Sailors of today who come back from far countries will often tell stories of the marvels they have seen, but these marvels are nothing compared with the wonders met with by the seamen of old Greece. Of course, they might, any day, come across Poseidon, with his green sea ladies, his blue and white horses, and his dolphins wagging their curly tails; not to speak of Aphrodite, floating along on her pretty silver shell, with her fairies playing around her. These people were generally the sailors’ friends; but there were also among the ocean folk some horrible monsters, of which the very worst were two witch-like creatures called Scylla and Charybdis.

Scylla had once been a beautiful princess, but she had been turned into a monster as a punishment for a very shocking thing she had done. Her father’s country was invaded by a neighboring monarch, with whom she fell in love. She knew that, among her father’s silvery hair, one lock was colored purple and hung in this strange tint over his wrinkled forehead. She also knew that so long as the purple lock grew safely among the white hairs of the old king, his country could never be taken from him. So, because she was in love with the enemy king, she crept one night into her father’s bed chamber and cut off the purple lock while he slept. Then, with the little tuft of hair in her hand, she went to the camp of the invading king and, offering him the purple lock, told him what she had done for his sake.

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📚 Source: Once Upon A Time: Children’s Stories From The Classics (1920?) by Blanche Winder (1866-1930).