By
punishing
the traitress, he said, Minos
showed justice to his enemies and acted in a manner worthy of his future
position as a judge in the Lower World.
showed justice to his enemies and acted in a manner worthy of his future
position as a judge in the Lower World.
Ovid - 1934 - Metamorphoses in European Culture - v2
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
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208
Erysichthon . . . . . . . . . . 211
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? KING MINOS AND SCYLLA
King Minos and Scylla
After describing briefly the return of Cephalus to Athens, Ovid
turned to Minos and his invasion of Attica. Aeschylus in the Choephorae
had spoken of him as attacking Megara, near the head of the Saronic
Gulf, and had observed that Nisus was king of the city. The Manual
added that Nisus was a brother of Aegeus and that Minos attacked
Megara in the course of his war with Athens. It stated further that
Alcathoiis, a son of Pelops, had rebuilt and fortified the city. Ovid fol-
lowed the Manual, referring to Megara as the city of Alcathoiis. The
traditional account of the siege included two ideas common in folklore.
The first was an idea of the supernatural importance of the hair.
Popular tales of many countries have assumed that in certain cases a
man's soul dwelt in the hairs of his head. Sometimes it was thought of as
residing equally in all the hairs, much oftener as restricted to a small
group of them or to a single hair. These popular tales are to the follow-
ing effect. A certain man, whose soul resided in the hair of his head, was
immune to ordinary injuries and for a long time was able to perform re-
markable feats. At last an enemy deprived him of his magic hair and
so put him to death. Ariosto told of a magician Orrilo, who recovered
easily and quickly from the most formidable wounds, but died immedi-
ately when Astolfo cut off his fateful hair.
In this case, all the magician's hairs had the same appearance,
although only one of them contained the soul. Usually the part of the
hair which was magical was distinguished by some remarkable color. In
the lore of ancient Greece the magic hair of King Pterelaiis of Taphus
was golden, and that of King Nisus was purple. Accounts varied as to
whether Nisus had a number of magic hairs or only one. Aeschylus men-
tioned a lock, the Manual, a single hair. Vergil and Ovid, although in-
definite, seem to have agreed with the Manual. According to most pop-
ular tales, the existence of such hair was kept secret. In the story of
Nisus it appears to have been a matter of general knowledge. Almost
always in popular tales the owner of magic hair was betrayed by a
woman. This was true both of Pterelaiis and of Nisus. But these two
stories were unusual in having king and country perish together.
This fact associated them with another idea common to many pop-
ular tales of countries lying near the eastern end of the Mediterranean
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK EIGHT
Sea. The purpose of such tales ordinarily was to account for some local
name, such as the Maiden's Castle. And the stories were to the follow-
ing effect. An enemy laid siege to a certain fortified place and for a long
while was unable to take it. The commander of the garrison had a daugh-
ter, who knew where the defenses were weak. She betrayed the secret,
and her treason is commemorated by the name of the locality. A typical
example was the myth of the Roman girl Tarpeia, whose treachery was
said to have been commemorated by the name of the Tarpeian Cliff.
Stories of this kind were localized at various points within an area ex-
tending from Mesopotamia westwards to Gergovia in Auvergne. They
entered literature with the Egyptian Tale of Two Brothers (1300 B. C. )
and continued to appear as late as the medieval Gesta Romanorum.
Among them was the Greek myth of Nisus, for the walled city of Megara
was betrayed by his daughter, Scylla.
In these tales of the treacherous maiden, her motive sometimes was
avarice. The Greek girl Arne betrayed Siphnus in order to obtain a sum
of gold (cf. Bk. 7), and the Roman Tarpeia betrayed the Capitoline Hill
in the hope of obtaining the bracelets of the besieging Sabines. Scylla
originally was thought to have been treacherous for a similar reason. By
offering her a gold necklace and other gifts, said Aeschylus, King Minos
persuaded her to betray her father. While Nisus slept, she stole the fatal
hairs, and he died.
More often in Greek tales of this kind, the maiden fell in love with
the leader of the besiegers. According to the early epic called Returns,
an Amazon named Antiope loved Theseus and delivered her native
city into his hands. Alexandrian authors told many stories of maidens
treacherous for the sake of love. The Manual noted how the princess,
Comaetho, because of her passion for Amphitryon, betrayed King
Pterelaiis. Parthenius added three new examples. Two of them were
concerned with the mythical heroines Leucophyre and Pisidice, the
third with a certain Nanis who betrayed Sardis to Cyrus the Great of
Persia. Parthenius told also an inverted form of the usual tale. A young
man named Diognetus, who was a leader of the besiegers, fell in love with
Polycrite, daughter of the commander of the garrison, and for her sake
betrayed his fellow soldiers into the hands of the defenders. * Scylla, too,
was thought to have been impelled by love. A Greek tragedy, which is
now lost, presented the tale in this form. The Manual recorded the new
*Medea and Ariadne were guilty of treason on account of love, but their treachery
did not involve the safety of the country.
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? KING MINOS AND SCYLLA
version as follows. Scylla, falling in love with Minos, pulled out the
fatal hair. Nisus died, and Minos captured the city.
In popular folk tales the besieger was willing to profit by the girl's
treachery. Usually he gave her encouragement, and, if the motive was
love, he was willing to promise marriage. But he secretly despised her.
In the end he withheld the expected reward, and usually he put the
treacherous girl to death. Amphitryon slew Comaetho with his own
hands. Achilles ordered his soldiers to crush Pisidice with stones, and
Tatius had the Sabines bury Tarpeia under their heavy shields. Accord-
ing to the Manual, Minos had Scylla fastened to the stern of his ship and
dragged through the water until she drowned. Statius added that he left
her body on the promontory which afterwards was called in her memory
Scyllaeum.
Parthenius in his Metamorphoses retold the story of Scylla at some
length. His account, which is now lost, appears to have introduced a
number of important changes. In the Hippolytw Euripides had shown
an unscrupulous nurse aiding and abetting Phaedra's courtship of the
hero. This idea had influenced many Alexandrian tales of illicit love.
