Odysseus tells Alkinous about his encounter with the giant Polyphemus:
"But when the early rosy-fingered dawn appeared,
in wonder at the island we made a circuit round it,
and nymphs, daughters of aegis-bearing Zeus,
started the mountain goats, to give my men a meal.
Forthwith we took our bending bows and our long hunting spears
from out the ships, and parted in three bands began to shoot;
and soon God granted ample game. Twelve ships were in my train;
to each there fell nine goats, while ten they set apart for me alone.
Then all throughout the day till setting sun we sat and feasted
on abundant meat and pleasant wine. For the ruddy wine
of our ships was not yet spent; some still was left,
because our crews took a large store in jars
the day we seized the sacred citadel of the Ciconians.
And now we looked across to the land of the neighboring Cyclops,
and marked the smoke, the sounds of men, the bleat of sheep and goats;
but when the sun went down and darkness came,
we laid us down to sleep upon the beach.
Then as the early rosy-fingered dawn appeared,
holding a council, I said to all my men:
"'The rest of you, my trusty crew, stay for the present here; but
I myself, with my own ship and my own crew, go to discover who
these men may be, , if they are fierce and savage, with no regard
for right, or kind to strangers and reverent toward the gods.'
"When I had spoken thus, I went on board my ship, and called
my crew to come on board and loose the cables. Quickly they
came, took places at the pins, and sitting in order smote the
foaming water with their oars. But as we reached the neighboring
shore, there at the outer point, close to the sea, we saw a cave,
high, overhung with laurel. Here many flocks of sheep and goats
were nightly housed. Around was built a yard with a high wall of
deep-embedded stone, tall pines, and crested oaks. Here a
man-monster slept, who shepherded his flock alone and far apart;
with others he did not mingle, but quite aloof followed his lawless
ways. Thus had he grown to be a marvelous monster; not like a
man who lives by bread, but rather like a woody peak of the high
hills, seen single, clear of others.
"Now to my other trusty men I gave command to stay there by
the ship and guard the ship; but I my. self chose the twelve best
among my men and sallied forth. I had a goat-skin bottle of the
dark sweet wine given me by Maron, son of Euanthes, priest of
Apollo, who watches over Ismarus. He gave me this because we
guarded him and his son and wife, through holy fear; for he dwelt
within the shady grove of Phoebus Apollo. He brought me splendid
gifts: of fine-wrought gold he gave me seven talents, gave me a
mixing-bowl of solid silver, and afterwards filled me twelve jars
with wine, sweet and unmixed, a drink for gods. None knew that
wine among the slaves and hand-maids of his house, none but
himself, his own dear wife, and one sole house-dame. Whenever
they drank the honeyed ruddy wine, he filled a cup and poured it
into twenty parts of water, and still from the bowl came a sweet
odor of a surprising strength; then to refrain had been no easy
matter. I filled a large skin full of this and took it with me, and also
took provision in a sack; for my stout heart suspected I soon
should meet a man arrayed in mighty power, a savage, ignorant of
rights and laws.
"Quickly we reached the cave, but did not find him there; for he
was tending his fat flock afield. Entering the cave, we looked
around. Here crates were standing, loaded down with cheese, and
here pens thronged with lambs and kids. In separate pens each sort
was folded: by themselves the older, by themselves the later born,
and by themselves the younglings. Swimming with whey were all
the vessels, the well-wrought pails and bowls in which he milked.
Here at the very first my men entreated me to take some cheeses
and depart; then quickly to drive the kids and lambs to our swift
ship out of the pens, and sail away over the briny water. But I
refused,, far better had I yielded,, hoping that I might see him and
he might offer gifts. But he was to prove, when seen, no pleasure
to my men.
"Kindling a fire here, we made burnt offering and we ourselves
took of the cheese and ate; and so we sat and waited in the cave
until he came from pasture. He brought a ponderous burden of dry
wood to use at supper time, and tossing it down inside the cave
raised a great din. We hurried off in terror to a corner of the cave.
