Odysseus and the Cyclops by Homer (Greek Text) Lyrics
While sitting in palace of the Phaeacians, Odysseus tells the story of his encounter with the Cyclops named Polyphemus as a recollection. During Odysseus’s journey home from Troy, they sail into the land of the Cyclopes. It was a fertile island inhabited by savages who do not fear the gods. The Cyclopes have no craftsmen so they do not plow or plant or have ships to sail with. The first day they were there, the feasted the entire day on the mountain goats that roamed the land. The next day, Odysseus and a few of his men venture onto the island and into the cave of Polyphemus. Though Odysseus’s men wanted to leave, Odysseus chose to wait for the beast to return to see if he would give them a gift of hospitality for the remainder of their journey, not knowing that the Cyclops did not fear the wrath of Zeus. Odysseus’s encounter with Polyphemus falls third in the line of twelve adventures he faces on his way home, falling between the Lotus-eaters and King Aeolus’s wind. This passage presents a physically intimidating foe not like any other he faces. It is interesting to see Odysseus’s cunning in action as he tries to outsmart the Cyclops and get his men safely back to the ship as the twelve men that accompanied him are clearly physically outmatched.
"'Strangers, who are you? Where do sail from?
Are you traders, or do you sail the as rovers,
with your hands against every man, and every man's hand against you?'
"We were frightened out of our senses
by his loud voice and monstrous form,
but I managed to say,
'We are Achaeans on our way home from Troy,
but by the will of Jove, and stress of weather,
we have been driven far out of our course.
We are the people of Agamemnon,
son of Atreus,
who has won infinite renown throughout the whole world,
by sacking so great a city and killing so many people.
We therefore humbly pray you
to show us some hospitality, and
otherwise make us such presents as visitors may reasonably expect.
May your excellency fear the wrath of heaven, for we are your suppliants,
and Jove takes all respectable travellers under his protection,
for he is the avenger of all suppliants and foreigners in distress.'
"To this he gave me but a pitiless answer,
'Stranger,' said he, 'you are a fool, or else you know nothing of this country.
Talk to me, indeed, about fearing the gods or shunning their anger? We Cyclopes
do not care about Jove
or any of your blessed gods, for we are ever so much stronger than they.
I shall not spare either yourself or your companions
out of any regard for Jove, unless I am in the
humour for doing so. And now tell me
where you made your ship fast when you came on shore.
Was it round the point, or is she lying straight off the land?'
"He said this to draw me out, but I was too cunning to be caught in that way, so I answered with a lie;
'Neptune,' said I, 'sent my ship on
to the rocks at the far end of your country, and wrecked it.
We were driven on to them from the open sea, but
I and those who are with me escaped the jaws of death.'
"The cruel wretch vouchsafed me not one word of answer,
but with a sudden clutch he gripped up
two of my men at once and
dashed them down upon the ground
as though they had been puppies. Their brains were shed upon the ground,
and the earth was wet with their blood. Then he tore them limb from limb
and supped upon them.
He gobbled them up like a lion in the wilderness,
flesh, bones, marrow, and entrails, without leaving anything uneaten.
As for us, we wept and lifted up our hands to heaven on seeing such a horrid sight, for we did not know what else to do;
but when the Cyclops had filled his huge paunch,
and had washed down his meal of human flesh with a drink of neat milk,
he stretched himself full length upon the ground among his sheep, and went to sleep.
I was at first inclined to seize my sword,
draw it, and drive it into his vitals,
but I reflected that if I did we should all certainly be lost,
for we should never be able to shift the
stone which the monster had put in front of the door.
So we stayed sobbing and sighing
where we were till morning came.
"When the child of morning, rosy-fingered Dawn,
appeared, he again lit his fire, milked his goats and ewes,
all quite rightly,
and then let each have her own young one;
as soon as he had got through with all his work,
he clutched up two more of my men,
and began eating them for his morning's meal.
Presently, with the utmost ease, he rolled the stone
away from the door and drove out his sheep,
but he at once put it back again-
as easily as though he were merely clapping the
lid on to a quiver full of arrows. As soon as he had done
so he shouted, and
cried 'Shoo, shoo,' after his sheep to drive them on to the mountain;
so I was left to scheme some way of taking my
revenge and covering myself with glory.