Parthenius had shown Pisidice sending her nurse to Achilles, in order to
arrange for his marrying her and for the betrayal of the city. Par-
thenius imagined that Scylla caused her nurse to make a similar agree-
ment with Minos. Evidently he supposed that such a marriage would
have been possible. The Manual had indicated that Minos had been mar-
ried previous to this time, for he was the father of Androgeus, but that
he was not yet the husband of Pasiphae. Parthenius assumed that he was
a widower when he laid siege to Megara. He made a change in the cir-
cumstances of the theft. Instead of pulling out the magic hair, Scylla
cut it with a pair of shears.
Accompanied by her nurse, she visited Minos and offered him the
fatal hair. Appalled at such treachery, he refused to take it. He thought
her capable of any crime and ordered her to be tied to the rudder of his
ship. But Scylla did not drown. The history of her ancestors recorded a
famous transformation of Procne to a swallow and of the hostile Tereus
to a hawk (cf. Philomela, Bk. 6). Parthenius invented a similar trans-
formation of Scylla and Nisus. The daughter turned into a bird with a
purple crest, called the Ciris (keiris) from her crime of shearing the hair
(keirem). The father became a sea eagle and still shows his resentment
by continually pursuing her.
Alluding to this version of the tale, a Pompeiian mural represented
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK EIGHT
Scylla, accompanied by her nurse, as offering the hair and Minos as
turning away in horror. Parthenius appears to have influenced all Ro-
man allusions to the myth. Roman authors often accepted his idea that
Scylla became a bird, but Hyginus declared that she became a fish.
According to the original account, Nisus died as soon as he lost the
fatal hair. During Alexandrian times another idea entered into the
story. In folk tales of many countries, certain men were said to have
possessed remarkable strength and prestige while their hair remained
long but to have lost it as soon as the hair was cut. This idea occurred
in the Old Testament narrative of Samson, in many tales of magicians,
and in a modern Greek story of a king with three magic golden hairs. It
even affected the tenure of early French kings, for Pepin shaved the head
of Childeric Third in order to depose him. Parthenius appears to have
thought that Nisus survived the theft of his hair but lost his ability to
defend Megara and perished when the city was taken. Later authors
mentioned the idea explicitly.
Vergil, in his early poem called The Ciris, retold the story at some
length. Although influenced by Parthenius, he added many new circum-
stances, and, wherever he could, he made the tale favorable to Scylla.
Vergil assigned a different cause for the war. Minos, he said, was trying
to recapture the seer Polyidus, who had taken refuge in Megara. Vergil
gave a more detailed account of Nisus. The purple hair grew on the
crown of his head, and all his other hairs were white. For the infatua-
tion of Scylla, Vergil imagined a supernatural cause. After unwittingly
profaning a temple of Juno, the girl denied that she had done so. The
offended goddess persuaded Cupid to shoot her with a golden arrow.
Without indicating how Scylla first became aware of Minos, Vergil gave
a long account of her desperate behavior. He implied that, as a neces-
sary condition of the marriage, Minos demanded the fatal hair.
Although Nisus had guards stationed outside the palace, he feared
no danger from within, and he left his bed chamber unprotected. As
Scylla paused before his door, trying to gather sufficient boldness for
the attempt, the nurse overtook her and persuaded her first to see
whether they could induce her father to arrange for the marriage. Find-
ing that Nisus refused to do this, they resorted to theft. With the fall
of the city Minos presumably recaptured the seer Polyidus.
Since Minos had no further business in Attica, Vergil imagined that
he immediately prepared to sail for Crete. Minos gave orders that Scylla
should be tied to the rear of his ship. Apparently she was not fastened
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? KING MINOS AND SCYLLA
to the rudder but to the topmost part of the stern. Sometimes she was
raised high in air, as a wave lifted the vessel; and at other times she sank
to the level of the water, as the stern went down into the succeeding
trough of the sea.
While the fleet bore Scylla away from her native land, Vergil showed
her uttering a long complaint. She reproached Minos for disregard of
his promise to marry her, for ingratitude, and for failure to appreciate
her sacrifices in his behalf. Indifferent to her reproaches, Minos con-
tinued down the Saronic Gulf and out into the Aegaean Sea. Vergil gave
an impressive account of the voyage. After passing the island of Seri-
phus, the girl fainted.
The goddess Amphitrite took pity on her and transformed her into
a beautiful bird, the Ciris. Vergil described the change in detail. This
bird, he said, inhabits lonely rocks and cliffs along the shore. Jupiter,
he continued, was not willing to have the traitress fare better than her
pious father, and he transformed Nisus into a variety of his favorite
bird, the eagle. Vergil ended with a description of the manner in which
the sea eagle pursues the ciris through the air. In the Georgics he re-
peated the description, noting the spectacle as a sign of fair weather.
Some Alexandrian author had identified Scylla, daughter of Nisus,
with Scylla, the monster of the Calabrian shore. Vergil in his Sixth
Eclogue accepted the innovation. Propertius followed his example, and
Ovid alluded to the idea repeatedly in his amatory poems. But in the Ciris
Vergil rejected the idea, and in the Metamorphoses Ovid too rejected it,
because he desired to tell a different tale of Scylla, the monster (Bks.
13-14).
Propertius took great interest in the tale of Scylla. In one place he
associated it with the tradition that after death Minos became a judge
of the souls entering Hades.
By punishing the traitress, he said, Minos
showed justice to his enemies and acted in a manner worthy of his future
position as a judge in the Lower World. In another poem the tale of
Scylla suggested to Propertius a new myth of Tarpeia.
