"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.’
Homer. The Odyssey. Rendered into English prose for the use of those who cannot read the original. Samuel Butler. Based on public domain edition, revised by Timothy Power and Gregory Nagy. A. C. Fifield, London. 1900 (?).
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