Cyclades

“ When we turned from it seaward, we saw stretched out in échelon that chain of Cyclades, which are but a prolongation of the headland—Keos, Kyphnos, Seriphos, Siphnos, and in the far distance, Melos—Melos, the scene of Athens’s violence and [pg 167] cruelty, when she filled up, in the mind of the old historian, the full measure of her iniquity. ”

“ Moreover they locate the islands interspersed amid the waves, both the greater and also the lesser islands, called Cyclades or Sporades, as situated in the vast flood of the Great Sea. But the impassable farther bounds of Ocean not only has 5 no one attempted to describe, but no man has been allowed to reach ”

“ There was the maritime region of Caria, the adjacent Dorian peoples, Ionia, the Hellespont, the Thracian coast, the islands that lie to the east within the line of Peloponnesus and Crete, including all the Cyclades with the exception of Melos and Thera. ”

“ As is obvious, the culture of one place need not keep pace with that of another. But the total disappearance from the legends of any mention of the eruption which must have disturbed the whole Ægean Sea, compared with the living memories of Troy, is to me a proof that the latter and its destruction must be far more recent than the former. Mr. E. Abbott, who refers to Bent's Cyclades, is disposed to the other view (History of Greece, i. 43) ; and so are Duruy (vol. i. chap. ii. § 1) and Holm. ”

“ He is the first to acquire Thalassokraty, or command of the Ægean sea: he expels the Karian inhabitants from the Cyclades islands, and sends thither fresh colonists under his own sons; he puts down piracy, in order that he may receive his tribute regularly; lastly, he attempts to conquer Sicily, but fails in the enterprise and perishes. [540] Here we have conjectures, derived from the analogy of the Athenian maritime empire in the historical times, substituted in place of the fabulous incidents, and attached to the name of Minôs. ”

“ The mineral wealth of the Cyclades has hitherto been much neglected; iron ore is exported from Seriphos, manganese and sulphur from Melos, and volcanic cement (pozzolana) from Santorin. Other articles of export are wine, brandy, hides and tobacco. Cythnos, Melos and other islands possess hot springs with therapeutic qualities. The prosperity of Syra, formerly an important distributing centre for the whole Levant, has been declining for several years.
Population (1907) :—Syra 31,939 (communes, Hermoupolis 18,132, Mykonos 4589, Syra 9218) ”

“ Cybele, a nature-goddess worshipped in Phrygia and W. Asia, whose worship, like that of the nature divinities generally, was accompanied with noisy, more or less licentious, revelry; identified by the Greeks with Rhea (q. v.) , their nature-goddess.
Cyclades, islands belonging to Greece, on the East or the Ægean Sea, so called as forming a circle round Delos, the most famous of the group.
Cyclic Poets, poets who after Homer's death caught the contagion of his great poem and wrote continuations, additions, &c. ”

“ From thence he went to Mecano, anciently Delos, the chief of the fifty-four Cyclades, where the custom still continues of never suffering men to die, or children to be born in it; but when the men are sick and the woman big-bellied they are sent to Rhena, two miles distant, Zea, Tino, and Palmosa, once Patmos, where St. ”

“ They were about 53 in number, the principal of which were Ceos, Naxos, Andros, Paros, Melos, Seriphos, Gyarus, Tenedos, &c. The Cyclades were reduced under the power of Athens by Miltiades; but during the invasion of Greece by the Persians, they revolted from their ancient and natural allies. Cornelius Nepos, Miltiades, ch. 2.—Pliny, bk. 4, ch. 12.—Mela, bk. 2, ch. 7.—Ptolemy, bk. 3, ch. 15.—Strabo, bk. 10.—Dionysius Periegeta.—Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 2, li. 64.—Virgil, Æneid, bk. 3, li. 127; bk. 8, li. 692.—Silius Italicus, bk. 4, li. 247. ”

“ Cyclona was not only the most beautiful young woman in the Magic City, but she was the most beautifully gowned and exquisite, what with her well-filled purse with its attendant luxuries of maids, mantua-makers and milliners. She was new to look at, but old thoughts clung to her, old dreams, old fancies.
Cyclona dreamed a dream one night. She thought that she was in the old dugout at the little deal table before the dim half-window, outside which the wind sang fitfully, blowing the tumbleweeds hither and thither, near and far, with moans and sighs, and Seth sat by her side. ”

