Charybdis.
The sea that swallows itself
Charybdis: Greek Whirlpool Monster and the Strait with Scyllais the sea-swallowing danger opposite in the . Where Scylla threatens individual sailors, the whirlpool can take an entire vessel.
More than a myth.
What Charybdis does
tells that sucks down the sea and sends it up again three times each day. The description focuses on violent water rather than on a fixed humanlike body. A fig tree grows above the dangerous place, giving the otherwise overwhelming landscape one small feature that later becomes a means of survival.
Why the ship passes nearer Scylla
warns that no one can save the ship if it enters the suction at the wrong moment. Her advice therefore favors the other side of the strait, where will take six men but leave the rest alive. The two names come to represent a passage between different dangers rather than a contest with one monster.
Odysseus returns alone
After the destruction of his crew, is driven back toward on wreckage. He catches the overhanging fig tree and waits while the whirlpool swallows and later returns his makeshift support. The scene makes endurance and timing, rather than an attack, the actions that allow him to continue.
Questions about Charybdis
Are Scylla and Charybdis the same monster?
No. is a many-headed creature on one side of the passage; is the swallowing and surging sea on the other.
How does Odysseus escape Charybdis?
On his later passage alone, he clings to a fig tree above the whirlpool until his wreckage is released and he can drop back onto it.
It’s a family affair.
Charybdis
The destructive whirlpoolNo children represented in this edition.
The stories of Charybdis.
Continue with the ancient accounts.
This story collection does not yet include a full retelling centered on Charybdis. Explore the cited sources below and the connected profiles for more of the surviving accounts.
Ancient voices.
Enduring stories.
Myths have many tellings. These are the ancient works behind this profile, linked to freely available English translations.
Odyssey
Book 12.101–126, 426–446