Scroll 9
And Odysseus answered, "King
Alkinoos, it is a good thing to hear a bard with such a divine voice
as this man has. There is nothing better or more delightful than when
merriment [euphrosunê] prevails over a whole
dêmos, with the guests sitting orderly to listen, while
the table is loaded with bread and meats, and the cup-bearer draws
wine and fills his cup for every man. This is indeed as fair a sight
as a man can see. Now, however, since you are inclined to ask the
story of my sorrows, and rekindle my own sad memories in respect of
them, I do not know how to begin, nor yet how to continue and
conclude my tale, for the hand of heaven has been laid heavily upon
me.
"Firstly, then, I will tell you my
name that you too may know it, and that one day, if I outlive this
time of sorrow, I may become a guest-friend to you, though I live so
far away from all of you. I am Odysseus son of
Laertes, renowned
among humankind for all manner of subtlety, so that my kleos
ascends to heaven. I live in
Ithaca, where there is a high mountain
called Neritum, covered with forests; and not far from it there is a
group of islands very near to one another - Dulichium, Same, and the
wooded island of
Zacynthus. It lies squat on the horizon, all highest
up in the sea towards the sunset, while the others lie away from it
towards dawn. It is a rugged island, but it breeds brave men, and my
eyes know none that they better love to look upon. The goddess
Calypso kept me with her in her cave, and wanted me to marry her, as
did also the cunning Aeaean goddess Circe; but they could neither of
them persuade me, for there is nothing dearer to a man than his own
country and his parents, and however splendid a home he may have in a
foreign country, if it be far from father or mother, he does not care
about it. Now, however, I will tell you of the many hazardous
adventures which by Zeus’ will I met with on my return
[nostos] from
Troy.
"When I had set sail thence the
wind took me first to Ismaros, which is the city of the Kikones.
There I sacked the town and put the people to the sword. We took
their wives and also much booty, which we divided equitably amongst
us, so that none might have reason to complain. I then said that we
had better make off at once, but my men very foolishly would not obey
me, so they stayed there drinking much wine and killing great numbers
of sheep and oxen on the sea shore. Meanwhile the Kikones cried out
for help to other Kikones who lived inland. These were more in
number, and stronger, and they were more skilled in the art of war,
for they could fight, either from chariots or on foot as the occasion
served; in the morning, therefore, they came as thick as leaves and
bloom in summertime [hôra], and the hand of
heaven was against us, so that we were hard pressed. They set the
battle in array near the ships, and the hosts aimed their bronze-shod
spears at one another. So long as the day waxed and it was still
morning, we held our own against them, though they were more in
number than we; but as the sun went down, towards the time when men
loose their oxen, the Kikones got the better of us, and we lost half
a dozen men from every ship we had; so we got away with those that
were left.
"Thence we sailed onward with
sorrow in our hearts, but glad to have escaped death though we had
lost our comrades, nor did we leave till we had thrice invoked each
one of the poor men who had perished by the hands of the Kikones.
Then Zeus raised the North wind against us till it blew a blast of
wind, so that land and sky were hidden in thick clouds, and night
sprang forth out of the heavens. We let the ships run before the
gale, but the force of the wind tore our sails to tatters, so we took
them down for fear of shipwreck, and rowed our hardest towards the
land. There we lay two days and two nights suffering much alike from
toil and distress of mind, but on the morning of the third day we
again raised our masts, set sail, and took our places, letting the
wind and steersmen direct our ship. I should have got home at that
time unharmed had not the North wind and the currents been against me
as I was doubling Cape Malea, and set me off my course hard by the
island of
Cythera.
