Charybdis (Ancient Greek: Χάρυβδις, romanized: Khárubdis) is a large creature in Greek mythology that is often described as a whirlpool. It appears along with Scylla, in the epics, the Odyssey and the Aeneid, and also has a brief appearance in the story of Jason and the Argonauts. Scholarship locates her in the Strait of Messina.
The idiom "between Scylla and Charybdis" has come to mean being forced to choose between two similarly dangerous situations.
Description[]
Charybdis is sometimes referred to as a whirlpool with a cauldron-like stomach. Other times, it is referred to as a gigantic mouth capable of swallowing millions of gallons of water, creating a huge whirlpool miles wide, then spitting it back out. Charybdis is also described as being eternally hungry.
The sea monster Charybdis was believed to live under a small rock on one side of a narrow channel. It is located in a strait across from the monster Scylla.[1] The sides of the strait were within an arrow-shot of each other, and sailors attempting to avoid one of them would come in reach of the other. Three times a day, Charybdis swallowed a huge amount of water, before belching it back out again, creating large whirlpools capable of dragging a ship underwater.
Through the descriptions of Greek mythical chroniclers and Greek historians such as Thucydides, modern scholars generally agree that Charybdis was said to have been located in the Strait of Messina, off the coast of Sicily and opposite a rock on the mainland identified with Scylla.[2] A whirlpool does exist there, caused by currents meeting, but it is dangerous only to small craft in extreme conditions.
Family[]
Another myth makes Charybdis the daughter of Poseidon and Gaia[3][4] and living as a loyal servant to her father.
Mythology[]
Origin[]
Charybdis aided her father Poseidon in his feud with her paternal uncle Zeus and, as such, helped him engulf lands and islands in water. Zeus, angry over the land she stole from him, sent her to the bottom of the sea with a thunderbolt; from the sea bed, she drank the water from the sea thrice a day, creating whirlpools.[5] She lingered on a rock with Scylla facing her directly on another rock, making a strait.
In some myths, Charybdis was a voracious woman who stole oxen from Heracles, and was hurled by the thunderbolt of Zeus into the sea, where she retained her voracious nature.[4]
The Odyssey[]
Britannia between Scylla and Charybdis by James Gillray (1793)
In Homer's epic, the Odyssey, the hero Odysseus has a choice to either sail near Scylla or Charybdis. Odysseus chooses Scylla because he would only lose six men rather than the entire crew.
Later, stranded on a raft, Odysseus was swept back through the strait and passed near Charybdis. His raft was sucked into her maw, but he survived by clinging to a fig tree growing on a rock over her lair. On the next outflow of water, when his raft was expelled, Odysseus recovered it and paddled away safely.[6]
In the movie adaptation, however, what is left of Odysseus's crew comes across Charybdis after a relentless attack from Scylla. The entire crew and the ship fall into the yawning pit of Charybdis' mouth, and Odysseus is the only survivor.
Jason and the Argonauts[]
The Argonauts were able to avoid both dangers because Hera ordered the Nereid Thetis to guide them through the perilous passage.[7]
The Aeneid[]
In the Aeneid, the Trojans are warned by Helenus of Scylla and Charybdis, and are advised to avoid them by sailing around Pachynus point (Cape Passero) rather than risk the strait.[8] Later, however, they find themselves passing Etna, and have to row for their lives to escape Charybdis.[9]
In Servius' commentary on the Aeneid, he explains that Charybdis is the daughter of Neptune and Terra and was struck down with lightning by Jupiter when she stole the oxen of Hercules.[4]
Aesop[]
Aristotle mentions in his Meteorologica[10] that Aesop once teased a ferryman by telling him a myth concerning Charybdis. With one gulp of the sea, she brought the mountains to view; islands appeared after the next. The third is yet to come and will dry the sea altogether, thus depriving the ferryman of his livelihood.[11]
Modern Depictions[]
TV and Films[]
- The Charybdis is an enormous underwater creature, that creates whirlpools and sucks in ships, in the 1997 miniseries "The Odyssey".
- The Charybdis appears as a gigantic creature creating whirlpools in the 2013 movie Percy Jackson and the Sea of Monsters.
Gallery[]
References[]
- ↑ Homer, Odyssey 12.104
- ↑ Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War 4.24.5
- ↑ Scholiast on Homer's Odyssey
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Servius, Commentary on Virgil's Aeneid 3.420
- ↑ "Charybdis (Kharybdis) – Whirlpool Monster of Greek Mythology". www.theoi.com. Retrieved 5 October 2016.
- ↑ Homer, Odyssey 12.201–59 & 430–50
- ↑ Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica 4.821–960
- ↑ Gutenberg Project: The Aeneid E. F. Taylor translation (1907) Bk 3, 487-504
- ↑ Gutenberg Project: The Aeneid E. F. Taylor translation (1907) Bk 3, 636-648
- ↑ Aristotle, Meteorologica 2.3
- ↑ Gert-Jan van Dijk, Ainoi, logoi, mythoi: fables in archaic, classical, and Hellenistic Greek literature, Brill NL 1997; pp. 351–53