by Euripides
Odysseus Do they sow Demeter’s grain, or on what do they live?
Silenus On milk and cheese and flesh of sheep.
Odysseus Have they the drink of Bromius, the juice of the vine?
Silenus No indeed! and thus it is a joyless land they dwell in.
Odysseus Are they hospitable and reverent towards strangers?
Silenus Strangers, they say, supply the daintiest meat.
Odysseus What, do they delight in killing men and eating them?
Silenus No one has ever arrived here without being butchered.
Odysseus Where is the Cyclops himself? inside his dwelling?
Silenus He is gone hunting wild beasts with hounds on Aetna.
Odysseus Dost know then what to do, that we may be gone from the land?
Silenus Not I, Odysseus; but I would do anything for thee.
Odysseus Sell us food, of which we are in need.
Silenus There is nothing but flesh, as I said.
Odysseus Well, even that is a pleasant preventive of hunger.
Silenus And there is cheese curdled with fig-juice, and the milk of kine.
Odysseus Bring them out; a man should see his purchases.
Silenus But tell me, how much gold wilt thou give me in exchange?
Odysseus No gold bring I, but Dionysus’ drink.
Silenus (joyfully) Most welcome words! I have long been wanting that.
Odysseus Yes, it was Maron, the god’s son, who gave me a draught.
Silenus What! Maron whom once I dandled in these arms?
Odysseus The son of the Bacchic god, that thou mayst learn more certainly.
Silenus Is it inside the ship, or hast thou it with thee?
Odysseus This, as thou seest, is the skin that holds it, old sir.
Silenus Why, that would not give me so much as a mouthful.
Odysseus This, and twice as much again as will run from the skin.
Silenus Fair the rill thou speakest of, delicious to me.
Odysseus Shall I let thee taste the wine unmixed, to start with?
Silenus A reasonable offer; for of a truth a taste invites the purchase.
Odysseus Well, I haul about a cup as well as the skin.
Silenus Come, let it gurgle in, that I may revive my memory by a pull at it.
Odysseus (pouring) There then!
Silenus (smelling it) Ye gods! what a delicious scent it has!
Odysseus What! didst thou see it?
Silenus No, i’ faith, but I smell it.
Odysseus Taste it then, that thy approval may not stop at words.
Silenus (taking a drink) Zounds! Bacchus is inviting me to dance; ha! ha!
Odysseus Did it not gurgle finely down thy throttle?
Silenus Aye that it did, to the ends of my fingers.
Odysseus Well, we will give thee money besides.
Silenus Only undo the skin, and never mind the money.
Odysseus Bring out the cheeses then and lambs.
Silenus I will do so, with small thought of any master. For let me have a single cup of that and I would turn madman, giving in exchange for it the flocks of every Cyclops and then throwing myself into the sea from the Leucadian rock, once I have been well drunk and smoothed out my wrinkled brow. For if a man rejoice not in his drinking, he is mad; for in drinking it’s possible for this to stand up straight, and then to fondle breasts, and to caress well tended locks, and there is dancing withal, and oblivion of woe. Shall not I then purchase so rare a drink, bidding the senseless Cyclops and his central eye go hang?
(SILENUS goes into the cave.)
Leader Hearken, Odysseus, let us hold some converse with thee.
Odysseus Well, do so; ours is a meeting of friends.
Leader Did you take Troy and capture the famous Helen?
Odysseus Aye, and we destroyed the whole family of Priam.
Leader After capturing your blooming prize, were all of you in turn her lovers? for she likes variety in husbands; the traitress! the sight of a man with embroidered breeches on his legs and a golden chain about his neck so fluttered her, that she left Menelaus, her excellent little husband. Would there had never been a race of women born into the world at all, unless it were for me alone!
Silenus (reappearing with food) Lo! I bring you fat food from the flocks, king Odysseus, the young of bleating sheep and cheeses of curdled milk without stint. Carry them away with you and begone from the cave at once, after giving me a drink of merry grape-juice in exchange.
Leader Alack! yonder comes the Cyclops; what shall we do?
Odysseus Then truly are we lost, old sir! whither must we fly?
Silenus Inside this rock, for there ye may conceal yourselves.
Odysseus Dangerous advice of thine, to run into the net!
Silenus No danger; there are ways of escape in plenty in the rock.
