Part 5: Between a Rock and a Hard Place
When someone is caught between a rock and a hard place, he or she faces two difficult, unpleasant, dangerous, unacceptable, or undesirable choices.
Here are two examples:
(1) "He was caught between a rock and a hard place. If he accepted the offer, he would have to work long hours with low pay; and if he didn't, he would lose his job."
(2) "They are both my brothers, so I can't go against either of them. I am stuck between a rock and a hard place."
The earliest known use of the phrase is in "Odyssey", a poem by Homer, an eighth-century BC Greek writer.
The poem describes Odysseus' journey home after the Trojan Wars. Odysseus is the king of Ithaka, an island in modern-day Greece. He was among other greeks who had laid siege on the city of Troy for ten years. After defeating the Trojans, Odysseus and his men board their ships to go back home.
Along the way, they run into many dangerous obstacles. At the Straits of Messina, he and his men have to navigate between Charybdis and Scylla. They two live on opposite sides of the narrow channel, and they are any sailor's worst nightmare. Charybdis is a treacherous whirlpool that swallows whole ships, and Scylla is a six-headed monster who devours sailors from passing ships.
The storyteller describes Odysseus' dilemma as akin to being caught between a rock and a hard place. If he too near Charybdis, his ship and men could be swallowed. If he moves too close to Scylla, he or his men could be swallowed.
Odysseus chooses to pass by Scylla, the lesser of the two evils, thinking he would lose fewer men, than passing by Charybdis, the whirlpool.
As Odysseus and his men stare at Charybdis on the other side of the strait, the heads of Scylla swoop down and gobble up six of his sailors.
NOW YOU KNOW!
