LXXXI. "'His one great orb, deep in the monster's head
We drive the pointed weapon, joy'd at last
To wreak such vengeance for our comrades dead.
But fly, unhappy Trojans, fly, and cast
Your cables from the shore. Such and so vast
As Polyphemus, when the cave's huge door
Shuts on his flocks, and for his night's repast
He milks them, lo! a hundred Cyclops more		721
Roam on the lofty hills, and range the winding shore.
LXXXII. "'Now thrice the Moon hath filled her horns with light,
And still in woods and lonely dens I lie,
And see the Cyclops stalk from height to height,
And hear their tramp, and tremble at their cry.
My food—hard berries that the boughs supply,
And roots of grass. Thus wandering, as I scanned
The distant ocean with despairing eye,
I saw your ships first bearing to the land,		730
And vowed, whoe'er ye proved, the strangers' slave to stand.
LXXXIII. "'Enough, these monsters to escape; O take
My life, and tear me as you will from day,
Rather than these devour me!'—Scarce he spake,
When from the mountains to the well-known bay,
The shepherd Polyphemus gropes his way;
Huge, hideous, horrible in shape and show,
And visionless. A pine-trunk serves to stay
And guide his footsteps, and around him go		739
The sheep, his only joy and solace of his woe.
LXXXIV. "Down came the giant, wading in the main,
And rinsed his gory socket from the tide,
Gnashing his teeth and moaning in his pain.
On through the deep he stalks with awful stride,
So tall, the billows scarcely wet his side.
Forthwith our flight we hasten, prickt with fear,
On board—'twas due—we let the suppliant hide,
Then, mute and breathless, cut the stern-ropes clear,		748
Bend to the emulous oar, and sweep the whitening mere.
LXXXV. "He heard, and turned his footsteps to the sound.
Short of its mark the huge arm idly fell
Outstretched, and swifter than his stride he found
The Ionian waves. Then rose a monstrous yell;
All Ocean shudders and her waves upswell;
Far off, Italia trembles with the roar,
And Ætna groans through many a winding cell,
And trooping to the call the Cyclops pour		757
From wood and lofty hill, and crowding fill the shore.
LXXXVI. "We see them scowling impotent, the band
Of Ætna, towering to the stars above,
An awful conclave! Tall as oaks they stand,
Or cypresses—the lofty trees of Jove,
Or cone-clad guardians of Diana's grove.
Fain were we then, in agony of fear,
To shake the canvas to the winds, and rove
At random; natheless, we obey the seer,		766
Who past those fatal rocks had warned us not to steer,

LXXXVII. "Where Scylla here, and there Charybdis lies,
And death lurks double. Backward we essay
Our course, when lo, from out [Pelorus] flies
The North-Wind, sent to waft us on our way.
We pass the place where, mingling with the spray,
Through narrow rocks Pantagia's stream outflows;
We see low-lying Thapsus and the bay
Of Megara. These shores the suppliant shows,		775
Known from the time he shared his wandering chieftain's woes.

LXXXVIII. "Far-stretcht against [Plemmyrium's] wave-beat shore
An island lies, before Sicania's bay,
Now called [Ortygia]—'twas its name of yore.
Hither from distant [Elis,] legends say,
Beneath the seas [Alpheus] stole his way,
And, mingling now with [Arethusa] here,
Mounts, a Sicilian fountain, to the day.
Here we with prayer, obedient to the seer,		784
Invoke the guardian gods to whom the place is dear.