ignazio Caloggero
Glaucus and Scylla by Bartholomeus Spranger c.1581- By Oursmili – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=38682688
Reference page: Repertory of Cults and Myths
In Greek mythology, the character of Glauco is present in many legends, the name refers to various characters told by many authors including Virgil, Ovid, Homer, Hyginus, Aeschylus and Sophocles.
The Myth in Sicily
Among the many legends we will take the one that correlates it with Scylla whose myth was told by Homer in the Odyssey (Canto XII, 112), by Ovid in the XIII-XIV books of the Metamorphoses and by Virgil in the Aeneid, III.
One of the many versions sees Glaucus son of Poseidon and the nymph Naide. Glauco was born mortal and lived by fishing. One day he noticed that some of the fish he had caught by eating the grass of the meadow on which he had placed them came back to life, he also wanted to try to eat that miraculous grass, the result was that he became an immortal god, with a unwelcome side effect, from the legs down I become a fish. With this perhaps unpleasant appearance he introduced himself to a beautiful nymph named Scilla with whom he had fallen in love, but was rejected by the nymph. Glauco was very upset by the obvious refusal and not wanting to give up his love, he asked for help from the sorceress Circe asking her for a love potion to make the nymph fall in love, but Circe who in the meantime fell in love with Glauco, wanted him all for herself, despite Glaucus didn't want to give up Scylla. Irritated by Glauco's refusal Circe thought well of getting rid of her rival, she prepared a poisonous filter and poured it into the sea where Scylla used to bathe. One evening Scilla dived in to give her her usual bath and she was transformed into a monster. Above remained the human form but in the lower part it had grown six legs in the shape of a snake each with a dog's head at the waist. Having become a monster, Scilla took refuge on a rock near a cave where Charybdis lived and when some unfortunate person got too close to the rocks, the dogs devoured the unfortunate ones. He succeeded six of Ulysses' companions whose ship found itself skirting the cave where Scylla was hiding.
The Myth in the IWB Register of the Sicily Region
The Sicily Region has entered the Myth of Glauco in the LIM register (Places of identity and memory) – Places of metamorphosis.
Place indicated in the IWB:
- Strait of Messina
Excerpt from the book “ Myths of Ancient Sicily” by Ignazio Caloggero ISBN:9788832060157 © 2022 Centro Studi Helios srl
