Scylla

Woman into Monster

 

Glaucus asks the witch-goddess Circe for help winning the affections of Scylla. Unfortunately he didn’t count on Circe having a crush on him. The angry witch can’t bring herself to hurt Glaucus, so she takes her wrath out on his would-be girlfriend.

 

A little pool, bent in a gentle curve,

With peaceful surface oft did Scylla tempt;

And often thither she herself betook

To 'scape from ocean's, and from Phœbus' heat,

When high in noon-tide fierceness short the shade

Was from the head describ'd. Before she came

The goddess poison'd all the pool; she pour'd

Her potent juice, of monster-breeding power,

Prest from pernicious roots, within the waves;

And mutter'd thrice nine times with magic lips,

In sounds scarce audible, her well-known spells.

Here Scylla came, and waded to the waist;

And straight, with barking monsters she espies

Her womb deform'd: at first, of her own limbs

Not dreaming they are part, she from them flies;

And chides them thence, and fears their savage mouths.

But what she flies she with her drags; she looks

To find her thighs, and find her legs, and feet;

But for those limbs Cerberean jaws are found.

Furious the dogs still howl; on their fierce backs

Her shorten'd groin, and swelling belly rest.