Between Charybdis and Scylla

The Italians will be building a wonder suspension bridge that measures some 3.3 km in its central span held up by two towers that will be taller than the Eiffel Tower. It will be the longest suspension bridge in the world in the world - eat your hearts out Malaysia.

A humongous amount of 4 billion euros will be involved. The bridge will span the sea separating Sicily and mainland Italy. It's a century old dream coming true for 'land travel' to become a reality between the two parts of Italy.

The bridge will also effectively 'eliminate' the mythical monsters of Charybdis and Scylla which threatened sailors of ancient times a sthey bravely sailed through the straits.

In the Greek Classic 'The Odyssey', which depicts the travel of a post-Trojan War hero Odysseus, Charybdis was the more dangerous of the two monsters. A daughter of Poseidon and Gaia, she flooded lands for her father’s underwater kingdom. Due to some vague sins, Zeus turned her into a dreadful monster, living in a cave. Charybdis 'manifested' herself as a whirlpool near the cave that sank any unfortunate passing ships which approached her.

Scylla was basically your average twelve-foot six headed monster, with three rows of teeth in each. From her waist down she was made up of hideous monsters, such as dogs who continuously barked. Each of her heads would seize a crew member of each passing ship who had the misfortune to sail near her. In practical terms she represented dangerous rocks that unfortunate sailors sailed their ships into.

Hmmm, pretty nasty stuff, and I note all ugly Greek mythical monsters such as these two, and the Gorgons, and Harpies, etc were mostly females. Is there a message there?

BTW, do you know the modern saying of 'between a rock and a hard place'?

Whether you don't or do, it means the same thing as the older and now-seldom-heard 'between the devil and the deep blue sea.'

Basically it means a situation where one is forced to choose between two unpleasant options - like either telling your girlfriend you can't go out with her as promised because you have forgotten about that and instead promised your 'Ex' you would go to the latter's birthday party, or telling your 'Ex' (whom you still have a blazing flame for) you can't attend her do as promised because you had promised your GF much earlier you would take her out to the fashion show.

Yeah man, you would then be 'between the devil & the deep blue sea' or if you like, 'between a rock and a hard place'.

But those two sayings, with the elements of rock, hard place (cliff), devil (or monsters) and deep blue sea, have an ancient precedent. Around fifty years ago, people would instead say 'between Charybdis and Scylla' referring to the classic adventure of Odysseus as he and crew rowed their ship between two monsters, a whirlpool and crushing face of a mountain.