Scylla (pronounce /ˈsɪlə/), or Skylla (Greek: Σκύλλα) was one of the two monsters in Greek mythology (the other being Charybdis) that lived on either side of a narrow channel of water. The two sides of the strait were within an arrow's range of each other—so close that sailors attempting to avoid Charybdis would pass too close to Scylla and vice versa. Scylla is one of the few place names used in the Odyssey which have persisted unchanged till the present day. At the entry to the Straits of Messiana, the city of Scylla, perched on a cliff 'that beetles o're his base into the sea' still dominated the treacherous strip of water separating Sicily from the mainland The name 'Scylla' is derived from a Semitic word skoula and the full title of the promontory was Skoula Kart's, the sheer rock.