On Unbelievable Stories (20)

What’s said about Scylla is that she was some kind of beast in the Tyrrhenian sea: a woman down to her navel, from there dogs’ heads sprouted, and the rest of the body a snake. But to imagine her as such a creature is really quite naive.

The truth is this. Tyrrhenian ships used to plunder the coast of Sicily and the Ionian Gulf. There was also at that time a ship - a fast trireme. Its name was ‘Scylla’, and the creature was depicted on its prow. This trireme would often apprehend other boats and make mincemeat out of them, and many stories were told about her. Odysseus, taking advantage of a strong and favourable wind, managed to escape this ship; and in Corcyra he described to Alcinoos how he’d been chased and how he’d escaped and what the skiff looked like. And thus the myth was fabricated.