Origin of the Idiom: "Between Scylla and Charybdis"

Origin of the Idiom: "Between Scylla and Charybdis"

The idiom "between Scylla and Charybdis" comes from Greek mythology. It means being stuck between two dangers — if you avoid one, you might fall into the other. It is similar to the modern phrase "between a rock and a hard place."

Scylla and Charybdis were two monsters that lived on opposite sides of a narrow sea passage.

Scylla was once a beautiful nymph but she was turned into a sea monster. She had six long necks and each head had sharp teeth. She lived in a rocky cave and attacked sailors grabbing them from ships that sailed too close.

Charybdis was a huge whirlpool monster. She would swallow huge amounts of water three times a day creating a powerful whirlpool that could sink ships.

These two monsters were placed very close to each other — so close that sailors could not avoid both. If a ship tried to avoid Scylla (the many-headed monster), it would get too close to Charybdis and get sucked into the whirlpool. If they avoided Charybdis they would sail close to Scylla and lose some sailors to her.

In Homer's Odyssey, the hero Odysseus had to sail through this dangerous passage.The goddess Circe advised him to sail closer to Scylla because losing a few men was better than losing the whole ship to the whirlpool.The sea passage was very narrow between them.Sailors had to risk one danger to avoid the other.

The idiom now means choosing between two bad options.