Cyclopean Isles

The Cyclopean Isles (Italian: Isole Ciclopi), noted for their rows of basaltic columns piled one above another, lie not far from Mount Etna off the eastern coast of Sicily in the Mediterranean Sea.

Formed about 500,000 years ago, the Cyclopean Isles are of volcanic origin and may at one time have been attached to Sicily.

Stuck inside Polyphemus's cave because he and his men are unable to move the boulder that blocks the entrance, Odysseus supplies Polyphemus with a special wine until he falls asleep, and blinds him by drilling the Cyclops's own wooden walking stick into his eye.

Homer (Alexander Pope's translation) says: These words the Cyclops' burning rage provoke: From the tall hill he rends a pointed rock; High o'er the billows flew the massy load, And near the ship came thund'ring on the flood.

Polyphemus invokes the vengeance of his father Poseidon, and: A larger rock then heaving from the plain, He whirled it round--it rung across the main: It fell and brushed the stern: the billows roar, Shake at the weight, and refluent beat the shore.