Digesting the Story of Nisus and Scylla
Metamorphoses often bring out an inherent trait in the character transformed
Brief Introduction
The story of Nisus and Scylla is found in the Book VIII of Ovid’s Metamorphoses which saw print circa 8 AD. The work consists of fifteen (15) books and is translated from Greek into English as “transformations” or simply put, “the myth of transformations” (Volk, 2010).
There are several English translations available, but for our purposes, the works of David Raeburn (n.d.) and Rolfe Humphries (1955) were consulted. The latter is concise compared to the former.
The Story
The story begins in the morning where King Minos, son of Jove and Europa, attacks the city of Alcathoe, whose king is Nisus, father of Scylla.
On Nisus’ gray head, a shining purple lock is placed, which he must dearly keep otherwise he would lose his kingdom. Here, we can tell that Nisus is already old.
The war continues for six months with no victor on either camps. The bird of victor is roaming to and fro but not descending.
Scylla frequented at the top of the tower of the palace, watching the seemingly unceasing battle. A point came where her eyes landed upon King Minos, though “his head is covered in a casque bedecked with a crest of plumage,” she exclaimed, “How handsome that helmeted warrior looks!”
And to further quote the rising action of the story, Raeburn (n.d.) translates:
“And now he was wielding
his gleaming bronze-plated shield. How well it became him to wield it!
Tensing his muscles, he launched his spear in a graceful curve;
such strength and such skill together excited the young girl’s praise.”
In a matter of first sight, Scylla’s eyes are glued on King Minos. But when he took his helmet off, the young lady was “hardly able to keep her senses” (Humphries, 1955) and was “almost out of her mind” (Raeburn, n.d.).
Raeburn’s (n.d.) translation succinctly captures the scene:
“‘How happy the spear which he is grasping!’
she said to herself. ‘How happy the reins that his hands are gripping!’
Girl though she was, she felt a strong impulse to find her way through the enemy
lines, if only she might; she was filled with the urge
to leap from the top of the tower right down to the Cretan encampment, or
open the great bronze gates of the city to welcome the foe
or to do what else King Minos might wish.”
The words “grasping” and “gripping” speak of an intense sexual desire with a sense of overpowering. She was totally out of her mind, wanting to be owned by Minos (perhaps in bed!) whom she has seen for the first time.
As these things play in her system, she began to entertain thoughts and weigh her decisions. Humphries’ (1955) translation details it:
“To her own thoughts: ‘War is a thing to weep for,
I know, but whether to weep or smile I know not.
I grieve that Minos is the enemy
Of a girl who loves him, but if there were no war
I never would have known him.’”
She thought of becoming his hostage and later an offering for peace. She daydreamed of becoming thrice happy if she had wings to fly down to Minos’ camp, declare her love for him, and offer the country as her dowry. And finally, she was convinced that
“If that doom
Waits for our city, why should not my love
Unbar the walls before his violence?
It would be better for him to win, and quickly,
With no more killing, no further risk of bloodshed” (Humphries, 1955).
And so she was convinced of her plan to end the war. At night, “with the darkness, her boldness grew” (Humphries, 1955). She sneaked to his father’s chamber, and cut his fateful lock. She immediately went to the foe and confidently spoke the following:
“Love has led me
To do this thing. I, Scylla, Nisus’ daughter,
Deliver to you my country, my household gods.
I ask for no reward except yourself.
Take as my pledge of love this purple lock,
And realize that with it I am giving
My father’s life” (Humphries, 1955).
But her plan was rather ruined. King Minos rejected her with strong condemnatory language:
“You blot on our age! I pray that the gods will banish you far
from their own bright sphere and that space is denied you on land and ocean.
Certainly I shall never allow my own sphere, Crete,
the cradle of Jove, to be made unclean by so evil a monster!” (Raeburn, n.d.).
Out of this answer, she became angry and ranted almost endlessly as she sees them sailing through the sea, giving her no reward.
“With her hair streaming down, in rage and passion,
Cried out: ‘Do you leave me, then, leave me, who gave you
Success and victory, leave me, who put you
Above my fatherland, above my father?
