WHIRLPOOLS 



The word is now almost exclusively associated with the 

 mythological story of Poseidon and Gaea, in which 

 Charybdis stole the oxen of Hercules and was thunder- 

 struck for her offence by Jupiter, who changed her into 

 the whirlpool situated opposite the rock Scylla, at the 

 entrance to the Strait of Messina, thus originating the 

 phrase "between Scylla and Charybdis" : meaning be- 

 tween two opposing dangers. Some affirm that Hercules 

 killed her himself; others, that Scylla committed the 

 robbery and was killed for it by Hercules, but that her 

 father Phorcus put Charybdis into a cauldron and 

 stewed her in it for so long that she came to life again. 

 Another (the Homeric account) makes Charybdis a male 

 figure who dwelt under an immense fig-tree on the rock, 

 and swallowed up the waters of the sea three times a day 

 and threw them up again. In all these fables we find the 

 characteristics of actual marine whirlpools. Today, the 

 name of the whirlpool has been changed to Calofaro 

 ("La Rema" is also used). The town on the rock, now 

 known as Scilla, was destroyed by an earthquake in 

 1908. 



But the word "Charybdis" was also used a century or 

 so ago to describe any of certain openings supposed to 

 exist at the bottom of the sea — openings through which 

 its waters are received and conveyed by subterranean 

 circulation under land surfaces, to emerge as fountains 

 and springs. 



It was held that if such undersea holes did not exist 

 then the Mediterranean could not be emptied of the 

 enormous quantities of water it receives, so that it would 

 overflow the land of Egypt and other adjacent coasts. 

 It was believed that the greatest of these holes in the sea 

 bed was an immense Charybdis near the Strait's mouth, 

 hidden deeply below the surface, which collected the 

 surplus waters and carried them inland to the spring and 

 fountain sources. 



Dismissing such old legends and fables, modern 



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