Meaning
Trapped between two dangers, where escaping one means running into the other - the classical ancestor of between a rock and a hard place. The phrase is for situations with no safe line through, only a choice of losses. Literary register; use it when the trap, not merely the difficulty, is the point. The popular attribution of the Latin line to Shakespeare is wrong - it predates him by four centuries. Regional use: General English; classical Greek origin via medieval Latin.
Origin
In Book XII of the Odyssey, Circe tells Odysseus he must pass two monsters on his way home: sailing nearer Scylla's rock means losing six crewmen to her six heads, while hugging Charybdis risks the whole ship in her whirlpool - the earliest recorded choice of the lesser evil. Greek geography placed them on opposite sides of the Strait of Messina, close enough that avoiding one brought you within reach of the other. The English allusion descends from a medieval Latin line, Walter of Chatillon's Alexandreis (12th century): incidit in Scyllam cupiens vitare Charybdim - into Scylla he fell, wishing to avoid Charybdis - a formula often credited to Shakespeare four centuries later. Erasmus collected it in his Adagia (1515) with three shades of application, and English writers took it up: a 1547 rendering of William of Malmesbury promised to steer safely between Scylla and Charybdis, Gillray drew Britannia between the two in 1793, and Shelley in 1820 saw the vessel of the state driven between the Scylla and Charybdis of anarchy and despotism.
Research Sources
References used to check this entry’s meaning, history, or documented forms.
Variants
- a Scylla and Charybdis choice
- caught between Scylla and Charybdis
- fall into Scylla avoiding Charybdis
Usage Examples
- With margins this thin the retailer sailed between Scylla and Charybdis: raise prices or cut the loyalty scheme.
- The committee was caught between Scylla and Charybdis - publish and terrify the city, or sit on the report and leak.
- Every central bank knows the strait: choke lending and hit jobs, or feed inflation. Scylla and Charybdis.