Between Scylla and Charybdis - Между Сциллой и Харибдой
The phrase between Scylla and Charybdis means
between two difficulties or two dangers equally serious:
if a person has escaped from one he runs into the other.
In the Odyssey Scylla is a dreadful sea monster, with
6 heads, 12 feet and a voice like the yelp of a dog. In
later authors and in art she is a mermaid, with dog’s
heads. She dwelt in a cave in a high rock, out of which
she stuck her heads, fishing for marine creatures, and
snatching the seamen out of passing ships. Within a
bowshot there was another rock under which dwelt
Charybdis, who thrice a day sucked in and thrice spouted out the sea water. Between these rocks Odysseus
sailed, and Scylla snatched 6 men out of his ship.
In later classical times Scylla and Charybdis, whose
position is not defined by Homer, were localized in the
Straits of Messina, Scylla on the Italian, Charybdis on
the Sicilian side. In Ovid’s M etamorphoses Scylla appears as a beautiful maiden beloved by the sea deity Glaucus and changed by the jealous Circe into a sea m onster. Another Scylla, sometimes identified with the sea
monster, was a daughter of Nisus, king of Megara.
Nisus had a purple lock of hair with magic power: if
preserved, it would guarantee him life and continued
possession of his kingdom. When Minos besieged Megara, Nisus’ daughter Scylla fell in love with him; she
betrayed her city by cutting off her father’s purple
lock. Nisus was killed or killed himself and became
transformed into a sea eagle. Minos despised Scylla
and brought about her death either by dragging her,
tied, after the ship or by abandoning her, so that she
desperately swam after him and drowned. Scylla then
changed into a sea bird, constantly pursued by the sea
eagle.
1. Выражение между Сциллой и Харибдой восходит к древнегреческим мифам. 2. Один из мифов рассказывает, что Сцилла и Харибда были чудовищами, обитавшими в мессинском проливе. 3. Они сидели на прибрежных скалах и поджидали мореплавателей. 4. Завидев их, чудовища бросались на них и пожирали. 5. По преданию Сцилла некогда была прекрасной нимфой, которую Цирцея из ревности обратила в страшное чудовище. 6. Сцилла бросилась в море и превратилась в скалу. 7. По одному из сказаний Харибда была дочерью Нептуна. 8. Она похитила у Геркулеса часть его стада и в наказание была обращена Юпитером в страшный водоворот. 9. Сцилла и Харибда описаны Гомером в поэме Одиссея. 10. Гомер рассказывает о страшной опасности, которой подвергался корабль Одиссея, проходя между Сциллой и Харибдой. 11. Выражение между Сциллой и Харибдой означает ‘находиться между опасностями, грозящими с двух сторон’.