Molluscs in culture Elder (1st century AD) in his "Natural History". The Gorgon of Greek mythology may have been inspired by the octopus or squid, the severed head of Medusa representing the animal, the beak as the protruding tongue and fangs, and its tentacles as the snakes. The six-headed sea monster of the "Odyssey", Scylla, may have had a similar origin. The Nordic legend of the kraken may also have derived from sightings of large cephalopods; the science fiction writer Jules Verne told a tale of a kraken-like monster in his 1870 novel "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea". Throughout the world, the
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea he sees him one last time (although secretly), and hears him say "Almighty God! Enough! Enough!". Aronnax immediately goes to his companions and they are ready to escape. But while they loosen the dinghy, they discover that the "Nautilus" has wandered into the Moskenstraumen, more commonly known as the "Maelstrom". They manage to escape and find refuge on a nearby island off the coast of Norway, but the fate of the "Nautilus" is unknown. Captain Nemo's name is an allusion to Homer's "Odyssey", a Greek epic poem. In "The Odyssey", Odysseus meets the monstrous cyclops Polyphemus during the course of