He imagined Tarpeia in love with the Sabine leader Tatius. Pro-
pertius gave throughout the tale a very unfavorable impression of his
heroine. The chief events were as follows. Tarpeia was in the habit of
leaving Rome to draw water from a secluded spring. During one of these
excursions she saw Tatius engaged in warlike exercises on the plain. Ap-
parently he was on horseback and in full armor but had his face uncov-
ered. Impressed with his fine features and beautiful armor, she fell vio-
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK EIGHT
lently in love with him. Later Propertius represented her as considering
her fate in a long soliloquy. She thought of leaving Rome, in order to
live always as a captive within view of Tatius. Then she thought of be-
traying the city. She reflected that Tatius was worthy to rule and that
his cause was just. She hoped to become his queen and to bring her
country peace. Choosing an appropriate hour, she visited the enemy,
obtained his promise to marry her, and showed him the unguarded path.
In the MetaTtwrphoses Ovid profited much by the work of his Alex-
andrian and Roman predecessors. For the background of the tale he
drew on the Manual. Although this was convenient both for Ovid and
for his readers, it brought several disadvantages. Following the Manual,
Ovid described Minos as a son of Jupiter and Europa (Bk. 2). Even in
the Manual this idea had made the chronology difficult. According to
the plan of the Metamorphoses, it would have put Minos at least four
generations earlier than the time of Scylla.
The Manual had supposed further that after the fall of Megara,
Pasiphae became the wife of Minos and was guilty of unnatural lust for
a bull and that many years later Theseus arrived in Athens. Ovid used
all these incidents, but felt obliged to reverse their order and to shorten
the interval of time. Already he had put first the arrival of Theseus in
Athens. He imagined the scandalous conduct of Pasiphae as occurring
immediately afterward, so that it was a little earlier than the siege of
Megara and even was known to Scylla. This idea added something to
the effect of Scylla's reproaches. But it was wholly inconsistent with her
plan to become the wife of Minos. Ovid lessened the evil by not mention-
ing Pasiphae until very late in the story. With the Manual he agreed
that for a long time the Cretans besieged Megara in vain, and he made
the period five lunar months.
Most of the incidents Ovid chose skilfully from the accounts of
Vergil and Propertius. He followed Propertius entirely in his hostile atti-
tude towards Scylla. Vergil suggested the preliminary circumstances.
He had noted that Apollo gave the stone in the city walls a magic prop-
erty ; so that, if any one struck it, the sound was musical, like notes of a
lyre. Although Vergil seems to have meant that the quality belonged
only to the one stone on which Apollo had reposed his lyre, the wording
suggested that it belonged to many stones, if not to the entire wall.
Vergil had noted later that Megara was provided with towers command-
ing a wide view of the country outside. Deftly combining these two ideas,
Ovid made them an essential part of the story. Before the time of the
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? KING MINOS AND SCYLLA
war, he said, Scylla had been accustomed to ascend a tower on the walls
and to amuse herself by dropping pebbles on the tuneful stones below.
During the siege she continued to frequent this tower and so had occa-
sion to notice events of the war. In the Heroic Age, warriors appear to
have fought almost entirely with spears and swords. It was possible to
watch their combats in relative safety and at close range. According to
the Iliad, Helen, standing on the walls of Troy, easily identified the
leaders of the besieging Greeks. Although Ovid spoke of the Cretans as
having their famous bows, he too imagined that it was possible for Scylla
in her tower to observe the military operations at close range and to rec-
ognize the Cretan leaders, including Minos.
According to Propertius, Tarpeia, seeing Tatius engaged in war-
like exercises, fell in love with him. Ovid imagined a similar cause for the
passion of Scylla. But he supposed that Minos was engaged in actual
combat and that Scylla observed him on a number of occasions and be-
came enamored more gradually. Propertius had spoken of Tarpeia as
admiring the skill with which Tatius handled his weapons while riding
and as being enamored of his fine features. Ovid elaborated the idea ef-
fectively. Scylla admired the crested helmet of Minos and his golden
shield. She marvelled at his handling of the spear. If he bent the bow,
she likened him to Apollo. And when he rode without his helmet, clad in
purple and borne on a milk-white horse with gorgeous trappings, she was
almost mad with delight. In Anacreontic lyrics the lover often envied the
good fortune of some ornament or object of dress, which continually was
in contact with his lady. Scylla envied the javelins and the reins, which
where touched by the hands of Minos.
The idea that Tatius and Minos rode on horseback was more pic-
turesque than probable. During the Heroic Age the Greeks inhabited
rough, mountainous country, and they seem to have lacked a good breed
of horses. The Iliad noted how Adrastus was saved by the fleetness of
his horse, Arion, and spoke of a performer who drove four horses and
leaped deftly from one to another; and the Odyssey told how the ship-
wrecked Ulysses rode a plank as a horseman rides a steed. But the
Greeks of Heroic times used horses chiefly for drawing chariots. Until
much later, riding on horses was exceptional. Racing on horseback be-
gan with the Olympic Games of the year 680 B. C. Two centuries later
the Persian Wars first revealed to the Greeks their need of cavalry. The
Greeks began to acquire a breed of Arabian horses and to study equita-
tion as it was practised by the nomadic peoples of Asia. More than a
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK EIGHT
century later Philip of Macedon first learned how to use cavalry with
good effect. The Romans were even slower in learning the value of
horses. At the siege of Veii (396 B. C. ) they began using warriors on
horseback. But they appreciated the importance of cavalry only when
warned nearly two centuries later by the amazing victories of Hannibal.
Disregarding these historical facts, Roman poets attributed to the
Heroic Age many practices of their own time. Plautus declared that
Amphitryon overwhelmed the Taphians by effective use of cavalry.
Vergil spoke of Aeneas and Dido as going out on horseback to hunt, and
he gave an impressive account of a cavalry battle between the allies of
Aeneas and the Latins. Propertius and Ovid found it natural to describe
Tatius and Minos as riding on horses. And later Ovid spoke of hunters
riding, in his tales of the Calydonian Boar and of Picus (Bk. 14).