Odysseus No, never that; for surely Troy will groan and loudly too, if we flee from a single man, when I have oft withstood with my shield a countless host of Phrygians. Nay, if die we must, we will die a noble death; or, if we live, we will maintain our old renown at least with credit.
(The CYCLOPS enters as SILENUS goes into the cave. The CYCLOPS, not noticing ODYSSEUS and his companions, addresses the CHORUS in anger.)
Cyclops A light here! hold it up! what is this? what means this idleness, your Bacchic revelry? Here have we no Dionysus, nor clash of brass, nor roll of drums. Pray, how is it with my newly-born lambs in the caves? are they at the teat, running close to the side of their dams? Is the full amount of milk for cheeses milked out in baskets of rushes? How now? what say you? One of ye will soon be shedding tears from the weight of my club; look up, not down.
Leader There! my head is bent back till I see Zeus himself; I behold both the stars and Orion.
Cyclops Is my breakfast quite ready?
Leader ’Tis laid; be thy throat only ready.
Cyclops Are the bowls too full of milk?
Leader Aye, so that thou canst swill off a whole hogshead, so it please thee.
Cyclops Sheep’s milk or cows’ milk or a mixture of both?
Leader Whichever thou wilt; don’t swallow me, that’s all.
Cyclops Not I; for you would start kicking in the pit of my stomach and kill me by your antics. (Catching sight of ODYSSEUS and his followers) Ha! what is this crowd I see near the folds? Some pirates or robbers have put in here. (SILENUS comes out of the cave. He has made himself appear as though he had just suffered a terrible beating.) Yes, I really see the lambs from my caves tied up there with twisted osiers, cheese-presses scattered about, and old Silenus with his bald pate all swollen with blows.
Silenus Oh! oh! poor wretch that I am, pounded to a fever.
Cyclops By whom? who has been pounding thy head, old sirrah?
Silenus These are the culprits, Cyclops, all because I refused to let them plunder thee.
Cyclops Did they not know I was a god and sprung from gods?
Silenus That was what I told them, but they persisted in plundering thy goods, and, in spite of my efforts, they actually began to eat the cheese and carry off the lambs; and they said they would tie thee in a three-cubit pillory and tear out thy bowels by force at thy navel, and flay thy back thoroughly with the scourge; and then, after binding thee, fling thy carcase down among the benches of their ship to sell to someone for heaving up stones, or else throw thee into a mill.
Cyclops Oh, indeed! Be off then and sharpen my cleavers at once; heap high the faggots and light them; for they shall be slain forthwith and fill this maw of mine, what time I pick my feast hot from the coals, waiting not for carvers, and fish up the rest from the cauldron boiled and sodden; for I have had my fill of mountain-fare and sated myself with banquets of lions and stags, but ’tis long I have been without human flesh.
Silenus Truly, master, a change like this is all the sweeter after everyday fare; for just of late there have been no fresh arrivals of strangers at these caves.
Odysseus Hea
r the strangers too in turn, Cyclops. We had come near the cave from our ship, wishing to procure provisions by purchase, when this fellow sold us the lambs and handed them over for a stoup of wine to drink himself, a voluntary act on both sides, there was no violence employed at all. No, there is not a particle of truth in the story he tells; now that he has been caught selling thy property behind thy back.
Silenus I? Perdition catch thee!
Odysseus If I am lying, yes.
Silenus (in agitation) O Cyclops, by thy sire Poseidon, by mighty Triton and Nereus, by Calypso and the daughters of Nereus, by the sacred billows and all the race of fishes! I swear to thee, most noble sir, dear little Cyclops, master mine, it is not I who sell thy goods to strangers, else may these children, dearly as I love them, come to an evil end.
Leader Keep that for thyself; with my own eyes I saw thee sell the goods to the strangers; and if I lie, perdition catch my sire! but injure not the strangers.
Cyclops Ye lie; for my part I put more faith in him than Rhadamanthus, declaring him more just. But I have some questions to ask. Whence sailed ye, strangers? of what country are you? what city was it nursed your childhood?
Odysseus We are Ithacans by birth, and have been driven from our course by the winds of the sea on our way from Ilium, after sacking its citadel.
Cyclops Are ye the men who visited on Ilium, that bordereth on Scamander’s wave, the rape of Helen, worst of women?
