Charybdis & Scylla

Hello and welcome back to Fab Figmentals!

I’m Lindsey Morse, your guide through the realm of curious creatures, magical monsters, and beautiful beasts. Each week on this podcast, we explore a different legendary creature by looking at its history and folklore. Each episode begins with a story, and then we take a look at the creature’s origins and how it’s been portrayed throughout the ages.

For this week’s episode, get out your suitcase and pack up your toga and gladiator sandals, because we’re heading to the Mediterranean. 

Smack dab in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, at the southern tip of the Italian peninsula, the toe of the Italian boot very nearly meets the island of Sicily. These two land masses are separated by a narrow section of water called the Strait of Messina, a busy little waterway regularly traversed by cruise ships, fishing boats, cargo vessels, and private yachts. If you stand on one side of the straight, you can look out and watch these ships pass by, and if you want to travel across the straight to visit Sicily from the Italian mainland, you can hop any one of the regular ferries that depart Calabria for Italy’s largest island.

But travel on this now-bustling little waterway wasn’t always so common.

Back in ancient Greece, travelers avoided the Strait of Messina at all costs because it was believed to be home to two deadly monsters: Charybdis & Scylla.

For today’s story, we’re going to hop into Homer’s famous epic, The Odyssey, and we’re going to travel along with Odysseus as he comes face to face with this deadly duo.

The Odyssey follows the adventures of the hero Odysseus, king of Ithaca, and his journey home after the fall of Troy. During his 10 year trek back to Ithaca, Odysseus encounters a number of mystical creatures and repeatedly faces the wrath of the gods. Time and again, when faced with seeming ruin, “wily Odysseus” survives thanks to his cleverness. 

The run-in with Charybdis & Scylla takes place in book 12 of The Odyssey, from a section of the poem known as “The Wanderings of Odysseus.”

As you can probably imagine, there are quite a few different English translations of The Odyssey, and this story is pulled from the one by Samuel Butler, which renders Homer’s poetry into prose.

We’re going to meet up with Odysseus about midway through The Odyssey, when he is narrating the tale of his journey thus far to some interested bystanders. He regales them with stories about how he escaped “The Lotus Eaters,” Polyphemus the cyclops, and the cannibalistic Laestrygonians. He goes on to tell about how he and his men were captured by the beautiful enchantress Circe, and how he wooed her and convinced her to aid in their departure. We pick up the story here, right before Odysseus and his men depart Circe’s island, as she warns him of the perils that lie ahead.

For the sake of length and clarity, I’ve made some edits to the story; most notably taking out Odysseus’ close call with the sirens. But not to fear, I’m sure we’ll cover them on the show before too long— they really do deserve their own episode.

Now, without further ado, let’s meet Charybdis & Scylla. 

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‘There are two rocks,” said Circe. “The first reaches heaven and its peak is lost in a dark cloud. This never leaves it, so that the top is never clear not even in summer and early autumn. No man though he had twenty hands and twenty feet could get a foothold on it and climb it, for it runs sheer up, as smooth as though it had been polished. In the middle of it there is a large cavern, looking West; you must take your ship this way, but the cave is so high up that not even the stoutest archer could send an arrow into it. Inside it Scylla sits and yelps with a voice that you might take to be that of a young hound, but in truth she is a dreadful monster and no one—not even a god—could face her without being terror-struck. 

She has twelve mis-shapen feet, and six necks of the most prodigious length; and at the end of each neck she has a frightful head with three rows of teeth in each, all set very close together, so that they would crunch any one to death in a moment, and she sits deep within her shady cell thrusting out her heads and peering all round the rock, fishing for dolphins or dogfish or any larger monster that she can catch. No ship ever yet got past her without losing some men, for she shoots out all her heads at once, and carries off a man in each mouth.

You will find the other rock lower, but they are so close together that there is not more than a bow-shot between them. A large fig tree in full leaf grows upon it, and under it lies the sucking whirlpool of Charybdis. Three times in the day does she vomit forth her waters, and three times she sucks them down again; see that you be not there when she is sucking, for if you are, Neptune himself could not save you; you must hug the Scylla side and drive ship by as fast as you can, for you had better lose six men than your whole crew.’

'Is there no way,' said I, 'of escaping Charybdis, and at the same time keeping Scylla off when she is trying to harm my men?’

'You dare devil,' replied the goddess, 'you are always wanting to fight somebody or something; you will not let yourself be beaten even by the immortals. For Scylla is not mortal; moreover she is savage, extreme, rude, cruel and invincible. There is no help for it; your best chance will be to get by her as fast as ever you can, for if you dawdle about her rock while you are putting on your armour, she may catch you with a second cast of her six heads, and snap up another half dozen of your men; so, drive your ship past her at full speed.’

Being much troubled in mind, I said to my men, 'My friends, it is not right that one or two of us alone should know the prophecies that Circe has made me, I will therefore tell you about them, so that whether we live or die we may do so with our eyes open. 

I had hardly finished telling everything to the men before I saw a great wave from which spray was rising, and I heard a loud roaring sound. The men were so frightened that they loosed hold of their oars, for the whole sea resounded with the rushing of the waters, but the ship stayed where it was, for the men had left off rowing. I went round, therefore, and exhorted them man by man not to lose heart.

'My friends,' said I, 'this is not the first time that we have been in danger; nevertheless, my courage and wise counsel saved us then, and we shall live to look back on all this as well. Now, therefore, let us all do as I say, trust and row on with might and main. As for you, coxswain, these are your orders; attend to them, for the ship is in your hands; turn her head away from these steaming rapids and hug the rock, or she will give you the slip and be over yonder before you know where you are, and you will be the death of us.’

