Nisus, King of Megara, sported a purple lock of hair which had magical properties, guaranteed his life and protected his kingdom. King Minos of Crete beseiged Megara, but found Nisus to be a challenging opponent thanks to his hair.

As the story goes, Nisus possessed a single lock of purple hair which granted him and the city invincibility. When Minos, the King of Crete, invaded Nisus's kingdom, Scylla saw him from the city's battlements and fell in love with him.

2017年8月21日 · Although once again a visual story told vividly by Ovid, Scylla’s betrayal of Nisus and her failed attempt to run away with Minos, appears never to have been depicted in a painting of significance (before the twentieth century).

Content: Nisus, king of Megara, and his daughter Scylla, who murdered him to win the affections of Minos, a rival king. Tinted lithograph with additional hand coloring.

2012年1月8日 · English: Scylla and Nisus. Scylla cutting her father's purple hair. Drawing by Nicolas-André Monsiau (1754-1837) in Les Métamorphoses d'Ovide, Paris 1806

One night Scylla crept into her father’s chamber, and cut off the famous bright lock on which his life and throne depended; then, taking from him the keys of the city gate, she opened it, and stole out. She made straight for Minos’s tent, and offered him the lock of hair in exchange for his love.

The Story of Nisus and Scylla Now shone the morning star in bright array, To vanquish night, and usher in the day: The wind veers southward, and moist clouds arise, That blot with shades the blue meridian skies. Cephalus feels with joy the kindly gales, His new allies unfurl the swelling sails; Steady their course, they cleave the yielding main,

Scylla angrily purses Minos’s ship but is thwarted by her father, Nisus, who is now an osprey. Scylla turns into a bird. Back in Crete, Minos orders Daedalus to build a labyrinth to conceal the Minotaur, the shameful product of a union between Minos’s mother and a bull. Daedalus complies but is not happy to be in exile.

Figure 92 of M. Johann Spreng's Metamorphoses Ovidii. Frankfurt: 1563. Minos rejects Scylla's gift of Nisus' purple lock (Met. VIII, 81-103)

In her anger, Scylla jumps into the water and grabs hold of the stern of Minos ’s ship. Her father Nisus (who was just transformed into a falcon) notices her and swoops to stab at his traitorous daughter with his beak. Scylla releases the stern and a wind lifts her into the air where she is also turned into a bird.