At first the Greeks and Romans rode bareback. Shortly before
Vergil's time they introduced a cloth held in place by girths. Ovid de-
scribed Minos as sitting on a cloth of this kind. Some ancient peoples
controlled their horses only by the use of aids, such as spurs or a bridle
fastened round the head. Vergil spoke in the Georgics as if the Romans
bf his time were in the habit of using bits, and Ovid noted this as the
practice of Minos. His ancient Cretan king was equipped with the latest
improvements of the Augustan Age.
Vergil had portrayed in detail Scylla's insane condition. Ovid
merely indicated it. Vergil had suggested the girl's becoming so dis-
traught that she acted without knowing what she did. Ovid, following
Propertius, was careful to give the opposite impression, to show her con-
sidering the matter at some length.
Propertius had spoken of Tarpeia as looking towards the enemy's
royal tent and soliloquizing about her situation. Ovid followed his ex-
ample, and repeated several of his details. But, remembering the solil-
oquy of Medea (Bk. 7), he showed Scylla debating a moral issue. First
she pondered whether to regret the war or to rejoice that it had caused
her to see Minos. She thought of ending the conflict by offering herself
as a hostage. She longed to visit Minos, confess her love, and ask what
dower he might wish. Recoiling from the idea that he might ask for the
citadel, she thought it better to give up all hope of marriage than to be
guilty of treason. Yet she found arguments on the other side. Minos
had a just cause, she reflected, and he was sure to win. It would be well
to avoid further delay and loss of life. This idea suggested a more urgent
reason. Vergil had spoken of Minos as invulnerable. But Propertius had
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? KING MINOS AND SCYLLA
shown Tarpeia fearful lest Tatius might be wounded with a spear. Fol-
lowing Propertius, Ovid imagined Scylla as alarmed by a similar fear
about Minos, although she thought that no one would be capable of en-
dangering him intentionally. She was willing to end the war by giving
up herself and her country.
But, like Medea, Scylla realized that willingness was not enough.
Her father prevented the execution of her purpose. After wishing that
the gods had made her fatherless, she declared that everyone is his own
god. Ovid was willing to have her words suggest the idea of murder.
Propertius had shown Tarpeia encouraging herself by the traditional
examples of Scylla and Ariadne. Unable to cite examples of this kind,
Ovid showed his Scylla arguing that any resolute girl would have brushed
aside the obstacle to her happiness. She herself would have been ready
to encounter fire and sword. All that she needed to do was to steal her
father's purple hair. The coming of night made her bolder and afforded
her the necessary opportunity.
Parthenius and Vergil had shown a nurse cooperating with Scylla.
Ovid rejected this idea, probably because he was reserving it for the
story of Myrrha (Bk. 10). Parthenius and Vergil had supposed that
Minos demanded possession of the fatal hair. Ovid, following Propertius,
showed the girl undertaking a crime of her own accord. With Vergil
he assumed the royal chamber was unguarded, and with Parthenius he
assumed that Nisus continued to sleep undisturbed.
Since Tarpeia often had left Rome to visit the spring, Propertius
assumed that she could depart unnoticed on her mission to Tatius. He
implied, less plausibly, that she had no difficulty in arranging for an
interview. Ovid had given the impression that Scylla always had re-
mained within the walls, and he had observed that her father held the
keys to the gates. But, following Propertius, he imagined that she too
departed unnoticed, and he suggested even more strongly that she had
no difficulty in reaching Minos. So sure is she of welcome, he said, that
she goes through the midst of the enemy straight to the king.
Parthenius had pictured Minos as horrified at Scylla's crime, and
Propertius had spoken of him as acting in a manner worthy of the future
judge in Hades. Ovid went further. Minos, he said, had no previous
knowledge of Scylla's purpose and was startled at her arrival. Shame-
lessly the girl introduced herself and stated the reason for her coming.
She offered him the purple hair, which, she said, was equivalent to the
life of her father and his dynasty. Minos not only drew back but laid a
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK EIGHT
curse on the traitress. He prayed the gods to banish her from land
and sea, implying probably that she ought to die. He at least would
not allow Crete, the cradle of Jove, to be invaded by such a monster.
Although Ovid did not mention the events which occurred immediately
after this, he seems to have imagined them as follows. Scylla withdrew
from the king's tent but remained in the camp, still hoping for recogni-
tion. The next day the Cretans took the city and killed King Nisus.
Although Scylla knew that Megara had fallen, she was not aware of her
father's death.
Apparently misunderstanding a phrase of Propertius, Ovid spoke
of Minos as very just in the terms which he offered the vanquished. He
indicated later that Minos destroyed the city and made it no longer
habitable. This done, he prepared to sail at once. Scylla, finding that
Minos still ignored her, came dishevelled and furious to the shore.
Vergil had shown her addressing Minos and complaining of her
treatment. Ovid followed his example. But instead of making her com-
plaint gentle and pathetic, he made it passionate and violent. In this he
was influenced by a more famous passage of Vergil. When Dido learned
that Aeneas was about to sail away, she reproached him vehemently.
In a similar manner Scylla reproached Minos. Like Dido, Scylla pointed
out that she had offered him her country and her love and even had made
herself entirely dependent on him. Her family had become hostile, her
countrymen alienated, the neighboring peoples ill disposed, and her good
name was lost. He alone could protect her. When Aeneas persisted in
his purpose, Dido had declared his illustrious parentage a fable. Venus
could not have been his mother, the rugged Caucasus bore him, and
Hyrcanian tigers fed him with their milk. Scylla made a similar dec-
laration, but in more extravagant terms, which echoed the words ascribed
to Ariadne by Catullus. Europa could not have been the mother of
Minos. His mother was the inhospitable Syrtis (of the African coast),
the Armenian tigress, and the storm-tossed Charybdis (of Sicily). Dido
had refused to believe that the father of Aeneas was descended from the
royal family of Troy. Scylla refused to believe that the father of Minos
was Jupiter in the form of a bull. She went further and declared that he
must have been a real bull, wild and untouched by gentle feeling.
