File:Scylla_Louvre_CA1341.jpg · Wikimedia Commons · See Wikimedia Commons
Scylla
Sign in to savethumb|Scylla as a maiden with a Cetus (mythology)|kētos tail and dog heads sprouting from her body. Detail from a red-figure bell-crater in the Louvre, 450–425 BC. This form of Scylla was prevalent in ancient depictions, though very different from the description in Homer, where she is land-based and more dragon-like.
Scylla is a creature from ancient Greek mythology, typically depicted as a hybrid being with a woman's upper body and multiple dog heads or a sea-monster tail sprouting from her lower body. She matters as a famous figure in classical mythology whose appearance and characteristics varied significantly across different ancient sources, such as Homer's more dragon-like description versus the maiden-with-dog-heads form shown in later Greek art.
AI-generated from the Wikipedia summary — may contain errors.
Wikidata facts
- Image
- Scylla Louvre CA1341.jpg
Show 2 more facts
- Commons category
- Scylla
- name in native language
- Σκύλλα
via Wikidata · CC0
~10 min read
Article
10 sectionsContents
- Parentage
- Narratives
- Homer's ''Odyssey''
- Ovid's ''Metamorphoses''
- Keats' ''Endymion''
- Paintings
- Explanatory notes
- Citations
- General and cited references
- External links
thumb|Scylla as a maiden with a Cetus (mythology)|kētos tail and dog heads sprouting from her body. Detail from a red-figure bell-crater in the Louvre, 450–425 BC. This form of Scylla was prevalent in ancient depictions, though very different from the description in Homer, where she is land-based and more dragon-like.
In Greek mythology, Scylla ( ; , ) is a legendary, man-eating monster that lives on one side of a narrow channel of water, opposite her counterpart, the sea-swallowing monster Charybdis. The two sides of the strait are within an arrow's range of each other—so close that sailors attempting to avoid the whirlpools of Charybdis would pass dangerously close to Scylla and vice versa.