Vincenzo Cartari (Reggio Emilia, circa 1531 - 1590) was an Italian mythographer and writer.\nHe worked for Duke Alfonso II d\u2019Este and for Cardinals Ippolito d\u2019Este and Luigi II, at the courts of Ferrara,\nVenice, Tivoli, Fontainebleau and Brussels.\nCartari is best known for his work entitled: \u201cLe imagini delli dei de gli antichi nelle quali si contengono gl\u2019idoli,\nriti, ceremonie, & altre cose appartenenti alla religione de gli antichi\u201d (\u201cThe Images of the Gods of the Ancients,\nContaining the Idols, Rites, Ceremonies, and Other Things Pertaining to the Religion of the Ancients\u201d); a\nmythographical manual first published in Venice in 1556. Later editions were enriched with illustrations and\nengravings, first appearing in the 1571 edition, with woodcuts produced by artists such as Giuseppe Porta\nand Bolognino Zaltieri (Venetian school). These images served to provide a visual reference for artists and\nreaders, helping to spread a standardized iconography of the deities. This book was one of the first works to\nprovide a comprehensive guide to the gods of ancient Greco-Roman mythology, with detailed descriptions of\nthe characteristics and stories of each deity. The work is regarded as a key text for the study of Renaissance\niconography, since it served as an essential reference for many artists (painters, sculptors, etc.) who needed to\nrepresent mythological subjects in their works. His descriptions were not limited to physical appearance, but\nalso included the rites and symbols associated with each deity, offering a complete guide for the artists of the\ntime.\nIn the passage dedicated to Neptune and the marine deities, Vincenzo Cartari undertakes a true excursus\nthrough the principal authors of Greco-Roman literature in order to highlight the importance of the myth of\nScylla and the place connected with it.\nThe explanation of the sea monster is not presented in isolation, but is constructed through references to the\nmost authoritative works of antiquity, demonstrating how Scylla occupies a central position in the cultural and\nliterary imagination of the classical world.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow let us return to Neptune, because, although there are many other monsters in the sea, both real and\nimagined by poets, as Homer imagines Scylla, who dwelt in a dark and dreadful cave, and with terrible barking\nmade the sea resound, and this monster had twelve feet and six necks with as many heads, and each mouth\nhad three rows of teeth, from which it seemed that deadly poison continually dripped; and from the dreadful\ncavern she often stretched out her terrifying heads into the sea, watching to see whether any ship might pass\nthat way, in order to make a miserable prey of the sailors, as she once did with the companions of Ulysses,\nseizing and cruelly devouring as many of them as there were ravenous mouths; and when Virgil, in the third\nbook of the Aeneid, has Helenus show Aeneas the course he must follow in order to sail safely to Italy, he makes\nhim say that he must beware of two cruel and dreadful monsters that beset those who pass through the\nStrait of Sicily; and that one is Charybdis, which miserably swallows and engulfs ships, dragging them almost\ninto the depths, and then casts them out again, driven by furious waves that raise them almost to the heavens.\nThe fables tell that she was once a most rapacious woman who stole the cattle of Hercules, for which she was\nstruck by Jupiter\u2019s thunderbolt and cast into the sea, becoming the rock that has ever since retained her former\nrapacious nature. The other is Scylla, who lies hidden in a dreadful cavern and often thrusts out her head\nto see whether a ship is passing so that she may make it her cruel prey. This monster has the appearance of a\nbeautiful maiden down to the waist, but below are the limbs of wolves and dogs joined together with the tails\nof dolphins, filling the place with dreadful barking.\nAnd such became the unhappy Scylla, who had once been a most beautiful nymph, through the jealousy of\nCirce, who was in love with Glaucus, while he loved not her but Scylla; therefore the terrible enchantress scattered\nher magical potions in the waters where the beautiful nymph often went to bathe, and transformed her\ninto the creature I have described. Unable to endure the horror of the beasts that had sprung up around her,\nthe unfortunate Scylla threw herself into the sea and remained there as the dreadful monster of which I have\nspoken according to the fables, which in this manner sought with a certain elegance to express the nature of\nthose dangerous rocks.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n
Cartari first cites Homer, who in the Odyssey describes Scylla as a terrible monster living in a dark and threatening\ncave, situated at a specific point of the sea crossed by Ulysses.\nThe Homeric account inseparably links the figure of Scylla to a real and dangerous place, transforming a treacherous\nstretch of sea into a space charged with mythological significance.\nIn this way, myth becomes a symbolic explanation of the dangers of navigation.\nCartari then refers to Virgil, who in the third book of the Aeneid takes up the myth of Scylla together with that\nof Charybdis.\nThrough the words of the prophet Helenus, Virgil warns Aeneas of the two monsters that infest the Strait of\nSicily, confirming the fame of that place as one of the most dangerous in the ancient world.\nThe reference to Virgil demonstrates that the myth of Scylla was not confined to the Greek tradition, but was\nfully adopted and reworked by Roman culture as well.\nParticular importance is given to the transformation of Scylla, who according to the legends was originally a\nbeautiful nymph.\nOut of jealousy, the sorceress Circe, in love with Glaucus, transformed her into a monster by pouring magical\npotions into the waters where the nymph bathed.\nFrom this enchantment was born the hybrid creature, human in appearance in the upper part of her body and\nanimal in her lower limbs, surrounded by dogs and wolves emitting terrifying barks.\nUnable to endure the horror of her new form, Scylla took refuge in a cave at the foot of the rock, becoming forever\nthe monster feared by sailors.\nThrough this comparison between the great Greek and Latin poets and their most important works, Cartari\nhighlights the continuity and centrality of the myth of Scylla over time.\nThe figure of the monster and the place in which it dwells become fundamental elements of the Greco-Roman\ncollective imagination, symbols of the dangers of the sea and of the uncontrollable forces of nature.\nThe myth, taken up and transmitted by the greatest authors of ancient literature, thus assumes a cultural and\nsocial value shared by the whole classical civilization.\nIn conclusion, in this passage Cartari clearly demonstrates how Scylla is not merely a mythological character,\nbut a central point of reference for understanding the relationship of the ancients with the sea. Through his literary\nexcursus between Homer and Virgil, he emphasizes the importance of the place of Scylla and of its myth,\nwhich profoundly shaped the imagination and worldview of Greco-Roman society.<\/p>\n<\/div>
Giuseppe Ribuffo<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/i>Next page: 67. Birthplace of Antonio Minasi, Philosopher, Naturalist<\/span><\/a><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1870,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1345","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"yoast_head":"\nVincenzo Cartari - 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\/vincenzo-cartari-immagini-degli-dei-degli-antichi\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Vincenzo Cartari - Discover Scilla\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.discoverscilla.com\/en\/vincenzo-cartari-immagini-degli-dei-degli-antichi\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Discover Scilla\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-08-19T07:46:01+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.discoverscilla.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/66-Grundmann-e-Aubert-1836-1024x750.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"750\" \/>\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=\"12 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.discoverscilla.com\\\/vincenzo-cartari-immagini-degli-dei-degli-antichi\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.discoverscilla.com\\\/vincenzo-cartari-immagini-degli-dei-degli-antichi\\\/\",\"name\":\"Vincenzo Cartari - 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