real history is not so obvious and superficial. There
are accounts of them to be obtained, that differ much from the
representations which are commonly exhibited. The Poets have given a mixed
description: and in lieu of the Deity of the place have introduced these
strange personages, the ideas of whose size were borrowed from sacred
edifices, where the Deity was worshipped. They were Petra, or temples of
Coelus; of the same nature and form as the tower of Orion, which was at no
great distance from them. Some of them had the name of [537]Charon, and
Tarchon: and they were esteemed Pelorian, from the God Alorus, the same as
Coelus and Python. The Grecians confounded the people, who raised these
buildings, with the structures themselves. Strabo places them near
[538]AEtna, and Leontina: and supposes, that they once ruled over that part
of the island. And it is certain that a people styled Cyclopians did
possess that [539]province. Polyphemus is imagined to have been the chief
of this people: and Euripides describes the place of his residence as
towards the foot of the mountain: [540][Greek: Oikeis hup' Aitnei tei
purostaktoi Petrai]. They are represented as a people savage, and lawless,
and delighting in human flesh. Hence it is prophesied by Cassandra, as a
curse upon Ulysses, that he would one day be forced to seek for refuge in a
Cyclopian [541]mansion. And when he arrives under the roof of Polyphemus,
and makes inquiry about his host, and particularly upon what he fed; he is
told, that the Cyclops above all things esteemed the flesh of strangers.
[542]Chance never throws any body upon this coast, says Silenus, but he is
made a meal of; and it is looked upon as a delicious repast. This character
of the Cyclopians arose from the cruel custom of sacrificing strangers,
whom fortune brought upon their coast. This was practised in many parts of
the world, but especially here, and upon the coast of the Lamii in Italy;
and among all the Scythic nations upon the Euxine sea: into all which
regions it was introduced from Egypt and Canaan.

But we must not consider the Cyclopians in this partial light: nor look for
them only in the island of Sicily, to which they have been by the Poets
confined. Memorials of them are to be found in many parts of Greece, where
they were recorded as far superior to the natives in science and ingenuity.
The Grecians, by not distinguishing between the Deity, and the people, who
were called by his titles