Contemporary Myths of the Strait of Messina
A golden Madonna and Neptune famously overlook the Strait of Messina from the city of Messina, but south along the coast of Sicily, other guardians of the sea can be found, like this one, near the town of Roccalumera.
About this place:
On his way home from the Trojan Wars, Homer's Odysseus must make a cruel choice: to make his way around the bottom of Italy from the Ionian Sea to the Aeolian Sea, he had to pass close by either the six-headed rock-dwelling human-eating monster Scylla or the sea-monster Charybdis, whose giant mouth created man-sucking whirlpools. He chose Scylla, sacrificing a few good men for the sake of the rest of the ship.
Today, those who navigate the Strait of Messina between the island of Sicily and the "boot" of Italy have easier choices -- will they take the car ferry across, or a hydrofoil? The Strait's very real but natural whirlpool, meanwhile, takes down few of the many passing oil tankers.
Messina, Regione Autonoma Siciliana, IT
Discovered by Stephanie Fysh
on 27 April 2008.
428 views.