But into the wide-mouthed cave he drove his sturdy flock, all that
he milked; the males, both rams and goats, he left outside in the
high yard. And now he set in place the huge door-stone, lifting it
high in air, a ponderous thing; no two and twenty carts, stanch and
four-wheeled, could start it from the ground; such was the rugged
rock he set against the door. Then sitting down, he milked the
ewes and bleating goats, all in due order, and underneath put each
one's young. Straightway he curdled half of the white milk, and
gathering it in wicker baskets, set it by; half he left standing in the
pails, ready for him to take and drink, and for his supper also. So
after he had busily performed his tasks, he kindled a fire, noticed
us, and asked:
"'Ha, strangers, who are you? Where do you come from, sailing
the watery ways ? Are you upon some business? Or do you rove
at random, as the pirates roam the seas, risking their lives and
bringing ill to strangers?'
"As he thus spoke, our very souls were crushed within us,
dismayed by the heavy voice and by the monster's self;
nevertheless I answered thus and said:
"'We are from Troy, Achaeans, driven by shifting winds out of
our course across the great gulf of the sea; homeward we fared,
but through strange ways and wanderings are come hither; so Zeus
was pleased to purpose. Subjects of Agamemnon, son of Atreus,
we boast ourselves to be, whose fame is now the widest under
heaven; so great a town he sacked, so many men he slew. But
chancing here, we come before your knees to ask that you will
offer hospitality, and in other ways as well will give the gift which
is the stranger's due. O mighty one, respect the gods. We are your
suppliants, and Zeus is the avenger of the suppliant and the
stranger; he is the stranger's friend and waits on worthy strangers.'
"So I spoke, and from a ruthless heart he straightway answered:
'You are simple, stranger, or come from far away, to bid me dread
the gods or shrink before them. The Cyclops pay no heed to
aegis-bearing Zeus, nor to the blessed gods; because we are much
stronger than themselves. To shun the wrath of Zeus, I would not
spare you or your comrades, did my heart not bid. But tell me
where you left your stanch ship at your coming. At the far shore,
or near? Let me but know.'
"He thought to tempt me, but he could not cheat a knowing man
like me; and I again replied with words of guile: 'The Earth-shaker,
Poseidon, wrecked my ship and cast her on the rocks at the land's
end, drifting her on a headland; the wind blew from the sea; and I
with these men here escaped impending ruin.'
"So I spoke, and from a ruthless heart he answered nothing, but
starting up laid hands on my companions. He seized on two an(l
dashed them to the ground as if they had been dogs. Their brains
ran out upon the floor, and wet the earth. Tearing them limb from
limb, he made his supper, and ate as does a mountain lion, leaving
nothing, entrails, or flesh, or marrow bones. We in our tears held
up our hands to Zeus, at sight of his reckless deeds; helplessness
held our hearts. But when the Cyclops had filled his monstrous
maw by eating human flesh and pouring down pure milk, he laid
himself in the cave full length among his flock. And I then formed
the plan within my daring heart of closing on him, drawing my
sharp sword from my thigh, and stabbing him in the breast where
the midriff holds the liver, feeling the place out with my hand. Yet
second thoughts restrained me, for there we too had met with utter
ruin; for we could never with our hands have pushed from the
lofty door the enormous stone which he had set against it. Thus
then with sighs we awaited sacred dawn.
"But when the early rosy-fingered dawn appeared, he kindled a
fire, milked his goodly flock, all in due order, and underneath put
each one's young. Then after he had busily performed his tasks,
seizing once more two men, he made his morning meal. And when
the meal was ended, he drove from the cave his sturdy flock, and
easily moved the huge door-stone; but afterwards he put it back as
one might put the lid upon a quiver. Then to the hills, with many a
call, he turned his sturdy flock, while I was left behind brooding on
evil and thinking how I might obtain revenge, would but Athene
grant my prayer. And to my mind this seemed the wisest way.
