"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."
DRYDEN, AEneid, BOOK III
Scarcely had Achemenides finished his story when Polyphemus himself appeared coming down from the mountain in the midst of his flocks. 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. Hearing the voices of the rowers and the sweep of their oars, the blind giant stretched out his hands in the direction of the sound, seeking to seize his enemies, as he took them to be. But the Trojans had got beyond his reach. Then in his rage and disappointment the monster raised a mighty shout which echoed from the mountain sides and brought forth his brethren from their woods and caves.
"To heaven he lifts a monstrous roar,
Which sends a shudder through the waves,
Shakes to its base the Italian shore,
And echoing runs through AEtna's caves.
From rocks and woods the Cyclop host
Rush startled forth, and crowd the coast.
There glaring fierce we see them stand
In idle rage, a hideous band,
The sons of AEtna, carrying high
Their towering summits to the sky."
CONINGTON, AEneid, BOOK III.
After thus escaping from the terrible Polyphemus, the Trojan wanderers sailed along the coasts of Sicily, and coming to the north-west extremity of the island, they put ashore at Drep'a-num. Here AEneas met with a misfortune which none of the prophets had predicted. This was the death of his venerable father Anchises.
"After endless labors (often tossed
By raging storms and driven on every coast),
My dear, dear father, spent with age, I lost—
Ease of my cares, and solace of my pain,
Saved through a thousand toils, but saved in vain!
The prophet, who my future woes revealed,
Yet this, the greatest and the worst, concealed,
And dire Celaeno, whose foreboding skill
Denounced all else, was silent of this ill."
DRYDEN, AEneid, BOOK III.
III. A GREAT STORM—ARRIVAL IN CARTHAGE.
Thus far you have read the story of the Trojan exiles as it was told by AEneas himself to Di'do, queen of Carthage, at whose court we shall soon find him, after a dreadful storm which scattered his ships, sinking one, and driving the rest upon the coast of Africa. The narrative occupies the second and third books of the AEneid. In the first book the poet begins by telling of Juno's unrelenting hate, which was the chief cause of all the evils that befell the Trojans.
Arms and the man I sing, who, forced by fate,
And haughty Juno's unrelenting hate,
Expelled and exiled, left the Trojan shore.
Long labors, both by sea and land he bore.
DRYDEN, AEneid, BOOK I.
It was at Juno's request that AE'o-lus, god of the winds, raised the great storm, just at the time when the wanderers, after leaving Drepanum, were about to direct their course towards the destined Hesperian land. For though AEneas and his companions, following the advice of Helenus, had offered prayers and sacrifices to the haughty goddess, still her anger was not appeased. She could not forget the judgment of Paris, or the prophecy that through the Trojan race was to come destruction on the city she loved. And so when she saw the ships of AEneas sailing towards the Italian coast, she gave vent to her anger in bitter words. "Must I then," said she, "desist from my purpose? Am I, the queen of heaven, not able to prevent the Trojans from establishing their kingdom in Italy? Who then will hereafter worship Juno or offer sacrifices on her altars?" With such thoughts inflaming her breast, the goddess hastened to AE-o'lia, the home of storms where dwelt AEolus, king of the winds. AEolia was one of the ancient names of the islands between Italy and Sicily, now known as the Lipari Islands. In a vast cave, in one of those islands king AEolus held the winds imprisoned and controlled their fury lest they should destroy the world—