- Between Scylla and Charybdis is an idiom from Greek Mythology meaning Between a rock and a hard place.
Homer‘s Odyssey Book XII
- Scylla and Charybdis were two Sea Monsters on either side of a narrow Strait, thought to be the Strait of Messina. They represented a great danger to Greek Shipping.
- Scylla was a six headed sea monster, and as ships passed by, each head swallowed one sailor.
- Charybdis was a whirlpool that could engulf an entire vessel.
- In the Odyssey, Odysseus has to sail a narrow strait between the two monsters, Scylla and Charybdis, and is advised to sail closer to Scylla and lose only part of his crew, rather than sail closer to Charybdis and lose the whole vessel.
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