"I was driven thence by foul winds
for a space of nine days upon the sea, but on the tenth day we
reached the land of the Lotus-eaters, who live on a food that comes
from a kind of flower. Here we landed to take in fresh water, and our
crews got their mid-day meal on the shore near the ships. When they
had eaten and drunk I chose [krinô] two of my
company to go see what manner of men the people of the place might
be, and they had a third man under them. They started at once, and
went about among the Lotus-eaters, who did them no harm, but gave
them to eat of the lotus, which was so delicious that those who ate
of it left off caring about home, and did not even want to go back
and say what had happened to them, but were for staying and munching
lotus with the Lotus-eaters without thinking further of their
nostos; nevertheless, though they wept bitterly I forced them
back to the ships and made them fast under the benches. Then I told
the rest to go on board at once, lest any of them should taste of the
lotus and leave off wanting to achieve a homecoming
[nostos], so they took their places and smote the gray
sea with their oars.
"We sailed hence, always in much
distress, till we came to the land of the lawless and inhuman
Cyclopes. Now the Cyclopes neither plant nor plough, but trust in
providence, and live on such wheat, barley, and grapes as grow wild
without any kind of tillage, and their wild grapes yield them wine as
the sun and the rain may grow them. They have no laws nor assemblies
of the people, but live in caves on the tops of high mountains; each
is lord and master in his family, and they take no account of their
neighbors.
"Now off their harbor there lies
a wooded and fertile island not quite close to the land of the
Cyclopes, but still not far. It is overrun with wild goats, that
breed there in great numbers and are never disturbed by foot of man;
for sportsmen - who as a rule will suffer so much hardship in forest
or among mountain precipices - do not go there, nor yet again is it
ever ploughed or fed down, but it lies a wilderness untilled and
unsown from year to year, and has no living thing upon it but only
goats. For the Cyclopes have no ships, nor yet shipwrights who could
make ships for them; they cannot therefore go from city to city, or
sail over the sea to one another's country as people who have
ships can do; if they had had these they would have colonized the
island, for it is a very good one, and would yield everything in due
season. There are meadows that in some places come right down to the
sea shore, well watered and full of luscious grass; grapes would do
there excellently; there is level land for ploughing, and it would
always yield heavily at harvest time [hôra], for
the soil is deep. There is a good harbor where no cables are wanted,
nor yet anchors, nor need a ship be moored, but all one has to do is
to beach one's vessel and stay there till the wind becomes fair
for putting out to sea again. At the head of the harbor there is a
spring of clear water coming out of a cave, and there are poplars
growing all round it.
"Here we entered, but so dark was
the night that some god must have brought us in, for there was
nothing whatever to be seen. A thick mist hung all round our ships;
the moon was hidden behind a mass of clouds so that no one could have
seen the island if he had looked for it, nor were there any breakers
to tell us we were close in shore before we found ourselves upon the
land itself; when, however, we had beached the ships, we took down
the sails, went ashore and camped upon the beach till
daybreak.
"When the child of morning,
rosy-fingered Dawn, appeared, we admired the island and wandered all
over it, while the nymphs, Zeus’ daughters, roused the wild
goats that we might get some meat for our dinner. On this we fetched
our spears and bows and arrows from the ships, and dividing ourselves
into three bands began to shoot the goats. Heaven sent us excellent
sport; I had twelve ships with me, and each ship got nine goats,
while my own ship had ten; thus through the livelong day to the going
down of the sun we ate and drank our fill, - and we had plenty of
wine left, for each one of us had taken many jars full when we sacked
the city of the Kikones, and this had not yet run out. While we were
feasting we kept turning our eyes towards the land of the Cyclopes,
which was hard by, and saw the smoke of their stubble fires. We could
almost fancy we heard their voices and the bleating of their sheep
and goats, but when the sun went down and it came on dark, we camped
down upon the beach, and next morning I called a council.
"‘Stay here, my brave
men,’ said I, ‘all the rest of you, while I go with my ship
and make trial of these people myself: I want to see if they are
uncivilized [not dikaios] savages, or a race
hospitable and endowed with a god-fearing
noos.’
