This is the legend, from ancient times, about two terrible giants, Scilla and Cariddi, guarding the strait of Messina.
The strait of Messina
The two giants, swallowing the water in the passage from Tyrrhenian to Ionian Sea, caused innumerable shipwrecks and losses of unlucky sailors. Scilla and Cariddi, between Reggio and Messina are at the mouth of the Strait of Messina.
Cariddi was the daughter of Poseidon and the Earth and, during her life as a woman, had shown great voracity. When Heracles crossed the Strait with the herds of Gerion, Cariddi devoured animals. Zeus punished her turning her into a monster: she devoured the ships that passed nearby.
Cariddi
In front of Cariddi, on the opposite shore of the Strait, there was another monster, Scilla, hidden in the deep and gloomy cave, which opened in the smooth and polished rock, inaccessible to mortals. Scilla is a female figure, surrounded by six ferocious dogs, devouring everything that passes nearby.
Scilla
The crossing of a Strait represented the overcoming of boundaries between the known and the unknown, the control of the adverse forces of nature. Those dangerous areas were usually idenfied with monsters who guarded the passage and threatened anyone who approached.
Today Scilla is a very famous seaside place, in Calabria