The Odyssey, Homer, 9:500-535

Translation by A.T. Murray, PH.D. and was found at http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0136%3Abook%3D9%3Acard%3D500

This online edition was prepared by Shanna Brado

This particular passage from The Odyssey is part of a conversation between the hero of this epic, Odysseus, and the Cyclopes Polyphemus after Odysseus seems to have outsmarted Polyphemus in order to escape the Cyclops’' cave. Odysseus and his men sailed to the land of the Cyclopes and stumbled across Polyphemus' cave that was filled with an abundance of food and in foolishness Odysseus lingered around and Polyphemus decided to capture him and his men after immediately eating two of his men to prove a point. Angered, Odysseus start planning his escape and his revenge on the Cyclops. Polyphemus places a giant rock in front of the opening of his cave to prevent his prisoners from escaping and only the one-eyed giant can remove it, so Odysseus must devise a plan carefully in order to get him and his comrades back to the their ship. While Polyphemus is out tending to his animals Odysseus sharpens a stake and waits for the giant to return. Once he is back Odysseus gets Polyphemus drunk from a strong wine he had brought with him and stabs him in the eye blinding him. Cunning as he is, Odysseus tells the Cyclopes that his name is "Noman", or "Nobody", so when Polyphemus asks for help from his friends they assume he is ok when he answers with Nobody has maimed him and the men are able to escape from the cave. The passage is important because after you witness Odysseus' cunning wit you are shown how this wit has consequences as Odysseus finds out Polyphemus' father is the god Poseidon.

[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.’ [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. And the sea surged beneath the stone as it fell, [485] and 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, [490] and 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, [495] who 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.’ [500] “So they spoke, but they could not persuade my great-hearted spirit; and I answered him again with angry heart: “‘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, [505] even 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, [510] and 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, [515] but 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; [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, [525] as 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; [530] grant 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, [535] in a ship that is another's; and may he find woes in his house.’

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