The story of Scylla and Charybdis
Two maidens turned monster - and the deadly peril found in the watery grave between them. Scylla begins as a beautiful but lonely orphan raised by wolves. Nisus, the rightful but unlucky king of Egypt, falls in love and weds her - not realizing that it might be impossible to tame the wild ways of the wolf-girl. Betrayal leads to Scylla's transformation into a sea monster that is half Nereid and half wolf pack. One half lures; the other devours. Charybdis becomes accursed through her own caprice. Having spent her youth as a spoiled princess, she is transformed into a monster as greedy for seawater as she had been for the objects of her desire. Twice a day she drinks the tide, and any ships sailing in it. Twice a day she spits it out again, corpses and all. This is the exciting saga of Scylla and Charybdis and the mayhem caused when they are brought together in a swirling, narrow passage through which many ships and men must pass. It tells of those who meet their death there and of the perils encountered by the hero Ulysses in that deadly strait.
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