In Vergil's Ciris, Scylla had complained that she deserved punish-
ment from those whom she had injured but not from those whom she had
benefited. Ovid showed her repeating the idea, in more emphatic terms.
Then he showed her continuing her attack on the family of Minos, but
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? KING MINOS AND SCYLLA
King Minos and Scylla
After describing briefly the return of Cephalus to Athens, Ovid
turned to Minos and his invasion of Attica. Aeschylus in the Choephorae
had spoken of him as attacking Megara, near the head of the Saronic
Gulf, and had observed that Nisus was king of the city. The Manual
added that Nisus was a brother of Aegeus and that Minos attacked
Megara in the course of his war with Athens. It stated further that
Alcathoiis, a son of Pelops, had rebuilt and fortified the city. Ovid fol-
lowed the Manual, referring to Megara as the city of Alcathoiis. The
traditional account of the siege included two ideas common in folklore.
The first was an idea of the supernatural importance of the hair.
Popular tales of many countries have assumed that in certain cases a
man's soul dwelt in the hairs of his head. Sometimes it was thought of as
residing equally in all the hairs, much oftener as restricted to a small
group of them or to a single hair. These popular tales are to the follow-
ing effect. A certain man, whose soul resided in the hair of his head, was
immune to ordinary injuries and for a long time was able to perform re-
markable feats. At last an enemy deprived him of his magic hair and
so put him to death. Ariosto told of a magician Orrilo, who recovered
easily and quickly from the most formidable wounds, but died immedi-
ately when Astolfo cut off his fateful hair.
In this case, all the magician's hairs had the same appearance,
although only one of them contained the soul. Usually the part of the
hair which was magical was distinguished by some remarkable color. In
the lore of ancient Greece the magic hair of King Pterelaiis of Taphus
was golden, and that of King Nisus was purple. Accounts varied as to
whether Nisus had a number of magic hairs or only one. Aeschylus men-
tioned a lock, the Manual, a single hair. Vergil and Ovid, although in-
definite, seem to have agreed with the Manual. According to most pop-
ular tales, the existence of such hair was kept secret. In the story of
Nisus it appears to have been a matter of general knowledge. Almost
always in popular tales the owner of magic hair was betrayed by a
woman. This was true both of Pterelaiis and of Nisus. But these two
stories were unusual in having king and country perish together.
This fact associated them with another idea common to many pop-
ular tales of countries lying near the eastern end of the Mediterranean
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK EIGHT
Sea. The purpose of such tales ordinarily was to account for some local
name, such as the Maiden's Castle. And the stories were to the follow-
ing effect. An enemy laid siege to a certain fortified place and for a long
while was unable to take it. The commander of the garrison had a daugh-
ter, who knew where the defenses were weak. She betrayed the secret,
and her treason is commemorated by the name of the locality. A typical
example was the myth of the Roman girl Tarpeia, whose treachery was
said to have been commemorated by the name of the Tarpeian Cliff.
Stories of this kind were localized at various points within an area ex-
tending from Mesopotamia westwards to Gergovia in Auvergne. They
entered literature with the Egyptian Tale of Two Brothers (1300 B. C. )
and continued to appear as late as the medieval Gesta Romanorum.
Among them was the Greek myth of Nisus, for the walled city of Megara
was betrayed by his daughter, Scylla.
In these tales of the treacherous maiden, her motive sometimes was
avarice. The Greek girl Arne betrayed Siphnus in order to obtain a sum
of gold (cf. Bk. 7), and the Roman Tarpeia betrayed the Capitoline Hill
in the hope of obtaining the bracelets of the besieging Sabines. Scylla
originally was thought to have been treacherous for a similar reason. By
offering her a gold necklace and other gifts, said Aeschylus, King Minos
persuaded her to betray her father. While Nisus slept, she stole the fatal
hairs, and he died.
More often in Greek tales of this kind, the maiden fell in love with
the leader of the besiegers. According to the early epic called Returns,
an Amazon named Antiope loved Theseus and delivered her native
city into his hands. Alexandrian authors told many stories of maidens
treacherous for the sake of love. The Manual noted how the princess,
Comaetho, because of her passion for Amphitryon, betrayed King
Pterelaiis. Parthenius added three new examples. Two of them were
concerned with the mythical heroines Leucophyre and Pisidice, the
third with a certain Nanis who betrayed Sardis to Cyrus the Great of
Persia. Parthenius told also an inverted form of the usual tale. A young
man named Diognetus, who was a leader of the besiegers, fell in love with
Polycrite, daughter of the commander of the garrison, and for her sake
betrayed his fellow soldiers into the hands of the defenders. * Scylla, too,
was thought to have been impelled by love. A Greek tragedy, which is
now lost, presented the tale in this form. The Manual recorded the new
*Medea and Ariadne were guilty of treason on account of love, but their treachery
did not involve the safety of the country.
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? KING MINOS AND SCYLLA
version as follows. Scylla, falling in love with Minos, pulled out the
fatal hair. Nisus died, and Minos captured the city.
In popular folk tales the besieger was willing to profit by the girl's
treachery. Usually he gave her encouragement, and, if the motive was
love, he was willing to promise marriage. But he secretly despised her.
In the end he withheld the expected reward, and usually he put the
treacherous girl to death. Amphitryon slew Comaetho with his own
hands. Achilles ordered his soldiers to crush Pisidice with stones, and
Tatius had the Sabines bury Tarpeia under their heavy shields. Accord-
ing to the Manual, Minos had Scylla fastened to the stern of his ship and
dragged through the water until she drowned. Statius added that he left
her body on the promontory which afterwards was called in her memory
Scyllaeum.
Parthenius in his Metamorphoses retold the story of Scylla at some
length. His account, which is now lost, appears to have introduced a
number of important changes. In the Hippolytw Euripides had shown
an unscrupulous nurse aiding and abetting Phaedra's courtship of the
hero. This idea had influenced many Alexandrian tales of illicit love.