Odysseus We are; that was the fearful labour we endured.
Cyclops A sorry expedition yours, to have sailed to the land of Phrygia for the sake of one woman
Odysseus It was a god’s doing; blame not any son of man. But thee do we implore, most noble son of Ocean’s god, speaking as free-born men; be not so cruel as to slay thy friends on their coming to thy cave, nor regard us as food for thy jaws, an impious meal; for we preserved thy sire, O king, in possession of his temple-seats deep in the nooks of Hellas; and the sacred port of Taenarus and Malea’s furthest coves remain unharmed; and Sunium’s rock, the silver-veined, sacred to Zeus-born Athena, still is safe, and Geraestus, the harbour of refuge; and we did not permit Phrygians to put such an intolerable reproach on Hellas. Now in these things thou too hast a share, for thou dwellest in a corner of the land of Hellas beneath Aetna’s fire-streaming rock; and although thou turn from arguments, still it is a custom amongst mortal men to receive shipwrecked sailors as their suppliants and show them hospitality and help them with raiment; not that these should fill thy jaws and belly, their limbs transfixed with spits for piercing ox-flesh. The land of Priam hath emptied Hellas quite enough, drinking the blood of many whom the spear laid low, with the ruin it has brought on widowed wives, on aged childless dames, and hoary-headed sires; and if thou roast and consume the remnant,-a meal thou wilt rue,-why, where shall one turn? Nay, be persuaded by me, Cyclops; forego thy ravenous greed and choose piety rather than wickedness; for on many a man ere now unrighteous gains have brought down retribution.
Silenus I will give thee a word of advice! as for his flesh, leave not a morsel of it, and if thou eat his tongue, Cyclops, thou wilt become a monstrous clever talker.
Cyclops Wealth, manikin, is the god for the wise; all else is mere vaunting and fine words. Plague take the headlands by the sea, on which my father seats himself! Why hast thou put forward these arguments? I shudder not at Zeus’s thunder, nor know I wherein Zeus is a mightier god than I, stranger; what is more, I reck not of him; my reasons hear. When he pours down the rain from above, here in this rock in quarters snug, feasting on roast calf’s flesh or some wild game and moistening well my up-turned paunch with deep draughts from a tub of milk, I rival the thunder-claps of Zeus with my artillery; and when the north wind blows from Thrace and sheddeth snow, I wrap my carcase in the hides of beasts and light a fire, and what care I for snow? The earth perforce, whether she like it or not, produces grass and fattens my flocks, which I sacrifice to no one save myself and this belly, the greatest of deities; but to the gods, not I! For surely to eat and drink one’s fill from day to day and give oneself no grief at all, this is the king of gods for your wise man, but lawgivers go hang, chequering, as they do, the life of man! And so I will not cease from indulging myself by devouring thee; and thou shalt receive this stranger’s gift, that I may be free of blame,-fire and my father’s element yonder, and a cauldron to hold thy flesh and boil it nicely in collops. So in with you, that ye may feast me well, standing round the altar to honour the cavern’s god.
(The CYCLOPS goes into his cave, driving ODYSSEUS’ men before him.)
Odysseus Alas! escaped from the troubles of Troy and the sea, my barque now strands upon the whim and forbidding heart of this savage. O Pallas, mistress mine, goddess-daughter of Zeus, help me, help me now; for I am come to toils and depths of peril worse than all at Ilium; and thou, O Zeus, the stranger’s god, who hast thy dwelling ‘mid the radiant stars, behold these things; for, if thou regard them not, in vain art thou esteemed the great god Zeus, though but a thing of naught.
(He follows the CYCLOPS reluctantly. SILENUS also goes in.)
Chorus (singing) Ope wide the portal of thy gaping throat, Cyclops; for strangers’ limbs, both boiled and grilled, are ready from off the coals for thee to gnaw and tear and mince up small, reclining in thy shaggy goat-skin coat.
Relinquish not thy meal for me; keep that boat for thyself alone. Avaunt this cave! avaunt the burnt-offerings, which the godless Cyclops offers on Aetna’s altars, exulting in meals on strangers’ flesh!
Oh! the ruthless monster! to sacrifice his guests at his own hearth, the suppliants of his halls, cleaving and tearing and serving up to his loathsome teeth a feast of human flesh, hot from the coals.
