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In this book, Odysseus and his men depart Circe’s island and face several dangers before Odysseus arrives alone on Calypso’s island.
After Odysseus and his men flee from the Underworld they return to Circe’s island, Aeaea, where they hold funeral rites for the body of Elpenor, who fell from Circe’s roof before they departed. His body is burned and an oar is used to mark his grave mound. Circe and her handmaidens then greet Odysseus and his men with food and wine. They feast. When the men have fallen asleep Odysseus tells Circe what happened on their voyage to the edge of the Underworld.
Circe then warns Odysseus of the dangers that now lay ahead for him and his men, along with advice on how to overcome them. First, she warns of the sirens who live upon an island and call men to them with their bewitching song. She advises that Odysseus should make his men block their ears with beeswax, but that he can listen to the song if he is tied to the mast and his men are given orders not to release him, even if he pleads.
Once past the Sirens, Circe says they have a choice of routes. The first route will take them past the Clashing Rocks, which seem so intent upon destruction that even birds fall prey to them. No ship except Jason’s Argo has ever escaped destruction.
The second option is to pass between two enormous crags, one of which is so high it is always topped by a dark cloud. Halfway up its cliff there is a cavern in which a monster, Scylla, lives. Scylla has twelve legs and six long necks, each with a head bearing a triple row of terrible fangs. When ships pass, she lunges out of her cavern and plucks men from the deck of their ships. No ship has ever passed without losing some of its crew.
On the other crag sits a fig tree, and below that is Charybdis, a giant whirlpool that gulps water down three times a day, and three times a day vomits it back up. Circe says that Scylla will kill some of the crew, but Charybdis will destroy the whole boat, so she recommends sailing close to Scylla’s crag if Odysseus chooses this route. Odysseus wonders if he could fight Scylla. Circe warns him not to. It would only give Scylla more opportunities to kill more of his men. She advises that the best thing to do is get past Scylla as quickly as possible.
Past the two crags, Circe says, Odysseus and his men will reach the island of Thrinacia where Helios, the sun god, keeps his herds of cattle, oxen and sheep. These herds do not breed. Instead, they never die. They are Helios’ pride and joy. They are tended by Phaëthusa and Lampetie, Helios’ daughters. Circe warns Odysseus that the herds should be left alone and not harmed, otherwise Helios will destroy their ship and kill Odysseus and his entire crew.
The next day Odysseus and his men depart Aeaea, aided by a wind that Circe sends.
As they head away from Circe’s shores Odysseus warns his men about the Sirens and tells them the advice given by Circe. As they head closer to the Sirens’ island the wind dies and the men are forced to row. Meanwhile, Odysseus slices up a wheel of beeswax and kneads it until it is soft enough to be put into his men’s ears. Odysseus’ men then tie him to the mast, as instructed. When the Sirens sense them passing, they call to Odysseus by name, inviting him to their island where they promise no harm will come to him and from whence, he will leave wiser. They express knowledge of the Trojan War and what has happened to Odysseus and his men. As he hears their song Odysseus signals to his men that he wishes to be set free, but Perimedes and Eurylochus, as previously instructed, only bind him tighter.
Once they are safely past the island of the Sirens, Odysseus is set free. But the men are soon terrified and drop their oars when they hear the sound of the Clashing Rocks. Odysseus marshals their courage and tells them to row away from the Clashing Rocks towards the two crags. However, this time he does not trust that he can control his men’s fear, and so he does not warn them what is ahead. Instead, he dons his armour and takes up a spear as his men row and patrols the deck. As they approach the first peak Charybdis sucks in the sea, and the men are terrified. At this moment, Scylla attacks from her cavern, overhead, and hauls six of Odysseus’ crew into the air and back into her lair where she eats them. Odysseus’ remaining men are able to row past the crag and they pull the ship to safety.
They soon reach Thrinacia, the island where Helios keeps his herds of cattle, oxen and sheep. Odysseus recalls the warnings from Teresias and Circe about the herds on the island and warns his men. He advises that they simply sail past the island, to be safe. But Eurylochus speaks against this proposal. He argues that the crew is exhausted and needs sleep. Night is also approaching, and he says it will be dangerous to be at sea at night if there is a storm. Odysseus sees that the crew is with Eurylochus and he acquiesces. But before landing he makes them swear an oath that they will only eat the supplies provided by Circe, and they will not harm Helios’ herds. They swear.
