Wonder Stories: The Best Myths for Boys and GirlsBailey, Carolyn Sherwin
General
Wonder Stories: The Best Myths for Boys and Girls
Bailey, Carolyn Sherwin
Mythology, Classical -- Juvenile literature
But Glaucus still retained powers of thinking and of action which are
denied the inhabitants of the sea. One day he saw the beautiful maiden,
Scylla, one of the water nymphs, come out from a sheltered nook on the
shore and seat herself on a rock, dipping her hands in the water and
bringing up sea-shells for twining in the water weeds to make a
necklace. Glaucus had never seen so fair a creature as Scylla and he
moved toward her through the waves, rising at last and stopping at the
place where she sat as he murmured his affection for her above the
singing of the sea.
But Scylla was very much terrified at the sight of this strange
personage, half youth and half fish. She turned to run as soon as she
saw him and did not stop until she had gained a cliff that overlooked
the sea. Here she waited for a moment and turned around to look in
wonder as Glaucus raised himself upon a rock and the sun touched his
green hair and scaly covering until he shone in its light. He called to
Scylla.
"Do not flee from me, maiden! I am no monster or even a sea-animal, but
have been transformed from a poor fisherman to a god of the sea." Then
Glaucus told Scylla the whole story of his amazing adventures and tried
to describe to her the kingdom of Neptune with its playing dolphins, the
castles of rose colored and white coral, and the never ending music of
the waters.
"Come with me, and descend to Neptune's realm," he begged, but Scylla
would not remain to even listen. She fled and left nothing to console
Glaucus but her scattered sea shells lying in bright heaps on the rocks.
Glaucus did not pursue Scylla but he felt that he could not give her up.
He remembered the strange charm of the sea that there had been in the
herbs on his native island, and he wondered if he might, by chance, find
some such power for giving the nymph, Scylla, the desire for the sea
that had drawn him to Neptune's kingdom. But Glaucus could not explore
his little fishing island, for it was a long way off and he had
forgotten its direction even. So he made what proved to be an almost
disastrous decision. He set out for the island of Circe, the
enchantress, to ask her help in winning Scylla.
Circe was, in the beginning, a daughter of the sun but she had put her
light of learning to wicked uses and had made herself into a powerful
sorceress. She lived in a palace embowered with trees and those were the
only signs of vegetation on her island. But if a shipwrecked crew came
up the shores, hoping to find a welcome and timber for building a new
bark, they were immediately surrounded by lions, tigers and wolves who
had formerly been men but had been changed by Circe's magic to the form
of beasts.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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