Parthenius had shown Pisidice sending her nurse to Achilles, in order to
arrange for his marrying her and for the betrayal of the city. Par-
thenius imagined that Scylla caused her nurse to make a similar agree-
ment with Minos. Evidently he supposed that such a marriage would
have been possible. The Manual had indicated that Minos had been mar-
ried previous to this time, for he was the father of Androgeus, but that
he was not yet the husband of Pasiphae. Parthenius assumed that he was
a widower when he laid siege to Megara. He made a change in the cir-
cumstances of the theft. Instead of pulling out the magic hair, Scylla
cut it with a pair of shears.
Accompanied by her nurse, she visited Minos and offered him the
fatal hair. Appalled at such treachery, he refused to take it. He thought
her capable of any crime and ordered her to be tied to the rudder of his
ship. But Scylla did not drown. The history of her ancestors recorded a
famous transformation of Procne to a swallow and of the hostile Tereus
to a hawk (cf. Philomela, Bk. 6). Parthenius invented a similar trans-
formation of Scylla and Nisus. The daughter turned into a bird with a
purple crest, called the Ciris (keiris) from her crime of shearing the hair
(keirem). The father became a sea eagle and still shows his resentment
by continually pursuing her.
Alluding to this version of the tale, a Pompeiian mural represented
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK EIGHT
Scylla, accompanied by her nurse, as offering the hair and Minos as
turning away in horror. Parthenius appears to have influenced all Ro-
man allusions to the myth. Roman authors often accepted his idea that
Scylla became a bird, but Hyginus declared that she became a fish.
According to the original account, Nisus died as soon as he lost the
fatal hair. During Alexandrian times another idea entered into the
story. In folk tales of many countries, certain men were said to have
possessed remarkable strength and prestige while their hair remained
long but to have lost it as soon as the hair was cut. This idea occurred
in the Old Testament narrative of Samson, in many tales of magicians,
and in a modern Greek story of a king with three magic golden hairs. It
even affected the tenure of early French kings, for Pepin shaved the head
of Childeric Third in order to depose him. Parthenius appears to have
thought that Nisus survived the theft of his hair but lost his ability to
defend Megara and perished when the city was taken. Later authors
mentioned the idea explicitly.
Vergil, in his early poem called The Ciris, retold the story at some
length. Although influenced by Parthenius, he added many new circum-
stances, and, wherever he could, he made the tale favorable to Scylla.
Vergil assigned a different cause for the war. Minos, he said, was trying
to recapture the seer Polyidus, who had taken refuge in Megara. Vergil
gave a more detailed account of Nisus. The purple hair grew on the
crown of his head, and all his other hairs were white. For the infatua-
tion of Scylla, Vergil imagined a supernatural cause. After unwittingly
profaning a temple of Juno, the girl denied that she had done so. The
offended goddess persuaded Cupid to shoot her with a golden arrow.
Without indicating how Scylla first became aware of Minos, Vergil gave
a long account of her desperate behavior. He implied that, as a neces-
sary condition of the marriage, Minos demanded the fatal hair.
Although Nisus had guards stationed outside the palace, he feared
no danger from within, and he left his bed chamber unprotected. As
Scylla paused before his door, trying to gather sufficient boldness for
the attempt, the nurse overtook her and persuaded her first to see
whether they could induce her father to arrange for the marriage. Find-
ing that Nisus refused to do this, they resorted to theft. With the fall
of the city Minos presumably recaptured the seer Polyidus.
Since Minos had no further business in Attica, Vergil imagined that
he immediately prepared to sail for Crete. Minos gave orders that Scylla
should be tied to the rear of his ship. Apparently she was not fastened
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? KING MINOS AND SCYLLA
to the rudder but to the topmost part of the stern. Sometimes she was
raised high in air, as a wave lifted the vessel; and at other times she sank
to the level of the water, as the stern went down into the succeeding
trough of the sea.
While the fleet bore Scylla away from her native land, Vergil showed
her uttering a long complaint. She reproached Minos for disregard of
his promise to marry her, for ingratitude, and for failure to appreciate
her sacrifices in his behalf. Indifferent to her reproaches, Minos con-
tinued down the Saronic Gulf and out into the Aegaean Sea. Vergil gave
an impressive account of the voyage. After passing the island of Seri-
phus, the girl fainted.
The goddess Amphitrite took pity on her and transformed her into
a beautiful bird, the Ciris. Vergil described the change in detail. This
bird, he said, inhabits lonely rocks and cliffs along the shore. Jupiter,
he continued, was not willing to have the traitress fare better than her
pious father, and he transformed Nisus into a variety of his favorite
bird, the eagle. Vergil ended with a description of the manner in which
the sea eagle pursues the ciris through the air. In the Georgics he re-
peated the description, noting the spectacle as a sign of fair weather.
Some Alexandrian author had identified Scylla, daughter of Nisus,
with Scylla, the monster of the Calabrian shore. Vergil in his Sixth
Eclogue accepted the innovation. Propertius followed his example, and
Ovid alluded to the idea repeatedly in his amatory poems. But in the Ciris
Vergil rejected the idea, and in the Metamorphoses Ovid too rejected it,
because he desired to tell a different tale of Scylla, the monster (Bks.
13-14).
Propertius took great interest in the tale of Scylla. In one place he
associated it with the tradition that after death Minos became a judge
of the souls entering Hades.
By punishing the traitress, he said, Minos
showed justice to his enemies and acted in a manner worthy of his future
position as a judge in the Lower World. In another poem the tale of
Scylla suggested to Propertius a new myth of Tarpeia.
He imagined Tarpeia in love with the Sabine leader Tatius. Pro-
pertius gave throughout the tale a very unfavorable impression of his
heroine. The chief events were as follows. Tarpeia was in the habit of
leaving Rome to draw water from a secluded spring. During one of these
excursions she saw Tatius engaged in warlike exercises on the plain. Ap-
parently he was on horseback and in full armor but had his face uncov-
ered. Impressed with his fine features and beautiful armor, she fell vio-
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK EIGHT
lently in love with him. Later Propertius represented her as considering
her fate in a long soliloquy. She thought of leaving Rome, in order to
live always as a captive within view of Tatius. Then she thought of be-
traying the city. She reflected that Tatius was worthy to rule and that
his cause was just. She hoped to become his queen and to bring her
country peace. Choosing an appropriate hour, she visited the enemy,
obtained his promise to marry her, and showed him the unguarded path.
