It is related that the Cyclops, for their savageness and cruelty,
were by Jupiter first thrown into Tartarus, and there condemned to
perpetual imprisonment; but that afterwards Tellus persuaded Jupiter it
would be for his service to release them, and employ them in forging
thunderbolts. This he accordingly did; and they, with unwearied pains
and diligence, hammered out his bolts, and other instruments of terror,
with a frightful and continual din of the anvil.
It happened, long after, that Jupiter was displeased with Æsculapius,
the son of Apollo, for having, by the art of medicine, restored a
dead man to life; but concealing his indignation, because the action
in itself was pious and illustrious, he secretly incensed the Cyclops
against him, who, without remorse, presently slew him with their
thunderbolts: in revenge whereof, Apollo, with Jupiter’s connivance,
shot them all dead with his arrows.
EXPLANATION.—This fable seems to point at the behavior of princes,
who, having cruel, bloody, and oppressive ministers, first punish
and displace them; but afterwards, by the advice of Tellus, that is,
some earthly-minded and ignoble person, employ them again, to serve
a turn, when there is occasion for cruelty in execution, or severity
in exaction; but these ministers being base in their nature, whet by
their former disgrace, and well aware of what is expected from them,
use double diligence in their office; till, proceeding unwarily, and
over-eager to gain favor, they sometimes, from the private nods, and
ambiguous orders of their prince, perform some odious or execrable
action: when princes, to decline the envy themselves, and knowing they
shall never want such tools at their back, drop them, and give them
up to the friends and followers of the injured person; thus exposing
them, as sacrifices to revenge and popular odium: whence, with great
applause, acclamations, and good wishes to the prince, these miscreants
at last meet with their desert.