Charops and Charŏpes, a Trojan killed by Ulysses. Homer, Iliad.——A powerful Epirot who assisted Flaminius when making war against Philip the king of Macedonia. Plutarch, Titus Flamininus.——The first decennial archon at Athens. Paterculus, bk. 1, ch. 8.
Charybdis, a dangerous whirlpool on the coast of Sicily, opposite another whirlpool called Scylla, on the coast of Italy. It was very dangerous to sailors, and it proved fatal to part of the fleet of Ulysses. The exact situation of the Charybdis is not discovered by the moderns, as no whirlpool sufficiently tremendous is now found to correspond with the descriptions of the ancients. The words,
Incidit in Scyllam qui vult vitare Charybdim,
became a proverb, to show that in our eagerness to avoid one evil, we often fall into a greater. The name of Charybdis was properly bestowed on mistresses who repay affection and tenderness with ingratitude. It is supposed that Charybdis was an avaricious woman, who stole the oxen of Hercules, for which theft she was struck with thunder by Jupiter, and changed into a whirlpool. Lycophron, Cassandra.—Homer, Odyssey, bk. 12.—Propertius, bk. 3, poem 11.—Silius Italicus, bk. 14.—Ovid, Ex Ponto, bk. 4, ltr. 10; Amores, bk. 2, poem 16.—Virgil, Æneid, bk. 3, li. 420.
Chaubi and Chauci, people of Germany, supposed to inhabit the country now called Friesland and Bremen.
Chaula, a village of Egypt.
Chauros. See: [Caurus].
Chelæ, a Greek word (χηλη), signifying claws, which is applied to the Scorpion, one of the signs of the zodiac, and lies, according to the ancients, contiguous to Virgo. Virgil, Georgics, bk. 1, li. 33.
Cheles, a satrap of Seleucus, &c.
Chelĭdon, a mistress of Verres. Cicero, Against Verres, bk. 1, ch. 40.