Do you leave me, cruel king, in victory,
Thinking my guilt no service? Was the gift
Nothing at all? Were all the love and hope
Centred upon you nothing? Where am I
To go to now, deserted? Back to my country?
It is beaten, it lies low. But even suppose
It still remained, my treason has closed it to me.
Go back to my father? But I have betrayed him.
My people hate me, as they should; my neighbors
Fear my example. I have made myself an exile
From all the world for Crete alone to take me.
If you forbid me Crete, and leave me here
I will know Europa never was your mother,
But quicksands must have been, or evil whirlpools,
Or some Armenian tigress. You are no son
Of Jove, your mother never was deluded
By a bull’s guise; that story of your birth
Was all a lie. Truth is, you were begotten
By a real bull, a fierce unnatural creature
That could not find a heifer to his liking.
Punish me, father Nisus! Oh rejoice
In all I suffer, walls that I betrayed!
I have deserved it, I am worthy to die.
Let me be slain by those whom I have wronged,
For why should you, O hypocrite, abuse me
For crime that meant your victory? A crime
Against my fatherland, against my father,
Might be a service in your eyes if only
Those eyes were not so hard! You have a wife
Well-mated to you, that unnatural woman
Whose cunning helped her have a bull for lover,
Whose womb conceived the hybrid monster offspring!
Do you hear me, ingrate? Or do the winds that fill
Your sails blow off my words to emptiness?
It is no wonder to me now, no wonder
Pasiphae preferred the bull to you
The bull was gentler! Woe is me! He orders
His men to hurry, and the waves resound
To the beat of the oars, and the land and I are fading
Out of his sight. In vain! In vain, forgetter
Of all my service! I shall follow you
Against your will, cling to the curve of the stern,
Be towed through the long waters” (Humphries, 1955).
This is a mythological work, a product of imagination, but Ovid had intelligently penned down how a woman reasons out when she is losing the plan she has framed. Given also the author’s initial work in Ars Amatoria, where his fascination is explicitly shown in an undying subject of love, covering how a woman’s mind work. Here, we can construe the following:
1. She highlights her worth by telling that his success is something he is indebted to her;
2. She sees her situation that she has nowhere to go;
3. She attacks his person, telling Jove and Europa weren’t his real parents and that his story of birth was merely a lie;
4. She questions the assumed perspective of Minos, forming all possible hypothetical arguments; and
5. She calls him “cruel king,” “hypocrite,” and “ingrate” and yet not giving up, following him still — a desperation on her part.
As she swam after the ship and clung to it, her father — who had become an osprey with tawny wings — swoop down with vengeance, making Scylla lose her hold. “A light breeze seemed to sustain her and save her from touching the water. Feathers grew over her arms. Transformed to the shape of a bird, she is known as Ciris the Shearer” (Raeburn, n.d.).
Significance
Nisus and Scylla is an excellent mythological work to read. It has plenty of realities, allowing readers to formulate multiple and varying interpretations. Here, Ovid has been able to explore love by giving us hope and turning it into a sour destiny. It is relevant today as it teaches us to not rush in love, and that one-sided love is dangerous if it endangers a lot of people, and scars family relationships. It could also be argued that the love Scylla had for Minos was never genuine but a mere lustful desire, or to say the least, it was an absurd one. More so, the intention of pure love might be there, but it was rather turned into a poisonous sting that Minos deemed abominable at all cost, only because Scylla’s method was wrong. Another argument may arise that women may declare their love for men first, breaking the social norm in those days.
More important is the central point that we become what we are and what we do. To shear is to cut. And Scylla was turned into a Shearer. It warns us of what we do lest we transform to what we embody to be.
Meanwhile, Volk (2010) writes that “the significance of Metamorphoses is manifold.” She gave three (3) reasons to ponder upon by both general readers and avid scholars of the work, which the second and third are worth-relating in the present:
“First, transformation myths serve as an explanation for why the world is the way it is today, attesting to the great interest the Greeks and Romans took in aetiology (from Greek aition — story of origin). Second, Metamorphoses often bring out an inherent trait in the character transformed, such as when the “wolfish” Lycaon is actually changed into a wolf in Book 1. Finally, the never-ending stream of transformations in the poem conveys the idea of an unstable world that is in continuous flux” (Volk, 2010).