“ Yet still he waited, hoping—wondering if
They still might come, or dreaming that he heard
The sound of far-off voices on the cliff,
Or starting strangely when the she-goat stirred;
But nothing broke the silence of the shore,
And, from that hour, the Child returned no more.
Therefore our Cyclops sorrowed,—not as one
Who can command the gamut of despair;
But as a man who feels his days are done,
So dead they seem,—so desolately bare;
For, though he'd lived a hermit, 'twas but only
Now he discovered that his life was lonely. ”

“ The land of Cyclops first, a savage kind, Nor tamed by manners, nor by laws confined: Untaught to plant, to turn the glebe, and sow, They all their products to free nature owe: The soil, untill’d, a ready harvest yields, With wheat and barley wave the golden fields; Spontaneous wines from weighty clusters pour, And Jove descends in each prolific shower, By these no statues and no rights are known, No council held, no monarch fills the throne; But high on hills, or airy cliffs, they dwell, Or deep in caves whose entrance leads to hell. ”

“ The strong Cyclops whom they thus called Polyphemus, answered them from the cave: “My friends, No-man is killing me by guile, and not by force!”
And they spoke winged words to him: “If no man is mistreating thee in thy lonely cave, then it must be some sickness, sent by Jupiter, that is giving thee pain. Pray to thy father, great Neptune, and perhaps he will cure thee.” ”

“ Last, he kindled a fire with the pine logs and the flame lighted up all the cave, showing him Ulysses and his comrades.
"Who are you?" cried the Cyclops. "Are you traders, or pirates?"
[Pg 333]
"We are no pirates, mighty sir, but Greeks, sailing back from Troy. And we beg hospitality of you in the name of Jupiter who rewards or punishes the host according as he is hospitable or not."
"Then," said the giant, "it is idle to talk to me of Jupiter and the gods. We Cyclops take no account of gods, holding ourselves to be much better and stronger than they." ”

“ Whether toiling over the Chilcoot Pass, hunger-pinched, and desperate with cold and exhaustion, or thirst-tormented in the burning deserts of Central Australia, the indomitable desire that drives him forward with his comrades, drives us also on this modern Odyssey, where the Siren sings on beaches of dead men's bones, and perils as terrible as any man-devouring Cyclops lie in wait for the wanderers. ”

“ Seth had great belief in God.
One had maliciously torn up all the churches in a town by the roots, turned them upside down and stuck their steeples in the ground as if in mockery of religion.
"Why do you call them cyclones?" the old man at the corner grocery had asked. "They are not cyclones. They are tornadoes."
And this old man who had once been a doctor of medicine in an Eastern village and who was therefore learned, though he had been persuaded by some Wise men to go West and grow up with the Fools, went on to explain the difference.
"A cyclone," he said, "is miles and miles in width. ”

“ Coasting on all that night by unknown and out-of-the-way shores, they came by daybreak to the land where the Cyclops dwell, a sort of giant shepherds that neither sow nor plough, but the earth untilled produces for them rich wheat and barley and grapes, yet they have neither bread nor wine, nor know the arts of cultivation, nor care to know them; for they live each man to himself, without law or government, or anything like a state or kingdom; but their dwellings are in caves, on the steep heads of mountains; every man's household governed by his own caprice, or not governed at all ”

“ Cyclops, I swear by Neptune who begot thee, ⁠241
By mighty Triton and by Nereus old,
Calypso and the glaucous Ocean Nymphs,
The sacred waves and all the race of fishes—
Be these the witnesses, my dear sweet master, ⁠245
My darling little Cyclops, that I never
Gave any of your stores to these false strangers;—
If I speak false may those whom most I love,
My children, perish wretchedly!
⁠Chorus. ⁠There stop!
I saw him giving these things to the strangers. ⁠250
If I speak false, then may my father perish,
But do not thou wrong hospitality.
⁠Cyclops. You lie! ”

