Scylax, a geographer and mathematician of Caria, in the age of Darius son of Hystaspes, about 550 years before Christ. He was commissioned by Darius to make discoveries in the east, and after a journey of 30 months he visited Egypt. Some suppose that he was the first who invented geographical tables. The latest edition of the Periplus of Scylax, is that of Gronovius, 4to, Leiden, 1597. Herodotus, bk. 4, ch. 44.—Strabo.——A river of Cappadocia.
Scylla, a daughter of Nisus king of Megara, who became enamoured of Minos, as that monarch besieged her father’s capital. To make him sensible of her passion, she informed him that she would deliver Megara into his hands if he promised to marry her. Minos consented, and as the prosperity of Megara depended on a golden hair, which was on the head of Nisus, Scylla cut it off as her father was asleep, and from that moment the sallies of the Megareans were unsuccessful, and the enemy easily became master of the place. Scylla was disappointed in her expectations, and Minos treated her with such contempt and ridicule, that she threw herself from a tower into the sea, or, according to other accounts, she was changed into a lark by the gods, and her father into a hawk. Ovid, Tristia, bk. 2, li. 393.—Pausanias, bk. 2, ch. 34.—Propertius, bk. 3, poem 19, li. 21.—Hyginus, fable 198.—Virgil, Georgics, bk. 1, li. 405, &c.——A daughter of Typhon, or, as some say, of Phorcys, who was greatly loved by Glaucus, one of the deities of the sea. Scylla scorned the addresses of Glaucus, and the god, to render her more propitious, applied to Circe, whose knowledge of herbs and incantations was universally admired. Circe no sooner saw him than she became enamoured of him, and instead of giving him the required assistance, she attempted to make him forget Scylla, but in vain. To punish her rival, Circe poured the juice of some poisonous herbs into the waters of the fountain where Scylla bathed, and no sooner had the nymph touched the place than she found every part of her body below the waist changed into frightful monsters like dogs, which never ceased barking. The rest of her body assumed an equally hideous form. She found herself supported by 12 feet, and she had six different heads, each with three rows of teeth. This sudden metamorphosis so terrified her, that she threw herself into that part of the sea which separates the coast of Italy and Sicily, where she was changed into rocks, which continued to bear her name, and which were universally deemed by the ancients as very dangerous to sailors, as well as the whirlpool of Charybdis on the coast of Sicily. During a tempest the waves are described by modern navigators as roaring dreadfully when driven into the rough and uneven cavities of the rock. Homer, Odyssey, bk. 12, li. 85.—Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 14, li. 66, &c.—Pausanias, bk. 2, ch. 34.—Hyginus, fable 199. Some authors, as Propertius, bk. 4, poem 4, li. 39, and Virgil, eclogue 6, li. 74, with Ovid, Fasti, bk. 4, li. 500, have confounded the daughter of Typhon with the daughter of Nisus. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 3, li. 424, &c.——A ship in the fleet of Æneas, commanded by Cloanthus, &c. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 5, li. 122.
Scyllæum, a promontory of Peloponnesus on the coast of Argolis.——A promontory of the Brutii in Italy, supposed to be the same as Scylaceum, near which was the famous whirlpool Scylla, from which the name is derived.
Scyllias, a celebrated swimmer who enriched himself by diving after the goods which had been shipwrecked in the Persian ships near Pelium. It is said that he could dive 80 stadia under the water. Herodotus, bk. 8, ch. 8.—Pausanias, bk. 10, ch. 19.
Scyllis and Dipœnus, statuaries of Crete before the age of Cyrus king of Persia. They were said to be sons and pupils of Dædalus, and they established a school at Sicyon, where they taught the principles of their profession. Pausanias.—Pliny, bk. 36, ch. 4.
Scyllus (untis), a town of Achaia, given to Xenophon by the Lacedæmonians. Strabo.
Scylūrus, a monarch who left 80 sons. He called them to his bedside as he expired, and by enjoining them to break a bundle of sticks tied together, and afterwards separately, he convinced them that, when altogether firmly united, their power would be insuperable, but, if ever disunited, they would fail an easy prey to their enemies. Plutarch, de Garrulitate.
Scyppium, a town in the neighbourhood of Colophon. Pausanias, bk. 7, ch. 3.
Scyras, a river of Laconia. Pausanias, bk. 3, ch. 25.
Scyrias, a name applied to Deidamia as a native of Scyros. Ovid, Ars Amatoria, [♦]bk. 1, li. 682.