| αὐτὰρ ἐπεὶ δὴ σπεῦσε πονησάμενος τὰ ἃ ἔργα | Then after he'd quickly done his work, right then he lit a fire, caught sight of us, and asked: 'Who are you, strangers? From where did you sail the watery ways? On some business, or did you roam at random, even as pirates over the sea, who roam |
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| ψυχὰς παρθέμενοι κακὸν ἀλλοδαποῖσι φέροντες; | and risk their lives, and bring evil to foreigners?' “So said he, and in turn our dear heart snapped in fear of his deep voice and monstrous body. But even so, I said to him in answer: 'We're Achaeans, driven off course from Troy |
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| παντοίοις ἀνέμοισιν ὑπὲρ μέγα λαῖτμα θαλάσσης | by all kinds of winds over the great gulf of the sea, and on our way home we took a different route, wrong ways, as I suppose Zeus wished to contrive it. We claim we're people of Atreides Agamemnon, whose fame is now greatest under heaven |
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| τόσσην γὰρ διέπερσε πόλιν καὶ ἀπώλεσε λαοὺς | for he sacked so great a city and destroyed many men. Now we've reached your knees in supplication, in hope you'll give some guest gift or even in a different way give a present, which is the right of strangers. But revere the gods, most noble one. We are supplicants to you. |
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| Ζεὺς δʼ ἐπιτιμήτωρ ἱκετάων τε ξείνων τε | Zeus is the avenger of supplicants and strangers, the guest god, who attends venerable strangers.' “So said I, and he answered me at once with a ruthless heart: 'Stranger, you're a fool, or come from far away, to bid me to either avoid or fear the gods |
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| οὐ γὰρ Κύκλωπες Διὸς αἰγιόχου ἀλέγουσιν | for Cyclopes don't heed aegis-bearer Zeusor the blessed gods, since, indeed, we are far better. I wouldn't avoid Zeus' hatred, and spare either you or your comrades, unless my heart bid me. But tell me where you moored your ship when you came here |
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| ἤ που ἐπʼ ἐσχατιῆς, ἦ καὶ σχεδόν, ὄφρα δαείω. | at the border, perhaps, or just nearby, so I'll know it.' “So said he, testing me, but with my great experience I didn't miss it, instead, with guileful words, I said back to him: 'Earth-shaker Poseidon shattered my ship, throwing it against the rocks at the border of your land |
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| ἄκρῃ προσπελάσας· ἄνεμος δʼ ἐκ πόντου ἔνεικεν· | driving it against headland, and wind from the sea took it. But, with the ones here, I escaped sheer destruction.' “So said I, but with a ruthless heart, he answered me nothing, instead, he sprang up and threw his hands upon my comrades, grabbed two at once and dashed them, like puppies |
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| κόπτʼ· ἐκ δʼ ἐγκέφαλος χαμάδις ῥέε, δεῦε δὲ γαῖαν. | to the ground. Brain flowed out on the ground and wet the earth. He cut through them, limb from limb, and prepared dinner. He ate, like a mountain-bred lion, and left nothing, entrails, flesh, and marrowy bones. We held our hands up to Zeus and wailed, when we saw |
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| σχέτλια ἔργʼ ὁρόωντες, ἀμηχανίη δʼ ἔχε θυμόν. | his reckless deeds, and helplessness took hold of our hearts. Then after the Cyclops had filled his great stomach, eating human meat and drinking unmixed milk on top of it, he lay inside the cave and stretched out among the sheep. I planned in my great-hearted heart |
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| ἆσσον ἰών, ξίφος ὀξὺ ἐρυσσάμενος παρὰ μηροῦ | to get closer to him, draw my sharp sword from beside my thigh, and stab him in the chest, where the midriff holds the liver, feeling for it with my hand. But a second thought restrained me, for, where we were, we too would perish in sheer destruction, since we would not be able, with our hands, to push |
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| χερσὶν ἀπώσασθαι λίθον ὄβριμον, ὃν προσέθηκεν. | from the lofty door the mighty stone he'd put there. So then, with groans, we awaited divine Dawn. “When early-born rose-fingered Dawn appeared, right then he lit a fire and milked his famous sheep, completely properly, and under each he pushed its young. |
