Scyllaeum

SCYLLAEUM (τὸ Σκύλλαιον: Scilla) a promontory, and town or fortress, on the W. coast of Bruttium, about 15 miles N. of Rhegium, and almost exactly at the entrance of the Sicilian strait. The promontory is well described by Strabo (6. p. 257) as a projecting rocky headland, jutting out boldly into the sea, and united to the mainland by a narrow neck or isthmus, so as to form two small but well sheltered bays, one on each side. There can be no doubt that this rocky promontory was the one which became the subject of so many fables, and which was represented by Homer and other poets as the abode of the monster Scylla. (Hom. Od. 12.73, &c., 235, &c.; Biogr. Dict. art. SCYLLA.) But the dangers of the rock of Scylla were far more fabulous than those of its neighbour Charybdis, and it is difficult to understand how, even in the infancy of navigation, it could have offered any obstacle more formidable than a hundred other headlands whose names are unknown to fame. (Senec. Ep. 79; Smyth's Sicily, p. 107.) At a later period Anaxilas, the despot of Rhegium, being struck with the natural strength of the position, fortified the rock, and established a naval station there, for the purpose of checking the incursions of the Tyrrhenian pirates. (Strab. 6. p. 257.) In consequence of this a small town grew up on the spot; and hence Pliny speaks of an oppidum Scyllaeum;b ut it was probably always a small place, and other writers speak only of the promontory. (Plin. Nat. 3.5. s. 10; Mel. 2.4.8; Ptol. 3.1.9.; Steph. Byz. s. v.) At the present day the rock is still occupied by a fort, which is a post of considerable strength, while a small town stretches down the slopes towards the two bays. The distance from the castle to the opposite point of the Sicilian coast, marked by the Torre del Faro, is stated by Capt. Smyth at 6047 yards, or rather less than 3 1/2 Eng. miles, but the strait afterwards contracts considerably, so that its width between the Punta del Pezzo (Caenys Prom.) and the nearest point of Sicily does not exceed 3971 yards. (Smyth's Sicily, p. 108.)

SCYLLAEUM (Σκυλλαῖον), a promontory of Troezenia, and the most easterly point of the Peloponnesus, is said to have derived its name from Scylla, the daughter of Nisus, who, after betraying Megara and Nisaea to Minos, was thrown by the latter into the sea, and was washed ashore on this promontory. Scyllaeum formed, along with the opposite promontory of Sunium in Attica, the entrance to the Saronic gulf. It is now called Kavo-Skyli; but as Pausanias, in the paraplus from Scyllaeum to Hermione, names Scyllaeum first, and then Bucephala, with three adjacent islands, it is necessary, as Leake has observed, to divide the extremity now known as Kavo-Skyli into two parts; the bold round promontory to the N. being the true Scyllaeum, and the acute cape a mile to the S. of it Bucephala, since the three islands are adjacent to the latter. (Paus. 2.34. § § 7, 8; Scylax, p. 20, Hudson; Strab. 8. p. 373; Thuc. 5.53; Plin. Nat. 4.5. s. 9; Mela, 2.3; Leake, Morea, vol. 2. p. 462, Peloponnesiaca, p. 282; Boblaye, Recherches, p. 59; Curtius, Peloponnesos, vol. 2. p. 452.)

(Σκύλλαιον). (1) Now Sciglio. A promontory on the coast of Bruttium, at the northern entrance to the Sicilian Strait, where the monster Scylla was supposed to live. See Scylla.

(2) Now Scilla or Sciglio. A town in Bruttium, on the above-named promontory. There are still remains of the ancient citadel.

(3) A promontory in Argolis, on the coast of Troezen, forming, with the promontory of Sunium in Attica, the entrance to the Saronic Gulf.

• Paus. 2.34.7