Monday, December 15, 2008

Scylla and Charybdis

In Greek mythology, two monsters that resided on either side of the Strait of Messina. Scylla was a monster perched on a rock that would eat sailors off their boats; Charybdis would swallow vast quantities of water, creating a whirlpool that swamped passing ships. These classic references have come into colloquial English as "between a rock and a hard spot." According to Toles, we seem to have encountered the whirlpool.

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