Glaucus of Anthedon

🐉 creatureΓλαῦκος

sea,transformation

A mortal fisherman who accidentally ate a magical herb and was transformed into an immortal sea deit‍‌‍‍‌‌‌‍‍‌‍‌‌‌‌‌‍‌‌‌‍‌‍‍‍‌‌‍‌‍‍‍y, growing fish's scales and a tail, destined to roam the seas forever.

The Myth of Glaucus of Anthedon

Glaucus was a fisherman from Boeotia who noticed that fish he placed on grass would revive and leap back to the sea.‍‌‍‍‌‌‌‍‍‌‍‌‌‌‌‌‍‌‌‌‍‌‍‍‍‌‌‍‌‍‍‍ Curious, he ate some of the grass himself. Immediately he felt a compulsion to enter the sea, and as he plunged in, his body transformed: his legs fused into a fish's tail, scales spread across his skin, and his hair turned sea-green. He became an immortal sea deity and prophet, though he mourned his human life. He fell in love with Scylla and sought advice from Circe, who instead fell in love with him. When he rejected her, Circe poisoned the pool where Scylla bathed, transforming her into a monster. Glaucus appears in Ovid's Metamorphoses and in references by earlier Greek writers; Plato names him in a famous passage about the soul's obscured nature.

Parents

None recorded

Symbols

green hairfish tailsea herbs

Fun Fact

Plato uses Glaucus in the Republic as an image for the soul encrusted with barnacles and seaweed — the original beautiful form hidden beneath what time and the sea have attached to it.

Explore Further

Glaucus the Sea God

⚡ god

sea

Mortal fisherman who ate a magical herb, became immortal, and transformed into a blue-green sea deity.

Glaucus

⚡ god

sea, prophecy

A mortal fisherman who became an immortal sea god after eating a magical herb.

Anthedon

🏛 place

geography

A small Boeotian coastal town where the fisherman Glaucus ate a magical herb and became a sea deity.

Scylla

🐉 creature

transformation

Beautiful nymph transformed into a six-headed sea monster by Circe's poison, eternally lurking in a strait opposite Charybdis.

Tritons

🐉 creature

sea, marine

Fish-tailed sea spirits who attended Poseidon and blew conch shells to calm or stir the waves, led by the original Triton, son of Poseidon.

triton (marine creature)

Alcyone

🗡 hero

Love, transformation, birds

Queen of Trachis who was transformed into a kingfisher bird alongside her devoted husband Ceyx

halcyon

Scylla

🐉 creature

Six-headed sea monster

A terrifying sea monster with six heads on long necks, each with three rows of teeth. She lived in a cliff cave opposite the whirlpool Charybdis, creating an impossible choice for sailors.

between Scylla and Charybdis