NYSUS. Nisus was king of Megera, whose capital Alcathoe was beseiged by Minos of Crete as he sailed to Athens to avenge his son's death. In spite of his great skill, Minos could not take the city. Nisus's daughter Scylla fell in love with Minos as she watched from the walls. To win his love, Scylla cut off her father's purple lock, on which the safety of the kingdom depended, and gave it to Minos, but Minos recoiled in horror from the gift. He sailed from Alcathoe, forbidding Scylla ever to set foot on Crete. She leaped into the water to swim after the ship, but her father, changed into an osprey, approached her to tear her to pieces. To her great horror, she found she had been changed into a bird, and she was called Ciris (lark) because she had cut her father's lock of hair (Met VIII.11-151; OM VIII.1-352).

Phebus is rising in the east, and Nysus's daughter sings with fresh intent when Troilus sends for Pandarus, Tr V.1107-1111. S.B. Meech suggests that Chaucer may have learned that ciris means "lark" from the gloss on the name in a manuscript of the Metamorphoses or from the Ovide Moralisé. The story is told at some length, LGW 1909-1920. [Minos: Silla]

Nysus, the OF variant, appears three times medially, Tr V.1110; LGW 1904, 1908.