Editing Charybdis (section)

==Description==
[[File:Strait of Messina.jpg|thumb|320px|The Strait of Messina, with Scylla (underlined in red) and Charybdis on the opposite shores]]
The sea monster Charybdis was believed to live under a small rock on one side of a narrow channel. Opposite her was [[Scylla]], another sea monster, who lived inside a much larger rock.<ref>[[Homer]], ''[[Odyssey]]'' [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0136:book=12:card=73&highlight=charybdis 12.104]</ref> 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. To be "[[between Scylla and Charybdis]]" therefore means to be presented with two opposite dangers, the task being to find a route that avoids both. 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. In some variations of the story, Charybdis was simply a large [[whirlpool]] instead of a sea monster.

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.<ref>[[Thucydides]], ''[[History of the Peloponnesian War]]'' [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text.jsp?doc=thuc.%204.24 4.24.5]</ref>  A whirlpool does exist there, caused by currents meeting, but it is dangerous only to small craft in extreme conditions.<ref>Andrews, Tamra (2000). ''Dictionary of Nature Myths: Legends of the Earth, Sea, and Sky''. Oxford University Press. p. 171. {{ISBN|978-0-19-513677-7}}. Retrieved 25 May 2016.</ref>