"I went on board, bidding my men
to do so also and loose the hawsers; so they took their places and
smote the gray sea with their oars. When we got to the land, which
was not far, there, on the face of a cliff near the sea, we saw a
great cave overhung with laurels. It was a station for a great many
sheep and goats, and outside there was a large yard, with a high wall
round it made of stones built into the ground and of trees both pine
and oak. This was the abode of a huge monster who was then away from
home shepherding his flocks. He would have nothing to do with other
people, but led the life of an outlaw. He was a horrid creature, not
like a human being at all, but resembling rather some crag that
stands out boldly against the sky on the top of a high
mountain.
"I told my men to draw the ship
ashore, and stay where they were, all but the twelve best
[krînô] among them, who were to go along
with myself. I also took a goatskin of sweet black wine which had
been given me by Maron, Apollo son of Euanthes, who was priest of
Apollo the patron god of Ismaros, and lived within the wooded
precincts of the temple. When we were sacking the city we respected
him, and spared his life, as also his wife and child; so he made me
some presents of great value - seven talents of fine gold, and a bowl
of silver, with twelve jars of sweet wine, unblended, and of the most
exquisite flavor. Not a man nor maid in the house knew about it, but
only himself, his wife, and one housekeeper: when he drank it he
mixed twenty parts of water to one of wine, and yet the fragrance
from the mixing-bowl was so exquisite that it was impossible to
refrain from drinking. I filled a large skin with this wine, and took
a wallet full of provisions with me, for my mind misgave me that I
might have to deal with some savage who would be of great strength,
and would respect neither right [dikê] nor
law.
"We soon reached his cave, but he
was out shepherding, so we went inside and took stock of all that we
could see. His cheese-racks were loaded with cheeses, and he had more
lambs and kids than his pens could hold. They were kept in separate
flocks; first there were the hoggets, then the oldest of the younger
lambs and lastly the very young ones all kept apart from one another;
as for his dairy, all the vessels, bowls, and milk pails into which
he milked, were swimming with whey. When they saw all this, my men
begged me to let them first steal some cheeses, and make off with
them to the ship; they would then return, drive down the lambs and
kids, put them on board and sail away with them. It would have been
indeed better if we had done so but I would not listen to them, for I
wanted to see the owner himself, in the hope that he might give me a
present. When, however, we saw him my poor men found him ill to deal
with.
"We lit a fire, offered some of
the cheeses in sacrifice, ate others of them, and then sat waiting
till the
Cyclops should come in with his sheep. When he came, he
brought in with him a huge load of dry firewood to light the fire for
his supper, and this he flung with such a noise on to the floor of
his cave that we hid ourselves for fear at the far end of the cavern.
Meanwhile he drove all the ewes inside, as well as the she-goats that
he was going to milk, leaving the males, both rams and he-goats,
outside in the yards. Then he rolled a huge stone to the mouth of the
cave - so huge that two and twenty strong four-wheeled wagons would
not be enough to draw it from its place against the doorway. When he
had so done he sat down and milked his ewes and goats, all in due
course, and then let each of them have her own young. He curdled half
the milk and set it aside in wicker strainers, but the other half he
poured into bowls that he might drink it for his supper. When he had
got through with all his work, he lit the fire, and then caught sight
of us, whereon he said:
"‘Strangers, who are you?
Where do sail from? Are you traders, or do you sail the sea as
rovers, with your hands against every man, and every man's hand
against you?’
"We were frightened out of our
senses by his loud voice and monstrous form, but I managed to say,
‘We are Achaeans on our way home from
Troy, but by the will of
Zeus, and stress of weather, we have been driven far out of our
course. We are the people of Agamemnon, son of Atreus, who has won
infinite kleos throughout the whole world, by sacking so great
a city and killing so many people. We therefore humbly pray you to
show us some hospitality, and otherwise make us such presents as
visitors may reasonably expect. May your excellency give reverence
[aidôs] to the gods, for we are your suppliants,
and Zeus takes all respectable travelers under his protection, for he
is the avenger of all suppliants and foreigners in
distress.’
