the Week of Proper 26 / Ordinary 31
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Bible Encyclopedias
Charybdis
Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature
or in Greek mythology, was the daughter of Neptune and the Earth.- The myth makes her residence-the Sicilian strait. There is a dangerous eddy there, perhaps more formidable to the light-built ships of the ancients than it appears to us. - Charybdis is represented as, a rapacious woman, who robbed Hercules of his herds, land was therefore hurled into the sea by Jupiter's lightnings, still retaining her old nature. She lived in a rock under an overhanging fig-tree, and threatened. all passers-by with death and destruction. In order to still her hunger she devoured whole ships, with all in them. Three times every day she would swallow the sea-water and throw it out again with a loud noise, drowning everything. that came within reach. On the opposite. shore Scylla also destroyed the ships of mariners. Hence the Latin proverb, "Incidit in Scyllam cupiens vitare Charybdin."
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McClintock, John. Strong, James. Entry for 'Charybdis'. Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature. https://www.studylight.org/encyclopedias/eng/tce/c/charybdis.html. Harper & Brothers. New York. 1870.
