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"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; Like him, with mighty strides they stalk from steep to steep." Scarcely had Achemenides finished his story when Polyphemus himself appeared coming down from the mountain in the midst of his flocks.
Such names did Achemenides, of luckless Ulysses' company, point out as he retraced his wanderings along the returning shores. 'Stretched in front of a bay of Sicily lies an islet over against wavebeat Plemyrium; they of old called it Ortygia.
"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 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.
A horrid monster he was, "huge, awful, hideous, ghastly, blind." In his hand he carried the trunk of a pine tree to guide his steps, and striding to the water's edge, he waded far into the sea, yet the waves did not touch his sides. The Trojans now quickly got to their vessels, taking Achemenides with them, and they plied their oars with the utmost speed.
At last, laying aside his terror, he speaks thus: "I am from an Ithacan home, Achemenides by name, set out for Troy in luckless Ulysses' company; poor was my father Adamastus, and would God fortune had stayed thus! Here my comrades abandoned me in the Cyclops' vast cave, mindless of me while they hurry away from the barbarous gates.
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