{"id":1282,"date":"2026-06-23T08:24:27","date_gmt":"2026-06-23T08:24:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.discoverscilla.com\/?page_id=1282"},"modified":"2026-08-18T19:19:25","modified_gmt":"2026-08-18T19:19:25","slug":"igino","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.discoverscilla.com\/en\/igino\/","title":{"rendered":"Igino"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><div class=\"fusion-fullwidth fullwidth-box fusion-builder-row-1 fusion-flex-container has-pattern-background has-mask-background nonhundred-percent-fullwidth non-hundred-percent-height-scrolling\" style=\"--awb-border-radius-top-left:0px;--awb-border-radius-top-right:0px;--awb-border-radius-bottom-right:0px;--awb-border-radius-bottom-left:0px;--awb-flex-wrap:wrap;\" ><div class=\"fusion-builder-row fusion-row fusion-flex-align-items-flex-start fusion-flex-content-wrap\" style=\"max-width:1331.2px;margin-left: calc(-4% \/ 2 );margin-right: calc(-4% \/ 2 );\"><div class=\"fusion-layout-column fusion_builder_column fusion-builder-column-0 fusion_builder_column_1_1 1_1 fusion-flex-column\" style=\"--awb-bg-size:cover;--awb-width-large:100%;--awb-margin-top-large:0px;--awb-spacing-right-large:1.92%;--awb-margin-bottom-large:20px;--awb-spacing-left-large:1.92%;--awb-width-medium:100%;--awb-order-medium:0;--awb-spacing-right-medium:1.92%;--awb-spacing-left-medium:1.92%;--awb-width-small:100%;--awb-order-small:0;--awb-spacing-right-small:1.92%;--awb-spacing-left-small:1.92%;\"><div class=\"fusion-column-wrapper fusion-column-has-shadow fusion-flex-justify-content-flex-start fusion-content-layout-column\"><div class=\"fusion-text fusion-text-1\"><p>Hyginus, known as the Astronomer or the Mythographer to distinguish him from others of the same name, was a Roman writer. His identity is however uncertain: for a long time scholars identified him with Gaius Julius Hyginus, a freedman of Augustus and director of the Palatine Library; today, however, there is a tendency to distinguish the two figures and to place the mythographer in the Imperial age, around the 2nd century AD.<br \/>\nWe possess no certain information about his life. He is, however, known for his attention to Greek sources, thanks to which he helped preserve the contents of works, especially tragedies, that are now lost.<br \/>\nAn astronomical treatise entitled De astronomia is attributed to him, in which notions concerning the Earth and the zodiac are collected, together with myths relating to the sky and the constellations, as well as the movement of the stars.<br \/>\nHowever, his fame is above all linked to the Fabulae, a collection of brief mythical tales of Greek tradition, dating to the 2nd century BC and probably conceived for didactic purposes, similar to those of a modern school handbook.<br \/>\nThe work comprises a total of 277 sections (not all of which have survived), thus constituting a true compendium of mythology.<br \/>\nIn section 199 of the Fabulae, Hyginus preserves one of the principal myths connected with the city of Scilla and its foundation: the story of the troubled love between Glaucus and Scylla.<br \/>\nThe tale is presented in an extremely concise and typically mythographical form: the author focuses on the essential turning points of the myth \u2014 the transformation of Glaucus, Scylla\u2019s rejection and the punishment inflicted by Circe \u2014 reducing narrative elaboration to a minimum and privileging the causal sequence of events.<br \/>\nIn this way, Hyginus transmits a compact version of the tradition, functional to the preservation of the myth and to the explanation of the origin of Scylla\u2019s metamorphosis.<\/p>\n<p><i>\u201cThey say that Scylla, daughter of the river Crataeis, was a most beautiful maiden. Glaucus fell in love with her, and he in turn was loved by Circe, daughter of the Sun. Scylla had the habit of bathing in the sea; and Circe, out of jealousy, poisoned the water with her potions. When Scylla immersed herself, dogs sprang forth from her groin and she became a savage monster. She then took revenge for the wrongs she had suffered: indeed, she devoured the companions of Ulysses as he sailed past her on his ship.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n<p>Greek mythology is rich in stories of troubled love, unrequited passions, furious jealousy and revenge. Scilla, in particular, has been a privileged setting and backdrop for these tales, which have become an integral part of the cultural and folkloric heritage of humanity.<br \/>\nAmong these stories connected with the town is also the one that identifies Scylla, daughter of the god Phorcys and the goddess Crataeis, as a nymph of extraordinary beauty, destined to be transformed into a terrible sea monster because of a revenge born of love. The tale indeed tells of Glaucus\u2019 obsessive love for the nymph and of Circe\u2019s furious jealousy, which condemned poor Scylla to an eternity as a monster, relegated to a cave at the base of the rock that still bears her name today, situated at the northern entrance to the Strait of Messina. It is said that one day, near the Strait of Messina, Glaucus, a handsome fisherman, returning from an abundant catch, spread his nets upon a meadow to dry in the sun. Suddenly he noticed that the fish, at first trapped in the nets, began to move again and throw themselves back into the sea. Struck by a revelation, he realized that the cause of such a phenomenon was a strange herb growing there. Curious to discover its magical properties, he ate a few blades of the grass, and at that moment his appearance began to change, taking on the form of a sea god with a long fish tail and a beard with green reflections.