InGreek mythology,Scylla^[1] (/ˈsɪlə/SIL-ə;Ancient Greek:Σκύλλα,romanized: Skýlla,pronounced[skýlːa]) was a princess ofMegara as daughter of KingNisus.

Scylla's mother was possiblyAbrota, daughter of KingOnchestus.^[2] She was the sister toEurynome^[3] andIphinoe.^[4]

As the story goes, Nisus possessed a single lock of purple hair which granted him and the city invincibility. WhenMinos, the King of Crete, invaded Nisus's kingdom, Scylla saw him from the city's battlements and fell in love with him. In order to win Minos's heart, she decided that she would grant him victory in battle by removing the lock from her father's head and presented it to Minos. Disgusted with her lack of filial devotion, Minos left her in the sacked ruins of Megara. In some versions Scylla pursued the departing enemy; in others he bound her to the prow of his ship. Before drowning, Scylla was transformed into a seabird (ciris, perhaps anegret), relentlessly pursued by her father, who was transformed into a sea eagle (haliaeetus).^[5]

Scylla's story is a close parallel to that ofComaetho, daughter ofPterelaus. Similar stories were told ofPisidice (princess ofMethymna) and ofLeucophrye. The story ofal-Nadirah told byal-Tabari and early Islamic writers are considered byTheodor Nöldeke to be derived from the tale of Scylla.^[6]

Scylla appears inAlexander Pope'smock-heroic "Rape of the Lock" as part of an extended representation of gallant chatter round a card table in the guise of a heroic battle:

Ah cease, rash youth! desist ere 'tis too late,
Fear the just gods, and think of Scylla's fate!
Chang'd to a bird, and sent to flit in air,
She dearly pays for Nisus' injur'd hair!^[7]

• Gaius Julius Hyginus,Fabulae from The Myths of Hyginus translated and edited by Mary Grant. University of Kansas Publications in Humanistic Studies.Online version at the Topos Text Project.
• Hesiod,Catalogue of Women fromHomeric Hymns, Epic Cycle, Homerica translated by Evelyn-White, H G. Loeb Classical Library Volume 57. London: William Heinemann, 1914.Online version at theio.com
• Hesiod,Theogony fromThe Homeric Hymns and Homerica with an English Translation by Hugh G. Evelyn-White, Cambridge, MA., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1914.Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.Greek text available from the same website.
• Lucius Mestrius Plutarchus,Moralia with an English Translation by Frank Cole Babbitt. Cambridge, MA. Harvard University Press. London. William Heinemann Ltd. 1936.Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.Greek text available from the same website.
• Pausanias,Description of Greece with an English Translation by W.H.S. Jones, Litt.D., and H.A. Ormerod, M.A., in 4 Volumes. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1918.ISBN 0-674-99328-4.Online version at the Perseus Digital Library
• Pausanias,Graeciae Descriptio.3 vols. Leipzig, Teubner. 1903.Greek text available at the Perseus Digital Library.
• Publius Ovidius Naso,Metamorphoses translated by Brookes More (1859–1942). Boston, Cornhill Publishing Co. 1922.Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
• Publius Ovidius Naso,Metamorphoses. Hugo Magnus. Gotha (Germany). Friedr. Andr. Perthes. 1892.Latin text available at the Perseus Digital Library.

• Princesses in Greek mythology
• Metamorphoses into birds in Greek mythology
• Mythological Megarians

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