They land on the island, eat, and then weep for the men lost to Scylla. That night a storm hits the island and at dawn the men bring their ship into a coastal cave to shelter it. After that, they are forced to remain on the island for a month, since the south wind blows nonstop. In that time, their supplies run out and they become hungry. Odysseus goes further into the island to pray to the gods for advice, but Zeus sends him to sleep. In the meantime, Eurylochus persuades the men to kill Helios’ herd for food. He reasons that hunger is the worst way to die. He says he would rather a quick death at sea than a protracted death by starvation. He says they can raise a temple to Helios when they return home, if they make it. So, they kill the cattle, say prayers to the gods and make libations with water, since they have no wine.
Odysseus awakes and smells the cooked flesh as he returns to camp. He feels betrayed by Zeus for sending him to sleep.
Lempetie speeds to her father, Helios, to tell him of the slaughter of the herd. Helios is enraged and calls upon Zeus to punish Odysseus and his men, or else he will go into the Underworld and set his blaze among the dead. Zeus promises he will strike the ship with a lightning bolt. Odysseus tells his Phaeacian audience, to whom he tells this tale, that he later learned the details of what happened among the gods from Calypso.
When Odysseus reaches camp, he sees terrible portents: the roasted meat bellows on the spits and they hear the sound of lowing oxen. They remain a further six days on the island eating Helios’ cattle, until the wind changes, allowing them to go. But once they leave Zeus sends another violent storm. Wind tears down the mast of the ship and the helmsman’s head is crushed by it. The ship is hit by lightning. The men are thrown from the ship and the ship is broken up in the storm. Odysseus manages to lash the mast and keel together as a makeshift raft, but the wind changes south again and he is driven back towards Scylla and Charybdis. He manages to leap into the fig tree just before Charybdis gulps down the sea once more, taking his raft, and he stays clinging to its branches until Charybdis once more regurgitates the sea along with his makeshift raft. He drops down to it and manages to make his escape without being seen by Scylla.
Odysseus tells his Phaeacian audience that he drifted for nine days until he reached the island of Calypso.
All the locations identified in this map are speculative. The straits of Messina are traditionally associated with Scylla and Charybdis. The map shows an imagined route from Circe’s island, Aeaea, through the twin threats of Scylla and Charybdis and then onto Thrinacia (1), where Odysseus’ men kill the cattle of the sun god, Helios, and are punished with an attack by Zeus that destroys their ship and kills everyone on board except Odysseus, the only man among them who did not eat Helios’ cattle. From here, Odysseus clings to wreckage and is driven back towards Scylla and Charybdis (2) where he narrowly avoids death. He finally makes his way to the island of Ogygia (3), where he stays for the next seven years with Calypso.
For an excellent modern account of Scylla and Circe, you might wish to read Madeline Miller’s novel, Circe. You can read our review of the novel by clicking here. Miller adopts the version of the story that has Circe transform Scylla, who is her love rival, into the monster that attacks ships.
But in Homer’s Odyssey Circe does not reveal any knowledge to Odysseus about Scylla beyond her physical appearance and her mode of attack. In fact, the only information Circe gives Odysseus that alludes to her past is somewhat at odds with other myths surrounding Scylla’s origins. Homer and other writers like Apollodorus and Ovid say she was the daughter of Cratais. In The Odyssey Circe tells Odysseus, “Scylla’s mother – / she spawned her to scourge mankind” (The Odyssey, Book 12, lines 134 - 135), a claim which suggests that Scylla was monstrous from birth. The goddess Hecate is also credited as her mother in some texts. Hecate was a goddess associated with magic, witchcraft and the Underworld, which conforms to Circe’s skills in witchcraft. Hesiod, in the Megalai Ehoiai (a Hesiodic epic), tells us that Scylla’s parents were Hecate and Phorbas, although ‘Phorbas’ may be a confusion for the sea god Phorcys. Acusilaus, a 6th century mythographer, says that Hecate and Phorkys were the parents of Scylla. Apollonius of Rhodes links both traditions. In his Argonautica, he says that ‘Crataeis’ is another name for Hecate and that Hecate and Phorcys were Scylla’s parents.
