Source Verification: Scylla and Charybdis
Every claim below is either what a named ancient source attests, in its own line or section, or a point where the sources themselves disagree.
What the Sources Attest
Why did Odysseus choose Scylla instead of Charybdis?
He followed Circe's reckoning of loss. Scylla can take only as many men as she has heads, which is six, while Charybdis can take the whole ship. Odysseus therefore steers near Scylla's cliff. On the second passage he chooses nothing: the south wind carries his raft back to Charybdis, and only the fig tree saves him.
Source: Homer, Odyssey 12.108-110
Why did Scylla only eat six men?
Because she has six heads, and each head takes one man. Circe describes six long necks, each ending in a head, and says that every head snatches a sailor. Homer says the six taken were the strongest and best of the crew. Scylla does not strike again in that passage, and the ship sails on.
Source: Homer, Odyssey 12.73-100
Is Charybdis Scylla's sister?
Homer does not say so. He gives Scylla a mother, Crataeis, and names no mother or father for Charybdis, who appears only as a whirlpool under a fig tree. Apollonius makes Crataeis another name of Hecate and gives Scylla the father Phorcys, but he gives Charybdis no family either. The sources checked here make the two neighbours, not kin.
Source: Homer, Odyssey 12.115-126
Can Scylla be fought or killed?
Not by Odysseus. When he asks whether he can fight her off, Circe tells him Scylla is immortal and cannot be fought, and that flight is best. He puts on his armour anyway and takes two spears to the fore-deck, but he cannot see her anywhere, and she takes six men without a blow struck.
Source: Homer, Odyssey 12.226-233
Where are Scylla and Charybdis in real life?
The Odyssey passages checked here name no strait, island or coast for them. Circe describes two cliffs and a fig tree, nothing more. Later tradition places the pair in the Strait of Messina, but that placement is not in Homer's text, so it is a later identification and not an ancient claim made in the Odyssey.
Source: Homer, Odyssey 12.73-110
Where Accounts Differ
- scylla-parentage
- argo-route-past-the-strait
- location-of-the-strait
- Scylla's parentage differs. Homer names only her mother Crataeis (Odyssey 12.124-126). Apollonius makes Crataeis another name of Hecate and names Phorcys as the father (Argonautica 4.783-832). Neither gives Charybdis a parent.
- The Argo's route differs. In Homer the Argo has passed the Planctae and Circe names no other ship there (Odyssey 12.69-72). In Apollonius the Argo goes past Scylla and Charybdis as well, and the Nereids guide it through the Wandering Rocks (Argonautica 4.922-929).
- The place of the strait is not given in the Odyssey passages cited here (12.73-110). The Strait of Messina is a later identification and is not drawn from Homer.
Sources
- Homer, Odyssey 12.55-72
- Homer, Odyssey 12.73-100
- Homer, Odyssey 12.73-110
- Homer, Odyssey 12.101-107
- Homer, Odyssey 12.108-110
- Homer, Odyssey 12.111-114
- Homer, Odyssey 12.115-126
- Homer, Odyssey 12.223-225
- Homer, Odyssey 12.226-233
- Homer, Odyssey 12.234-244
- Homer, Odyssey 12.245-259
- Homer, Odyssey 12.260-276
- Homer, Odyssey 12.403-429
- Homer, Odyssey 12.430-453
- Homer, Odyssey 12.448-453
- Apollonius of Rhodes, Argonautica 4.783-832
- Apollonius of Rhodes, Argonautica 4.922-929