STRAIT OF MESSINA, the narrow body of water separating the eastern tip of Sicily (Punta del Faro) and the western tip of Calabria (Punta Pezzo) in the south of Italy. The strait is the supposed location of Scylla and Charybdis, the mythical sea monster and whirlpool between which Homer’s Odysseus had to choose on his voyage home. It connects the Tyrrhenian Sea to the north with the Ionian Sea to the south, within the central Mediterranean.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

‘A perilous choice,’ The Economist, March 30th 2019, p71.