Odysseus
Then listen to the punishment I have contrived for the knavish beast and our escape from slavery.
Chorus-Leader
Say on. I would not enjoy hearing the sound of the Asian lyre more than the news of the Cyclops' death!
Odysseus
[445]
He wants to go to his brother Cyclopes for a revel since he is delighted with this drink of Dionysus.
Chorus-Leader
I take your drift. You are eager to catch him by himself in the woods and cut his throat or push him off a cliff.
Odysseus
No, nothing like that. My desire is for something cunning.
Chorus-Leader
[450]
What is it then? We have long heard about your cleverness.
Odysseus
To begin with, I want to keep him from going on this revel by telling him he shouldn't give the other Cyclopes this drink but keep it to himself and live a life of pleasure. But when he falls asleep, overcome by Dionysus,
[455]
there is an olive-stake in his hall, whose tip, when I have sharpened it with this sword of mine, I shall put into the fire. Then when I see it burnt, I shall lift it hot and poke it into the Cyclops' face and melt his eye with the fire.
[460]
And just as a ship's joiner whirls his auger with a pair of thongs, so I shall drill the brand into the Cyclops' orb of vision and burn out his eyeball.
Chorus-Leader
Hurrah!
[465]
I am driven frantic with joy by your inventions!
Odysseus
Then I shall put you and my friends and your old father on board my black ship, and with paired oars I shall set off from this land.
Chorus-Leader
Is there any way that I too could put my hand, as men do with a libation to the gods,
[470]
to the brand that will blind the Cyclops? I want to have a part in this blood-letting.
Odysseus
You must, for the brand is big and you must help to hold it.
Chorus-Leader
I could lift the weight of a hundred wagons if we are going to smoke out that cursed Cyclops'
[475]
eye like a wasps' nest.
Odysseus
Then hold your tongue—you now know my plan—and when I give the word, do what the master-builder tells you to. I shall not leave behind my friends in the cave and save myself alone. [
[480]
And yet I could flee, and I have come out of the cave, but it is not right to leave behind my friends with whom I came here and save myself alone.]
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Euripides. Euripides, with an English translation by David Kovacs. Cambridge. Harvard University Press. forthcoming.
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