In Virgil's Aeneid
Aeneas observes Polyphemus as he leads his flocks down to the sea after Achaemenides re-tells the story of how Odysseus and his men escaped Polyphemus in Homer's Odyssey. Polyphemus is described as using a “lopped pine tree” as a walking staff. Once Polyphemus reaches the sea, he washes his oozing eye socket with water and groans painfully. Achaemenides is taken aboard Aeneas’ vessel and they begin to row away. Polyphemus hears them and gives chase into the sea, but is unable to reach them. He then lets out a great roar and the rest of the cyclopes in Polyphemus’ tribe come down to the shore and watch as Aeneas safely sails away. Polyphemus is often portrayed with two empty eye sockets and his actual eye located in the middle on his forehead.
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“The next Augustan age will dawn on the other side of the Atlantic. There will, perhaps, be a Thucydides at Boston, a Xenophon at New York, and, in time, a Virgil at Mexico, and a Newton at Peru. At last, some curious traveller from Lima will visit England and give a description of the ruins of St Paul’s, like the editions of Balbec and Palmyra.”
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