“He was no coward, O Cyclops, whose comrades thou didst so foully slay in thy den.  Justly art thou punished, monster, that devourest thy guests in thy dwelling.  May the Gods make thee suffer worse things than these!”

Then the Cyclops in his wrath brake off the top of a great hill, a mighty rock, and hurled it where he had heard the voice.  Right in front of the ship’s bow it fell, and a great wave rose as it sank, and washed the ship back to the shore.  But I seized a long pole with both hands, and pushed the ship from the land, and bade my comrades ply their oars, nodding with my head, for I would not speak, lest the Cyclops should know where we were.  Then they rowed with all their might and main.

[Illustration:  THE CYCLOPS IN HIS WRATH BRAKE OFF THE TOP OF A GREAT HILL]

And when we had gotten twice as far as before I made as if I would speak again; but my comrades sought to hinder me, saying, “Nay, my lord, anger not the giant any more.  Surely we thought we were lost before, when he threw the great rock, and washed our ship back to the shore.  And if he hear thee now, he may crush our ship and us, for the man throws a mighty bolt, and throws it far.”

But I would not be persuaded, but stood up and said, “Hear, Cyclops!  If any man ask who blinded thee, say that it was the warrior Ulysses, son of Laertes, dwelling in Ithaca.”

CIRCE’S PALACE

By Nathaniel Hawthorne

At one time in the course of Ulysses’ weary voyage, he arrived at an island that looked very green and pleasant, but the name of which was unknown to him.  For, only a little while before he came thither, he had met with a terrible hurricane, or rather a great many hurricanes at once, which drove his fleet of vessels into a strange part of the sea, where neither himself nor any of his mariners had ever sailed.  This misfortune was entirely owing to the foolish curiosity of his shipmates, who, while Ulysses lay asleep, had untied some very bulky leathern bags, in which they supposed a valuable treasure to be concealed.  But in each of these stout bags, King AEolus, the ruler of the winds, had tied up a tempest, and had given it to Ulysses to keep, in order that he might be sure of a favorable passage homeward to Ithaca; and when the strings were loosened, forth rushed the whistling blasts, like air out of a blown bladder, whitening the sea with foam, and scattering the vessels nobody could tell whither.

Immediately after escaping from this peril, a still greater one had befallen him.  Scudding before the hurricane, he reached a place which, as he afterwards found, was called Laestrygonia, where some monstrous giants had eaten up many of his companions, and had sunk every one of his vessels, except that in which he himself sailed, by flinging great masses of rock at them, from the cliffs along the shore.  After going through such troubles as these, you cannot wonder