Creature

Scylla & Charybdis

The Twin Terrors of the Strait

Between a Rock and a Hard Place

Scylla and Charybdis were two sea monsters who guarded opposite sides of a narrow strait, traditionally identified with the Strait of Messina between Italy and Sicily. Any ship that sailed too close to one would be destroyed by the other. Together, they created one of the most famous impossible choices in mythology and gave us the English expression 'between a rock and a hard place' (or the older 'between Scylla and Charybdis').

Scylla

Scylla was originally a beautiful sea nymph who was transformed into a monster. In Ovid's account, the sea god Glaucus fell in love with Scylla, but she rejected him. Glaucus asked the sorceress Circe for a love potion, but Circe, who wanted Glaucus for herself, poisoned the waters where Scylla bathed. The nymph was transformed into a nightmarish creature: from the waist up she appeared human, but from the waist down she sprouted six long serpentine necks, each ending in a head with triple rows of teeth. Twelve tentacle-like legs supported her body, and a ring of barking dog heads encircled her waist.

Scylla lived in a cave high on the cliff face, reaching down with her six heads to pluck sailors from passing ships. Each head could snatch and devour one man, meaning every ship that passed within her reach lost six crew members. There was no way to fight her because her heads struck simultaneously from multiple angles, and her cave was too high to reach with weapons.

Charybdis

On the opposite side of the strait lurked Charybdis, a monster that took the form of a massive whirlpool. Three times each day, Charybdis swallowed the entire sea around her and vomited it back up, creating a maelstrom that could consume entire ships. She was said to be a daughter of Poseidon and Gaia who was so voracious that she stole the cattle of Heracles. Zeus struck her with a thunderbolt and transformed her into the whirlpool as punishment. Unlike Scylla, who killed selectively, Charybdis destroyed ships completely. No one survived her.

Odysseus's Choice

In the Odyssey, the sorceress Circe warned Odysseus that he must pass between Scylla and Charybdis and that there was no way to avoid both. She advised him to sail closer to Scylla, because losing six men was better than losing the entire ship to Charybdis. Odysseus followed her advice, and Scylla snatched six of his men from the deck as the ship passed. He later described it as the most pitiful sight he witnessed in all his years of wandering, hearing his men screaming his name as the monster devoured them.