History of the Peloponnesian War

Now the strait is that arm of the sea between Rhegium and Messene, at the point where Sicily is nearest the mainland; and it is the Charybdis, so called, through which Odysseus is said to have sailed. On account of its narrowness and because the water falls into it from two great seas, the Etruscan and the Sicilian, and is full of currents, it has naturally been considered dangerous.

Now it was in this strait that the Syracusans and their allieswere compelled one day toward evening to fight for a vessel which was making the passage; and with thirty odd ships they put out against sixteen Athenian and eight Rhegian ships.

They were defeated by the Athenians, and hastily sailed back, each contingent as best it could, to their own camps, having lost one ship; and night came on while they were in action. After this the Locrians left the territory of the Rhegians;

and the ships of the Syracusans and their allies assembled at Peloris in Messene, where they anchored and were joined by their land-forces. The Athenians and the Rhegians sailed up, and seeing that the Syracusan ships were unmanned attacked them;

but they themselves lost one ship, which was caught by a grappling-iron cast upon it, the crew having leaped overboard.