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Scylla and Charybdis

   Also found in: Wikipedia, Hutchinson 0.04 sec.

Scylla and Charybdis

In Greek mythology, two monsters that guarded the narrow passage through which Odysseus had to sail in his wanderings. These waters are now identified with the Strait of Messina. On one shore was Scylla, a monster with six snaky heads, who reached out of her cave to seize and devour six of Odysseus' companions. On the opposite shore was Charybdis, the personification of a whirlpool, who drank down and belched forth the waters three times a day. The shipwrecked Odysseus saved himself by clinging to a tree on the shore until his raft floated to the surface.


Scylla and Charybdis
rocks and whirlpool, respectively, opposite each other in the Strait of Messina. [Classical Myth.: Zimmerman, 59, 235–236]
See : Danger


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THE SIRENS, SCYLLA AND CHARYBDIS, THE CATTLE OF THE SUN.
The small matter which I have chronicled under the heading of "A Study in Scarlet," and that other later one connected with the loss of the Gloria Scott, may serve as examples of this Scylla and Charybdis which are forever threatening the historian.
 
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