There lay beside the pen a great club of the Cyclops, an olive stick
still green, which he had cut to be his staff when dried. Inspecting
it, we guessed its size, and thought it like the mast of a black ship
of twenty oars, some broad-built merchantman which sails the
great gulf of the sea; so huge it looked in length and thickness. I
went and cut away a fathom's length of this, laid it before my men,
and bade them shape it down; they made it smooth; I then stood
by to point the tip and, laying hold, I charred it briskly in the
blazing fire. The piece I now put carefully away, hiding it in the
dung which lay about the cave in great abundance; and then I bade
my comrades fix by lot who the bold men should be to help me
raise the stake and grind it in his eye, when pleasant sleep should
come. Those drew the lot whom I myself would rather have
chosen; four were they, for a fifth I counted in myself. He came
toward evening, shepherding the fleecy flock, and forthwith drove
his sturdy flock into the widemouthed cave, all with much care; he
did not leave a sheep in the high yard outside, either through some
suspicion, or God bade him so to do. Again he set in place the
huge door-stone, lifting it high in air, and, sitting down, he milked
the ewes and bleating goats, all in due order, and underneath put
each one's young. Then after he had busily performed his tasks, he
seized once more two men and made his supper. And now it was
that drawing near the Cyclops I thus spoke, holding within my
hands an ivy bowl filled with dark wine:
"'Here, Cyclops, drink some wine after your meal of human
flesh, and see what sort of liquor our ship held. I brought it as an
offering, thinking that you might pity me and send me home. But
you are mad past bearing. Reckless! How should a stranger come
to you again from any people, when you have done this wicked
deed?'
"So I spoke; he took the cup and drank it off, and mightily
pleased he was with the taste of the sweet liquor, and thus he
asked me for it yet again:
"'Give me some more, kind sir, and straightway tell your name,
that I may give a stranger's gift with which you shall be pleased.
Ah yes, the Cyclops' fruitful fields bear wine in their heavy
clusters, for rain from Zeus makes the grape grow; but this is a bit
of ambrosia and nectar.'
"So he spoke, and I again offered the sparkling wine. Three
times I brought and gave; three times he drank it in his folly. Then
as the wine began to dull the Cyclops' senses, in winning words I
said to him:
"'Cyclops, you asked my noble name, and I will tell it; but do
you give the stranger's gift, just as you promised. My name is
Nobody. Nobody I am called by mother, father, and by all my
comrades.'
"So I spoke, and from a ruthless heart he straightway answered:
'Nobody I eat up last, after his comrades; all the rest first; and that
shall be the stranger's gift for you.'
"He spoke, and sinking back fell flat; and there he lay, lolling his
thick neck over, till sleep, that conquers all, took hold upon him.
Out of his throat poured wine and scraps of human flesh; heavy
with wine, he spewed it forth. And now it was I drove the stake
under a heap of ashes, to bring it to a heat, and with my words
emboldened all my men, that none might flinch through fear. Then
when the olive stake, green though it was, was ready to take fire,
and through and through was all aglow, I snatched it from the fire,
while my men stood around and Heaven inspired us with great
courage. Seizing the olive stake, sharp at the tip, they plunged it in
his eye, and I, perched up above, whirled it around. As when a
man bores shipbeams with a drill, and those below keep it in
motion with a strap held by the ends, and steadily it runs; even so
we seized the fire-pointed stake and whirled it in his eye. Blood
bubbled round the heated thing. The vapor singed off all the lids
around the eye, and even the brows, as the ball burned and its
roots crackled in the flame. As when a smith dips a great axe or
adze into cold water, hissing loud, to temper it, , for that is strength
to steel,, so hissed his eye about the olive stake. A hideous roar he
raised; the rock resounded; we hurried off in terror. He wrenched
the stake from out his eye, all dabbled with the blood, and flung it
from his hands in frenzy. Then he called loudly on the Cyclops
who dwelt about him in the caves, along the windy heights. They
heard his cry, and ran from every side, and standing by the cave
they asked what ailed him:
"'What has come on you, Polyphemus, that you scream so in the
immortal night, and keep us thus from sleeping? Is a man driving
off your Hocks in spite of you? Is a man murdering you by craft or
force?'
