At first Scylla was a blue-eyed nymph, daughter of Forcus and Ceto. Scilla lived in Calabria and used to go to Zancle beach and bathe in the sea. One evening, near the beach, he saw Glaucus appear from the waves, who had once been a mortal, but was now a sea god half man and half fish. Scylla, terrified at his sight, took refuge on the top of a mountain that stood near the beach. The god, seeing the nymph's reaction, began to scream his love at her, but Scylla fled, leaving him alone in his pain. Then Glaucus went to the sorceress Circe and asked her for a love potion to make the nymph fall in love with him, but Circe, desiring the god for herself, proposed that he join her. Glaucus refused to betray his love for Scilla and Circe, furious at having been rejected in the place of a mortal, wanted to take revenge. When Glaucus was gone, he prepared an evil potion and went to the beach of Zancle, poured the filter into the sea and returned to his home. When Scylla arrived and plunged into the water to take a bath, she saw many other serpentine legs grow next to hers, which in the meantime had become the same as the others. Frightened, she fled from the water, but, looking at herself in it, she realized that she had completely transformed into a huge and very tall monster with six enormous dog heads along the waist, a huge bust and very long serpentine legs. According to some, from the waist up, it kept the body of a virgin, while for others it possessed six equally monstrous serpentine heads. In horror, Scylla threw herself into the sea and went to live in the hollow of a rock near the cave where the monster Cariddi also lived. This coin celebrates the second naval victory of Sextus Pompey (Imperator Iterum) in the clash that took place at the Scilleo promontory between Sesto and Octavian's fleet led by Quintus Salvidienus, who suffered the shipwreck of almost all of his fleet due to a violent tsunami or very strong storm (Scylla hitting the sea with the rudder). On the right, the statue of Neptune on top of the lighthouse to remember the alleged divine ancestry of the gens Pompeia and the help of the god in the battle of Messina. OBV:The Pharos of Messana surmounted by a statue of Neptune; in foreground, galley to left adorned with legionary eagle, sceptre and trident, [MAG•PIVS•IMP•ITER] around / REV: Scylla to left, wielding a rudder in both hands; PRÆF•ORÆ•MAR IT•ET•CLAS•EX•S•C around. Crawford 511/4d, diam 21 mm, weight 3,85 g. Opinions on conservation are welcome
This is a phenomenal example! Do you have a known pedigree for it? Here's my Skylla on a Greek tetradrachm signed by EUTH and Eumenes:
Thank you @AncientJoe , I have seen your collection and highly appreciate your judgement. I won it here https://www.biddr.com/auctions/snmw/browse?a=1564&l=1679201 I asked the auction house for the provenance, but they only told me it was part of an old Polish collection they are selling, and have no info on the previous provenance. The coin was almost totally unclean and covered with rust and horn silver, so I think no one touched it since a very long time.
A coin of Gordian III struck at Tarsos which I once had and which may be of interest here. As I vaguely recall, it was an Æ 34:
Sextus Pompey Ar Denarius Unknown mint is Sicily 42-40 BC Obv Diademed head of Neptune right Rv. Naval trophy set on anchor Scylla and Charybdis at base Crawford 511/2b CRI 333 3.88 grms 18 mm Photo by W. Hansen The control of Sicily by Sextus meant that he was in virtual control of the Straights of Messina. This of course jeopardized any grain shipments from North Africa thus placing a great deal of pressure on Octavian's control of Rome. Though described as both Scylla and Charybdis the heads look more like that of wolves.
