in Ancient Geography, a rock in the Fretum Siculum, near the coast of Italy, dangerous to shipping, opposite to Charybdis, a whirlpool on the coast of Sicily, and both of them famous in mythology. Scylla and Charybdis have been almost subdued by the repeated convulsions of this part of the earth, and by the violence of the current, which is continually increasing the breadth of the straits. If proper allowance be made for these circumstances, we shall acquit the ancients of exaggeration, notwithstanding the dreadful colours in which they have painted this passage. It is formed by a low peninsula called Cape Pelorus, stretching eastward on the Sicilian side, immediately within which lies the whirlpool of Charybdis; and by the rocks of Sylla, which a few miles below, on the Calabrian shore, project westward. The current runs with surprising force from the one to the other alternately in the direction of the tide, and the tides themselves are very irregular. Thus vessels, by shunning the one, were in the utmost danger of being swallowed up by the other.

At present, in moderate weather, when the tide is either at ebb or flood, boats pass across the whirlpool; but, in general, it is like the meeting of two contending currents, with a number of eddies all around; and even now, there is scarcely a winter in which there are not some wrecks.