Page:The Mythology of the Aryan Nations.djvu/509

Rh each other, and between these the ship of Odysseus must pass. If chap. he goes near the one whose smooth scarped sides run up into a • ^^ — • covering of everlasting cloud, he will lose six of his men as a prey to the six mouths which Skylla will open to engulf them. But better thus to sacrifice a few to this monster with six outstretching necks and twelve shapeless feet, as she shoots out her hungry hands from her dismal dens, than to have the ships knocked to pieces in the whirlpool where Charybdis thrice in the day drinks in the waters of the sea, and thrice spouts them forth again. The peril may seem to be less. The sides of the rock beneath which she dwells are not so rugged, and on it blooms a large wild fig-tree,^ with dense foliage ; but no ship that ever came within reach of the whirling eddies ever saw the light again. In other words, Skylla is the one who tears her prey, while Charybdis swallows them; the one is the boiling surf beating against a precipitous and iron-bound coast, the other the treacherous back-currents of a gulf full of hidden rocks. The name Krataiis also given to her in the Odyssey denotes simply her irre- sistible power. This horrid being is put to death in many ways. In one version she is slain by Herakles, and brought to life again by her father Phorkys as he burns her body. In another she is a beautiful princess, who is loved by Zeus, and who, being robbed of her children by the jealous Here, hides herself in a dismal cavern, and is there changed into a terrific goblin which preys upon little children. This Skylla, who is called a daughter of Lamia the devovu^er, is in fact the hobgoblin of modern tales, and was manifestly used by nurses in the days of Euripides much as nurses may use such names now to quiet or frighten their charges.^ In another version she refuses her love to the sea-god Glaukos, who betakes himself to Kirke ; but Kirke, instead of aiding him to win her, threw some herbs into the well where Skylla bathed and changed her into the form of Echidna. It is needless to cite other legends which are much to the same effect.

The Megarian tradition brings before us another Skylla, who is The probably only another form of the being beloved by Glaukos or gj^^fl^"^" Triton. Here the beautiful maiden gives her love to the Cretan Minos, who is besieging Megara to revenge the death of Androgeos, and in order to become his wife she steals the purple lock on the head of her father Nisos, on which depended her own life and the safety of the city. But she reaps no good from her treachery. In

' Preller here suspects a play be- "^ivos ; quoted from Euripides by Dio- tween the words ^pivihs and eptvvs. doros xx. 41. — Frellcr, O'r. Myth, i,

^ Ti'j t' odvona rb eTrovfiSiaTov Ppo- 4S4. Toh ovK olSe Aa.uias ttjs Ai0u(Ttikt]S