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| αὐτὰρ ἐπεὶ δὴ σπεῦσε πονησάμενος τὰ ἃ ἔργα | Then after he'd quickly done his work, he again grabbed two at once and prepared breakfast. He ate his meal and drove his fat sheep from the cave and easily removed the great door rock. But then at once he put it in place, as if he were putting a lid in place on a quiver. |
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| πολλῇ δὲ ῥοίζῳ πρὸς ὄρος τρέπε πίονα μῆλα | With much whistling, the Cyclops turned his fat sheeptoward the mountains. Then I was left, deeply contemplating evil, in hope I'd somehow make him pay and Athena'd grant me glory. And in my heart this plan seemed best. For Cyclops' big club lay beside the pen |
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| χλωρὸν ἐλαΐνεον· τὸ μὲν ἔκταμεν, ὄφρα φοροίη | a green one of olive wood that he'd cut, to carry when it dried. We looked at it and made it out to be as big as the mast of a black ship with twenty oars, a wide cargo ship that goes out on the great gulf, such was it in length, such in thickness, to behold. |
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| τοῦ μὲν ὅσον τʼ ὄργυιαν ἐγὼν ἀπέκοψα παραστὰς | I stood next to it, cut off a fathom's length, set it next to my comrades, and bid them taper it. They made it smooth, as I stood by and sharpened the end, then I quickly took and hardened it in burning fire and put it well away, hiding it under dung |
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| ἥ ῥα κατὰ σπείους κέχυτο μεγάλʼ ἤλιθα πολλή· | which in exceedingly great amount was spread throughout the cave. Then I ordered the others to cast lots to see who'd dare to lift the stake with me to grind it in his eye when sweet sleep came upon him. They chose by lot the ones I myself would have wanted chosen |
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| τέσσαρες, αὐτὰρ ἐγὼ πέμπτος μετὰ τοῖσιν ἐλέγμην. | four of them, then I counted fifth among them. He came at evening, herding his fine-fleeced sheepand at once drove his fat sheep into the wide cave, all of them, and left none in the deep courtyard outside, either suspecting something or as a god so bid him. |
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| αὐτὰρ ἔπειτʼ ἐπέθηκε θυρεὸν μέγαν ὑψόσʼ ἀείρας | But then he lifted high and put in place the big door rock, sat, and milked the sheep and bleating goats, completely properly, and under each he pushed its young. Then after he'd quickly done his work, he again grabbed two at once and prepared dinner. |
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| καὶ τότʼ ἐγὼ Κύκλωπα προσηύδων ἄγχι παραστάς | Right then I went close and spoke to the Cyclops, holding a wooden cup of black wine in my hands: 'Cyclops, take it, drink the wine, after you've eaten human meat, so you can see what kind of drink our ship contained. I brought it for you now as a libation, that you would pity me |
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| οἴκαδε πέμψειας· σὺ δὲ μαίνεαι οὐκέτʼ ἀνεκτῶς. | and send me home, but now you're intolerably angry. Reckless one, why would anyone else, of multitudes of men, ever come to you later, since you haven't acted properly?' “So said I, and he took and drank it, and was terribly pleased drinking the sweet drink, and in turn asked me for seconds: |
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| δός μοι ἔτι πρόφρων, καί μοι τεὸν οὔνομα εἰπὲ | 'Give me some more, freely, and tell me your name right now, so I can give you a guest gift which you'll enjoy, since for Cyclopes the grain-giving earth bears clusters of grapes for wine, and Zeus's rain makes them grow for them, but this is like a bit of ambrosia and nectar!' |
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| ὣς φάτʼ, ἀτάρ οἱ αὖτις ἐγὼ πόρον αἴθοπα οἶνον. | “So said he, then I handed him in turn the sparkling wine. Three times I brought and gave it and three times he drank in folly. Then after the wine had gone around the Cyclops' mind, right then I spoke to him with words meant to win him: 'You ask me my famous name, Cyclops? Then I'll tell you |