<br \/>\nThe newly transformed god Glaucus soon encountered a nymph of extraordinary beauty, Scylla, who was accustomed to bathing in the waters of a nearby sandy shore, and he immediately fell madly in love with her. Scylla listened willingly to Glaucus\u2019 love verses, but chose to reject the courtship of the sea god, frightened by his strange appearance. Glaucus, mad with passion, therefore decided to seek the help of the sorceress Circe. The sea god wished the enchantress to prepare for him a potion that would make Scylla fall in love with him, but Circe was far from willing to satisfy his request, for she herself was consumed by an intense passion for him. She therefore offered herself to Glaucus, who rejected her in the name of the love he felt for Scylla. Blinded by rage, Circe then carried out a cruel revenge upon her rival in love and transformed the beautiful nymph Scylla into a hideous sea monster. She contaminated with a magical potion the waters of the cove where Scylla used to bathe and, at the very moment the maiden\u2019s body was touched by the water, it began to change. She saw monstrous dog heads sprouting around her, furious and snarling. Terrified, she tried to drive them away but realized that those muzzles were attached to her belly by means of six serpent-like necks, at the ends of which were six fierce barking dog heads, each with three rows of sharp teeth. Looking at her reflection in the water, Scylla observed with despair her new appearance: from the waist upward she remained the beautiful nymph she had always been, but the rest of her body had become a monster. Overwhelmed by despair, Scylla took refuge in a deep cave at the foot of a high rock not far from the places where she used to bathe, directly opposite the whirlpool of Charybdis. Her terrible hatred for Circe boiled within her soul and revenge was not long in coming<br \/>\nScylla\u2019s fury descended upon the ship of Ulysses, the only one who had dared to cross that stretch of sea. The Homeric hero survived, but lost six of his companions.<\/p>\n<\/div><div class=\"fusion-text fusion-text-2\"><p style=\"text-align: right;\"><em>Giuseppe Ribuffo<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><div class=\"fusion-fullwidth fullwidth-box fusion-builder-row-2 fusion-flex-container has-pattern-background has-mask-background nonhundred-percent-fullwidth non-hundred-percent-height-scrolling\" style=\"--awb-border-radius-top-left:0px;--awb-border-radius-top-right:0px;--awb-border-radius-bottom-right:0px;--awb-border-radius-bottom-left:0px;--awb-flex-wrap:wrap;\" ><div class=\"fusion-builder-row fusion-row fusion-flex-align-items-flex-start fusion-flex-content-wrap\" style=\"max-width:1331.2px;margin-left: calc(-4% \/ 2 );margin-right: calc(-4% \/ 2 );\"><div class=\"fusion-layout-column fusion_builder_column fusion-builder-column-1 fusion_builder_column_1_1 1_1 fusion-flex-column\" style=\"--awb-bg-size:cover;--awb-width-large:100%;--awb-margin-top-large:0px;--awb-spacing-right-large:1.92%;--awb-margin-bottom-large:20px;--awb-spacing-left-large:1.92%;--awb-width-medium:100%;--awb-order-medium:0;--awb-spacing-right-medium:1.92%;--awb-spacing-left-medium:1.92%;--awb-width-small:100%;--awb-order-small:0;--awb-spacing-right-small:1.92%;--awb-spacing-left-small:1.92%;\"><div class=\"fusion-column-wrapper fusion-column-has-shadow fusion-flex-justify-content-flex-start fusion-content-layout-column\"><div ><a class=\"fusion-button button-flat fusion-button-default-size button-custom fusion-button-default button-1 fusion-button-default-span\" style=\"--button_accent_color:#2038b2;--button_border_color:#2038b2;--button_accent_hover_color:var(--awb-color1);--button_border_hover_color:var(--awb-color1);--button_gradient_top_color:var(--awb-color1);--button_gradient_bottom_color:var(--awb-color1);--button_gradient_top_color_hover:var(--awb-color4);--button_gradient_bottom_color_hover:var(--awb-color4);--button_text_transform:none;\" target=\"_self\" href=\"https:\/\/www.discoverscilla.com\/en\/tucidide\/\"><i class=\"fa-angle-double-right fas awb-button__icon awb-button__icon--default button-icon-left\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><\/i><span class=\"fusion-button-text awb-button__text awb-button__text--default\">Next page: 38. Thucydides, The Peloponnesian War, 5th century BC.<\/span><\/a><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1811,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1282","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Igino - Discover Scilla<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.discoverscilla.com\/en\/igino\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Igino - Discover Scilla\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.discoverscilla.com\/en\/igino\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Discover Scilla\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-08-18T19:19:25+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.discoverscilla.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/37-A.L.-Millin-1812-1024x701.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"701\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"11 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.discoverscilla.com\\\/igino\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.discoverscilla.com\\\/igino\\\/\",\"name\":\"Igino - 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