“When he had finished he rose up, and, like a raging bull that cannot
stand still, wandered off into the woods. Acis and I thought no more of
him, till on a sudden he came to a spot which gave him a view of us as
we sat. ‘I see you,’ he exclaimed, ‘and I will make this the last of
your love-meetings.’ His voice was a roar such as an angry Cyclops alone
could utter. Ætna trembled at the sound. I, overcome with terror,
plunged into the water. Acis turned and fled, crying, ‘Save me, Galatea,
save me, my parents!’ The Cyclops pursued him, and tearing a rock from
the side of the mountain hurled it at him. Though only a corner of it
touched him, it overwhelmed him.
“All that fate left in my power I did for Acis. I endowed him with the
honors of his grandfather, the river-god. The purple blood flowed out
from under the rock, but by degrees grew paler and looked like the
stream of a river rendered turbid by rains, and in time it became clear.
The rock cleaved open, and the water, as it gushed from the chasm,
uttered a pleasing murmur.”
Thus Acis was changed into a river, and the river retains the name of
Acis.
Dryden, in his “Cymon and Iphigenia,” has told the story of a clown
converted into a gentleman by the power of love, in a way that shows
traces of kindred to the old story of Galatea and the Cyclops.
“What not his father’s care nor tutor’s art
Could plant with pains in his unpolished heart,
The best instructor, Love, at once inspired,
As barren grounds to fruitfulness are fired.
Love taught him shame, and shame with love at strife
Soon taught the sweet civilities of life.”
————
CHAPTER XXVII
THE TROJAN WAR
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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