So they did as I told them; …but… I said nothing about the awful monster Scylla, for I knew the men would not go on rowing if I did, but would huddle together in the hold. In one thing only did I disobey Circe's strict instructions—I put on my armour. Then seizing two strong spears I took my stand on the ship's bows, for it was there that I expected first to see the monster of the rock, who was to do my men so much harm; but I could not make her out anywhere, though I strained my eyes with looking the gloomy rock all over and over.

Then we entered the Straits in great fear of mind, for on the one hand was Scylla, and on the other dread Charybdis kept sucking up the salt water. As she vomited it up, it was like the water in a cauldron when it is boiling over upon a great fire, and the spray reached the top of the rocks on either side. When she began to suck again, we could see the water all inside whirling round and round, and it made a deafening sound as it broke against the rocks. We could see the bottom of the whirlpool all black with sand and mud, and the men were at their wits ends for fear. While we were taken up with this, and were expecting each moment to be our last, Scylla pounced down suddenly upon us and snatched up my six best men. I was looking at once after both ship and men, and in a moment I saw their hands and feet ever so high above me, struggling in the air as Scylla was carrying them off, and I heard them call out my name in one last despairing cry. Then, Scylla landed these panting creatures on her rock and munched them up at the mouth of her den, while they screamed and stretched out their hands to me in their mortal agony. This was the most sickening sight that I saw throughout all my voyages.

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Wow, that’s pretty gnarly, eh? What do you say we change the subject for just a moment before diving back into the gory details of these deadly monsters? 

In 1983, The Police released their 5th and final studio album, Synchronicity, which went on to become their most successful release. Track #9 is “Wrapped around your Finger,” which I feel like most you are probably already humming just from me mentioning the title— it’s catchy. For the rest of you, I wish I could play you a clip, but— unfortunately— we don’t yet have the budget to pay royalties to Sting. *laugh* Please feel free to look it up on YouTube, if you need a refresher. Anyway, the song opens with the following lyrics:

You consider me the young apprentice

Caught between the Scylla and Charybdis

Hypnotized by you if I should linger

Staring at the ring around your finger

“Between Scylla and Charybdis,” as you can probably imagine after today’s story, has the same rough meaning as “stuck between a rock and a hard place.” But I think the former is a far more colorful way of describing being torn between two terrible choices. 

Sting & The Police can’t take credit for this great proverb, though— it’s been around at least since the 12th century. Which really sums up how these two creatures have occupied our collective consciousness since their birth back in ancient Greece, I think. 

So. Let’s talk a little bit more about them, where they come from, and why they’ve captivated humanity for so many centuries. 

The section of the Odyssey that we visited earlier in the episode is the first recorded appearance of Scylla, and from this text we know that she has 6 heads, each each 3 rows of shark-like teeth, that are connected to her body by long, snaky necks.  She has 12 feet, and her loins are surrounded by the heads of howling dogs. We also know that she lives in a cave above the water, and will swoop down to nab and devour men or sea creatures that pass by her lair. 

While Homer doesn’t get into her origin story, later writers do. In Ovid’s Metamorphoses, we’re told that Scylla was once a beautiful nymph. The fisherman-turned-sea god Glaucus fell smitten with her beauty, but Scylla was repulsed by his appearance. Which is understandable; he’s been described as a blue-skinned merman, with copper-green hair and a serpentine fish-tail in place of legs. Glaucus sought help from Circe, who we met in today’s story, but she herself fell for Glaucus and her jealously led her to poison Scylla, transforming her into the monster we know today. 

A bow-shot away from Scylla & her cave, on the opposite shore underneath a fig tree, lived Charybdis. 

Before she was a ship-destroying sea creature, Charybdis was the daughter of Poseidon. One day, she made the fateful decision to aid her father in his feud with his brother, Zeus, and together, father and daughter engulfed lands and islands in water, thus claiming them as Poseidon’s domain. This made Zeus angry, and he punished Charybdis by capturing her and chaining her to the bottom of the sea. He turned her into a terrible sea monster with an unquenchable thirst for the ocean. Thus, three times per day, Charybdis would suck down the sea water in an effort to quench her thirst, only to then spit it back out again, creating large whirlpools capable of dragging ships underwater. 

Interestingly, the Straight of Messina, where Charybdis and Scylla were believed to live, is home to a natural whirlpool in the northern section of the waterway. In truth, though, the rotating waters of real-life Charybdis were never likely to sink any ships. Whirlpools can pose a threat to small vessels, but they’re unlikely to be a danger to large ones.

The real danger, one might argue, was never the monster, Scylla, nor the whirlpool, Charybdis, but that which they represent. 

The Strait of Messina is well-known for its challenging conditions: strong tidal currents, tricky tides, dangerous rocks, and powerful winds. I think Scylla— the one who rips men apart— is likely a personification of the rocks— often almost invisible in the dark sea—  hiding, and waiting to tear ships to pieces. Charybdis, on the other hand, the one who sinks ships, symbolizes more than just one whirlpool, but the combined terror of the strait’s winds AND currents AND tides— all working together to suck ships down into a watery abyss. 

-closing music-

Thank you so much for tuning in to this episode of Fab Figmentals!

Research, writing, and sound editing are done by me, Lindsey Morse. Niall Cooper assists with writing and editing. Our theme music was created by the wonderfully talented Graeme Ronald. 

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If you like learning about creatures that lurk in the shadows, perhaps you’d be interested in learning more about humanity’s darker side. If so, please also check out our sister show, Assassinations Podcast.

Next week on the show, we’re peeking into the caves of Northern India to visit the thlen, a giant, man-eating snake.

We’ll see you next time.