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[85] Σκύλλη, properly the ‘render’ or ‘tearer.’ The idea of a connection with “σκύλαξ” is probably later; but very likely it may account for the introduction of vv. 86-88, and for the ‘caerulei canes,’ and ‘latrantia monstra’ with which Scylla was surrounded, according to the descriptions in the Latin poets and others. The Scholl. H. Q. give a really graphic picture of the Homeric Scylla, “ὑποκεῖσθαι γάρ φησι τῇ Σκύλλῃ πετραιόν τι θηρίον προσπεφυκὸς τῷ σκοπέλῳ καὶ κοχλιῶδες, πόδας τε ἔχον πλεκτανώδεις”. This would represent her as like some gigantic hermit-crab, with its body hidden in the shell, and its claws and head thrust out through the opening; while the long legs and necks that protrude from the mouth of the cave remind us of the stories of the monstrous polypi or ‘pieuvres,’ that lie in wait in sea-caves to catch anything that comes within reach of their tentacles. Scylla and Charybdis were located by the ancients in the straits of Messina, Scylla on the Italian side, Charybdis on the Sicilian. It was afterwards attempted to identify the rock of Scylla with Scyllaeum, just opposite the Sicilian promontory of Pelorum (Capo di Faro), on the east side of which stands a little town, still called Scilla.

Homer's Odyssey. W. Walter Merry. James Riddell. D. B. Monro. Oxford. Clarendon Press. 1886-1901.

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