Editing Polyphemus (section)

====Latin poets====
The successful outcome of Polyphemus' love was also alluded to in the course of a 1st-century BC love elegy on the power of music by the Latin poet [[Propertius]]. Listed among the examples he mentions is that "Even Galatea, it's true, below wild Etna, wheeled her brine-wet horses, Polyphemus, to your songs."{{sfn|Propertius|2008|loc=[https://www.poetryintranslation.com/PITBR/Latin/PropertiusBkThree.php#anchor_Toc201112456 Book III.2]}} The division of contrary elements between the land-based monster and the sea nymph, lamented in Theocritus' Idyll 11, is brought into harmony by this means.

While [[Ovid]]'s treatment of the story that he introduced into the ''[[Metamorphoses]]''{{sfn|Ovid|1922|loc=[http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:latinLit:phi0959.phi006.perseus-eng1:13.705-13.749 13.740–897]}} is reliant on the idylls of Theocritus,{{refn|group=nb|Alan Griffin{{sfn|Griffin|1983}} calls Ovid's treatment "an extended paraphrase of Theocritus' two idylls."{{sfn|Newlands|2015|p=77}}}} it is complicated by the introduction of Acis, who has now become the focus of Galatea's love.
{{poemquote|While I pursued him with a constant love,
the Cyclops followed me as constantly.
And, should you ask me, I could not declare
whether my hatred of him, or my love
of Acis was the stronger. —They were equal.{{ref|Ovid|loc=[https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.02.0028:book=13:card=750 13.755–759]}}}}

There is also a reversion to the Homeric vision of the hulking monster, whose attempt to play the tender shepherd singing love songs is made a source of humour by Galatea:
{{poemquote|Now, Polyphemus, wretched Cyclops, you
are careful of appearance, and you try
the art of pleasing. You have even combed
your stiffened hair with rakes: it pleases you
to trim your shaggy beard with a reaping hook.{{sfn|Ovid|1922|loc=[https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.02.0028:book=13:card=750 13.764–766]}}}}
In his own character, too, Polyphemus mentions the transgression of heavenly laws that once characterised his actions and is now overcome by Galatea: "I, who scorn Jove and his heaven and his piercing lightning bolt, submit to you alone."{{sfn|Ovid|2000b|loc=[http://ovid.lib.virginia.edu/trans/Metamorph13.htm#486898055 lines 860ff]}}

Galatea listens to the love song of Polyphemus while she and Acis lie hidden by a rock.{{sfn|Ovid|1922|loc=[http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:latinLit:phi0959.phi006.perseus-eng1:13.750-13.897 13.778–788]}} In his song, Polyphemus scolds her for not loving him in return, offers her rustic gifts and points out what he considers his best feature — the single eye that is, he boasts, the size of a great shield.{{sfn|Ovid|1922|loc=[https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.02.0028:book=13:card=750 13.789–869]}} But when Polyphemus discovers the hiding place of the lovers, he becomes enraged with jealousy. Galatea, terrified, dives into the ocean, while the Cyclops wrenches off a piece of the mountain and crushes Acis with it.{{sfn|Ovid|1922|loc=[https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.02.0028:book=13:card=750 13.870–884]}} But on her return, Galatea changes her dead lover into the spirit of the Sicilian river Acis.{{sfn|Ovid|1922|loc=[https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.02.0028:book=13:card=750 13.885–897]}}

[[File:Affreschi romani - polifemo galatea - pompei.JPG|thumb|upright=1.02|Polyphemus receives a love-letter from Galatea, a 1st-century AD fresco from Pompeii]]