NZ4250 : William Pye's 'Charybdis', Seaham Hall Hotel
taken 14 years ago, near to Seaham, County Durham, England
'Charybdis' by artist William Pye is a water sculpture installed in front of Seaham Hall Hotel in 2000.
The sirens Charybdis and Scylla resided in the Sicilian Sea. Homer 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. The cylinder was manufactured in Grand Junction, Colorado.
See Link for this and other works of William Pye
Article in the blog, 'Travelogue of an Armchair Traveller' Link