"Then in his turn from out the cave big Polyphemus answered:
'Friends, Nobody is murdering me by craft. Force there is none.'
"But answering him in winged words they said: "If nobody
harms you when you are left alone, illness which comes from
mighty Zeus you cannot fly. But make your prayer to your father,
lord Poseidon.'
"This said, they went their way, and in my heart I laughed, my
name, that clever notion, so deceived them. But now the Cyclops,
groaning and in agonies of anguish, by groping with his hands took
the stone off the door, yet sat himself inside the door with hands
outstretched, to catch whoever ventured forth among the sheep;
for he probably hoped in his heart that I should be so silly. But I
was planning how it all might best be ordered that I might win
escape from death both for my men and me. So many a plot and
scheme I framed, as for my life; great danger was at hand. Then to
my mind this seemed the wisest way: some rams there were of a
good breed, thick in the fleece, handsome and large, which bore a
dark blue wool. These I quietly bound together with the twisted
willow withes on which the giant Cyclops slept, the brute,, taking
three sheep together. One, in the middle, carried the man; the other
two walked by the sides, keeping my comrades safe. Thus three
sheep bore each man. Then for myself, there was a ram, by far the
best of all the flock, whose back I grasped, and curled beneath his
shaggy belly there I lay, and with my hands twisted in that
enormous fleece I steadily held on, with patient heart. Thus then
with sighs we awaited sacred dawn.
"Soon as the early rosy-fingered dawn appeared, the rams
hastened to pasture, but the ewes bleated unmilked about the pens,
for their udders were wellnigh bursting. Their master, racked with
grievous pains, felt over the backs of all the sheep as they stood
up, but foolishly did not notice how under the breasts of the woolly
sheep men had been fastened. Last of the flock, the ram walked to
the door, cramped by his fleece and me the crafty plotter; and
feeling him over, big Polyphemus said:
"'What, my pet ram 'Why do you move across the cave
hindmost of all the flock? Till now you never lagged behind, but
with your long strides you were always first to crop the tender
blooms of grass; you were the first to reach the running streams,
and first to wish to turn to the stall at night: yet here you are the
last. Ah, but you miss your master's eye, which a villain has put
out,, he and his vile companions, blunting my wits with wine.
Nobody it was, not, I assure him, safe from destruction yet. If only
you could sympathize and get the power of speech to say where he
is skulking from my rage, then should that brain of his be knocked
about the cave and dashed upon the ground. So might my heart
recover from the ills which miserable Nobody brought upon me.'
"So saying, from his hand he let the ram go forth; and after we
were come a little distance from the cave and from the yard, first
from beneath the ram I freed myself and then set free my
comrades. So at quick pace we drove away those long-legged
sheep, heavy with fat, many times turning round, until we reached
the ship. A welcome sight we seemed to our dear friends, as men
escaped from death. Yet for the others they began to weep and
wail; but this I did not suffer; by my frowns I checked their tears.
In stead, I bade them straightway toss the many fleecy sheep into
the ship, and sail away over the briny water. Quickly they came,
took places at the pins, and sitting in order smote the foaming
water with their oars. But when I was as far away as one can call,
I shouted to the Cyclops in derision:
"'Cyclops, no weakling's comrades you were destined to devour
in the deep cave, with brutal might. But it was also destined your
bad deeds should find you out, audacious wretch, who did not
hesitate to eat the guests within your house! For this did Zeus
chastise you, Zeus and the other gods.'
"So I spoke, and he was angered in his heart the more; and
tearing off the top of a high hill, he flung it at us. It fell before the
dark-bowed ship a little space, but failed to reach the rudder's tip.
