Phorcys and Crataeis bore Scylla, the six-headed monster that devours sailors from her cliff above the strait. Crataeis alone might be called upon to restrain her daughter from striking a second time.
⚠ Apollodorus (Epitome 7.20) gives variant parentages: Phorcys and Hecate, Phorcys and Crataeis, or Typhon and Echidna. Some later sources identify Crataeis with Hecate.
Heracles slew Scylla when she devoured some of the cattle of Geryon as he drove them through the Strait of Messina during his tenth labor.
Thetis and the Nereids guided the Argo safely between Scylla and Charybdis during the Argonauts' return voyage, steering the ship through the twin perils without losing a single crew member.
Odysseus steered his ship past the twin dangers of Scylla and Charybdis in the Odyssey. Scylla snatched six of his men from the deck, while Odysseus chose her cliff over the deadly whirlpool of Charybdis on Circe's counsel.
Circe advised Odysseus to choose the strait of Scylla over Charybdis, warning that while Scylla would take six men, Charybdis could swallow the entire ship.
Glaucus sought Circe's help to win Scylla's love, but Circe desired Glaucus herself. When he refused her, she poisoned Scylla's bathing pool instead, transforming the nymph into a monster.
Amphitrite transformed Scylla into a monster by poisoning the pool where she bathed, jealous that Poseidon desired the beautiful sea nymph.
⚠ The transformation of Scylla is more commonly attributed to Circe (Ovid, Metamorphoses 14.1-74). The Amphitrite version, motivated by Poseidon's desire for Scylla, appears in later scholiastic sources.
Phorcys restored Scylla to life after Heracles killed her, burning her remains and raising her from the dead to resume her predation upon sailors passing through the strait.
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