Legend of Scilla and Cariddi
The legend of Scilla and Charybdis tells of mythological deeds of gods and mortals in the stretch of water of the Strait of Messina.
The legend of Scylla and Charybdis tells of a beautiful nymph, Scylla, transformed by the sorceress Circe into the horrendous six-headed monster that for centuries devastated the waters of the Strait, and of Charybdis, a devastating marine creature created by Zeus, capable of swallowing and rejecting sea water causing deadly eddies.
It is said that Glauco, a Boeotian fisherman lived near the rocks of Zancle, transformed into a marine deity by eating the grass that gave life to his fish and later educated to art of prophecy from Ocean and Teti.
One day the nymph Scylla met Glauco and the vision of this being, half man and half fish, terrified her to the point of making her run away. Glauco, on the other hand, was fascinated by the beauty of Scilla and fell in love with her. He tried in vain to hold her back by shouting his love and telling her his dramatic story, handed down to us by Ovid in the Metamorphoses. Driven by desperation, Glauco finally asked for help from the sorceress Circe, goddess daughter of Elio and the nymph Perseide, famous for her spells capable of changing the appearance of men. But with this gesture Glauco unleashed the jealousy of the sorceress who first tried to seduce Glauco himself, but after being rejected she poured out her vengeful fury on Scylla, transforming her into a ferocious monster with six barking dog heads.
From that moment on. , according to the legend, Scylla takes refuge in desperation and anger in a cave under the fortress where the Castle of Scilla stands, in Calabria.
On the Sicula shore, another monster lives, Cariddi. According to the legend, Charybdis was a nymph with an insatiable voracity who for having stolen oxen from Heracles, was transformed by Zeus into a monster that three times a day swallowed and regurgitated the waters of the strait, swallowing everything that was above or below the surface of the sea.
The two beings are condemned to live forever facing each other.
The origin of the legend seems to be due to a particular rock formation present until the eighteenth century under the fortress of Scilla that had the appearance of a monstrous creature that came out of the cave. It often happened, in past times, that the boats were pushed, during the storms, by the sea against this fortress. On the Sicilian shore, however, the sea currents generated eddies, which still occur today with less intensity, which often swallowed the boats, hence the Charybdis monster that sucked up the water from the sea and rejected it, creating huge eddies.
