Achaemenides: the abandoned enemy sailor saved by Aeneas

In Greek mythology, Achaemenides (Achaimenides or Achemenides) was the son of a man named Adamastus from Ithaca. His name derives from the Persian name Achaemenes, meaning "one who waits in suffering."

Islands of the Cyclopes or Faraglioni (distinct jutting vulcanic rocks that emerge from the sea), Aci Trezza, Sicily; and the sculptural group of 'Ulysses that blinds Polyphemus', a Roman marble copy of a work by the sculptors Agesandro, Atenodoro and Polidoro, dating to the 1st century B.C. approximately - National archaeological museum of Sperlonga, Latina, Italy

Achaemenides was one of Odysseus' companions during his journey home from Troy. After blinding Polyphemus, Odysseus and his crew fled the land of the Cyclopes, but Achaemenides failed to reboard the ship after escaping from Polyphemus' cave. Consequently, he was left stranded in Sicily, terrified and alone. For months, he survived hidden in the forest, feeding on berries, evading the blind monster, and losing all hope of rescue.

Odysseus and Polyphemus by Arnold Böcklin (1896-1896) - MFA Boston. Polyphemus throws the stones at Odysseus and his companions. According to legend these stones are the dentificabili with the island Lachea and the Faraglioni at Acitrezza.

Three long months later, Achaemenides was discovered by Aeneas and his Trojan companions, who had landed on the island during their voyage to Italy. Desperate, Achaemenides begged the Trojans either to save him by taking him with them or, failing that, to end his suffering by killing him. Moved by his plight, Anchises, Aeneas' father, welcomed him into their group and sought to console him. Achaemenides recounted to the Trojans his harrowing experience with Polyphemus and the hardships he had endured during his time on the island. Thanks to the generosity of Anchises and the Trojan refugees, Achaemenides finally escaped the cruel fate that had seemed inevitable on the island.

The character of Achaemenides does not appear in Homer’s works but is mentioned by Virgil in The Aeneid (Book III) and by Ovid in Metamorphoses (Book XIV).

My home was Ithaca, and I partook
the fortunes of Ulysses evil-starred.
My name is Achemenides, my sire
was Adamastus, and I sailed for Troy,
being so poor,—O, that I ne'er had change
the lot I bore! In yon vast Cyclops' cave
my comrades, flying from its gruesome door,
left me behind, forgotten. 'T is a house
of gory feasts of flesh, 't is deep and dark,
and vaulted high. He looms as high as heaven;
I pray the blessed gods to rid the earth
of the vile monster! None can look on him,
none speak with him. He feeds on clotted gore
of disembowelled men. These very eyes
saw him seize two of our own company,
and, as he lolled back in the cave, he clutched
and dashed them on the stones, fouling the floor
with torrent of their blood; myself I saw him
crunch with his teeth the dripping, bloody limbs
still hot and pulsing on his hungry jaw.
But not without reward! For such a sight
Ulysses would not brook, and Ithaca
forgot not in such strait the name he bore.
For soon as, gorged with feasting and o'ercome
with drunken slumber, the foul giant lay
sprawled through the cave, his head dropped helpless down,
disgorging as he slept thick drool of gore
and gobbets drenched with bloody wine; then we,
calling on Heaven and taking place by lot,
drew round him like one man, and with a beam
sharpened at end bored out that monster eye,
which, huge and sole, lay under the grim brow,
round as an Argive shield or Phoebus' star.
Thus took we joyful vengeance for the shades
of our lost mates. But, O ill-fated men!
Fly, I implore, and cut the cables free
along the beach! For in the land abide,
like Polyphemus, who in hollow cave
kept fleecy sheep, and milked his fruitful ewes,
a hundred other, huge as he, who rove
wide o'er this winding shore and mountains fair:
Cyclops accursed, bestial! Thrice the moon
has filled her horns with light, while here I dwell
in lonely woods and lairs of creatures wild;
or from tall cliffs out-peering I discern
the Cyclops, and shrink shuddering from the sound
of their vast step and cry. My sorry fare
is berries and hard corners dropped from trees,
or herb-roots torn out from the niggard ground.
Though watching the whole sea, only today
Have I had sight of ships. To you I fled.
Whate'er ye be, it was my only prayer
to 'scape that monster brood. I ask no more.
O, set me free by any death ye will! - P. Vergilius Maro, Aeneid, 3.613

Macareus meets Achaemenides again
As the Sibyl spoke these words, they emerged, by the rising path, from the Stygian regions, into the city of Cumae of the Euboeans. Trojan Aeneas came to the shore that was later named after his nurse Caieta, where he carried out her funeral rites, as accepted, according to custom. This was also the place where Macareus of Neritos, a companion of sorely tried Ulysses, had settled, after the interminable weariness of hardship.
Macareus now recognised Achaemenides, among the Trojans, he, who had been given up as lost, by Ulysses, long ago, among the rocks of Aetna. Astonished to discover him, unexpectedly, still alive, he asked: ‘What god or chance preserved you, Achaemenides? Why does a Trojan vessel now carry a Greek? What land is your ship bound for? Achaemenides, no longer clothed in rags, his shreds of clothing held together with thorns, but himself again, replied to his questions, in these words: ‘If this ship is not more to me than Ithaca and my home, if I revere Aeneas less than my father, let me gaze at Polyphemus once more, with his gaping mouth dripping human blood. I can never thank Aeneas enough, even if I offered my all. Could I forget, or be ungrateful for, the fact that I speak and breathe and see the sky and the sun’s glory? Aeneas granted that my life did not end in the monster’s jaws, and when I leave the light of day, now, I shall be buried in the tomb, not, indeed, in its belly ... - Ovid, The Metamorphoses, Book XIV.

Achaemenides is a significant figure. His abandonment and subsequent rescue by Aeneas' fleet make him, alongside Macareus, one of the only two known members of Odysseus’ crew to survive the journey back to Ithaca. All other ships, except the flagship, were destroyed by the Laestrygonian giants, and every member of the final ship’s crew, except Odysseus himself, drowned as punishment for slaughtering the sacred cattle of Helios.
This episode offers Virgil an opportunity to highlight Aeneas’ magnanimity in saving a member of Odysseus’ crew without harboring resentment, despite Odysseus’ pivotal role in the destruction of Troy, Aeneas’ homeland.

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Last update: December 3, 2024

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