the gates of the Elysian fields. Aristotle supposes
that they were the first builders of towers.

Diodorus Siculus and Tzetzes say that Polyphemus was king of a part
of Sicily, when Ulysses landed there; who, falling in love with
Elpe, the daughter of the king, carried her off. The Laestrygons, the
neighbours of Polyphemus, pursued him, and obliged him to give up
the damsel, who was brought back to her father. Ulysses, in relating
the story to the Phaeacians, artfully concealed circumstances so
little to his credit, and with impunity invented the absurdities
which he related concerning a country to which his audience were
utter strangers.

FABLE VIII. [XIII.898-968]

Glaucus having observed some fishes which he has laid upon the grass
revive and leap again into the water, is desirous to try the
influence of the grass on himself. Putting some of it into his
mouth, he immediately becomes mad, and leaping into the sea, is
transformed into a sea God.

Galatea ceases[77] speaking, and the company breaking up, they depart;
and the Nereids swim in the becalmed waves. Scylla returns, (for, in
truth, she does not trust herself in the midst of the ocean) and either
wanders about without garments on the thirsty sand, or, when she is
tired, having lighted upon some lonely recess of the sea, cools her
limbs in the enclosed waves. {When}, lo! cleaving the deep, Glaucus
comes, a new-made inhabitant of the deep sea, his limbs having been
lately transformed at Anthedon,[78] near Euboea; and he lingers from
passion for the maiden {now} seen, and utters whatever words he thinks
may detain her as she flies. Yet still she flies, and, swift through
fear, she arrives at the top of a mountain, situate near the shore.

In front of the sea, there is a huge ridge, terminating in one summit,
bending for a long distance over the waves, {and} without trees. Here
she stands, and secured by the place, ignorant whether he is a monster
or a God, she both admires his colour, and his flowing hair that covers
his shoulders and his back, and how a wreathed fish closes the extremity
of his groin. {This} he perceives; and leaning upon a rock that stands
hard by, he says, "Maiden, I am no monster, no savage beast; I am a God
of the waters: nor have Proteus, and Triton, and Palaemon, the son of
Athamas, a more uncontrolled reign over the deep. Yet formerly I was a
mortal; but, still, devoted to the deep sea, even then was I