Whatever may be tliought of the merit of this 

 invention in poetry, it has certainly furnished a very 

 bad monster in painting ; for the artists who have 

 represented a Cyclops, have placed , the eye, not 

 merely in the middle of the face (which possibly 

 fjieruTTou, as well as Jrons, might, with a little 

 licence, be supposed to signify,) but in the 

 exact middle of the forehead, considered sepa- 

 rately. Callimachus, and, after him, Virgil, have 

 given a much more picturesque image — 



ToKTt ^VJT O^fVV 



Callimach. Hymnus in Dianam. 



Ingens, quodsolum torvasi/6 ivowielatehat — 



iEueid, b. 3. 



the exact reverse of an eye in the most open and 

 conspicuous part of the face. Theocritus dwells 

 particularly on the thickness^ and the continued 

 length of the eyebrow — < 



Auaict (ji,iv opfV<; titt ■aravTJ y.truvij), 



From these descriptions, added to the general cha- 

 ractei in Homer, a much less unnatural, and, at 

 the same time a more terrific monster might have 

 been produced, even supposing the popular fable 

 to be in a great measure adopted. The eye might 

 for instance be made central, and round \ but be 

 placed according to the authorities I have just 

 quoted, under the forehead. Such an eye, half 

 concealed by the overhanging eyebrow, and dreads 

 ^uU^ gleaming from beneath iV,wouldgiveaporten- 