"In the end I deemed it would be the best plan to do as follows.
The Cyclops had a great club
which was lying near one of the sheep pens;
it was of green olive wood, and he had cut it
intending to use it for a staff as soon as it should be dry. It was so huge
that we could only compare it to the mast
of a twenty-oared merchant vessel of large burden,
and able to venture out into open sea. I went up to this club
and cut off about six feet of it;
I then gave this piece to the men and told them to fine it
evenly off at one end, which they proceeded to do,
and lastly I brought it to a point myself,
charring the end in the fire to make it harder.
When I had done this I hid it under dung,
which was lying about all over the cave,
and told the men to cast lots
which of them should venture along with myself to
lift it and bore it into the monster's eye while he was asleep.
The lot fell upon the very four whom I should have chosen,
and I myself made five.
In the evening the wretch came back from shepherding,
and drove his flocks into the cave-
this time driving them all inside,
and not leaving any in the yards;
I suppose some fancy must have taken him,
or a god must have prompted him to do so.
As soon as he had put the stone back to its place against the door,
he sat down, milked his ewes and his goats all quite rightly,
and then let each have her own young one;
when he had got through with all this work,
he gripped up two more of my men, and made his supper off them.
So I went up to him with an ivy-wood bowl of black wine in my hands:
"'Look here, Cyclops,' said I, you have been eating a great deal of
man's flesh,
so take this and drink some wine, that you may see what kind
of liquor we had on board my ship. I was bringing it to you
as a drink-offering, in the hope that you would take compassion
upon me and further me on my way home, whereas all you do is to go on ramping
and raving most intolerably.
You ought to be ashamed yourself; how can you expect people
to come see you any more if you treat them in this way?'
"He then took the cup and drank.
He was so delighted with the taste of the wine
that he begged me for another bowl full.
'Be so kind,' he said, 'as to give me some more, and tell
me
your name at once. I want to make you a present that you will be glad to have.
We have wine even in this country,
for our soil grows grapes and the sun ripens them,
but this drinks like nectar and ambrosia all in one.'
"I then gave him some more;
three times did I fill the bowl for him,
and three times did he drain it without thought or heed;
then, when I saw that the wine had got into his head,
I said to him as plausibly as I could:
'Cyclops,
you ask my name and I will tell it you;
give me, therefore, the present you promised me;
my name is Noman;
this is what my father and mother and my friends have always called me.'
"But the cruel wretch said,
'Then I will eat all Noman's comrades before Noman himself,
and will keep Noman for the last. This is the present that I will make him.'
As he spoke he reeled, and fell sprawling face upwards on the ground.
His great neck hung heavily backwards and a deep sleep
took hold upon him.
Presently he turned sick, and threw up both wine and the gobbets of human flesh
on which he had been gorging, for he was very drunk. Then I thrust
the beam of wood far into the embers to
heat it, and encouraged my men
lest any of them should turn faint-hearted. When the wood,
green though it was,
was about to blaze, I drew it out of the fire glowing with heat,
and my men gathered round me, for heaven had filled their hearts with courage.
We drove the sharp end of the beam into the monster's eye,
and
bearing upon it with all my weight I kept turning it round
and round as though I were boring a hole in a ship's plank with an auger,
which two men with a wheel and strap can keep on turning as long as they choose.
Even thus did we bore the red hot beam
into his eye, till the boiling blood bubbled
all over it as we worked it round and round, so that the steam from the burning eyeball
scalded his eyelids and eyebrows,
and the roots of the eye sputtered in the fire.
As a blacksmith plunges an axe or hatchet into cold water
to temper it-
for it is this that gives strength to the iron- and it makes a great hiss as he does so,
even thus did the Cyclops' eye hiss round the beam of olive wood,
and his hideous yells made the cave ring again.
We ran away in a fright,
but he plucked the beam all besmirched with gore from his eye, and hurled it
from him in a frenzy of rage and pain, shouting as he did so to the other Cyclopes
who lived on the bleak headlands near him;
so they gathered from all quarters
round his cave when they heard him crying, and asked what was the matter with him.
"'What ails you, Polyphemus,' said they, 'that you make such a noise, breaking the stillness of the night,
and preventing us from being able to sleep?
Surely no man is carrying off your sheep?
Surely no man is trying to kill you either by fraud or by force?
