| Homer, Odyssey (English) (XML Header) [genre: poetry; hexameter] [word count] [lemma count] [Hom. Od.]. | ||
| <<Hom. Od. 9.231 | Hom. Od. 9.318 (Greek English(2)) | >>Hom. Od. 9.436 |
9.287"The cruel wretch granted 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.
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:
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?’
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.’
daimôn 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.
9.307"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.
9.318"In the end I deemed it would be the best plan to do as follows. The
9.347"‘Look here,
9.353"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.’
9.360"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: ‘
9.368"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.’
9.371As 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 a
| Homer, Odyssey (English) (XML Header) [genre: poetry; hexameter] [word count] [lemma count] [Hom. Od.]. | ||
| <<Hom. Od. 9.231 | Hom. Od. 9.318 (Greek English(2)) | >>Hom. Od. 9.436 |
