This is William Pye's sculpture "Charybdis." Homer (that author you had to read in college) tells us that because Charybdis had stolen the oxen of Hercules, Zeus struck her with a thunderbolt and changed her into a whirlpool whose vortex swallowed up ships. In Charybdis, the circular movement of water inside a transparent acrylic cylinder forms an air-core vortex in the centre. Steps wrap around the cylinder and allow spectators to view the vortex from above.
2 comments:
Nice Greek mythology reference there. The phrase "Scylla and Charybis" refers back to the scene in the Odyssey where it is described that to avoid one of the two monsters put one in peril of the other. It is used similarly in modern language.
Thanks. Once again, you impress me with the fact you never forgot all that information that was pumped into our brains during college.
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