Monsters & spirits
Scylla and Charybdis
SIL-uh and kuh-RIB-dis
A six-headed monster on one side of the strait and a whirlpool on the other — the original choice between two disasters.
The strait is narrow enough that a ship must pass within bowshot of both shores. On one side Scylla leans out of a cave in the cliff: six long necks, each with a head of three rows of teeth, each able to take a man off the deck as the ship goes by. On the other Charybdis, three times a day, swallows the sea and vomits it back, and anything caught in it is gone entirely.
Scylla was not born like that. In Ovid's account she was a sea nymph, and either Circe or Amphitrite, jealous, poisoned the pool where she bathed; the dogs' heads grew out of her waist while she stood in the water, and she could not get away from her own body.
Circe's advice to Odysseus is coldly practical and worth reading twice. Do not try to fight Scylla — you will only lose more men. Steer close to her cliff, accept that she will take six, and keep going, because Charybdis takes everything. He follows it, loses six men, and calls it the most pitiable thing he ever saw.
The phrase 'between Scylla and Charybdis' means what it looks like, but the myth is more specific than 'a hard choice'. It is a choice where the correct answer is to accept a known loss rather than risk total ruin — and to not tell your crew what is coming.
Gods involved
Scylla and Charybdis: common questions
What does 'between Scylla and Charybdis' mean?
Caught between two dangers where avoiding one drives you into the other. In Homer the right move is not balance but triage: sail nearer Scylla and lose a few men, because Charybdis destroys the whole ship.
Was Scylla always a monster?
Not in Ovid. She was a sea nymph transformed by a jealous rival who poisoned the water she bathed in — the heads grew from her own body and she could not escape them.
Which god is your parent?
Twelve questions and the campfire decides.