Charybdis is a giant, enormous, dangerous whirlpool. Charybdis is a female and lives in the water. She is the daughter of Poseidon and Gaia. On the opposite side of Charybdis lives Scylla, another god who is a sea monster. Charybdis isn't really a "sea monster", shes mostly a whirlpool. She lives under the rocks in the water. There are 2 stories explaining how she ended up in the water, but we don't know which one is true. One story says that Charybdis had stolen Hercules' cattle and Hercules told Zeus, so Zeus hit her with a thunderbolt, making her a giant, dangerous whirlpool, only to live in water. The other story is that Poseidon had created storms, and Charybdis would make the waves of the water rise, flooding and destroying the cities and villages, making Zeus so mad, that he punished her by putting her in the water. She swallows the water 3 times a day, and then she throws it back up, causing a whirlpool. This pretty much explains who Charybdis is, hope it helped! ;-)
A whirlpool occurs when opposite currents meet.
Charybdis herself was never seen. She lived under the rocks at the bottom of the Sicilian side of the Straits of Messina, opposite from Scylla. All that was ever seen was a whirlpool. She, and Scylla, were the personification of the dangers of navigating the straits before powered locomotion. The currents made them dangerous to the extreme, and most sailors went around Sicily to avoid them.
If you're talking about Scylla and Charybdis, that is because there is a rock opposite the Strait of Messina called the Scylla, a real geographic feature that Odysseus travels through in Homer's Odyssey. As for Charybdis, there is actually a whirlpool, not very strong, that exists in the Strait of Messia (Which again is a real place between northeastern Sicily and Southwesten Italy).
Scylla is not a country, but a mythical sea monster with 6 heads. Opposite it is Charybdis
Scylla and Charybdis. Scylla (Greek: Σκύλλα) was a horrible creature with six heads and twelve feet. Below the waist her body was made of monsters like dogs who barked unceasingly. She could not move and seized sailors from passing ships and devoured them. Charybdis (Greek: Χάρυβδις) lived opposite Skylla. She was a sea monster, who thrice a day swallowed the water of the sea and then spouted it again, thus forming a whirlpool.
Charybdis, who was a sea monster or goddess whose gigantic whirlpool swirled in the straits of Messina, opposite the cliffs of the monster Skylla. She was probably the goddess of the tides, with her triple drawing-expulsion, mentioned by Homer, representing the three high-low tides of the day. Aristotle also clearly identified her with the tides.
Charybdis was a sea monster or goddess whose gigantic whirlpool swirled in the straits of Messina, opposite the cliffs of the monster Skylla. She was probably the goddess of the tides, with her triple drawing-expulsion, mentioned by Homer, representing the three high-low tides of the day. Aristotle also clearly identified her with the tides. Kharybdis was probably identical to Keto Trienos (the Sea-Monster Three-Times), who was the mother of Skylla and grandmother of the Sicilian giant Polyphemos. Charybdis is described as a daughter of Poseidon (or Pontus) and Gaea, and as a voracious woman,who stole oxen from Heracles, and was hurled by the thunderbolt of Zeus into the sea, where she retained her voracious nature.
The opposite of the underworld is the heavens, and in Greek Mythology, Hades' brother Zeus ruled the heavens.
Ichthyocentaurs (Upper half man, the lower fore-parts of horses, ending in the serpentine tails of fish.) Scylla (Sea goddess who haunted the rocks of certain narrow strait opposite the whirlpool Charybdis) Charybdis (Whirlpool: goddess of the tides, with her triple drawing-expulsion, mentioned by Homer, representing the three high-low tides of the day.) Phorcys (a grey-haired, fish-tailed god, with spiky crab-like skin and crab-claw forelegs/presided over the hidden dangers of the deep.) Ketô (personified the dangers of the sea: specifically a goddess of whales, large sharks, and sea-monsters) All of the above are immortal sea gods and goddesses.
A countercurrent is flowing in the opposite direction of the wind-related current.
In Greek Aletheia means truth. In Greek mythology the waters of Lethe induced one into a state of forgetfulness. Literally aletheia means the opposite of the state of forgetfulness.