"To this he gave me but a
pitiless answer, ‘Stranger,’ said he, ‘you are a fool,
or else you know nothing of this country. Talk to me, indeed, about
fearing the gods or shunning their anger? We Cyclopes do not care
about Zeus or any of your blessed gods, for we are ever so much
stronger than they. I shall not spare either yourself or your
companions out of any regard for Zeus, unless I am in the humor for
doing so. And now tell me where you made your ship fast when you came
on shore. Was it round the point, or is she lying straight off the
land?’
"He said this to draw me out, but
I was too cunning to be caught in that way, so I answered with a lie;
‘Poseidon,’ said I, ‘sent my ship on to the rocks at
the far end of your country, and wrecked it. We were driven on to
them from the open sea, but I and those who are with me escaped the
jaws of death.’
"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.
"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.
"In the end I deemed it would be
the best plan to do as follows. The
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:
"‘Look here,
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?’
"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.’
"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: ‘
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.’
"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.’
As 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 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.
"‘What ails you,
Polyphemus,’ said they, ‘that you make such a noise,
breaking the stillness of the night, and preventing us from being
able to sleep? Surely no man is carrying off your sheep? Surely no
man is trying to kill you either by fraud or by force
[biê]?
"But Polyphemus shouted to them
from inside the cave, ‘Noman is killing me by fraud! Noman is
killing me by force [biê]!’
"‘Then,’ said they,
‘if no man is attacking you, you must be ill; when Zeus makes
people ill, there is no help for it, and you had better pray to your
father Poseidon.’
"Then they went away, and I
laughed inwardly at the success of my clever stratagem, but the
Cyclops, groaning and in an agony of pain, felt about with his hands
till he found the stone and took it from the door; then he sat in the
doorway and stretched his hands in front of it to catch anyone going
out with the sheep, for he thought I might be foolish enough to
attempt this.
"As for myself I kept on puzzling
to think how I could best save my own life
[psukhê] and those of my companions; I schemed
and schemed, as one who knows that his life depends upon it, for the
danger was very great. In the end I deemed that this plan would be
the best. The male sheep were well grown, and carried a heavy black
fleece, so I bound them noiselessly in threes together, with some of
the withies on which the wicked monster used to sleep. There was to
be a man under the middle sheep, and the two on either side were to
cover him, so that there were three sheep to each man. As for myself
there was a ram finer than any of the others, so I caught hold of him
by the back, ensconced myself in the thick wool under his belly, and
hung on patiently to his fleece, face upwards, keeping a firm hold on
it all the time.
"Thus, then, did we wait in great
fear of mind till morning came, but when the child of morning,
rosy-fingered Dawn, appeared, the male sheep hurried out to feed,
while the ewes remained bleating about the pens waiting to be milked,
for their udders were full to bursting; but their master in spite of
all his pain felt the backs of all the sheep as they stood upright,
without being sharp enough to find out that the men were underneath
their bellies. As the ram was going out, last of all, heavy with its
fleece and with the weight of my crafty self; Polyphemus laid hold of
it and said:
"‘My good ram, what is it
that makes you the last to leave my cave this morning? You are not
wont to let the ewes go before you, but lead the mob with a run
whether to flowery mead or bubbling fountain, and are the first to
come home again at night; but now you lag last of all. Is it because
you know your master has lost his eye, and are sorry because that
wicked Noman and his horrid crew have got him down in his drink and
blinded him? But I will have his life yet. If you could understand
and talk, you would tell me where the wretch is hiding, and I would
dash his brains upon the ground till they flew all over the cave. I
should thus have some satisfaction for the harm this no-good Noman
has done me.’
"As spoke he drove the ram
outside, but when we were a little way out from the cave and yards, I
first got from under the ram's belly, and then freed my
comrades; as for the sheep, which were very fat, by constantly
heading them in the right direction we managed to drive them down to
the ship. The crew rejoiced greatly at seeing those of us who had
escaped death, but wept for the others whom the
Cyclops had killed.
However, I made signs to them by nodding and frowning that they were
to hush their crying, and told them to get all the sheep on board at
once and put out to sea; so they went aboard, took their places, and
smote the gray sea with their oars. Then, when I had got as far out
as my voice would reach, I began to jeer at the
Cyclops.