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| ἐξερέω· σὺ δέ μοι δὸς ξείνιον, ὥς περ ὑπέστης. | but give me a guest gift, just as you promised. My name is Nobody. And they call me Nobody, my mother and father and all my comrades as well.' “So said I, and he answered me at once with a ruthless heart: 'I'll eat Nobody last among his comrades |
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| τοὺς δʼ ἄλλους πρόσθεν· τὸ δέ τοι ξεινήιον ἔσται. | and the others before him. That'll be my guest gift to you.' “He spoke, leaned back, fell on his back, then afterwards lay, thick neck drooping, and sleep, the tamer of all, seized him. Wine, and bits of human flesh, burst from his gullet, and, drunk with wine, he belched. |
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| καὶ τότʼ ἐγὼ τὸν μοχλὸν ὑπὸ σποδοῦ ἤλασα πολλῆς | Right then I drove the stake under deep ashes until it got hot, and with words encouraged all my comrades, lest any of mine flinch in fear. But when, before long, the olive-wood stake in the fire, green as it was, was about to catch fire and glowed terribly |
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| καὶ τότʼ ἐγὼν ἆσσον φέρον ἐκ πυρός, ἀμφὶ δʼ ἑταῖροι | right then I brought it nearer, out of the fire, and my comrades stood about me. Then a divinity breathed great confidence in us. While they lifted the olive-wood stake, sharp at the end, and thrust him in his eye, I pressed my weight from above and twisted it, as when some man bores a ship's plank |
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| τρυπάνῳ, οἱ δέ τʼ ἔνερθεν ὑποσσείουσιν ἱμάντι | with an auger, while others below rotate it with a strap they clasp at either end, so it always runs continuously. So we took the fire-sharpened stake and twisted it in his eye, and blood, hot as it was, flowed around it. The breath of his burning pupil singed all around his eyelid |
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| γλήνης καιομένης, σφαραγεῦντο δέ οἱ πυρὶ ῥίζαι. | and eyebrows, and the roots of his eye crackled with fire. As when a smith man plunges a big axe or adze in cold water to temper it, and it hisses greatly, for this is how it has again the strength of iron, so his eye sizzled around the olive-wood stake. |
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| σμερδαλέον δὲ μέγʼ ᾤμωξεν, περὶ δʼ ἴαχε πέτρη | He let out a great horrifying cry, the rock echoed, and we scurried off in fear. He pulled the stake, stained with lots of blood, out of his eye, then, in a frenzy, threw it from him with his hands, and called loudly to the Cyclopes who lived |
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| ᾤκεον ἐν σπήεσσι διʼ ἄκριας ἠνεμοέσσας. | about him in caves along the windy hilltops. They heard his cry, came from one place or another, stood around his cave, and asked what distressed him: 'What's hurt you so, Polyphemus, that you've cried out this way, through the ambrosial night and made us sleepless? |
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| ἦ μή τίς σευ μῆλα βροτῶν ἀέκοντος ἐλαύνει; | No one mortal drives away your sheep, against your will, does he? No one's killing you, by guile or violence, is he?' “From his cave mighty Polyphemus said back to them: 'My friends! Nobody is killing me, by guile and not by violence!' “They spoke winged words in reply: |
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| εἰ μὲν δὴ μή τίς σε βιάζεται οἶον ἐόντα | 'If, alone as you are, no one does you violence, there's no way to avoid sickness from great Zeus, so, pray to your father lord Poseidon.' “So said they and then went away, and my dear heart laughed, at how my name and noble cunning had tricked him. |
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| Κύκλωψ δὲ στενάχων τε καὶ ὠδίνων ὀδύνῃσι | The Cyclops, groaning in the throes of agony, felt around with his hands, took the stone from the door, sat down in the doorway, and spread out his arms in hope he'd catch someone walking out the door with his sheep, for in his mind he hoped I was so foolish. |
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