Circe turns Scylla into a sea monster

John William Waterhouse - Circe Invidiosa,  1892

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There was a cove,
a little inlet shaped like a bent bow,
a quiet place where Scylla, at midday,
sought shelter when the sea and sky were hot;
and, in midcourse, the sun scorched with full force,
reducing shadows to a narrow thread.
And Circe now contaminates this bay,
polluting it with noxious poisons; there
she scatters venom drawn from dreadful roots
and, three-times-nine times, murmurs an obscure
and tangled maze of words, a labyrinth—
the magic chant that issues from her lips.
Then Scylla comes; no sooner has she plunged
waist-deep into the water than she sees,
around her hips, the horrid barking shapes. 

Ovid - Metamorphoses Book XIV, 52-65