(You may consider this another Peter David tribute post if you like.)
Shortly after updating Aquaman's origin story in the Aquaman: Time & Tide limited series (colloquially known as "AT&T"), Peter David was given an Aquaman ongoing series. In the first issue he made a cosmetic change (longer hair and a beard), and in the second a more drastic one. He also introduced the terrorist who called himself "Charybdis" in the first issue, and Erik Larsen made the mistake of criticizing the character in print. (He must have done so in the letters page of the Comics Buyer's Guide or I wouldn't have seen it otherwise.) Larsen said it was a mistake to mane the character "Charybdis" because "no one knows what that means." First of all, I don't think that's true. I think plenty of people are familiar with the term Charybdis (from the Police song if nowhere else). I think Larsen is unfamilar with the term. He went on to suggest that PAD should have called him something that made more sense, like "Pirhana Guy."
Peter David respnded in his "But I Digress" column with a story about when he himself first read an Aquaman story when he was a little boy. Never having encountered the character before, he pronounced it "ah-KEW-a" man, but that didn't sound quite right, so he went to ask his dad. His dad said that no, it's pronounced Aquaman. then Peter had some other questions, but his dad sent him to the dictionary to look it up. That story probably never happened, but it illustrate two common ways that people learn things: either by asking someone who does know or looking it up themselves. There's also a third way. In issue #2, Charybdis introduced Aquaman to Scylla, a woman he had hired to pretend to be his wife. Aquaman replies: "Scylla... and Charybdis. the creatures of myth. the great jagged rocks... and the deadly whirlpool." So if anyone didn't know the phrase "caught between the Scylla and Charybdis," he certainly knew it after reading it in context.
PAD stayed on Aquaman for nearly 50 issues, and left (IIRC) citing difficulties dealing with his editor. Erik Larsen was hired to replace him shortly after that (which I'm sure Larsen considered a coup). Larsen brought back Charybdis and rechristened him guess what? But Larsen stayed on the title for only 13 issues and left (IIRC) for the same reason Peter David did. PAD got the last laugh a couple of years later, though, when he nicknamed s serial killer "Pirhana Guy" in Supergirl.
NEXT: Zero Hour
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I had never heard the name Charybdis until today, so I looked it up. .As a bonus, Google also suggested this entertaining clip:
Charybdis | That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime (SimulDub Clip)
Those names "Scylla" and "Charybdis" turn up with significant prominence in Mark Waid's "Irredeemable". A pair of significant characters (brothers, actually) use those codenames.
Important supporting characters, as it turns out.
They come from The Odyssey, so naturally I have only read them and have no idea how they're pronounced.
My pronunciation matches Sting's in the song "Wrapped Around Your Fingers." Once again, however, we have a case of words taken from another language, so the pronunciation is never going to match the original. The purists will say you're mispronouncing the words, the hardcore "it's English" types (who will point out that Lord Byron pronounced the Juan in Don Juan to rhyme with "June") will say that the purists are being pompous, and so you're caught between... uh... a rock and a hard place.... or.... something.
I see what you did there!
In a back-back-back burner project of mine in which the protagonist is obsessed with an invented comic-book universe, two of the main villains are Dr. Scy La (he's Dutch-Chinese) and Baron Charybides. I had fun working out the made-up comic book universe and its main characters, but the story I'm actually writing will take time and focus, once I'm finished the current projects.
I see what you did there!
Don't encourage him.
Lord Byron pronounced the Juan in Don Juan to rhyme with "June"
For some reason, this reminds me that Chico Marx's name is properly pronounced CHICK-o, because he was what was known in those days as a "chicken chaser." Later generations shortened the base term to "chicks." (His given name was Leonard.)
Wrapped Around Your Finger
Just after saying I had read all of Irredeemable and was unfamiliar with the name Charybdis! If it was the name of a character I probably didn’t look it up and realize it had classical roots.