eye, huge and round, in the middle of their foreheads. The morning
after their arrival, the Trojans were surprised to see a stranger
running forth from the woods, and with arms outstretched imploring
their protection. Being asked who he was, he said he was a Greek, and
that his name was Ach-e-men'ides. He had been at Troy with Ulysses,
and was one of the companions of that famous warrior in his adventures
after the siege. In their wanderings they had come to Sicily and had
been in the very cave of Pol-y-phe'-mus, the largest and fiercest of
the Cyclops, who had killed several of the unfortunate Greeks.

"I myself," said Achemenides, "saw him seize two of our number and
break their bodies against a rock. I saw their limbs quivering between
his teeth. But Ulysses did not suffer such things to go unpunished,
for when the giant lay asleep, gorged with food, and made drunk with
wine, (which Ulysses had given him) we, having prayed to the gods, and
arranged by lot what part each should perform, crowded around him and
with a sharp weapon bored out his eye, which was as large as the orb
of the sun, and so we avenged the death of our comrades."

But in their flight from the cave, after punishing Polyphemus, the
Greeks left Achemenides behind, and for three months he lived on
berries in the woods. He now warned the Trojans to depart from the
island with all speed, for, he said, a hundred other Cyclops, huge
and savage, dwelt on those shores, tending their flocks among the
hills.

"Such, and so vast as Polypheme appears,
A hundred more this hated island bears;
Like him, in caves they shut their wooly sheep;
Like him their herds on tops of mountains keep;