The sea surged underneath the stone as it came down, and swiftly
toward the land the wash of water swept us, like a flood-tide from
the deep, and forced us back to shore. I seized a setting-pole and
shoved the vessel off; then inspiriting my men, I bade them fall to
their oars that we might flee from danger,, with my head making
signs,, and bending forward, on they rowed. When we had
traversed twice the distance on the sea, again to the Cyclops would
I call; but my men, gathering round, sought with soft words to stay
me, each in his separate wise:
"'O reckless man, why seek to vex this savage, who even now,
hurling his missile in the deep, drove the ship back to shore ? We
verily thought that we were lost. And had he heard a man make
but a sound or speak, he would have crushed our heads and our
ships' beams, by hurling jagged granite stone; for he can throw so
far.'
"So they spoke, but did not move my daring spirit; again I called
aloud out of an angry heart: ' Cyclops, if ever mortal man asks you
the story of the ugly blinding of your eye, say that Odysseus made
you blind, the spoiler of cities, Laertes' son, whose home is Ithaca.'
"So I spoke, and with a groan he answered: 'Ah, surely now the
ancient oracles are come upon me! Here once a prophet lived, a
prophet brave and tall, Telemus, son of Eurymus, who by his
prophecies obtained renown and in prophetic works grew old
among the Cyclops. He told me it should come to pass in aftertime
that I should lose my sight by means of one Odysseus; but I was
always watching for the coming of some tall and comely person,
arrayed in mighty power; and now a little miserable feeble creature
blinded me of my eye, overcoming me with wine. nevertheless,
come here, Odysseus, and let me give the stranger's gift, and beg
the famous Land-shaker to aid you on your way. His son am I; he
calls him self my father. He, if he will, shall heal me; none else
can, whether among the blessed gods or mortal men.'
"So he spoke, and answering him said I: 'Ah, would I might as
surely strip you of life and being and send you to the house of
Hades, as it is sure the Earth-shaker will never heal your eye!?'
"So I spoke, whereat he prayed to lord Poseidon, stretching his
hands forth toward the starry sky: 'Hear me, thou girder of the
land, dark-haired Poseidon 'If I am truly thine, and thou art called
my father, vouchsafe no coming home to this Odysseus, spoiler of
cities, Laertes' son, whose home is Ithaca. Yet if it be his lot to see
his friends once more, and reach his stately house and native land,
late let him come, in evil plight, with loss of all his crew, on the
vessel of a stranger, and may he at his home find trouble.'
"So spoke he in his prayer, and the dark-haired god gave ear.
Then once more picking up a stone much larger than before, the
Cyclops swung and sent it, putting forth stupendous power. It fell
behind the dark-bowed ship a little space, but failed to reach the
rudder's tip. The sea surged underneath the stone as it came
clown, but the wave swept us forward and forced us to the shore.
"Now when we reached the island where our other wellbenched
ships waited together, while their crews sat round them sorrowing,
watching continually for us, as we ran in we beached our ship
among the sands, and forth we went ourselves upon the shore.
Then taking the Cyclops' sheep out of the hollow ship, we parted
all, that none might go lacking his proper share. The ram my
mailed companions gave to me alone, a mark of special honor in
the division of the flock; and on the shore I offered him to Zeus of
the dark cloud, the son of Kronos, who is the lord of all, burning
the thighs. He did not heed the sacrifice. Instead, he purposed that
my well-benched ships should all be lost, and all my trusty
comrades. But all throughout that day till setting sun we sat and
feasted on abundant meat and pleasant wine; and when the sun
went down and darkness came, we laid us down to sleep upon the
beach. Then as the early rosy-fingered dawn appeared, inspiriting
my men, I bade them come on board and loose the cables. Quickly
they came, took places at the pins, and sitting in order smote the
foaming water with their oars.
"Thence we sailed on, with aching hearts, glad to be clear of
death, though missing our dear comrades."