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How many of Odysseus' men were killed by Charybdis?
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Charybdis did not directly kill any of Odysseus' men. Odysseus chose to steer his ship closer to Scylla, a six-headed monster, to avoid the risk of Charybdis, a massive whirlpool, engulfing the entire ship. As a result, Scylla killed six of Odysseus' men by snatching them with her heads. Although Charybdis posed a significant threat, she did not directly cause the death of any sailors.
Taking Circe's advice, though he would have preferred to steer closer to Charybdis, Odysseus has his men steer toward Scylla so as not to risk losing the whole ship. He describes her as a "horrible whirlpool" that gulps
the sea-surge down, down
but when she spewed it up—like a cauldron over a raging fire—all her churning depths would seethe and heave—exploding spray showering down to splatter the peaks of both crags at once!
As all the men stare with amazement and horror at the whirlpool's "gaping maw," they can actually see the bottom of the ocean's floor, and this is when Scylla strikes, eating six men at once. After this, the ship sails on to Thrinacia, where Odysseus's men disobey him and eat the sacred cattle belonging to the sun god. As a result, Zeus sends a storm to the sea, hitting the ship with lightning bolts until all the...
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men save Odysseus are thrown from it into the water. Then, the West Wind blows Odysseus back toward Scylla and Charybdis. Just as Charybdis sucked down the ship, Odysseus clung to a fig tree on a cliff, and he waited there for her to spit the ship back up. He says,
like a bat I clung to its trunk for dear life—not a chance
for a good firm foothold there, no clambering up it either,
the roots too far to reach, the boughs too high overhead,
huge swaying branches that overshadowed Charybdis.
But I held on, dead set...waiting for her
to vomit my mast and keep back up again—
Oh how I ached for both! and back they came [...].
Therefore, Charybdis didn't actually kill any of his men, though she almost killed Odysseus himself.
Odysseus faced a number of frightful monsters during his wanderings. One particularly scary monster was the whirlpool (or sea monster) Charybdis, the daughter of Poseidon. Charybdis does not kill any of Odysseus' men--at least not directly. However, at one point Odysseus must traverse the narrow strait between Charybdis and Scylla, a six-headed sea monster. The strait is not large enough to avoid both hazards. Under advice from Circe, Odysseus opts to avoid Charybdis and travel by Scylla. Each of Scylla's heads snaps up one of Odysseus' men, six in all. Thus Charybdis did not physically kill any of Odysseus' men, but her presence led to the death of the six sailors Scylla killed.
For more information, consult this website, which reprints the passages from the Odyssey which reference Charybdis.