So, in these different accounts there is not only disagreement about who her parents were, but whether she was born naturally or as a monster.
In some versions of Scylla’s story, she is transformed into the monster that attacks ships. In one version of her tale she is transformed by Amphitrite, the consort of Poseidon, over her jealousy of Scylla, caused by Poseidon’s infidelity. There is some similarity between this tale and Miller’s version, since Miller has Circe transform Scylla because she is made jealous of Glaucus’ by his interest in Scylla after he rejects her. Miller is basing her version on Ovid who in turn is using several ancient sources as the basis for his poem.
Of the tale of Amphitrite, John Tzetzes, a Byzantine scholar who wrote commentary on Virgil’s Aeneid, tells us that Poseidon was infatuated with the beautiful Scylla. Amphitrite, who was a Nereid and a consort of Poseidon became jealous of her rival, and so to punish her, she transformed Scylla into a terrible monster by poisoning the waters of a pool where she bathed with a potion.
The details of this version of the story closely align with the story Ovid tells us about Scylla’s transformation by Circe. In Ovid’s Metamorphoses Circe transforms Scylla because of Glaucus’ desire for her. Miller’s modern retelling in Circe follows ancient traditions which have Glaucus as a common fisherman who wins Scylla’s heart, only to repulse her when he transforms. He drinks a potion that is meant to bring dead fish back to life. The potion gives him immortality, but he also grows a tail which repulses Scylla, who then rejects him. When Circe declares her love for Glaucus, he tells her,
Ovid tells us, “Rage filled the goddess’ heart”. But Circe cannot bring herself to harm Glaucus, so she makes Scylla the victim of her jealousy. Ovid describes how Circe chooses the bay where Scylla bathes as the means for her revenge and how she taints the waters there. John Waterhouse’s painting, ‘Circe Invidiosa’, the second of three he painted on the subject of Circe, captures the same moment:
Scylla inevitably returns to the bay to bathe and the result is so swift that to begin with she does not even realise the hideous creature that appears in the water around her is, in fact, herself:
Ovid’s description – “Her midriff dogs” – conforms with ancient symbols of Scylla that represent her as a creature part human, part dogs. He later describes her as “ringed below her hell-black waist / With raging dogs.”(XIII, 36-37)
The association with dogs was a later innovation made by classical artists. The clue may come in Homer’s description of Scylla’s sound – “Yelping, no louder than any suckling pup” – and Scylla’s name may also have suggested the association with dogs. In Greek, skylla means ‘to rend’ and skyllax is a dog-shark.
Gaius Julius Hyginus, a Roman author and librarian for Emperor Augustus, wrote overviews of Greek myths, also described Scylla as a woman with dogs protruding from her abdomen, although the tradition clearly started long before him or Ovid. This association became popular in art over the centuries even though it did not conform to Homer’s original description.
Charybdis is the whirlpool in the straits beneath the opposite crag from where Scylla attacks ships’ crews. The situation of Scylla and Charybdis is meant to represent a choice between two terrible prospects. Charybdis could swallow ships whole, thereby killing their entire crew, or ships could choose to sail closer to the crag in which Scylla hid and most likely lose at least six of their men.
Of Charybdis, Circe tells Odysseus, “Three times a day she vomits it [the sea] up, three times she gulps it down” and she advises him Odysseus to stay away from Charybdis and risk his crew against Scylla, instead:
Like Scylla, Charybdis also origin stories that suggest it was originally a young woman, although they are not associated with Circe. Most popularly she is the daughter of Poseidon and she helped her father in his disputes with his brother, Zeus. Charybdis had the ability to control water – tides, water flow – and she used the power from storms created by her father to inundate land and claim a larger kingdom from Zeus for her father. Angered by this, Zeus chose to punish Charybdis by transforming her into a monstrous creature eternally condemned to live on the seabed, swallowing swallow the sea and vomiting it back out again three times a day.
