What two dangers guarded the passage between Sicily and Italy?

The two dangers that guarded the passage between Sicily and Italy were Scylla and Charybdis. In Homer’s Odyssey, the sea monsters Scylla and Charybdis presented Odysseus and his men with a treacherous choice as they sailed between Sicily and Italy. Scylla was a six-headed monster who devoured the sailors in any ship that passed too close to her cave, while Charybdis was a giant whirlpool that sucked ships down to the depths of the sea. Odysseus chose to sail past Scylla, where he lost 6 crewmen, rather than risk losing his entire ship to Charybdis.