The island enchantress

Far to the south of the lands of the first enchanters, on a forest-shrouded island in the Adriatic Sea, lived the sorceress Circe. Her companions were tame bears and wolves and swine that hade once been sailors. Ever malignant, she had lured them ashore by the magic of her singing and transformed them with spells.

Sailors were not her only victims. Another was a charming nymph named Scylla, whose habit it was to bathe at the edge of the island. She attracted the sorceress' attention because her shepherd lover, whom Circe found desirable.

Circe, therefore, walked alone one night among tall pines to the place where Scylla bathed in the mornings. She poised herself on a rock and raised high a crystal bowl she bore. Into the sea she poured a liquid, green as emerald. She watched a moment while the spell-strengthened bubbles danced away and dissolved. Then, well satisfied, she disappeared.

At dawn, the sweet-voiced nymph came singing to the shore. She stepped into the water, admiring the pearly tones it gave her ankles. The colors deepend to green as Scylla stepped farther in, and the tide pulled at her. Then, to her horror, she saw in the swirling water a green and writhing mass, which crept slowly up her thighs and drew her down.

Under the waves, Scylla changed. When her head appeared, it was hideous, split and fanged and slavering. The voice that came out it was a bestial howl. Thus transformed, Scylla became a terror to sailors of that sea. As for Circe, she lived long on her pine-covered island, although whether she enjoyed the favors of Scylla's shepherd no one knows, for the tale does not tell what became of him.