History of Monsters 207

realizing she was being rejected by him, she turned all her fury against Scylla. Through magic spells, she caused Scylla, tormented by a kind of manic possession, to hurl herself into the Sicilian sea, where she was transformed into a rock—a landmark that sailors avoid to this day.

“Unless she is first turned into a cliff, which even now stands as rock; the sailor too avoids that stone.”

After Aeneas had avoided this rock, he reached the Pithecusae Islands, which take their name from the multitude of monkeys found there. Jupiter, loathing the perjury of the Cecropians, transformed them into apes; for this reason, the islands they once inhabited are called Pithecusae (the Monkey Islands).

“For the father of the gods, hating the fraud and perjury of the Cecropians long ago, and the crimes of that deceitful race, changed the men into a hideous animal, so that they might appear both unlike men and yet similar.”

From there, Aeneas made his way to the Sibyl, the daughter of Glaucus. Led by her into the Elysian Fields, he learned of his future descendants. He also heard from the Sibyl how she had obtained from Apollo the gift of living for as many years as the grains of sand she could hold in her hand. Later, while making his way to Italy, Aeneas encountered Macareus of Ithaca, a companion of Ulysses, who recounted the countless misfortunes of their comrades. When Ulysses’ companions had sought out the home of Circe, they saw various wild beasts that had once been men. In fact, Macareus himself was changed into a four-legged animal by Circe’s cups; but finally, after Ulysses implored the help of Mercury, he recovered all his companions.

“We receive the cups offered by her sacred hand, and as soon as we, parched with thirst, drained them, the dread goddess touched the top of our hair with her wand—I am ashamed to tell it—I began to bristle with hair, no longer able to speak, uttering only a hoarse grunt, and falling forward with my face to the ground.”

Because of this, Macareus, being well-versed in such examples, used powerful arguments to persuade Aeneas not to approach the shores where Circe lived. He cited the case of King Picus, who had also been turned into a woodpecker by that same Circe, having been touched only by her wand.

“Three times she touched the youth with her staff, and three times she spoke her charms; he fled, but marvelling that he ran faster than usual, he saw feathers on his body. Indignant at suddenly becoming a new bird in the Latin woods, he struck the hard oak with his sharp beak and in his anger wounded the long branches. The purple of his cloak gave its color to his feathers; what had been a golden buckle fastening his garment became feathers, and his neck was encircled by golden-yellow plumage.”

Furthermore, the companions searching for King Picus were also transformed into various shapes.

“And they demand their king, using force and preparing to attack with fierce weapons. She, the guilty one, scatters her baneful virus and poisonous juices, by the touch of which monsters of various beasts come upon the youths; no one's own image remained.”

Afterward, the wife of King Picus, named Canens, overcome with immense grief over her lost husband, wasted away by the river Tiber; the place was called Canens in her honor.

“She wasted away, and gradually vanished into the light breezes; yet the fame of the place remains, which the ancient inhabitants rightly called Canens, from the name of the nymph.”

Thus Aeneas, warned by Macareus and avoiding Circe's dwellings, set out for Italy. There, while warring with the Rutulians on behalf of King Latinus, he sought help from Evander. Turnus, the leader of the Rutulians, sent Venulus as an envoy to Diomedes to obtain aid against Latinus and Aeneas. Diomedes refused this entirely, asserting that Venus was fighting for Aeneas and that the power of this goddess was so great that everyone