Charybdis is a sea monster of Greek mythology who, together with Scylla, forms a deadly pair of perils confronting epic heroes such as Odysseus, Jason, and Aeneas. She lurks beneath a rock in a narrow strait — placed by ancient writers in the Strait of Messina between Italy and Sicily — directly opposite Scylla, so that a ship steering clear of one monster is driven toward the other. Three times a day she swallows down a vast quantity of seawater and belches it back, generating whirlpools powerful enough to drag a ship under. From this image comes the proverbial phrase "between Scylla and Charybdis," meaning a forced choice between two equally dangerous alternatives.
Adapted from Wikipedia, "Charybdis" · CC BY-SA 4.0
I.Description
Charybdis lived beneath a small rock in a narrow channel directly opposite Scylla, whose rock was larger. The strait was so narrow that sailors trying to avoid one monster were liable to fall into the grip of the other.
Three times a day Charybdis swallowed an enormous amount of water and then belched it back out again, creating great whirlpools capable of dragging a ship underwater. In some versions she is not a sentient monster at all but simply a vast whirlpool.
Citing ancient chroniclers such as Thucydides, modern scholars locate Charybdis in the Strait of Messina near Sicily, where a real whirlpool exists — though in reality it endangers only small vessels and only in extreme conditions.
II.Family
One tradition identifies Charybdis as a daughter of Poseidon and Gaia, who served her father loyally.
III.Mythology — Origin
In one account, Charybdis aided Poseidon in his quarrel with Zeus, helping to flood lands with seawater. Zeus punished her by striking her with a thunderbolt and casting her down to the seafloor, where she drinks the sea three times a day, producing the deadly whirlpools. She was set on a rock facing Scylla across the water, the two forming the dangerous strait.
An alternate myth presents her instead as a ravenous woman who stole oxen from Heracles, until Zeus's thunderbolt transformed her into the sea creature.
IV.Mythology — The Odyssey
Odysseus had to navigate the narrow channel between the two monsters. He ordered his crew to steer away from Charybdis, which forced the ship toward Scylla and cost the lives of six men.
Later, after his ship was destroyed and he drifted back through the strait on the wreckage, Odysseus was pulled toward Charybdis's mouth. He survived by clinging to a fig tree overhanging her lair until the swallowed water flowed back out and carried his raft clear, allowing him to escape.
V.Mythology — Jason and the Argonauts
The Argonauts passed safely between the two dangers because Hera commanded the Nereid Thetis to guide their ship through the perilous passage.
VI.Mythology — The Aeneid
In Virgil's account, the seer Helenus warned the Trojans about Scylla and Charybdis and advised them to sail around Cape Passero rather than risk the strait. They nonetheless came upon Mount Etna and had to row desperately to escape Charybdis.
VII.Mythology — Aesop
Aristotle's Meteorologica preserves a fable in which Aesop teases a ferryman with a story about Charybdis: in one gulp she revealed the mountains, in another the islands appeared, and a third gulp would dry the sea entirely — destroying the ferryman's livelihood.