| Homer, Odyssey (English) (XML Header) [word count] [lemma count] [Hom. Od.]. | ||
| <<Hom. Od. 9.415 | Hom. Od. 9.505 (GreekEnglish) | >>Hom. Od. 9.565 |
9.475“‘Cyclops , that man, it seems, was no weakling, whose comrades thou wast minded to devour by brutal strength in thy hollow cave. Full surely were thy evil deeds to fall on thine own head, thou cruel wretch, who didst not shrink from eating thy guests in thine own house. Therefore has Zeus taken vengeance on thee, and the other gods.’
9.480“So I spoke, and he waxed the more wroth at heart, and broke off the peak of a high mountain and hurled it at us, and cast it in front of the dark-prowed ship. note And the sea surged beneath the stone as it fell,
9.485and the backward flow, like a flood from the deep, bore the ship swiftly landwards and drove it upon the shore. But I seized a long pole in my hands and shoved the ship off and along the shore,
9.490and with a nod of my head I roused my comrades, and bade them fall to their oars that we might escape out of our evil plight. And they bent to their oars and rowed. But when, as we fared over the sea, we were twice as far distant, then was I fain to call to the Cyclops , though round about me my comrades, one after another, sought to check me with gentle words:
“‘Reckless one, why wilt thou provoke to wrath a savage man,
9.495who but now hurled his missile into the deep and drove our ship back to the land, and verily we thought that we had perished there? And had he heard one of us uttering a sound or speaking, he would have hurled a jagged rock and crushed our heads and the timbers of our ship, so mightily does he throw.’
Cyclops , if any one of mortal men shall ask thee about the shameful blinding of thine eye, say that Odysseus, the sacker of cities, blinded it,
9.505even the son of Laertes, whose home is in Ithaca .’
“So I spoke, and he groaned and said in answer:‘Lo now, verily a prophecy uttered long ago is come upon me. There lived here a soothsayer, a good man and tall, Telemus, son of Eurymus, who excelled all men in soothsaying,
9.510and grew old as a seer among the Cyclopes. He told me that all these things should be brought to pass in days to come, that by the hands of Odysseus I should lose my sight. But I ever looked for some tall and comely man to come hither, clothed in great might,
9.515but now one that is puny, a man of naught and a weakling, has blinded me of my eye when he had overpowered me with wine. Yet come hither, Odysseus, that I may set before thee gifts of entertainment, and may speed thy sending hence, that the glorious Earth-shaker may grant it thee. For I am his son, and he declares himself my father;
9.520 and he himself will heal me, if it be his good pleasure, but none other either of the blessed gods or of mortal men.’
“So he spoke, and I answered him and said:‘Would that I were able to rob thee of soul and life, and to send thee to the house of Hades,
9.525as surely as not even the Earth-shaker shall heal thine eye.’
“So I spoke, and he then prayed to the lord Poseidon, stretching out both his hands to the starry heaven: ‘Hear me, Poseidon, earth-enfolder, thou dark-haired god, if indeed I am thy son and thou declarest thyself my father;
9.530grant that Odysseus, the sacker of cities, may never reach his home, even the son of Laertes, whose home is in Ithaca ; but if it is his fate to see his friends and to reach his well-built house and his native land, late may he come and in evil case, after losing all his comrades,
9.535in a ship that is another's; and may he find woes in his house.’
Cyclops lifted on high again a far greater stone, and swung and hurled it, putting into the throw measureless strength. He cast it
9.540a little behind the dark-prowed ship, and barely missed the end of the steering-oar. And the sea surged beneath the stone as it fell, and the wave bore the ship onward and drove it to the shore.
“Now when we had come to the island, where our other well-benched ships lay all together, and round about them our comrades,
9.545ever expecting us, sat weeping, then, on coming thither, we beached our ship on the sands, and ourselves went forth upon the shore of the sea. Then we took from out the hollow ship the flocks of the Cyclops , and divided them, that so far as in me lay no man might go defrauded of an equal share.
9.550But the ram my well-greaved comrades gave to me alone, when the flocks were divided, as a gift apart; and on the shore I sacrificed him to Zeus, son of Cronos, god of the dark clouds, who is lord of all, and burned the thigh-pieces. Howbeit he heeded not my sacrifice, but was planning how all
9.555my well-benched ships might perish and my trusty comrades.
“So, then, all day long till set of sun we sat feasting on abundant flesh and sweet wine; but when the sun set and darkness came on, then we lay down to rest on the shore of the sea.
| Homer, Odyssey (English) (XML Header) [word count] [lemma count] [Hom. Od.]. | ||
| <<Hom. Od. 9.415 | Hom. Od. 9.505 (GreekEnglish) | >>Hom. Od. 9.565 |