“ I quickly drew forth the stake, plunged the end into the fire, turned it about until it was glowing, and then called upon my companions to assist me. A god put courage into our hearts. We all took hold and in an instant had plunged the fiery pole into the sleeper’s great eye. As when a smith dips glowing iron into cold water, thus hissed the Cyclops’ eye as the torch penetrated it. But we pushed it in the deeper and turned it round and round until the blood gushed out and flowed over forehead and cheeks. With a horrible roar the giant jumped up and we all fled into the corners of the cave. ”

“ The changing of the wind in a cyclone.—But, returning to the cyclone theory: though the wind be blowing around in spirals against the hands of the watch, yet, from the fact that the centre about which it is blowing is also travelling along, the changes of the wind, as observed by a vessel over which the storm is passing, will not, under all circumstances, be against the sun in the northern, or with the sun in the southern hemisphere. ”

“ They watch the clouds to this day, as they would some fell demon hovering over them, and the more timid ones early rush to their caves. Many outlandish lies have been written about the power of the cyclone, but the cold fact, the bare truth is more wonderful than any stories man can invent. One only needs to come here and talk with the people about the cyclone to be convinced that their experience for a few minutes was as terrible as that of a great battle, and I was as fascinated with their stories as I ever was talking with old soldiers. ”

“ And so, hour by hour, the wind increased as the vortex of the cyclone—the 'death-patch,' as it has been called—drew nearer and ever nearer.
Night came on early, or, if not night, a darkness that was fully its equivalent. And now I was able to see how tremendous was the electrical action that was going on all about us. There seemed to be no lightning flashes, but, instead, there came at times across the darkness queer luminous shudders of light. ”

“ Though less cyclonic than it had been during the night the wind continued to blow a tremendous gale, the sea ran mountain high and the atmosphere was so thick with cloud and scud and spindrift that at no time were we able to see more than a few hundred yards in any direction. ”

“ In this lonely, silent land, with cloud shadows floating across it, at long intervals bird voices or the bleating of distant flocks charm the listening ear. Out of this wild and beautiful spot spring Cyclopean rocks, appalling in the splendor of their proportions and the magnificence of their dyes. Sharp shafts shoot heavenward from breadths of level sward, and glow like living flames; peaks of various tinges overlook the tops of other peaks, that, in their turn, lord it among gigantic bowlders piled upon massive pedestals. ”

“ He turned it around and around, the dim light coming in at the window playing on it. Since the first night of his arrival he had had it ready.
"A man who cannot earn his salt," he said softly, "encumbers the earth."
[189] He held the thing, playing with it. He smiled as he played with it. He went to the window and stood for a long while, looking out, thinking of Cyclona, thinking very lovingly of Cyclona, that beautiful girl who had cared for him and the child. He would like to see Cyclona once more before,—but that was impossible. In the other world, perhaps. ”

“ Justly art thou punished, monster, that devourest thy guests in thy dwelling. May the gods make thee suffer yet worse things than these!"
Then the Cyclops in his wrath broke off the top of a great hill, a mighty rock, and hurled it where he had heard the voice. Right in front of the ship's bow it fell, and a great wave rose as it sank, and washed the ship back to the shore. But Ulysses seized a long pole with both hands and pushed the ship from the land and bade his comrades ply their oars, nodding with his head, for he was too wise to speak, lest the Cyclops should know where they were. ”

“ Then, the wind having abated, we took to our oars, and rowed for many days till we came to the country where the Cyclops dwell. Now, a mile or so from the shore there was an island, very fair and fertile, but no man dwells there or tills the soil, and in the island a harbor where a ship may be safe from all winds, and at the head of the harbor a stream falling from a rock, and whispering alders all about it. ”

“ Apart from the wind, it must be borne in mind that the gigantic seas pitch the ship about in a most abominable manner. Indeed, I have seen the stern of a ship hove up to such a height that I could see the seas ahead over the foretopsail yards, and when I explain that these will be something like seventy to eighty feet above the deck, you may be able to imagine what manner of sea is to be met with in a great cyclonic storm. Regarding this matter of the size and ferocity of the seas, I possess a photograph that was taken about ten o'clock at night. ”