Scylla and Charybdis
After safely negotiating the alluring Sirens, Odysseus and his crew must now decide which of Scylla and Charybdis would do the least damage.
after 1184 BC
After safely negotiating the alluring Sirens, Odysseus and his crew must now decide which of Scylla and Charybdis would do the least damage.
after 1184 BC
Before Odysseus and his crew set sail from her island, Circe warned them all of the dangers they would face in returning to Ithaca. Assuming they passed safely by the alluring Sirens, they would then have to navigate a course between a gangly, voracious six-headed monster on one side and a ghastly, throbbing whirlpool on the other — a choice between bad and worse.
freely translated
“WHEN you have left the Sirens behind you [said Circe], I cannot tell for certain which way you are to go, for your own wit must decide, and I can only tell you the dangers on either hand. On one side are the Hanging Rocks that the Gods call the Wanderers. Storms of fire sweep round them and the waves dash and roar at their feet and dead bodies and broken spars lie heaving on the water. Only one ship has ever passed between in safety: the famous Argo of whom all men have heard,* and even she would have been wrecked except for Hera’s care.
“But if you turn away you will reach a narrow strait, only a bowshot wide. On one hand rises a towering cliff, so steep and sheer that no mortal man can climb it. Winter and summer a dark cloud hangs overhead, and below in the western face of the cliff there is a deep and murky cave. Now there is no other way, Odysseus, and you must steer your ship close by. That cave is Scylla’s lair, where she lies in wait, howling like a whelp, and a terrible monster she is that even the Gods might fear to face.
* Argo was the ship which took the hero Jason and his ‘argonauts’ (Argo-sailors) on the legendary quest for the Golden Fleece.