"‘
Cyclops,’ said I,
‘you should have taken better measure of your man before eating
up his comrades in your cave. You wretch, do you intend by violence
[biê] to eat up your visitors in your own cave?
You might have known that your derangement would find you out, and
now Zeus and the other gods have punished you.’
"He got more and more furious as
he heard me, so he tore the top from off a high mountain, and flung
it just in front of my ship so that it was within a little of hitting
the end of the rudder. The sea quaked as the rock fell into it, and
the wash of the wave it raised carried us back towards the mainland,
and forced us towards the shore. But I snatched up a long pole and
kept the ship off, making signs to my men by nodding my head, that
they must row for their lives, whereon they laid out with a will.
When we had got twice as far as we were before, I was for jeering at
the
Cyclops again, but the men begged and prayed of me to hold my
tongue.
"‘Do not,’ they
exclaimed, ‘be mad enough to provoke this savage creature
further; he has thrown one rock at us already which drove us back
again to the mainland, and we made sure it had been the death of us;
if he had then heard any further sound of voices he would have
pounded our heads and our ship's timbers into a jelly with the
rugged rocks he would have heaved at us, for he can throw them a long
way.’
"But I would not listen to them,
and shouted out to him in my rage, ‘
Cyclops, if any one asks you
who it was that put your eye out and spoiled your beauty, say it was
the valiant warrior Odysseus, son of Laertes, who lives in
Ithaca.’
"On this he groaned, and cried
out, ‘Alas, alas, then the old prophecy about me is coming true.
There was a seer [mantis] here, at one time, a man
both brave and of great stature, Telemos son of Eurymos, who was an
excellent seer, and did all the prophesying for the Cyclopes till he
grew old; he told me that all this would happen to me some day, and
said I should lose my sight by the hand of Odysseus. I have been all
along expecting some one of imposing presence and superhuman
strength, whereas he turns out to be a little insignificant weakling,
who has managed to blind my eye by taking advantage of me in my
drink; come here, then, Odysseus, that I may make you presents to
show my hospitality, and urge Poseidon to help you forward on your
journey - for Poseidon and I are father and son. He, if he so will,
shall heal me, which no one else neither god nor man can
do.’
"Then I said, ‘I wish I
could be as sure of killing you outright and sending you down, bereft
of your psukhê, to the house of Hades, as I am that it
will take more than Poseidon to cure that eye of
yours.’
"On this he lifted up his hands
to the firmament of heaven and prayed, saying, ‘Hear me, great
Poseidon; if I am indeed your own true-begotten son, grant that
Odysseus may never reach his home alive; or if he must get back to
his friends at last, let him do so late and in sore plight after
losing all his men let him reach his home in another man's ship
and find trouble in his house.’
"Thus did he pray, and Poseidon
heard his prayer. Then he picked up a rock much larger than the
first, swung it aloft and hurled it with prodigious force. It fell
just short of the ship, but was within a little of hitting the end of
the rudder. The sea quaked as the rock fell into it, and the wash of
the wave it raised drove us onwards on our way towards the shore of
the island.
"When at last we got to the
island where we had left the rest of our ships, we found our comrades
lamenting us, and anxiously awaiting our return. We ran our vessel
upon the sands and got out of her on to the sea shore; we also landed
the
Cyclops’ sheep, and divided them equitably amongst us so
that none might have reason to complain. As for the ram, my
companions agreed that I should have it as an extra share; so I
sacrificed it on the sea shore, and burned its thigh bones to Zeus,
who is the lord of all. But he heeded not my sacrifice, and only
thought how he might destroy my ships and my comrades.
"Thus through the livelong day to
the going down of the sun we feasted our fill on meat and drink, but
when the sun went down and it came on dark, we camped upon the beach.
When the child of morning, rosy-fingered Dawn, appeared, I bade my
men on board and loose the hawsers. Then they took their places and
smote the gray sea with their oars; so we sailed on with sorrow in
our hearts, but glad to have escaped death though we had lost our
comrades.