Scilla & Cariddi

This is the legend, from ancient times, about two terrible giants, Scilla and Cariddi, guarding the strait of Messina.

The strait of Messina

The two giants, swallowing the water in the passage from Tyrrhenian to Ionian Sea, caused innumerable shipwrecks and losses of unluckysailors.Scilla and Cariddi, between Reggio and Messinaare at the mouth of the Strait of Messina.

Cariddi was the daughter of Poseidon and theEarth and, during her life as a woman, had shown great voracity.When Heracles crossed the Strait with the herdsof Gerion, Cariddi devoured animals.Zeus punished her turning her into a monster:she devoured the ships that passed nearby.

Cariddi

In front of Cariddi, on the opposite shore of theStrait, there was another monster, Scilla,hidden in the deep and gloomy cave, whichopened in the smooth and polished rock,inaccessible to mortals.Scilla is a female figure, surrounded by six ferocious dogs, devouring everything thatpasses nearby.

Scilla

The crossing of a Strait represented the overcoming of boundaries between theknown and the unknown, the control ofthe adverse forces of nature.Those dangerous areas were usually idenfiedwith monsters who guarded the passage andthreatened anyone who approached.

Today Scilla is a very famous seaside place, in Calabria