No mention of Scylla – how to fight that nightmare? –
for fear the men would panic, desert their oars
and huddle down and stow themselves away.
– Homer
The Odyssey, Book 12, lines 242-244. As Odysseus shouts orders to his men to row harder to escape the whirlpool Charybdis, he neglects to tell them about Scylla. He fails to mention Circe’s prophecy that Scylla will kill six of his men, because he doesn’t want to panic his crew.