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The ancient Greek Gods and Goddess contain a wealth of stories and legends, wrapped in Myths which typically provide a story with a morale code designed to influence the reader into behaviour as fitting Greek culture of the era.
In this article, we look at Glaucus and the myths and legends surrounding Glaucus, Glaucus relationship to and with other Greek Gods and Goddess and key events and stories which relate to ancient astrology and the changing seasons.
There seems to be up to five different figures by this name, this one was one of the sons of Sisphus and Merope (one of the Pleiades sisters) his brothers were, Almas, Thersander, and Oryntion. It has to be said that the myths seem to have been somewhat entangled, and confused. Glaucus was supposedly born mortal and made a living as a fisherman, and was later turned immortal after eating a magical herb or mushroom. Yet in another version, he was chasing a hare, when the hare collapsed exhausted and near death, he carried it to s spring nearby, and rubbing it with some grass that had sprouted thereabouts, it came back to life. On seeing the Glaucus tried it himself but it sent him to a state of divine ecstasy and Zeus stirred him to fling himself into the sea, where he became a sea deity and was welcomed by Oceanus and Tethys, who taught him the art of prophecy. Either way the magical plant turned him into some sort of cross between a fish and a dolphin. This unfortunately played havoc with his love life, for it is recorded that he fell deeply in love with a, nymph called Scylla. Now Scylla was or became a sea monster that lived on one side of a narrow strait, the other side being patrolled by another sea monster called Charybdis. Thus, it was a very dangerous place for ships to pass, for getting too close to one or the other spelt disaster, hence, between Scylla and Charybdis, has become as we would say when forced to choose between two equally bad choices, between a rock and a hard place. But prior to this, she was said once to have been a beautiful nymph whom Glaucus fell for but she was repulsed by his fish like body and ran away. Glaucus approached the witch Circe and asked her to prepare a love potion for Scylla. But Circe fell for him herself and tried to gain his affection, yet no matter how hard she tried she could not entice him from his first love, indeed he said, trees would grow on the ocean floor and seaweed on the highest mountain before he would stop loving Scylla, or as we would say, Hell would freeze over before I changed my mind. Circe in anger poisoned the sea pool where Scylla was bathing and she turned into a sea monster. Several other loves are mentioned, but they all seem, even more doubtful than the one given. Other authors tell another story. Apparently Glaucus loved chariot racing, and prior to the funeral games that Jason had sanctioned for the deceased Pelias, Glaucus had purposely stopped his mares from breeding, hoping this would make them feistier
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