What was the name given to rocks in the Straits of Messina opposite the whirlpool of Charybdis?
Charybdis Sicily and opposite a rock on the mainland identified with Scylla. Were Charybdis to be located in the Strait of Messina, it would in fact have the size to accommodate the whirlpool. A whirlpool does exist there, caused by currents meeting, but it is dangerous only to small craft in extreme conditions. A later myth makes Charybdis the daughter of Poseidon and Gaia and living as a loyal servant to her father. 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
Charybdis 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. The theoretical size of Charybdis remains unknown, yet in order to consume Greek ships the whirlpool can be estimated to about 23 meters (75 ft) across. Charybdis has been associated with the Strait of Messina, off the coast of