Hi, is there a word or phrase for having no good choices or options. I heard someone say something like "sythian choice". I'm not sure what the actual word is but it refers to a scenario when you must choose between unfavorable options.
Between a rock and a hard place or another is damned if you do and damned if you don't. I'm not too sure there is a single word that expresses this particular frustration as it deserves.
state of uncertainty or perplexity especially as requiring a choice between equally unfavorable options
there is hobson's choice (which is no choice at all)
--the story i've heard (could be true, could be just a story) is of an inn keepper named hobson who also had horses for hire.
you could ask for any particular horse, but what you got was hobson's choice. (take it or or leave it)
not quite the same as having no good choices, (sofie's choice?--from the book of the same name?)
>a choice between equally unfavorable options
a.k.a. a quandary, or plight
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there is hobson's choice (which is no choice at all)
--the story i've heard (could be true, could be just a story) is of an inn keepper named hobson who also had horses for hire.
you could ask for any particular horse, but what you got was hobson's choice. (take it or or leave it)
not quite the same as having no good choices, (sofie's choice?--from the book of the same name?)
I thnk what you got was the horse closest to the door to the barn at the moment Hobson went looking for a horse. So it might not have been a bad horse, just the close horse.
Not to be confused with a hobson jobson.
To add to the other phrases: between the horns of a dilemma.
> the close horse
well, at least it was well-dressed.
Up the crick without a paddle, is another one.
hi stervius, and welcome.
I think you might have heard something lile "a Scyllian choice", which is a reference to the Greek legend that is the origin of the expression noted by of Troy - between a rock and a hard place. The rock-dewlling monster was
Scylla and Charybdis was a whirlpool: sailing the strait between them indeed left Odysseus no good options.
Thanks for the responses. Very helpful.
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Mavrick posted:
hi stervius, and welcome.
I think you might have heard something like "a Scyllian choice", which is a reference to the Greek legend that is the origin of the expression noted by of Troy - between a rock and a hard place. The rock-dewlling monster was Scylla and Charybdis was a whirlpool: sailing the strait between them indeed left Odysseus no good options.
Hi new poster stervius, welcome and stick around.
And Maverick, you must take care with whom you credit. 
Your slip of miss-crediting of troy and and not properly crediting Miss Consuello might make being "between a rock and a hard place" seem like a piece of cake. 
Not to be confused with a hobson jobson. Stop calling me jobson.
You can call me Ray, or you can call me Jay, but you don't has to call me Jobson.
actually, milo, i know i wouldn't mind, and i suspect Consuela, too, might enjoy getting Mav stuck between us..
i don't know about the rock, but i can guess (accurately) about the hard place!
(of course mav might want to mind his quotes to avoid such a dilemma.. spoil sport that he is!)
Speaking of which, for whom, exactly, is it preferable to be caught between the horns of a dilemma?
Good question. I'm more used to "on the horns of a dilemma." At the risk of being called a Ghit:
On the horns of a dilemma: 142,000
Between the horns of a dilemma: 333
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You can call me Ray, or you can call me Jay, but you don't has to call me Jobson.
Why has it become my plight to correct the sage wisdom of the erstwhile Father Stevereno?
Rather,
You can call me Ray, or you can call me Jay; but you doesn't have to call me Mister Jobson. 
Ed: Oops!
I am easily corrected by my betters. It is something to which I become accustomed over the years. That, perhaps, is why God invented bishops and appellate courts and milums.
And bananas. Father Steve was overturned on a peel.
I originally threw out "horns of a dilemma" but the preposition attached to it was not anything crucial to me. Although, it does make sense to me to say "between" in that one has not yet made one of two undesirable choices. Each horn represents the undesirable result of one of the choices. But if the world wants to say "on the horns" -- I suppose it's as if the predicament itself were as painful as being skewered by two horns -- then fine by me. I'd much rather spend my energy trying to get people to use their turn signals.
Ah, me! And I thought I was just being lewd!
Quite right Milo - slap me with a wet fish!
I'll not chicken out of making reparations to either fair that calls my foul