"But Polyphemus shouted to them
from inside the cave,
'Noman is killing me by fraud! Noman is killing me by force!'
"'Then,' said they, 'if no man is attacking you, you must be ill;
when Jove makes people ill, there is no help for it,
and you had better pray to your father Neptune.'
"Then they went away, and I laughed inwardly at the success of my clever stratagem,
but the Cyclops, groaning and in an agony of pain,
felt about with his hands till he found the stone and took it from the door;
then he sat in the doorway and stretched his hands
in front of it to catch anyone going out with the sheep,
for he thought I might be foolish enough to attempt this.
"'Strangers, who are you? Where do sail from?
Are you traders, or do you sail the as rovers,
with your hands against every man, and every man's hand against you?'
"We were frightened out of our senses
by his loud voice and monstrous form,
but I managed to say,
'We are Achaeans on our way home from Troy,
but by the will of Jove, and stress of weather,
we have been driven far out of our course.
We are the people of Agamemnon,
son of Atreus,
who has won infinite renown throughout the whole world,
by sacking so great a city and killing so many people.
We therefore humbly pray you
to show us some hospitality, and
otherwise make us such presents as visitors may reasonably expect.
May your excellency fear the wrath of heaven, for we are your suppliants,
and Jove takes all respectable travellers under his protection,
for he is the avenger of all suppliants and foreigners in distress.'
"To this he gave me but a pitiless answer,
'Stranger,' said he, 'you are a fool, or else you know nothing of this country.
Talk to me, indeed, about fearing the gods or shunning their anger? We Cyclopes
do not care about Jove
or any of your blessed gods, for we are ever so much stronger than they.
I shall not spare either yourself or your companions
out of any regard for Jove, unless I am in the
humour for doing so. And now tell me
where you made your ship fast when you came on shore.
Was it round the point, or is she lying straight off the land?'
"He said this to draw me out, but I was too cunning to be caught in that way, so I answered with a lie;
'Neptune,' said I, 'sent my ship on
to the rocks at the far end of your country, and wrecked it.
We were driven on to them from the open sea, but
I and those who are with me escaped the jaws of death.'
"The cruel wretch vouchsafed me not one word of answer,
but with a sudden clutch he gripped up
two of my men at once and
dashed them down upon the ground
as though they had been puppies. Their brains were shed upon the ground,
and the earth was wet with their blood. Then he tore them limb from limb
and supped upon them.
He gobbled them up like a lion in the wilderness,
flesh, bones, marrow, and entrails, without leaving anything uneaten.
As for us, we wept and lifted up our hands to heaven on seeing such a horrid sight, for we did not know what else to do;
but when the Cyclops had filled his huge paunch,
and had washed down his meal of human flesh with a drink of neat milk,
he stretched himself full length upon the ground among his sheep, and went to sleep.
I was at first inclined to seize my sword,
draw it, and drive it into his vitals,
but I reflected that if I did we should all certainly be lost,
for we should never be able to shift the
stone which the monster had put in front of the door.
So we stayed sobbing and sighing
where we were till morning came.
"When the child of morning, rosy-fingered Dawn,
appeared, he again lit his fire, milked his goats and ewes,
all quite rightly,
and then let each have her own young one;
as soon as he had got through with all his work,
he clutched up two more of my men,
and began eating them for his morning's meal.
Presently, with the utmost ease, he rolled the stone
away from the door and drove out his sheep,
but he at once put it back again-
as easily as though he were merely clapping the
lid on to a quiver full of arrows. As soon as he had done
so he shouted, and
cried 'Shoo, shoo,' after his sheep to drive them on to the mountain;
so I was left to scheme some way of taking my
revenge and covering myself with glory.
"In the end I deemed it would be the best plan to do as follows.
The Cyclops had a great club
which was lying near one of the sheep pens;
it was of green olive wood, and he had cut it
intending to use it for a staff as soon as it should be dry. It was so huge
that we could only compare it to the mast
of a twenty-oared merchant vessel of large burden,
and able to venture out into open sea. I went up to this club
and cut off about six feet of it;
I then gave this piece to the men and told them to fine it
evenly off at one end, which they proceeded to do,
and lastly I brought it to a point myself,
charring the end in the fire to make it harder.