Odysseus (reappearing with a look of horror) O Zeus! what can I say after the hideous sights I have seen inside the cave, things past belief, resembling more the tales men tell than aught they do?
Leader of the chorus What news, Odysseus? has the Cyclops, most godless monster, been feasting on thy dear comrades?
Odysseus Aye, he singled out a pair, on whom the flesh was fattest and in best condition, and took them up in his hand to weigh.
Leader How went it with you then, poor wretch?
Odysseus When we had entered yonder rocky abode, he lighted first a fire, throwing logs of towering oak upon his spacious hearth, enough for three wagons to carry as their load; next, close by the blazing flame, he placed his couch of pine-boughs laid upon the floor, and filled a bowl of some ten firkins, pouring white milk thereinto, after he had milked his kine; and by his side he put a can of ivy-wood, whose breadth was three cubits and its depth four maybe; next he set his brazen pot a-boiling on the fire, spits too he set beside him, fashioned of the branches of thorn, their points hardened in the fire and the rest of them trimmed with the hatchet, and the blood-bowls of Aetna for the axe’s edge. Now when that hell-cook, god-detested, had everything quite ready, he caught up a pair of my companions and proceeded deliberately to cut the throat of one of them over the yawning brazen pot; but the other he clutched by the tendon of his heel, and, striking him against a sharp point of rocky stone, dashed out his brains; then, after hacking the fleshy parts with glutton cleaver, he set to grilling them, but the limbs he threw into his cauldron to seethe. And I, poor wretch, drew near with streaming eyes and waited on the Cyclops; but the others kept cowering like frightened birds in crannies of the rock, and the blood forsook their skin. Anon, when he had gorged himself upon my comrades’ flesh and had fallen on his back, breathing heavily, there came a sudden inspiration to me. I filled a cup of this Maronian wine and offered him a draught, saying, “Cyclops, son of Ocean’s god, see here what heavenly drink the grapes of Hellas yield, glad gift of Dionysus.” He, glutted with his shameless meal, took and drained it at one draught, and, lifting up his hand, he thanked me thus “Dearest to me of all my guests! fair the drink thou givest me to crown so fair a feast.” Now when I saw his delight, I gave him another cup, knowing the wine would make him r
ue it, and he would soon be paying the penalty. Then he set to singing; but I kept filling bumper after bumper and heating him with drink. So there he is singing discordantly amid the weeping of my fellow-sailors, and the cave re-echoes; but I have made my way out quietly and would fain save thee and myself, if thou wilt. Tell me then, is it your wish, or is it not, to fly from this unsocial wretch and take up your abode with Naiad nymphs in the halls of the Bacchic god? Thy father within approves this scheme; but there! he is powerless, getting all he can out of his liquor; his wings are snared by the cup as if he had flown against bird-lime, and he is fuddled; but thou art young and lusty; so save thyself with my help and regain thy old friend Dionysus, so little like the Cyclops.
Leader Best of friends, would we might see that day, escaping the godless Cyclops!
Odysseus Hear then how I will requite this vile monster and rescue you from thraldom.
Leader Tell me how; no note of Asiatic lyre would sound more sweetly in our ears than news of the Cyclops’ death.
Odysseus Delighted with this liquor of the Bacchic god, he fain would go a-reveling with his brethren.
Leader I understand; thy purpose is to seize and slay him in the thickets when alone, or push him down a precipice.
Odysseus Not at all; my plan is fraught with subtlety.
Leader What then? Truly we have long heard of thy cleverness.
Odysseus I mean to keep him from this revel, saying he must not give this drink to his brethren but keep it for himself alone and lead a happy life. Then when he falls asleep, o’ermastered by the Bacchic god, I will put a point with this sword of mine to an olive-branch I saw lying in the cave, and will set it on fire; and when I see it well alight, I will lift the heated brand, and, thrusting it full in the Cyclops’ eye, melt out his sight with its blaze; and, as when a man in fitting the timbers of a ship makes his auger spin to and fro with a double strap, so will I make the brand revolve in the eye, that gives the Cyclops light and will scorch up the pupil thereof.
Leader Ho! ho! how glad I feel! wild with joy at the contrivance!
Odysseus That done, I will embark thee and those thou lovest with old Silenus in the deep hold of my black ship, my ship with double banks of oars, and carry you away from this land.