We had to write a myth for English class and this was the one I turned in....
Morning after morning since the beginning of our punishment, we have sat here. The six of us never find anything of interest. We grow bored, and we have nothing to occupy our time. Morning after morning it is the same. We all wake each other and growl in unison at the hollow pit that is our stomach. About the same time, our dear sister Charybdis is waking. We let out a loud snarl, which is replied to by a wave that splatters the ceiling of our cave; our sister is hungry, too. I look out of the opening to the cave and across the horizon. Our island is beautiful; too bad it’s only used as a trap for food.
The six of us together make up the monster Scylla, but in truth, we are each our own person, or at least we were each our own person until our day of punishment. We were once beautiful maidens, sisters, with six of us in number: Atalanta, Ambrosia, Anaklusmos, Agape, Argyros, and Aspasia. We were seductresses looking to make love to beautiful men, mortal or immortal. Fickle are the gods, and naïve are the mortals. Zeus descended to me, Atalanta, in disguise and we slept together.
Hera heard of our affair and was furious. She sentenced us all to life as an ugly beast with a love now for only one thing, human flesh. So rare is a meal that I have forgotten the taste of flesh and blood.
This morning, however, was different from all other mornings. Just as the rosy fingers of dawn spread over the horizon, Anaklusmos growled, waking us all. I shook my head to clear my vision and saw on the horizon a ship making its way toward us. I shook my head again, but this was no hallucination. Food had arrived.
My sisters and I withdrew to the darkest recesses of our cave, for we knew the routine. As the voices approached, Agape, our unspoken leader, grinned and winked, the signal for us to attack. It was complete madness on the deck below. About fifty fully-armed men were waiting for us. Argyros was so hungry she forgot everything else, and she barely had time to grab her food before the man fell to the deck below, taking my sister’s head with him. The others were killed soon after. Two swipes and Aspasia met her death, five more and Agape’s head fell to the ship below, one more and Ambrosia, too, joined my other sisters. It was up to Anaklusmos and me to defeat these sailors. We made quick work. It only took us a few attacks to devour all of the men and most of their ship. It wasn’t until then that I realized men kept coming from the cellars below. I wish I knew how Anaklusmos met her end, but I know not. Her head lay floating in the water below, her mouth still snarling for food.
How was I to live without my sisters? I was not. I made a sloppy sweep for a man and the last memory I have is of sister Charybdis growling. She would take care of the rest of the men for us.
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