In the MetaTtwrphoses Ovid profited much by the work of his Alex-
andrian and Roman predecessors. For the background of the tale he
drew on the Manual. Although this was convenient both for Ovid and
for his readers, it brought several disadvantages. Following the Manual,
Ovid described Minos as a son of Jupiter and Europa (Bk. 2). Even in
the Manual this idea had made the chronology difficult. According to
the plan of the Metamorphoses, it would have put Minos at least four
generations earlier than the time of Scylla.
The Manual had supposed further that after the fall of Megara,
Pasiphae became the wife of Minos and was guilty of unnatural lust for
a bull and that many years later Theseus arrived in Athens. Ovid used
all these incidents, but felt obliged to reverse their order and to shorten
the interval of time. Already he had put first the arrival of Theseus in
Athens. He imagined the scandalous conduct of Pasiphae as occurring
immediately afterward, so that it was a little earlier than the siege of
Megara and even was known to Scylla. This idea added something to
the effect of Scylla's reproaches. But it was wholly inconsistent with her
plan to become the wife of Minos. Ovid lessened the evil by not mention-
ing Pasiphae until very late in the story. With the Manual he agreed
that for a long time the Cretans besieged Megara in vain, and he made
the period five lunar months.
Most of the incidents Ovid chose skilfully from the accounts of
Vergil and Propertius. He followed Propertius entirely in his hostile atti-
tude towards Scylla. Vergil suggested the preliminary circumstances.
He had noted that Apollo gave the stone in the city walls a magic prop-
erty ; so that, if any one struck it, the sound was musical, like notes of a
lyre. Although Vergil seems to have meant that the quality belonged
only to the one stone on which Apollo had reposed his lyre, the wording
suggested that it belonged to many stones, if not to the entire wall.
Vergil had noted later that Megara was provided with towers command-
ing a wide view of the country outside. Deftly combining these two ideas,
Ovid made them an essential part of the story. Before the time of the
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? KING MINOS AND SCYLLA
war, he said, Scylla had been accustomed to ascend a tower on the walls
and to amuse herself by dropping pebbles on the tuneful stones below.
During the siege she continued to frequent this tower and so had occa-
sion to notice events of the war. In the Heroic Age, warriors appear to
have fought almost entirely with spears and swords. It was possible to
watch their combats in relative safety and at close range. According to
the Iliad, Helen, standing on the walls of Troy, easily identified the
leaders of the besieging Greeks. Although Ovid spoke of the Cretans as
having their famous bows, he too imagined that it was possible for Scylla
in her tower to observe the military operations at close range and to rec-
ognize the Cretan leaders, including Minos.
According to Propertius, Tarpeia, seeing Tatius engaged in war-
like exercises, fell in love with him. Ovid imagined a similar cause for the
passion of Scylla. But he supposed that Minos was engaged in actual
combat and that Scylla observed him on a number of occasions and be-
came enamored more gradually. Propertius had spoken of Tarpeia as
admiring the skill with which Tatius handled his weapons while riding
and as being enamored of his fine features. Ovid elaborated the idea ef-
fectively. Scylla admired the crested helmet of Minos and his golden
shield. She marvelled at his handling of the spear. If he bent the bow,
she likened him to Apollo. And when he rode without his helmet, clad in
purple and borne on a milk-white horse with gorgeous trappings, she was
almost mad with delight. In Anacreontic lyrics the lover often envied the
good fortune of some ornament or object of dress, which continually was
in contact with his lady. Scylla envied the javelins and the reins, which
where touched by the hands of Minos.
The idea that Tatius and Minos rode on horseback was more pic-
turesque than probable. During the Heroic Age the Greeks inhabited
rough, mountainous country, and they seem to have lacked a good breed
of horses. The Iliad noted how Adrastus was saved by the fleetness of
his horse, Arion, and spoke of a performer who drove four horses and
leaped deftly from one to another; and the Odyssey told how the ship-
wrecked Ulysses rode a plank as a horseman rides a steed. But the
Greeks of Heroic times used horses chiefly for drawing chariots. Until
much later, riding on horses was exceptional. Racing on horseback be-
gan with the Olympic Games of the year 680 B. C. Two centuries later
the Persian Wars first revealed to the Greeks their need of cavalry. The
Greeks began to acquire a breed of Arabian horses and to study equita-
tion as it was practised by the nomadic peoples of Asia. More than a
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK EIGHT
century later Philip of Macedon first learned how to use cavalry with
good effect. The Romans were even slower in learning the value of
horses. At the siege of Veii (396 B. C. ) they began using warriors on
horseback. But they appreciated the importance of cavalry only when
warned nearly two centuries later by the amazing victories of Hannibal.
Disregarding these historical facts, Roman poets attributed to the
Heroic Age many practices of their own time. Plautus declared that
Amphitryon overwhelmed the Taphians by effective use of cavalry.
Vergil spoke of Aeneas and Dido as going out on horseback to hunt, and
he gave an impressive account of a cavalry battle between the allies of
Aeneas and the Latins. Propertius and Ovid found it natural to describe
Tatius and Minos as riding on horses. And later Ovid spoke of hunters
riding, in his tales of the Calydonian Boar and of Picus (Bk. 14).
At first the Greeks and Romans rode bareback. Shortly before
Vergil's time they introduced a cloth held in place by girths. Ovid de-
scribed Minos as sitting on a cloth of this kind. Some ancient peoples
controlled their horses only by the use of aids, such as spurs or a bridle
fastened round the head. Vergil spoke in the Georgics as if the Romans
bf his time were in the habit of using bits, and Ovid noted this as the
practice of Minos. His ancient Cretan king was equipped with the latest
improvements of the Augustan Age.
