Scylla was a terrifying sea monster who haunted the rocks of a narrow passage opposite the whirlpool Charybdis.
In Homer's Odyssey, she is first described as a horrible creature with twelve dangling feet, six elongated necks and grisly heads lined with triple rows of teeth.
From her lair high up on a cliff, Scylla would swoop down and devour whatever sailors passed nearby.
So vicious was this beast that she seized six of Odysseus' men, snatching one unfortunate soul into each of her ravenous, barking mouths as his ship struggled through the strait.
Later traditions depicted Scylla as the upper body of a woman combined with the hindquarters of a monster made up of vicious dogs and serpents' tails.
Her abhorrent, hybrid form made Scylla an iconic embodiment of the unnatural perils faced by ancient Greek mariners.

Excerpt from Homer's Odyssey, Book 12

DIFFICULT CHOICES

I will not give you definite instructions about which route to take when you have sailed beyond the Sirens.
Let your heart decide.
There are two choices, and the first goes through vast overhanging rocks, which Amphitrite batters aggressively with mighty waves.
The blessed gods call these the Wandering Rocks.
No birds can fly through safe, not even doves, who bring ambrosia to Zeus.
One dove is always lost in that sheer gulf of stone and Zeus must send another to restore the number of the flock.
No human ship has ever passed there.
When one tries to enter, the waves and raging gusts of fire engulf ship timbers and the bodies of the men.
Only the famous Argo sailed through there returning from the visit with Aeetes.
The current hurled the ship towards the rocks, but Hera, who loved Jason, led them safe.
Taking the second way, you meet two rocks: one reaches up to heaven with its peak, surrounded by blue fog that never clears.
No light comes through there, even in the summer.
No man could climb it or set foot upon it, even if he had twenty hands and feet.
The rock is sheer, as if it had been polished.
Right in the middle lies a murky cave That faces west, towards dark Erebus.
Steer your ship past it, great Odysseus.
The hollow cave is so high up, no man could shoot it with an arrow.
There lives Scylla, howling and barking horribly; her voice is puppylike, but she is dangerous; even a god would be afraid of her.
She has twelve dangling legs and six long necks with a gruesome head on each, and in each face three rows of crowded teeth, pregnant with death.
Her belly slumps inside the hollow cave; she keeps her heads above the yawning chasm and scopes around the rock, and hunts for fish.
She catches dolphins, seals, and sometimes even enormous whales--Queen Amphitrite, ruler of roaring waters, nurtures many creatures.
No sailors ever pass that way unharmed.
She snatches one man with each mouth from off each dark-prowed ship.
The other rock is near, enough to shoot an arrow right across.
This second rock is lower down, and on it there grows a fig tree with thick leaves.
Beneath, divine Charybdis sucks black water down.
Three times a day she spurts it up; three times she glugs it down.
Avoid that place when she is swallowing the water.
No one could save you from death then, even great Poseidon.
Row fast, and steer your ship alongside Scylla, since it is better if you lose six men than all of them.'
I answered, 'Goddess, please, tell me the truth: is there no other way?
Or can I somehow circumvent Charybdis and stop that Scylla when she tries to kill my men?'
The goddess answered, 'No, you fool!
Your mind is still obsessed with deeds of war.
But now you must surrender to the gods.
She is not mortal.
She is deathless evil, terrible, wild and cruel.
You cannot fight her.
The best solution and the only way is flight.
I am afraid if you take time to arm beside the rock, she will attack again with all six heads and take six more.
So row away with all your might, and call on Scylla's mother, Cratais, Great Force, who bore her as a blight on humankind.
Go fast, before the goddess strikes again.’

——-

Odysseus and his men sail onwards, towards the dual threat of Charybdis and Scylla, and prepare themselves for calamity.

'Dear friends! We are experienced in danger.
This is not worse than the time the Cyclops captured us, and forced us to remain inside his cave.
We got away that time, thanks to my skill and brains and strategy.
Remember that.
Come on then, all of you, and trust my words.
Sit on your benches, strike the swelling deep with oars, since Zeus may grant us a way out from this disaster also.
Pilot, listen: these are your orders.
As you hold the rudder, direct the ship away from that dark smoke and rising wave, and head towards the rock; if the ship veers the other way, you will endanger us.'
They promptly followed orders.
I did not mention Scylla, since she meant inevitable death, and if they knew,
the men would drop the oars and go and huddle down in the hold in fear.
Then I ignored Circe's advice that I should not bear arms; it was too hard for me.
I dressed myself in glorious armor; in my hands I took
two long spears, and I climbed up on the forecastle.
I thought that rocky Scylla would appear from that direction, to destroy my men.
So we rowed through the narrow strait in tears.
On one side, Scylla; on the other, shining Charybdis with a dreadful gurgling noise sucked down the water.
When she spewed it out, she seethed, all churning like a boiling cauldron on a huge fire.
The froth flew high, to spatter the topmost rocks on either side.
But when she swallowed back the sea, she seemed all stirred from inside, and the rock around was roaring dreadfully, and the dark-blue sand below was visible.
The men were seized by fear.
But while our frightened gaze was on Charybdis, Scylla snatched six men from the ship--my strongest, best fighters.
Looking back from down below, I saw their feet and hands up high, as they were carried off.
In agony they cried to me and called my name their final words.
As when a fisherman out on a cliff casts his long rod and line set round with oxhorn to trick the little fishes with his bait; when one is caught, he flings it gasping back onto the shore- so those men gasped as Scylla lifted them up high to her rocky cave and at the entrance ate them up--still screaming, still reaching out to me in their death throes.
That was the most heartrending sight I saw in all the time I suffered on the sea.
Free from the rocks of Scylla and Charybdis we quickly reached the island of the god, Hyperion's son Helius, the Sun God.