Proper noun
Charybdis
- A dangerous whirlpool on the coast of Sicily opposite Scylla on the Italian coast.
1837, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], “Chapter XII. Lady Marchmont’s Journal.”, in Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides. […], volume III, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 85:I have never yet been able to steer my lovers through the Scylla of presence, or the Charybdis of absence.
- (Greek mythology) A personification of the above whirlpool as a female monster.
- Any dangerous whirlpool.
1638, Sir Thomas Herbert, Some yeares travels into divers parts of Asia and Afrique:…that night, wee ſailed merrily by the Maſcarenas, a Charybdis in 21 degrees, var.13 and 17 minutes…
1832, James Bell, A system of geography, popular and scientific:The tide here sets in alternately from N. to S. and from S. to N., which causes the whirlpool of Galofaro, the Charybdis of the ancients.
- 1842 Schiller, Friedrich poem Der Taucher (written in 1797) published in English in Blackwood's Magazine volume 52
- Lo! the wave that for ever devours the wave / Casts roaringly up the charybdis again…
Translations
Greek mythological monster