Scylla

Overview

Circe describes Scylla as a cave-dwelling monster with six long necks, six dreadful heads and twelve misshapen feet. Her voice can resemble a young hound’s, despite the overwhelming danger of her actual form. She extends her heads from the rock to catch marine animals and men, making proximity rather than an open confrontation the source of the threat.

Odysseus sails near Scylla to avoid Charybdis, and she takes six of his companions. The episode leaves the hero unable to save everyone through courage or weapons. This is the Homeric sea monster, distinct from later transformation narratives about a young woman. A modern illustration should indicate which witness it follows, especially when choosing between the poem’s many necks and later canine lower-body forms.

Circe places the cave partway up an unclimbable, cloud-covered cliff, its opening facing west toward Erebus. Each of Scylla’s six heads has three tightly packed rows of teeth. Her lower body stays hidden while her heads reach out for dolphins, sea-dogs and larger marine creatures. When Odysseus asks whether he can repel her, Circe calls her an immortal danger and rejects battle as a solution. Delay to put on armour could expose the crew to a second seizure of six men. Instead she recommends swift passage and an appeal to Scylla’s mother, Crataiis, to prevent another attack.

The first crossing then exposes the difference between knowing the warning and being able to prevent the loss. Odysseus conceals Scylla’s threat from the crew lest they stop rowing, yet disobeys Circe by taking armour and two spears to the foredeck. He cannot see the monster. As everyone watches Charybdis, Scylla takes six of the strongest companions and carries them upward, calling his name. The poem compares their helpless movement to fish drawn from the sea; Odysseus remembers their deaths as his most pitiful sight. On his later solitary return, Zeus prevents Scylla from noticing him again.

Virgil’s Aeneid III.410–432 gives Helenus a different description: Scylla has a maiden’s upper form, while below are a monstrous sea-dragon body, dolphin tails and a wolfish belly. Sea-green hounds sound around her cavern. Helenus counsels Aeneas to take the longer circuit around Pachynus instead of entering this danger. This Roman witness supplies neither Homer’s precise six-neck anatomy nor a narrated transformation from a maiden; its composite form should be attributed to its own account.

Origins & earliest records

The selected foundation is Homer’s Odyssey XII, an Archaic Greek epic transmitted through later manuscripts and English translations. Samuel Butler’s 1900 rendering is retained alongside A. T. Murray’s line-numbered rendering. Virgil’s first-century BCE Aeneid provides a distinct Roman comparison; these literary witnesses do not date the beginning of every associated oral motif.

Records & interpretation

Odyssey XII.73–126, 201–259 and 426–446 separates Circe’s advance description, the crew’s crossing and Odysseus’s later return. Aeneid III.410–432 supplies Helenus’s route warning and its own description. The texts attest narrated dangers and differing representations; any identification with a physical strait or archaeological image requires its own evidence.

In the literature

Selected bibliography

Documented works and useful reading. This is not a list of every appearance.

1. 01

   Odyssey, Book XII

   Homer; translated by Samuel Butler · Archaic Greek epic; translation 1900

   Circe’s warning, first crossing and solitary return; Butler’s English rendering retained as the existing witness.

2. 02

   Odyssey, XII.73–126, 201–259 and 426–446

   Homer, traditional attribution; A. T. Murray, translator · Archaic Greek epic; selected Murray translation

   Line-numbered warning, crossing and return kept in their narrative sequence.

3. 03

   Aeneid, Book III.410–432

   Virgil; H. R. Fairclough, translator · First-century BCE epic; selected Fairclough translation

   Helenus’s description and advice to circle Pachynus, distinguished from the Homeric encounter.

4. 04

   The Odyssey

   Homer (traditional attribution) · 1900

   Butler prose translation, originally published 1900 as confirmed by the second-edition preface; hosted corrected reprint. No unverified reprint date assigned.

Family, evolution & connections

Scylla and her named mother — Odyssey 12

Circe’s Scylla and Charybdis description and follow-up answer, Odyssey 12.73–126, Murray translation.

Explicit mother–daughter statement in Circe’s reply. No father, siblings or descendants are given here. Charybdis is not made a relative through proximity. The displayed maternal name follows this translation’s spelling; later alternative genealogies are not blended in.

Located primary passages

Specific passages supporting details in this entry, grouped by their published witness.

References

Sources supporting this profile. Linked pages have their own scope and editorial standards.

1. Primary textSamuel Butler’s Odyssey translation: Book XIIResearch access: 2026-10-05
2. Primary text in translationHomer, Odyssey XII, A. T. Murray translationResearch access: 2026-10-05
3. Primary text in translationVirgil, Aeneid III, H. R. Fairclough translationResearch access: 2026-10-05

Image credits

Scylla

Image associated with the exact linked encyclopedia article; consult credited file description for its interpretation.