In a less common myth Charybdis is merely a voracious woman who steals oxen from Heracles. As punishment, Zeus strikes her with a thunderbolt and she is hurled into the sea. The resulting vortex known as Charybdis is then created by her continued voracious appetite, which causes her to suck in the sea each day as described by Homer.
As this this 5th century storage jar shows, Sirens were early associated with birds: ancient artists portrayed them as hybrid bird/women. It was only later during the Medieval period that Sirens began to take on a form more closely associated with mermaids. It seems natural that this should have happened, since both legends are about female temptresses luring men to their destruction, and Odysseus encounters the Sirens at sea. The symbolism was also in line with the Christianity’s view of women as the instigators of Man’s Fall and expulsion from Eden.
Homer, however, tells us that they sing their song from their island, hoping to lure Odysseus to them. This suggests that the Sirens were land-bound: that Homer imagined they could neither swim nor fly. Unlike Scylla, whose physical appearance Homer describes in detail, the Sirens are not described physically. Their association with birds might be suggested by their “high, thrilling song”. And some myths also suggest they were given wings to help them search for Persephone, who had been abducted by Hades to the Underworld, or that their wings were a punishment because they failed to protect her. Their wings may also symbolise their link with both the mortal and immortal realms.
In this depiction, three Sirens focus their attention on Odysseus’ boat. Two are on crags, left and right, while another swoops above. Odysseus is clearly visible, tied to the mast of the ship, while his crew rows, immune to the lure of the Sirens, since they have beeswax plugging their ears to prevent them hearing the Sirens’ song.
John William Waterhouse drew on both the ancient and Medieval traditions to paint his Sirens. In his painting ‘The Sirens’, painted in 1901, his Siren is an aquatic creature resembling a mermaid. She sits atop a rock, curious, impassive and wholly unsympathetic, as her victim clutches desperately at her. In his earlier work, ‘Ulysses and the Sirens’, painted in 1891 (which is used as the banner for the pages for this project) Waterhouse depicts the Sirens traditionally as flying creatures that flock about Odysseus, their attention focussed on him alone, as his men row below, safe from their song.
This red figure vase from the 5th century BCE is proof that the tradition of Scylla as a hybrid woman/dog, was well established before Ovid or Gaius Julius Hyginus were writing. The artist has here combined this tradition with a creature more in line with what Homer imagined. The long curling tail suggests a sea creature. That Scylla bears a sword as well, is unusual, since we imagine that her rows of teeth inside her numerous heads, as described by Homer, would be her primary weapon. The use of a sword helps retain some of her humanity.
Henri Fuseli’s painting captures a tense moment as Odysseus, his shield help aloft, protectively, faces Scylla who has just plucked men from his ship. Their legs and arms can be seen dangling from Scylla’s several mouths, although Scylla, herself, remains difficult to see, thereby adding to the terror she inspires. Odysseus, as he tells his story to the Phaeacians, conveys this moment vividly through his description:
This 16th fountain by Giovanangelo Montorsoli, in Messina features a representation of Scylla and Charybdis as two women. Messina is a coastal town on the eastern side of Sicily where the story of Scylla and Charybdis is popularly believed to have been set. Scylla is on the left of the fountain. Her writhing tail suggests the transformation she has undergone, while a head, possibly a lion, protrudes from her lower abdomen. Charybdis is given a similar treatment. She, too, has a tail. She appears with her mouth gaping open, possibly to suggest the role she plays, swallowing the sea daily.
Odysseus’ concerns prove to be entirely rational, since his crew are all killed and his ship destroyed when his men break the injunction against harming Helios’ cattle. In essence, this story has parallels to the Christian myth of Eden and the Forbidden Fruit, the fruit of Knowledge, that Adam and Eve are told to leave uneaten: although Helios’ wrath is inspired by the wrong done to his personal property rather than the more complex theological import of Adam and Eve’s Fall.
This 17th century engraving tells that story succinctly. Odysseus and his men are depicted as 17th century Europeans, along with their ship which rides in the harbour. Stradanus has combined two elements of the story into the one image. In the foreground Odysseus sleeps peacefully, his sleep inspired by Zeus, while his men hunt down and cook Helios’ cattle in the background.