Vergil had portrayed in detail Scylla's insane condition. Ovid
merely indicated it. Vergil had suggested the girl's becoming so dis-
traught that she acted without knowing what she did. Ovid, following
Propertius, was careful to give the opposite impression, to show her con-
sidering the matter at some length.
Propertius had spoken of Tarpeia as looking towards the enemy's
royal tent and soliloquizing about her situation. Ovid followed his ex-
ample, and repeated several of his details. But, remembering the solil-
oquy of Medea (Bk. 7), he showed Scylla debating a moral issue. First
she pondered whether to regret the war or to rejoice that it had caused
her to see Minos. She thought of ending the conflict by offering herself
as a hostage. She longed to visit Minos, confess her love, and ask what
dower he might wish. Recoiling from the idea that he might ask for the
citadel, she thought it better to give up all hope of marriage than to be
guilty of treason. Yet she found arguments on the other side. Minos
had a just cause, she reflected, and he was sure to win. It would be well
to avoid further delay and loss of life. This idea suggested a more urgent
reason. Vergil had spoken of Minos as invulnerable. But Propertius had
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? KING MINOS AND SCYLLA
shown Tarpeia fearful lest Tatius might be wounded with a spear. Fol-
lowing Propertius, Ovid imagined Scylla as alarmed by a similar fear
about Minos, although she thought that no one would be capable of en-
dangering him intentionally. She was willing to end the war by giving
up herself and her country.
But, like Medea, Scylla realized that willingness was not enough.
Her father prevented the execution of her purpose. After wishing that
the gods had made her fatherless, she declared that everyone is his own
god. Ovid was willing to have her words suggest the idea of murder.
Propertius had shown Tarpeia encouraging herself by the traditional
examples of Scylla and Ariadne. Unable to cite examples of this kind,
Ovid showed his Scylla arguing that any resolute girl would have brushed
aside the obstacle to her happiness. She herself would have been ready
to encounter fire and sword. All that she needed to do was to steal her
father's purple hair. The coming of night made her bolder and afforded
her the necessary opportunity.
Parthenius and Vergil had shown a nurse cooperating with Scylla.
Ovid rejected this idea, probably because he was reserving it for the
story of Myrrha (Bk. 10). Parthenius and Vergil had supposed that
Minos demanded possession of the fatal hair. Ovid, following Propertius,
showed the girl undertaking a crime of her own accord. With Vergil
he assumed the royal chamber was unguarded, and with Parthenius he
assumed that Nisus continued to sleep undisturbed.
Since Tarpeia often had left Rome to visit the spring, Propertius
assumed that she could depart unnoticed on her mission to Tatius. He
implied, less plausibly, that she had no difficulty in arranging for an
interview. Ovid had given the impression that Scylla always had re-
mained within the walls, and he had observed that her father held the
keys to the gates. But, following Propertius, he imagined that she too
departed unnoticed, and he suggested even more strongly that she had
no difficulty in reaching Minos. So sure is she of welcome, he said, that
she goes through the midst of the enemy straight to the king.
Parthenius had pictured Minos as horrified at Scylla's crime, and
Propertius had spoken of him as acting in a manner worthy of the future
judge in Hades. Ovid went further. Minos, he said, had no previous
knowledge of Scylla's purpose and was startled at her arrival. Shame-
lessly the girl introduced herself and stated the reason for her coming.
She offered him the purple hair, which, she said, was equivalent to the
life of her father and his dynasty. Minos not only drew back but laid a
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK EIGHT
curse on the traitress. He prayed the gods to banish her from land
and sea, implying probably that she ought to die. He at least would
not allow Crete, the cradle of Jove, to be invaded by such a monster.
Although Ovid did not mention the events which occurred immediately
after this, he seems to have imagined them as follows. Scylla withdrew
from the king's tent but remained in the camp, still hoping for recogni-
tion. The next day the Cretans took the city and killed King Nisus.
Although Scylla knew that Megara had fallen, she was not aware of her
father's death.
Apparently misunderstanding a phrase of Propertius, Ovid spoke
of Minos as very just in the terms which he offered the vanquished. He
indicated later that Minos destroyed the city and made it no longer
habitable. This done, he prepared to sail at once. Scylla, finding that
Minos still ignored her, came dishevelled and furious to the shore.
Vergil had shown her addressing Minos and complaining of her
treatment. Ovid followed his example. But instead of making her com-
plaint gentle and pathetic, he made it passionate and violent. In this he
was influenced by a more famous passage of Vergil. When Dido learned
that Aeneas was about to sail away, she reproached him vehemently.
In a similar manner Scylla reproached Minos. Like Dido, Scylla pointed
out that she had offered him her country and her love and even had made
herself entirely dependent on him. Her family had become hostile, her
countrymen alienated, the neighboring peoples ill disposed, and her good
name was lost. He alone could protect her. When Aeneas persisted in
his purpose, Dido had declared his illustrious parentage a fable. Venus
could not have been his mother, the rugged Caucasus bore him, and
Hyrcanian tigers fed him with their milk. Scylla made a similar dec-
laration, but in more extravagant terms, which echoed the words ascribed
to Ariadne by Catullus. Europa could not have been the mother of
Minos. His mother was the inhospitable Syrtis (of the African coast),
the Armenian tigress, and the storm-tossed Charybdis (of Sicily). Dido
had refused to believe that the father of Aeneas was descended from the
royal family of Troy. Scylla refused to believe that the father of Minos
was Jupiter in the form of a bull. She went further and declared that he
must have been a real bull, wild and untouched by gentle feeling.
In Vergil's Ciris, Scylla had complained that she deserved punish-
ment from those whom she had injured but not from those whom she had
benefited. Ovid showed her repeating the idea, in more emphatic terms.
Then he showed her continuing her attack on the family of Minos, but
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