When I had done this I hid it under dung,
which was lying about all over the cave,
and told the men to cast lots
which of them should venture along with myself to
lift it and bore it into the monster's eye while he was asleep.
The lot fell upon the very four whom I should have chosen,
and I myself made five.
In the evening the wretch came back from shepherding,
and drove his flocks into the cave-
this time driving them all inside,
and not leaving any in the yards;
I suppose some fancy must have taken him,
or a god must have prompted him to do so.
As soon as he had put the stone back to its place against the door,
he sat down, milked his ewes and his goats all quite rightly,
and then let each have her own young one;
when he had got through with all this work,
he gripped up two more of my men, and made his supper off them.
So I went up to him with an ivy-wood bowl of black wine in my hands:
"'Look here, Cyclops,' said I, you have been eating a great deal of
man's flesh,
so take this and drink some wine, that you may see what kind
of liquor we had on board my ship. I was bringing it to you
as a drink-offering, in the hope that you would take compassion
upon me and further me on my way home, whereas all you do is to go on ramping
and raving most intolerably.
You ought to be ashamed yourself; how can you expect people
to come see you any more if you treat them in this way?'
"He then took the cup and drank.
He was so delighted with the taste of the wine
that he begged me for another bowl full.
'Be so kind,' he said, 'as to give me some more, and tell
me
your name at once. I want to make you a present that you will be glad to have.
We have wine even in this country,
for our soil grows grapes and the sun ripens them,
but this drinks like nectar and ambrosia all in one.'
"I then gave him some more;
three times did I fill the bowl for him,
and three times did he drain it without thought or heed;
then, when I saw that the wine had got into his head,
I said to him as plausibly as I could:
'Cyclops,
you ask my name and I will tell it you;
give me, therefore, the present you promised me;
my name is Noman;
this is what my father and mother and my friends have always called me.'
"But the cruel wretch said,
'Then I will eat all Noman's comrades before Noman himself,
and will keep Noman for the last. This is the present that I will make him.'
As he spoke he reeled, and fell sprawling face upwards on the ground.
His great neck hung heavily backwards and a deep sleep
took hold upon him.
Presently he turned sick, and threw up both wine and the gobbets of human flesh
on which he had been gorging, for he was very drunk. Then I thrust
the beam of wood far into the embers to
heat it, and encouraged my men
lest any of them should turn faint-hearted. When the wood,
green though it was,
was about to blaze, I drew it out of the fire glowing with heat,
and my men gathered round me, for heaven had filled their hearts with courage.
We drove the sharp end of the beam into the monster's eye,
and
bearing upon it with all my weight I kept turning it round
and round as though I were boring a hole in a ship's plank with an auger,
which two men with a wheel and strap can keep on turning as long as they choose.
Even thus did we bore the red hot beam
into his eye, till the boiling blood bubbled
all over it as we worked it round and round, so that the steam from the burning eyeball
scalded his eyelids and eyebrows,
and the roots of the eye sputtered in the fire.
As a blacksmith plunges an axe or hatchet into cold water
to temper it-
for it is this that gives strength to the iron- and it makes a great hiss as he does so,
even thus did the Cyclops' eye hiss round the beam of olive wood,
and his hideous yells made the cave ring again.
We ran away in a fright,
but he plucked the beam all besmirched with gore from his eye, and hurled it
from him in a frenzy of rage and pain, shouting as he did so to the other Cyclopes
who lived on the bleak headlands near him;
so they gathered from all quarters
round his cave when they heard him crying, and asked what was the matter with him.
"'What ails you, Polyphemus,' said they, 'that you make such a noise, breaking the stillness of the night,
and preventing us from being able to sleep?
Surely no man is carrying off your sheep?
Surely no man is trying to kill you either by fraud or by force?
"But Polyphemus shouted to them
from inside the cave,
'Noman is killing me by fraud! Noman is killing me by force!'
"'Then,' said they, 'if no man is attacking you, you must be ill;
when Jove makes people ill, there is no help for it,
and you had better pray to your father Neptune.'
"Then they went away, and I laughed inwardly at the success of my clever stratagem,
but the Cyclops, groaning and in an agony of pain,
felt about with his hands till he found the stone and took it from the door;
then he sat in the doorway and stretched his hands
in front of it to catch anyone going out with the sheep,
for he thought I might be foolish enough to attempt this.