Ulysses was very unwilling to join the expedition to Troy, and pretended to be mad. Thus, when Palamēdês came to summon him to the war, he was plowing the sand of the seashore and sowing it with salt. _Ulysses’s bow._ Only Ulysses could draw this bow, and he could shoot an arrow from it through twelve rings. William the Conqueror had a bow which no arm but his own could bend. Robin Hood’s bow could be bent by no hand but his own. ⁂ Statius says that no one but Kapăneus [_Kap´.a.nuce_] could poise his spear. His cypress spear with steel encircled shone, Not to be poised but by his hand alone. _Thebaid_, v. _Ulysses’s Dog_, Argus, which recognized his master after an absence of twelve years. (See THERON, King Roderick’s dog.) =Ulysses and Polyphemos.= Ulysses and his crew, having reached the island of Sicily, strayed into the cave of Polyphēmos, the giant Cyclops. Soon as the monster returned and saw the strangers, he seized two of them, and, having dashed out their brains, made his supper off them, “nor entrails left, nor yet their marrowy bones;” then stretched he his huge carcass on the floor, and went to sleep. Next morning he caught up two others, devoured them for his breakfast, then stalked forth into the open air, driving his flocks before him. At sun-down he returned, seized other two for his supper and after quaffing three bowls of wine, fell asleep. Then it was that Ulysses bored out the giant’s eye with a green olive stake heated in the fire. The monster roared with pain, and after searching in vain to seize some of his tormentors, removed the rock from the mouth of the cave to let out his goats and sheep. Ulysses and his companions escaped at the same time by attaching themselves to the bellies of the sheep, and made for their ship. Polyphemos hurled rocks at the vessel, and nearly succeeded in sinking it, but the fugitives made good their flight, and the blinded monster was left lamenting.--Homer, _Odyssey_, ix.