This is a chapter of Once Upon A Time: Children’s Stories From The Classics by Blanche Winder.
Sailors of today who come back from far countries will often tell stories of the marvels they have seen, but these marvels are nothing compared with the wonders met with by the seamen of old Greece. Of course, they might, any day, come across Poseidon, with his green sea ladies, his blue and white horses, and his dolphins wagging their curly tails; not to speak of Aphrodite, floating along on her pretty silver shell, with her fairies playing around her. These people were generally the sailors’ friends; but there were also among the ocean folk some horrible monsters, of which the very worst were two witch-like creatures called Scylla and Charybdis.
Scylla had once been a beautiful princess, but she had been turned into a monster as a punishment for a very shocking thing she had done. Her father’s country was invaded by a neighboring monarch, with whom she fell in love. She knew that, among her father’s silvery hair, one lock was colored purple and hung in this strange tint over his wrinkled forehead. She also knew that so long as the purple lock grew safely among the white hairs of the old king, his country could never be taken from him. So, because she was in love with the enemy king, she crept one night into her father’s bed chamber and cut off the purple lock while he slept. Then, with the little tuft of hair in her hand, she went to the camp of the invading king and, offering him the purple lock, told him what she had done for his sake.
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But he, a brave and honest man, was filled with horror. He declared that he could never benefit by such a wicked deed and ordered his ships to be made ready to sail immediately. When Scylla saw the royal boat moving from the shore of her father’s kingdom, she leaped into the water and tried to cling to its stern. But she was instantly changed into a terrible monster, with six heads and twelve feet, who lived on dolphins, and seadogs, and sailors, and fishermen, whenever she was able to catch and devour them.
Almost opposite Scylla’s sea cave in the high rocks, Charybdis, the other monster, had her home. She was the haunting spirit of a great crag; and three times every day she would cause the sea to form an enormous whirlpool, which she would suck down into the deep caverns that yawned below a precipice crowned with a giant fig tree. Woe betide any ship that sailed on that treacherous water! Without a moment’s warning the waves would begin to churn and swirl and roar — and then down into the caves of Charybdis they would go in a great rush, carrying ship, and mariners, and all! No wonder the heroes and sailors who manned the traveling vessels in those days told each other, in awed tones, to take every possible care if they had to sail along the narrow strait of water that flowed between Scylla and Charybdis.
Then there were the two great floating rocks like icebergs, that shone white and terrible in the sunshine which never melted them. They were called the Symplegades, and, though they were not really alive, they behaved as if they were. They rode on the sea, side by side, close to a strait that was as narrow as the strait which divided Scylla and Charybdis. Whenever a ship came sailing proudly through the strait, the Symplegades would place themselves in readiness, just where the channel was at its narrowest. Then, when the vessel was passing between them, these two great, white, cruel rocks would begin to draw together, moving with deadly certainty and swiftness, until they met with a terrible crash, and ground the ship to powder in their hard embrace. It took a brave and clever captain to steer his ship between the Symplegades, but, as you know, Jason managed it, and the rocks stuck together at last.
There were also the Sirens’ Islands, which were as dangerous as anything else, though in a different way. They were inhabited by beautiful maidens, who sang the most lovely and haunting songs, which floated out over the moonlit seas on calm nights until the sailors who heard them nearly went out of their minds with love, and with longing to see the owners of those thrilling voices. But whoever landed among the silvery mists that hung over the enchanted islands, and saw the white nymphs dancing among the dewy starlit flowers, was instantly struck down by death, and left his bones to whiten among the bones of those other men who had been overcome by the magic of the sirens’ melodies.
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Floating up and down in the cradles made by the furrows of the waves were the nests of the halcyons, sad-voiced seabirds who gave plaintive warning of a storm. The first halcyon of all had been a queen whose husband was drowned and who, like Hero, had flung herself into the sea to die also. But, as soon as she touched the water, her mouth changed into a bill, long and slender, her delicate toes into claws, and her arms into white wings. Then, across the waves, came flying another bird, just like herself, who met her with cries of joy. It was her husband, who had been changed into a halcyon also, and who lived with her, ever after, among the foam of the waves.
Very different from the halcyons were some other birds, bigger than eagles, with feathers made of brass, which used to fly along the sky in flocks. The sailors who saw them come sweeping over the sea out of the west were very much afraid, for the great birds would hang overhead in a thick cloud, and send their brass feathers rattling down, like jangling arrows, onto the decks of the ships below. These fierce creatures were called the Stymphalides, and they hunted over the ocean, like a pack of fierce hounds, until Heracles killed them.
Not least among the wonders of the sea was the Island of the Winds. Here lived Eolus, the king of all the breezes that ever blew. He kept the winds in a cave, and he would let out first one, and then another, and very fine sport he must have had with them. He was friendly with Poseidon, of course, and, if the sea king wanted to make a big storm, the king of the winds would help him, and you may be sure that they could manage to get up a truly terrific tempest between them.
Among the dolphins which had been born in the sea were those who had once been the pirates who tried to capture Bacchus. And among the tritons and mermen and other ocean folk was a very happy immortal who once had been a fisherman. He was called Glaucus, and, when he was living on earth as an ordinary mortal, he earned his livelihood by selling the fish that he caught in the bay near his home. One night he drew up his net so full of fishes that it nearly broke, and it was with great difficulty that he placed it on a grassy bank near which his boat was moored. He began to take the fish out, one by one, and, as he did so, he saw that those which were left in the net were nibbling the grass through the meshes, with a most extraordinary result. For, the moment a fish had swallowed a blade, it became so strong that it leaped high out of the net, flashed through the air like silver lightning, and dived deep into the sea again, disappearing instantly from sight.
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Glaucus watched one fish after another vanish back into the water in this fashion, and, at last, was seized with the desire to nibble a blade of grass himself. He lifted the slender, green thing to his lips, bit it, and swallowed it. Immediately a strange thrill ran through all his limbs — a feeling of strength and vigor and freshness, and, with it all, a passionate desire for the cool, salt freshness of the sea. Without a moment’s hesitation, he sprang to his full height on the bank, raised his arms above his head, and dived after the fishes into the deep blue water. And, behold, he found that he could breathe, and swim, and dart about, as comfortably as any lusty trout or silver salmon. So, discovering that it was really very much nicer to live in the sea than on the land, he made up his mind to stay there; and stay he did, forever.
Other folk there were in those blue waves which lapped around the fair islands of Greece in the long-ago and one of the most wonderful was called the Wise Old Man of the Sea. But before you come to the tale of the Wise Old Man of the Sea, you must read some more stories and make the acquaintance of the greatest traveler of all, Odysseus himself.