Scilla the Town vs Scylla the Myth.
- kalosbruo
- Apr 5, 2016
- 2 min read
The seaside village of Scilla today. (Photograph: Alamy, The Guardian)
Scilla is a beach front town just north of Reggio Calabria. Known as Scylla, in classical times, makes her first appearance in Homer's Odyssey as a six-headed sea monster. As the story goes, Scylla lived on a rock on one side of the Strait of Messina, opposite Charybdis. The two sides of the strait were just a stone's throw from each other. In Homer's Odyssey, Odysseus is advised by Circe to sail closer to Scylla and risk losing only a few men, for Charybdis could drown his entire crew and ship: "Hug Scylla's crag—sail on past her—top speed! Better by far to lose six men and keep your ship than lose your entire crew," She also tells Odysseus to ask Scylla's mother, the river nymph Crataeis, to prevent Scylla from pouncing more than once. Odysseus successfully navigates the strait, but when he and his crew are distracted by Charybdis, Scylla snatches six sailors off the deck and devours them alive.
"...they writhed gasping as Scylla swung them up her cliff and there at her cavern's mouth she bolted them down raw— screaming out, flinging their arms toward me, lost in that mortal struggle."
The strait where Scylla dwelled has been associated with the Strait of Messina between Calabria and Sicily. The idiom "between Scylla and Charybdis" has come to mean being forced between two evils.
The seaside town of Scilla in no way resembles the six-headed monster at all but is a seafully beautiful coastal village. Standing on Scylla's rock one has a panoramic view of both Sicily and the Eolian Islands. Seafood is the standard local fare at restaurants serving delicious fresh dishes like grilled swordfish and spaghetti with sea urchins that's cooked the day it’s caught by the local fishermen. The town has a lot of cafes, restaurants and hotels. In the summer, most people tour Scilla and its surrounding towns on foot. Scilla, because of its location, also has a lighthouse, a very important aid for the many ships passing through the Strait of Messina. The town also hosts an annual fireworks event called Fuochi di Mezzanotte (midnight fireworks) to celebrate the town's patron saint San Rocco every August. A visit to Scilla is a must on your next trip to Calabria or Sicily. Don't mind Scylla though, she pretty much keeps to herself these days and won't bother a soul. So, I was told.
Castello Ruffo perched on top of Scylla's rock looking over the town below. (Photograph: Settemuse.it)
Comments