POLIPHEMUS. Polyphemus, a one-eyed cyclops and son of Poseidon, lived in a cave in Sicily and dined on human flesh. Ulysses, driven by a storm to Sicily, took refuge in Polyphemus's cave. When the cyclops discovered the men, he began eating them two by two. But Ulysses blinded the monster in his one eye, lashed his men to the cyclops's sheep, and when the cave was opened, they made their escape. Aeneas found one of the survivors, Achaemenides, on Sicily as he sailed to Italy, from whom he learned the story (Odyssey IX.160-542; Met, XIV.154-222; Aeneid II.613-691). Dictys Cretensis also tells the story in Ephemeridos belli Troiani, VI.5, 6.

Lady Philosophy reminds Boethius of the sufferings of famous men to show him that all fortune that seems sharp corrects and exercises the good man, Bo IV, Metr 7.18-27, and she tells him the story of Ulysses and Poliphemus. Chaucer adds a gloss to explain further Lady Philosophy's words. [Ulixes]

The spelling Poliphemus reflects Jean de Meun's translation in Li Livres de confort de philosophie. The name appears only in Bo IV, Metr 7.20, 22, 25.