Charybdis' true appearance.
Charybdis, also known as the Bermuda Beast, is a sea monster in Greek mythology. She, with the sea monster Scylla, appears as a challenge to epic characters such as Odysseus, Jason, and Aeneas. Scholarship locates her in the Strait of Messina.
Description[]
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 metres (75 ft) across. Charybdis has been associated with the Strait of Messina, off the coast of 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.
Overview[]
A later myth makes Charybdis the daughter of Poseidon and Gaia and living as a loyal servant to Poseidon. She aided him in his feud with Zeus, and as such, helped him engulf lands and islands in water. Zeus, angry for the land she stole from him, cursed her into a hideous bladder of a monster, with flippers for arms and legs, and an uncontrollable thirst for the sea. As such, she drank the water from the sea three times a day to quench it, which created whirlpools. She lingered on a rock with Scylla facing her directly on another rock, making a strait.
Charybdis would also be a guardian of undersea settlements inhabited by Merfolk as part of her disdain towards surface dwellers stems from the animosity to said surface dwellers held by the Merfolk. Originally she did not dwell within a strait alongside Scylla and held more freedom to the open sea, but after Atlantis' victory over Dagon and his forces, Charybdis began to dwell by the Strait of Messina though while the strait is her natural dwelling, she is not confined there as the North Atlantic also counts as her domain alongside Scylla. It is also revealed that Charybdis is one of the factors behind the supernatural elements of the Bermuda Triangle.
The sea monster Charybdis was believed to live under a small rock on one side of a narrow channel. Opposite her was Scylla that lived inside a much larger rock. The sides of the strait were within an arrow shot of each other, and sailors attempting to avoid one of them would come in reach of the other. Between Scylla and Charybdis is a means to having to choose between two dangers, either of which brings harm. 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.