Book Twelve:
Question Two- Who are Scylla and Charybdis? Describe them briefly.
Scylla is a twelve legged, six headed siren with three rows of fangs. No one ever gets passed her lair without a crew member dying by her snatching one of them up. She is immortal with no way of killing her or fighting her. The only way to get passed her is to flee her and escape. Charybdis is another siren who creates massive whirlpools to suck sailors into.
Figuratively, these sirens represent a test for Odysseus to see if he can overcome the monsters. He has to escape his first trouble and try not to get sucked into his next. The sirens represent Odysseus' troubles and what he needs to defeat in order to make it home to Ithica.
