Charybdis · Atlas

in the texts

Letters to LuciliusImperial · Latin

The mythical whirlpool in the strait of Sicily, used as a metaphor for danger to be avoided.

A rash helmsman scorned the threats of the south wind—for it is the wind that roughens the Sicilian sea and gathers it into whirlpools—and made not for the left-hand shore, but for that near which Charybdis throws the seas into confusion.

iphigenia in aulis ¶

but whether Charybdis answers to the stories told of it I should like you to write to me, and, if you have observed it, since the thing is worth the watching, to inform me whether it is whipped up by one wind only, or whether every storm equally churns up that sea, and whether it is true that whatever is caught in that whirlpool's eddy is carried under the water for many miles and only thrown up a …

letter 79 ¶

ProtrepticusLate Antiquity · Greek

Mythological whirlpool hazard used as a simile for the danger of custom.

let us flee it like a dangerous headland, or the menace of Charybdis, or the fabled Sirens.

conclusion ¶

The Trojan WomenClassical · Greek

Mythical monster-strait foretold as one of the dangers Odysseus will face on his journey home.

where dreadful Charybdis lurks in a narrow channel between the rocks;

the trojan women ¶

De Rerum NaturaHellenistic · Latin

The mythological sea monster / whirlpool Charybdis, mentioned in the geographical description of Sicily near the Straits of Messina.

Charybdis;

chapter 1 ¶

Consolation to MarciaImperial · Latin

The famed sea-whirlpool near Sicily, described as one of the wonders and dangers to be seen on the way to Syracuse.

Then you will see (for it will be permitted you to skim past that most greedy whirlpool of the sea) that fabled Charybdis, famed in song, calm so long as it is free of the south wind, but, if anything has blown more violently from that quarter, sucking down ships with a great and deep gaping mouth.

consolation to marcia ¶

History of the Peloponnesian WarClassical · Greek

The dangerous strait between Italy and Sicily, called Charybdis and associated with the Odyssey.

and is the Charybdis, so called, through which Ulysses is said to have sailed.

chapter 4 ¶