the.com/scylla
a six-headed cliff with a girl trapped inside, eating sailors who steer too close
means In Greek mythology, Scylla is a many-headed sea monster lurking in a narrow strait opposite the whirlpool Charybdis, devouring sailors who pass too near — and by extension, one of two dangers you can't avoid without risking the other.
from From Greek Skylla, the name of the sea-monster Homer set in the strait beside Charybdis in the Odyssey. The name's deeper root is uncertain; ancient writers liked to link it to skylax, 'puppy' or 'dog,' perhaps for the yelping heads Scylla was said to have, but this may be folk association rather than true descent. She gave English the phrase 'between Scylla and Charybdis' — caught between two perils, the rock and the whirlpool.
- origin story
- Once a nymph, cursed into a monster by jealousy
- the pair
- Shares a strait with whirlpool Charybdis, no safe path
- toll taken
- Devoured six of Odysseus's men, one per head
- the idiom
- "Between Scylla and Charybdis" means doomed either way
- real strait
- Likely the Strait of Messina near Sicily
scylla greek mythology — six-headed sea monster in homer's odyssey that guarded the strait of messina between italy and sicily
scylla rock formation — actual rock formation on the italian coast near messina, traditionally identified with the mythological monster