Glaucus

Glaucus was a mortal fisherman in Greek mythology who ate a magical herb, became immortal and turned into a sea god who foretold the future to sailors. He is best known from Ovid’s story of his unrequited love for the nymph Scylla, which led to her transformation into a monster by the sorceress Circe (Ovid, Metamorphoses 13.898–968, 14.1–74).

The Fisherman Who Became a Sea God

Pausanias says it was generally believed that Glaucus was a fisherman of Anthedon in Boeotia who ate a certain grass, turned into a deity of the sea and has ever since foretold the future to men; every year, he says, seafarers tell many tales about his soothsaying, and Pindar and Aeschylus took a story about Glaucus from the people of Anthedon, which supplied Aeschylus with material for a play (Pausanias 9.22.7). The “Leap of Glaucus” was shown by the sea at Anthedon (Pausanias 9.22.6).

Ovid too says that his body was changed at Euboean Anthedon (Metamorphoses 13.904–906), and Glaucus tells the story himself. He had caught fish and laid them out on a meadow no animal had ever grazed; when they touched the grass they began to move and slipped back into the water. Wondering whether a god or the juice of the herb had done it, he picked some and bit it. At once he felt his heart seized by the love of another nature, and he plunged into the sea. The sea gods welcomed him; at their request Oceanus and Tethys cleansed him of everything mortal in him, with a spell said nine times and a hundred rivers poured over his head (Metamorphoses 13.917–955). When he came to himself, he found that his beard had become sea-green, his hair long enough to sweep the waves, his arms blue and his legs bent into the tail of a fish (13.958–963). Ovid does not say who his parents were.

Glaucus and Scylla

Glaucus saw the nymph Scylla on the Italian shore and fell in love with her. She ran from the sea-creature and climbed a hill, and he called out to her from below that he was no monster, but a god of the water, no lesser in power than Proteus, Triton or Palaemon. Scylla left him in the middle of his speech (Metamorphoses 13.904–967).

Glaucus went to Circe on her island and asked for a charm or a herb to make Scylla love him, or to cure him of his love. Circe fell in love with him herself and offered him her own love, but Glaucus answered that leaves would grow in the sea and seaweed on the mountain tops before his love for Scylla changed (Metamorphoses 14.1–39). Angry with her rival, Circe ground poisonous herbs, mixed them with Hecate’s spells, and went to the small pool where Scylla used to cool herself in the heat. She poisoned the water, and when Scylla waded in to her waist, her lower body turned into barking monsters. Glaucus wept and left Circe (14.40–69). Scylla stayed in that place; later she robbed Ulysses of his companions out of hatred for Circe, and she was turned into the rock that sailors still avoid (14.70–74).

Glaucus and the Argonauts

In Apollonius’ Argonautica, Glaucus rises from the depths of the sea, called the wise interpreter of divine Nereus, with shaggy head and chest, and seizes the keel of the Argo. He tells the Argonauts that it is against Zeus’ will that they are carrying Heracles to the city of Aeetes: Heracles is destined to serve Eurystheus at Argos and complete twelve labours; Polyphemus is to found a city among the Mysians; and a nymph has taken Hylas as her husband, which is why they were left behind (Apollonius, Argonautica 1.1310–1325). He then dives back, and the sea foams around the ship.

Other Figures Named Glaucus

Several mortals shared the name, including a son of Sisyphus and Merope, the father of Bellerophon (Apollodorus, Library 1.9.3), a son of Minos and Pasiphae who drowned as a child in a jar of honey and was brought back to life by the seer Polyidus (Library 3.1.2, 3.3.1–2), the Lycian hero Glaucus, son of Hippolochus, who fought for Troy (Homer, Iliad 6.119–236), and a son of Antenor whom Odysseus and Menelaus rescued at the sack of Troy (Apollodorus, Epitome 5.21).

Glaucus Sources

Ovid, Metamorphoses 13.898–968, 14.1–74. Apollonius of Rhodes, Argonautica 1.1310–1325. Pausanias 9.22.6–7. Homer, Iliad 6.119–236. Apollodorus, Library 1.9.3, 3.1.2, 3.3.1–2; Epitome 5.21.

See Also: Apollo, Oceanus, Tethys, Circe, Scylla, Poseidon, Nereus